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Free Will

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MG:
I really feel that God showed me that our future is set in cement just like our past. The only difference for us is that we can't look ahead and see our future like we can look back and see our past. If God is not confined to our time line he can look at all of it at the same time. To him it is finished.

Ecclesiastes 1:9
The thing that hath been [God's view], it is that which shall be [our view]; and that which is done[God's view] is that which shall be done [our view]: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Patrick:

--- Quote from: snorky on August 03, 2006, 01:48:49 PM ---Another helpful topic!

I was at a camp meeting last night (we still have these in West Texas), and, amazingly, the preacher quoted "The Sermon on the Mount" verbatum! Anyway, regarding the section Matthew 7:21 about only those doing the will of the Father will be in heaven:

Isn't it true that ultimately ALL (including those in Lake of Fire) will do God's will? So doesn't that mean ALL will eventually be in heaven?

snorky

--- End quote ---

Not trying to get off the topic, but where in West TX? I was born in Big Spring, lived in Coahoma.

No one can escape Gods will.

When the "free will" issue comes up in a conversation, it seems like the "free willers" throw negative stuff/evil at you trying to dispute your views. At that point I just have to take a deep breath and back away.

orion77:
(Exo 3:14)  And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, You shall say this to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

(Exo 16:4)  And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, I AM! Bread will rain from the heavens for you. And the people shall go out and gather the matter of a day in its day, so that I may test them, whether they will walk in My Law or not.

(Mat 26:26)  And as they ate, taking the bread and blessing it, Jesus broke and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body.

(Joh 6:32)  Then Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of Heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of Heaven.

(Joh 6:33)  For the bread of God is He coming down out of Heaven and giving life to the world.


He is the great I AM, and He is the One who comes down out of Heaven to give us life.  All the glory goes to Him, we can not boast or take credit for it.


(Joh 1:12)  But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to the ones believing into His name,

(Joh 1:13)  who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.


We who have received Him, which is Christ in us, were BORN of God.  Not of our will, but His.

God bless,

Gary

Joey Porter:
I am currently involved in another "Free will" topic on mainstream Christian site, and here are a couple of the points I posted:

We do have a choice whether to be vessels of honor or of wrath, but our choices are only within the confines of God's will. It is God who has chosen who will choose to be vessels of honor and who will choose to be vessels of wrath.  For example:

Saul "chose" to repent, but only by way of Christ's divine intervention.  He was not willing to repent.  It was not Sauls "will" to repent. 

What was Saul's will?  This was Saul's will:

Acts 9
1And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord

Saul was no different than any other pharisee that was persecuting the disciples.  In fact, Paul confessed to being the chief of sinners. But God chose to bring about a divine circumstance in Saul's life that would cause Saul to choose to repent.  Saul was unwilling to repent until God changed his will by divine circumstance.

A person, a seemingly very honest seeker, also brought up the idea that if we have no "free will" in this life and everything happens according to how God has planned it, and has planned who will "go to heaven in the afterlife," then she would find it hard to be motivated or see any reason to serve him.  So I replied with this:

What about heaven in the afterlife?  Do you think we will have "free will" to choose whether or not to obey in the afterlife?  Almost everyone says no.

 If not, then what is your motivation to be there?  If you think there would be no reason to be motivated to serve God in this life if there's no free will, what makes you think you'll be motivated to serve Him in the afterlife with no free will? 

hillsbororiver:
"Free will" is a bogus term in and of itself. Are we free to choose our race? Our parents? Our height? What country we were born in? Our intelligence or our talents? Can our "free will" make any of us an NBA caliber basketball player?

If we were walking down a road and came to a 20 foot tall brick wall can our "free will" allow us to pass through that wall or must we turn back? Even secular philosophers recognized that although we make choices we do not make uncaused choices, that is a christian hoax.

We can choose to drive to work or take a bus or even walk, but our "free will" does not allow us to flap our arms and fly there or even allow us the "free will" not to go to work, that is if we want a roof over our heads and food on the table. Yes, food, does our "free will" give us the opportunity not to have to eat? Sure, if we want to die, doesn't sound like an uncaused choice to me.

We have limitations all around us in our lives, we can make a choice within the confines of our circumstances (who determines our circumstances?) but we do not have nearly enough power to defeat the laws of physics or gravity by our "free will" nor do we have the power to do anything outside the bounds which He has placed us in.

Joe   

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