It's good that our Creator is CAUSING you to try to UNDERSTAND Reg. ~
Those who truly, not flippantly, DESIRE to understand, are also CAUSED to experience the frustration of not knowing. The process of maturation includes coming to the realisation that there has to be something missing in the puzzle that makes the picture look confusing.
It happens to us all. It is in the process of our Creators design. Ray said that we are not stamped out like cookie's but through the furnace of pain, we are created. This is Judgement on the House of God now that is on you Reg. It is wonderful!
It is in the process of coming to that illusive comprehensive insight given by the Spirit, the Paraclete, that can show us and explain away all doubt, misunderstandings and confusion.
To answer your statement/question : What we do is based on or whole sets of history, environment etc. not our choice made from nothing but free will?...the answer is YES. Our Creator, Finisher of our Faith, provides each life its own unique set of "circumstances".
Paul said we are to judge ourselves.
Ray gave examples of PREFERENCES when he described one will like apple pie above cherry pie.
The key for me is in that word PREFERENCE.
A thief will prefer to steel rather than a day's hard labour.
A holy person who is beginning to see the Perfection in Christ, will PREFER to live in an honest way, observing the commandments of Jesus.
What you PREFER, is the barometer of your progress.
What you prefer governs your accountability.
You see, our Creator puts tests before us all the way! Your preferences will determine your choices and actions and how you conduct yourself.
Slowly, painfully, each comes to the point of changing our preferences and FOR THAT CHANGE, our Creator, is Wholly Responsible!
What you PREFER, SHOWS where you are at in your growing and being conformed to His Spirit.
Paul also illustrated this in his expressing lamentation in that he did not do what he wanted to do, but what he did not want to do. He declared his preference and at the same time his fleshy inability to change himself into what he loved and adored that is Christ Himself.
Arc