bible-truths.com/forums

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Need Account Help?  Email bibletruths.forum@gmail.com   

Forgotten password reminders does not work. Contact the email above and state what you want your password changed to. (it must be at least 8 characters)

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Free Will  (Read 6010 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Craig

  • Bible-Truths Forum Member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4282
  • There are two kinds of cops.The quick and the dead
Free Will
« on: November 05, 2006, 11:48:31 AM »

Sir,
    It may be hard for me to keep this short, but I will try.  My search for the truth started not to long ago, as I kept praying for God to show it to me plainly, as I knew He would never lie to me and I could trust Him.  A friend began to speak of our pastor as preaching false doctrine, because this friend believes the five points of Calvinism.  Oh, that sent me on a wild goose chase and a roller coaster of emotion.  How can God be anything more than a tyrant, not to mention a liar(which I cannot go into detail about in order to keep this short) if He is willfully condemning people to Hell for eternity, and choosing some specifically for Him.  It made me sad, mad, frustrated and confused.  I began to question even the validity of the Bible itself.
 
So I started to study.  First studying the Greek texts my husband has and then also reading things written by Christians, Atheist, Skeptics, Bible-believers, etc., I am trying to be so thorough.  Then I found this sight, which makes so much sense to me, but believe me, I feel like if I were to tell anyone, I would probably be thought of as crazy.  Something in me just kept saying I could never walk away from God, even though reading all the skepticism out there made my faith waver.  I kept apologizing to Him for my doubting heart.  I want to thank you for your work.  I do not competely know for sure you are right, but it has opened my eyes to study my Bible all the more fervently and seek out His Truth.  To know that God WILL save all of mankind is such a lifted load of sadness on my heart.  I pray that, as I study for myself the things you have shared, I will see the light you have seen!
 
My only question is concerning this quote from something you wrote:
 
  "And trust me; this is as hard as it get, if we will just allow God?s spirit to TEACH US spiritual things!"
 
If we have not free will, then we cannot disallow God's Spirit to teach us, can we?   You go to great lengths to say that we cannot seek God ourselves, and that He chooses us to be saved, etc. Are you talking about a time after we believe in Him that we can dissallow Him to teach us spiritual things.  Or am I missing something?  I did ALOT of skimming, because of time issues, so maybe you could point me to something you have already written about.
 
Thank you again for your work, and I will keep seeking the Truth in His Word.
 
In Christ,
Beth
 

Dear Beth:
I have said repeatedly:  Once you learn a spiritual truth, don't ever let it go. Don't ever turn your back on it. Don't ever seek to replace it with a 'truer' truth or some other nonsense. But even there, do we have such an ability?  To hold on to or not hold on to a truth?  No we don't.  But you see one of the TRUTHS that I hold on to is the Scriptural fact that God is totally Soveriegn and that I have no such thing as "freedom of the will."  I have a will, but it is not free to operate or do anything independent of God. But another truth is that we do do many things. We think; we create; we meditate; we take action; we make choices; we do things; we change things; we improve things; etc., etc., etc.  But we do not do any of these things independent of God's Sovereignty through the falsehood of a "free will."  Understand?  When I say to do right and not wrong, I know that you do not have any such ability, nor am I foolishly assuming to give you such an ability by my words. But God DOES USE WORDS and the actions of others to teach. Parents teach their children, but they don't teach them through the false doctrine of a free will.  Time and circumstances dictate virtually every thing we think and do. In other words, the creation around un dictates how we operate inside of that creation, and none of us were are are responsible for how that creation operations or how it originated. ALL is of God.  God USES the "foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (I Cor. 1:21). But the ability to believe is a "gift from God" (Eph. 2:8).  And my ability to teach is a gift from God, "He gave some teachers....." etc.  Be sure to read my four-part series on "The Myth of Free Will."  In fact read it two or three times. Hope this helps your understanding.
God be with you,
Ray
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.021 seconds with 22 queries.