Hi Dave,
Besides the 4 parts of the Lake of Fire series on "The Myth of Free-Will Exposed" there are many emails where Ray briefly explains many things there. Here is a llink to the entire list
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3108.0.html, there is a category on free will there too. Here are a few that might apply to your question.
http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,1731.0.html ---------
Virtually all people who believe in "free will," do not even know it it is! How can one be sure that he has something that he doesn't even know what it is? Free will is not the ability to make a choice. Choice has absolutely nothing to do with "free will." "FREE Choice" has to do with "free will," but there is not such thing as "free choice" EITHER!
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,4680.0.html ---------------
You cannot discuss or even have an opinion on "free will" unless or until you know what it is. Not having fee will or free choice does not mean that you do not HAVE a will or choices. Of course we have a will and of course we make millions of our own choices, but the fact of the matter is, neither is FREE to think or do anything that is not first CAUSED BY SOMETHING. We "sin" because the pulls and trials, and tests, and temptations of our environment CAUSE our hearts to desire and commit sin, because our "deceitful hearts" (Jer. 17:17) ARE NOT FREE FROM CAUSALITY TO RESIST SIN. The ONLY way to resist sin is by the power of God's Holy Spirit, and if it takes the power of God's Holy Spirit to resist sin, then obviously we do not have a free will which can decide to do in on its own. It is a humbling experience to realize that God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth is actually, and factually, and literally, more powerful than we are.
http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,1937.0.html -------------
There are HUNDREDS of places in the Scriptures which speak of doing something, making a decision, choosing between two things, etc. Not ONE of them has anything to do with "free" will. You need to read the first couple of pages of the first of my four-part series on the Free Will Myth. I answer it in great detail after I first define what is meant by "free will" or "free choice.' Everyone has the bility to make choice, but that choice is based on SOME CAUSE, and that cause is what renders the choice to be not free.
God forsaw EVERYTHING in His creation BEFORE the creation. Therefore, nothing is "free" to go contrary to what God already knows MUST AND WILL BE! "For it is GOD which works in you both to WILL and to DO of His Good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). We must first believe the Scriptures before e will be able to understand the Scriptures.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,6100.0.html -------------
Yes, this is God's creation, God's Universe. He made it and all that in it is. He also made humanity, and He made them spiritual weak, not spiritually strong, so when confronted with a temptation to SIN, humanity SINS. He sins VOLUNTARILY FROM HIS PERVERTED HEART. No one, not even God FORCES HIM TO SIN AGAINST HIS WILL. It is your WILL TO SIN whether you feel good or bad about it or the results. Man has a will, this has never been denied. But.......BUT, man's will is not free from causality. The lust of the flesh and the lest of the eyes and the pride of life are SIN (I John 2:15-16). Yet men DESIRE AND WILL from the HEART to do these sinful things. For this he must be JUDGED. It matter not whether he could have avoided the circumstances and lust that caused him to sin. The fact is that he did si n, and he desired to sin FROM HIS HEART. This is the thing that must be CHANGED--his corrupt heart. And it is not a sin on God's part for making humanity so spiritually weak that they would sin and also DESIRE FROM THEIR HEART to sin. It is a way and means to a greater good. God is "makING humanity in HIS SPIRITUAL IMAGE, and the sins and foolishness of humanity are a part of the means to that grant design and goal.
True, most of humanity faults God for this grand plan and purpose, but that attitude will also be judged and corrected in time.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,6295.0.html -----------------
What a crock!
You quote him as saying,
"But though man is not a free agent, his will is free; he has the full power of choice and volition."So man is not the agent or representative of HIS OWN WILL? But "his will is FREE?" "He has the FULL POWER [what pray tell is that phrase "full power" supposed to mean?] "...and [full power of] volition," but he just can do, perform, or carry out anything that he wills through his "full power?" What pray tell good is such a totally RESTRICTED "full power of the will?" So God is completely and totally sovereign according to this guy, but man can "think" or "will" anything he desires that is contrary to the sovereignty of God?
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
But all humanity had "FULL POWER" over his thoughts, volition and will, did he? So man CAN by the use of his 'FULL POWER VOLITION" think good thoughts if he so desires, but no man has ever so desired. Is that the truth of the Scriptures. Was there not one human being among them that could FREE WILL himself to NOT HAVE "EVERY imagination of the thoughts of his heart to be ONLY evil CONTINUALLY?"
Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked [Hebrew, 'exceedingly WEAK']: who can know it?
Now then if the heart is filled with "EVIL thoughts," and the heart is "EXCEEDINGLY weak," where pray tell does this "FULL POWER OF THE WILL AND VOLITION" come into play according to the Scriptures?
As I said: "What a CROCK!"
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,7895.0.html -----------------
Look, if God is sovereign, and if God forknows everything (WHICH HE DOES), then there is no such thing as a human free will that can THWART what God knows must and will be. God's foreknowledge of ALL things proves man has NO FREE WILL. And this, I assure you Thomas, is not "my doctrine." I did not come up with it. I read it in the Scriptures, and I have proven it in life, and in science.
We do have a will, but it is not "FREE" to original anything that does not have a cause. Most people who argue that we have free will have not a clue as to what free will is. "Free will" is not "will." "Free choice" is not "choice." All of our choices have a cause, even if we don't know what it was, therefore no choice that is made is "free" to not have been made. Why are all of these commandments and instruction for man to follow in the Scriptures if man DOES HAVE A FREE WILL? The penalties for not keeping commandments is a CAUSE for keeping it. Something that "CAUSES" you to keep a commandment, is NOT "FREE" TO NOT KEEP IT. I know, it takes more than a few hundred hours of meditation to understand it properly.
God be with you, Ray