Free will and a sovereign God

Good point Mike!

Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it eagerly.

Our hope is for our adoption which all believers have been predestined for.

 

Nah, exactly the opposite...the Free Willers believe in a more omnipotent and omniscient God than Calvinists do.

The Calvinist God is in a box...He's obviously not powerful enough to grant his creatures free will and yet still be able to foreknow every decision they will ever make.

The Free Willer's God isn't constrained by space and time, and is never surprised by the choices we make...not because He makes them all for us..but because He knows everything that ever was, is, or will be...every possiblity too.


I heard a redundant comic once sum up pretty well:

"God is omnipotent.. all powerful!"
"He is eternal... all the time!"
"He's omniscient... and He knows it!"

 

Hey Travelsong!

Do you believe that Adam had free will when he chose to sin?

 

I'm not mad at you at all. I was just pointing out that your illustration doesn't work. Foreknowledge in a creation (like you or me) is not the same thing as foreknowledge in the creator (who designs all things with the perfect knowledge of everything it will say, think or do). While it is true we can create things, ourselves (children, computers, etc.), we do not have perfect foreknowledge of how they will behave -- and we cannot therefore make a different decision based on our foreknowledge.

In short, if we created Adam, we might not know Adam would disobey, so we might be caught off guard and have to come up with a plan to deal with it.

God DID know Adam would disobey. Maybe He could have prevented it by choosing not to let satan into the garden. He could have chosen not to create Adam at all. He could have chosen to create Adam differently. But He chose what He chose knowing, and therefore WILLING in advance that every single minute detail He foreknew would come to pass. Therefore what God foreknows, He also foreordains, because only He can foreknow it perfectly, and only He has the power to will it to be differently one way or another.

That's what I meant when I basically said, "So what if you know the sun comes up in the morning? If you were God that might mean something, but you're not God, so it isn't a valid point."

 

ILUVLIGHT,

Vanity has everything to do with predestination. Man is placed into this environment where he witnesses to the knowledge of evil (death,sin, unrighteousness…). to EVENTUALLY parallel its opposite counterpart of the knowledge of good. (“In Christ”)

The understanding of the knowledge of vanity (evil, etc..) is combined with the understanding of the knowledge of Good. (“in Christ”)

Vanity as God explains himself is the shadowing of truth that is witheld from mans understanding.

Choice is an illusion..

Combining the knowledge of good and evil is described by paul as a woman giving birth.. yet does the woman have the capability from disallowing the child to be delivered?

Does the travail and pain give the woman reason from witholding the delivery of the child?

Point being is that man is a “participating” passenger. He can see and understand yet he cannot stop the journey from occuring. He accumulates knowledge. Wisdom. Understanding. he participates in persecutions and tribulations. He is affected by pressures within and without. All to bring to the delivery of the conclusion God has planned in mans life… the goal is inevitable. It is the will of God.


2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gods creation is formed in an image before time. It was created in this image containing the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of creation was, and is, and will eventually arrive back into absolute time where this image Eternally resides.

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

If man have free will. Then from arminians and calvinists standards. Many will not arrive to reach this intended Goal. Many in these viewpoints will not glory and please the Lord. This viewpoint makes no logical sense. Unless they view torment and agony as pleasing?
This is an incomplete understanding , proving some are still under the shadow of vanity and lacking truth.

Hope as I see it depends on “something desired, yet not received”. In mans vanity he hopes for many things God calls dead. There is a particular kind of hope described by God as “living” Hope. Which is only perceived by true faith within christ. carnal man doesn’t possess this living hope. He relies on dead hope as his desires to receiving his conclusion are in death and are selfish.

1Pe 1:3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

carnal man cannot know of this lively hope for it has been witnessed by the resurrected spirit of Christ which carnal man does not possess. For how can man hope for something not known of or understood.
But the true christian knows of the livley hope for they see the conclusions of what they seek for. And know that their father will give them what they hope for. It is living hope in a living God that allows those to reach their real goals.

Now back to that travailing part. Although man gradually hopes for and receives. He might reach his destination. But there is more to this. Not only is the hope for self reaching the needs of the individual. It also incorporates the hope of reaching the needs of the whole of Gods creation.

Not only do the elect possess the spirit of the Resurrected Christ. They also will someday realize the selfsame spirit is the spirit of the Lord.
The overseer and High Priest of the entirety of Gods creation.
It is His spirit that keeps the Living Hope alive towards All Of Gods Creation. It is his desires to complete the image to its fullness.

It is the elect who contain this spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ who desires with a living hope that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of him.

this is is sovereignty in action. all are placed in vanity. all are placed in christ. there is no free will of any rebellious man disallowing THE LORDS GOALS to be reached.

Me2

 

You're making a purely theoretical argument based upon our limited view of time, omniscience, omnipotenence, and sovereignity in general. We could speculate all day as to what God created for himself to be "in control" of and what he gave over to others to decide within their own volition. Scripture never indicates that God causes someone to sin, in fact it is clear that God tempts no man to evil. You merely assume based upon your own understanding and reasoning that because God knew it all when he created it that he caused it. That is not a biblical concept, its human reasoning.

 

Not at all. If God foreknew every detail of His creation from beginning to end before He created it, then He implicitly "approved" of every event before He actually created the universe.

The only way to get around that is to claim that God didn't mean to create a universe that was imperfect and would include sinful and rebellious creatures. It just happened that way. God was therefore incapable of knowing everything that would happen before He began creation and therefore unable to choose an alternative. God was caught by surprise to find out that His creation was imperfect, but now He's dealing with it the best way He can. Jesus just happened by chance to be part of the Trinity before creation, but luckily, He came in really handy later on when God needed a way to deal with sin on earth.

Is that what you believe?

 

You can APPROVE something without being the cause of it. You can ALLOW something without having made it happen. God is able to create a world where people can have a free will. That is possible regardless of what you think based upon your own reason.

 

There is no test for the existance of free will so the debate is moot.

 

Freewill (IE: The ability to make unforced personal choices) is, at least from our human perspective, a fact of life. A personal, interactive relationship with God (or anyone else) would not be possible otherwise.

In fact, the obviousness of our freewill is such that God takes special care throughout His word to remind us that although He has given man a measure of freedom, His will takes precedence - "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand." (Prov.19:21) How could He be God otherwise?

On the one hand we are told, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much" (Jas.5:16 - NASB). On the other hand He tells us, "It is God who worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure."

- Paul

 

God said "OH HOW I WANTED... but you WOULD NOT" Matt 23..

Luke 7 shows the same as scriptures say that the leaders "rejected GOD's PURPOSE for them".

This shows free will assuming that God is reasonably intelligent. (Something I always assume).

In Christ,

Bob

 

On the other hand - if I am writing these things because God is causing every stroke of the keyboard -- then God is causing me to expose the flaws in Calvinism -- and I have no power to stop Him.

IN Christ,

Bob

 

No, No Bob...

God foreknew that you would not be a Calvinist because he neglected to reveal to you what he revealed to all the more intellectually gifted Calvinists out there while He passed by us leaving us to our own devices to come up with our doctrine.

I jest, but you know I think it should be considered. Why didn't the Calvinistic God determine that all believers would believe the same soteriology? Surely being the sovereign God He is He wouldn't have left poor, misguided, depraved men to make that choice for themselves, would He? He must have (unless of course you believe only Calvinists are true Christians). And if God did give us the freedom to choose our own soteriology then that certainly goes to discredit the idea that God works in such a manner as Calvinists presume.

 

God never takes away our ability to sin until we are glorified in heaven. So it probably is pride that is causing you to type these Arminian responses.

 

Skandelon,

there are many dead corpses who lie at the bottom of the sea of the doctrines of men.

But fortunately...

Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

out of all "christian" denominations....

Free will of men is but an illusion.

that means if God designs for any mans life to be in hell, or death, or the sea is for his glory.

So be it.

even God receives glory from those who espouse error. for they are serving a purpose of teaching contrast overagainst truth.

If one were to ask these teachers of error. Do you love God. they would answer, "yes, of course!". but if they knew they were teaching error. they would be ashamed. therefore they teach error under the guise of being reprobates and ignorant of their being misguided. yet they still believe they love God and teach truth and are just as adament towards doing so. thus they are teachers of error by mistake and ignorance. is this their free will choice of teaching error?.

NO! they are chosen to teach what they believe to be truth. by the covering over of their understanding and not being allowed to understand any difference. thus held in place of their beliefs...and by Whos choice?...

Gods

If God were to ask for volunteers to be antichrists and False prophets. How many hands would go up?..none. Yet they are needed in teaching and espousing error. So God chooses who they will be. what their parameters of teaching error will be. what they understand. and who they speak to.

man has no free will. It is Gods Plans unfolding before us. to teach us the knowledge of Good and evil.
and God has to be in full sovereign control.

Me2