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Free-Will
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OcifferPls
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As a concept used to identify that which separates living, intelligent actors from non-living, unintelligent things driven by external forces, I've observed it.
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YCGP
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Because salvation is not only from letting God into your heart. It is also from practising faith and doing good works (good deeds); therefore, one has free will to do as he pleases while on earth, and be judged for it on the second coming.
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- Mar 2, 2016
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Scripture reveals predestination is true in many places (often simply by God taking responsibility for things he had nothing to do with from our perspective). Scripture reveals our choices have different consequences for which we are accountable to God which reveals we have free will. Predestination and free will are not contradictory. Scripture proves it over and over. This is the starting point for understanding both predestination and free will. Any other starting point will lead to error.
There would be no earned consequences for choosing to follow or reject following Jesus unless there is free will. Scripture testifies over and over that both can be "earned." All of Scripture commands or urges choosing God's way at every turn, and recognizes (has certain consequences for) people who do not. How God responds to our choices is what defines free will, not some theory made by humans.
One way to think of it is that God planned all of eternity for every one, but within that plan we must exercise our free will to get to the next step. The fact that God knows our future has no bearing on us except as a revelation of God's nature. We are responsible for our decisions because we don't know the future. It is irrelevant to our accountability if anyone else has foreknowledge. God judges according to the heart. Without knowing the future, one cannot have a heart like one with a knowledge of the future.
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victorinus
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I believe in free will because I make choices all the time
-and-
you cannot predict what I will choose
-
our life here does not make any sense
-if-
we do not have free will
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we are being tested
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- Mar 2, 2016
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“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44, 1984 NIV)
The word unless indicates that even though the Father must draw an unbeliever for him to be saved, the unbeliever must carry out the action of going to Jesus.
Every human alive is a son or daughter of Adam (and have inherited his sin). For Christians this is only in regard to their flesh (physical realm presence). Our sinful nature dies along with our bodies. What is left of a follower of Jesus is his spirit which God created new in Christ when he or she was saved. Unbelievers lose the ability to be saved by faith and are dead in their connection to God.
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Man's objective requires mature adults to make a humble sovereign free will choice to accept or reject God's charity.
If man has no free will there is no reason for man to spend time on earth since he is nothing more then a robot.
Godly type Love is not a knee jerk reaction and requires a free will choice.
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- Oct 6, 2015
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What's Catholic on the fall of man? He is not Totally Depraved?
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I have a question. Please expound on the aspect of the (physical realm presence) of the Christian.
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Yes, man had a free-will choice in Adam. He blow that when he sinned. We all are under the condemnation & death of sin, because of One Man's trespass. As sinners though we sin willingly, because we are in bondage to it. Nobody forces or coerces sinners to sin. Their wills are now bound to sin. Because this is what they LOVE to do.
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Paul Yohannan
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This view is of course at odds with what the early church fathers had to say.
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victorinus
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can we have a discussion without using the terms 'totally depraved' and 'unconditional election'?
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That's not really a question and the subject is encyclopedic—and off topic. Perhaps you should start a new thread with specific questions.
We have an inward and an outward nature, each of which is changing differently:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16, 1984 NIV)
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