There is no scripture which says man does not have some free will.
As I have written previously, I use "free will" to denote the purported "ability of man to choose Jesus".
Truly, there is scripture which says man does have free will, and here are some of the scripture quotes:
- Lord Jesus says "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16).
- Lord Jesus says "I chose you out of the world" (John 15:16, includes salvation).
- Lord Jesus says "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29).
- Lord Jesus says "he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God" (John 3:21).
- Lord Jesus says "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
There is no scripture which says man does has free will.
Blindness, bling, does not save you. You cannot see the Kingdom of God without the work of God (John 3:3-8); therefore, you cannot "choose" that which you do not perceive, and you do not perceive who God says God is with "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). Dead eyes do no good. God must open your eyes for you to even see the Kingdom of God.
If God is the one giving some sinners the ability to obey and other sinners, no different from those given ability, God chooses not to gift with this ability, so they are not able to obey, then God is responsible and not the individual. God??s free will actions would be the deciding factor and not the individual.
God very much does the regenerating, but the sinner makes the free will selfish choice to humbly accept undeserved charity as charity or not accept it from his hated enemy God.
"who are you, O man, who answers back to God?" (Romans 9:20).
You, bling, are the "thing molded". "The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it?" (Romans 9:20).
"Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And [He did so] to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory" (Romans 9:21-23).
Again, as I have written previously, I use "free will" to denote the purported "ability of man to choose Jesus".
God selected persons for salvation before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 17:8).
"So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16).
Behold, bling, not the man who wills, so there is no free will.
All glory goes to God because He is solely responsible for saving man, but man can still have the responsibility and choice to refuse or accept God??s salvation, for sinful/carnal/selfish reasons.
The ??work?? is something man does which is ??believe?? or trust in God (with God being Love), enough to hope some undeserving good might come from it.
The ??work of God?? is not ??causing man of God's choice to believe in Jesus whom God has sent??, Jesus is talking to a bunch of people wanting Jesus to keep on feeding them to their fill, what work they can be doing and not getting all philosophical about God doing something. They really can??t ??do?? anything, but they can believe/trust.
The natural man ALWAYS rejects Christ for such a man's condition is enmity with God; on the other hand, a born from above person believes in Jesus.
Christ is the Christ in Christian.
Christ says "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29).
You say that "the work of God" DOES NOT EQUAL "that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (or as occurs in your post "causing man of God's choice to believe in Jesus whom God has sent").
Christ says "the work of God" DOES EQUAL "that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29).
A Christian does NOT contradict Christ. You contradict Christ.
Regardless of the feeding, Christ focused the conversation on several points:
- the work of man was eliminated from salvation, so no free will (the people mentioned their work (John 6:28).
- the work of God is paramount for salvation because without God's work, there is no "believe in Him whom He has sent".
- "that you believe in Him whom He has sent" is a complete work of God so there is no more work for man to do.
BTW, now you have man doing a "work", and people are NOT saved by works (Ephesians 2:8-10).
God caused us believers to believe in Jesus whom the Father has sent, and I thank Almighty God for God's wonderfully blessed gift of faith!
You need to reread what ??Barnes and Robertson?? wrote. It is not a singular or plural issue. "that" - touto - is in the neuter gender, and the word "faith" - pistis - is in the feminine. In the sentence so ??touto?? cannot be referring to just "faith" - pistis.
Can you understand these two sentences?
That or this (touto) has to refer back to some neuter word or phrase. The ??phrase?? appears to be ??the idea of salvation in the clause before??, ??salvation by faith??.
Bling, your "Barnes and Robertson" failed to write the word/gender combinations of each of the four words, so here they are:
- grace/feminine
- saved/masculine
- faith/feminine
- that/neuter
Bohold, you and your "Barnes and Robertson" try to cause the following, and I quote you, '"that" - touto - is in the neuter gender, and the word "faith" - pistis - is in the feminine. In the sentence so ??touto?? cannot be referring to just "faith" - pistis'.
Now, I'm going to apply your rule for "faith" using nearly all of your words to the word "saved", and here it is, '"that" - touto - is in the neuter gender, and the word "saved" - sesosmenoi - is in the masculine. In the sentence so ??touto?? cannot be referring to just "saved" - sesosmenoi'.
Bling, you effectively eliminate "grace" and "saved" and "faith" from the passage, so that is one very confused position that you have. Do not forget that "God is not [a God] of confusion but of peace" (1 Corinthians 14:33).
As I have written again and again
- "grace" is the gift of God while not being a work of man
- "saved" is the gift of God while not being a work of man
- "faith" is the gift of God while not being a work of man
in Ephesians 2:8-10.
The word for ??putting your faith in?? is often translated ??Trust??. We are to ??trust?? God, but we can ??trust?? other things.
Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 24:4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.
Psalm 49: 6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
Psalm 49:13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.
Psalm 52:7 ??Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!??
Psalm 62:10 Do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Psalms 115: 8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
Psalm 146:3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.
Isaiah 2:22 Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?
There are lots more, but this is an example.
The word "trust", a noun, is all of (1) a man's condition/state, (2) a man in firm belief in the integrity, ability, or character of another, and (3) "trust" is synonomous with faith and persuasion and confidence and reliance.
The word "trust", a verb, is all of (1) a man being in the action of a condition/state, (2) a man in the action of firmly believing in the integrity, ability, or character of another, and (3) "trust" is synonomous with believe.
Your definition of "trust" is "putting your faith in".
Your definition of "trust" changes the word "trust" by adding the word "putting".
Your definition of "trust" changes the very meaning of the true word "trust".
Since your definition of "trust" is untrustworthy, your definition does not apply to the passages you cite that use the word "trust".
Moreover, not a single one of your citations indicates that man was endowed with or has the ability to direct "trust" in a man.
For example, Psalm 146:3 reads "
Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation" according to the Hebrew, so the words "put your" are not in the Hebrew; therefore, trust is not indicated to be directed by the man according to this passage. There are other passages mistranslated similar 2 Psalm 146:3.
Are you telling me God makes some men to live for Him which is God??s objective for some men fulfilled by God and not by man?
Do we all start out ??living for self???
"You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Ephesians 2:1-3) is what Paul wrote to believers in the Way (John 14:6).
"just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).
I have gone through man??s role above, so I will not go through that again.
There is no scripture that states God endowed man with the ability of free will choice toward God.
You are taking verses out of context, first you take (John 15:19) where Jesus is specifically talking to the 12 and find a verse two chapter later where Jesus talking about all believers and say in John 17:20 Jesus is referring to all believers in John 15:19, two chapters earlier. Look at what Jesus says: "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word" (John 17:20) The reason Jesus does not want us to think He is just talking to the 12 in the following verses after John 17:20, is because that is whom He was addressing previously and now is expanding His pray and prophecies concerning all believers.
Bling, here is an enumeration based upon the points you bring up.
- Judas left as recorded in John chapter 14, so there were 11 apostles with whom Jesus conversed in John chapters 15, 16, and 17.
- In your linguistics, you try to force "those also who believe in Me through their word" (John 17:20) which is the Apostle John's word, the "their word" in John 17:20, to only apply to the subsequent word recorded by John being John 17:21-26, so you try nullify that the Apostle John's word, the "their word" in John 17:20, applies to all the Apostle John's word, the "their word" in John 17:20.
- you have Jesus only addressing the apostles; however, the Apostle Peter states that more disciples were there, which includes Joseph and Matthias by name (Acts 1:21-23) during the conversation recorded by the Apostle John in chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17.
There is no level that a person can choose Lord Jesus because He says "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16) as well as "I chose you out of the world" (John 15:19, includes salvation) - Jesus, being God, did not provide any exception for choosing toward Jesus. Lord Jesus speaks to all believers in all time because He also said "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word" (John 17:20)! All these words of Jesus are at the same supper! All glory is God's! With man, salvation is impossible (Matthew 19:25-26)! All glory in the salvation of man is God's (John 15:5, Isaiah 42:8, Psalm 3:8)!