do Calvinists believe

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

In any amount of free will, whatsoever? If not, how is it we can make bad choices at times and good choices at times when God hates sin, particularly as it relates to day to day sin. Those such things as regularly overeating or smoking a cigarette, otherwise why should a person even try to quit such habits, if they have no control over them?

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There are a few different angles a Calvinist could come at this question.

First, we Calvinists believe in man's free will in the sense that men are free to act according to whatever they want. The thing is, they only want evil until the Holy Spirit regenerates them.

Genesis 6:5 - The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (before the flood)

Genesis 8:21 - The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (after the flood)

So the situation of men's hearts did not change. No one does any good ever, and all of our intentions are evil from our childhood. However, when the a man is born again of the Spirit, he is a new creation. He now has the ability to do good. Romans 7 talks about the warring of our spirit and our flesh. These are the two natures at war within us.

Second (and the most obvious), God is in control of everything. Period. We all believe this. Though, God is never morally lacking, since He is the standard by which morals are are measured. When man sins, he is still culpable before our Holy God, but God is not responsible for the moral corruptness of man.

Let me give you a for instance from the Scriptures.

Genesis 45:8 shows that Joseph understood that God sent him to Egypt, not his brothers.

Gen 45:8 - Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

In Genesis 50, Joseph explains the actions of his brothers. That Joseph's brothers' evil intentions were God's good intentions.

In Gen 50:20 - As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

The "it" in the above sentence appears to refer to the evil Joseph's brothers plotted. That God meant to actually use the evil they plotted for good. This implies that God Himself had a good purpose for the evil (namely to save many who were alive in that day), not that He was the origin of evil itself. But that God caused the evil actions of His brothers in order for a good thing to be brought about. His brothers were still evil for doing what they did (as evidenced by Joseph calling what they did evil), but God was not since he knew that Joseph needed to be sold into slavery in order to save many lives.

This kind of Divine Sovereignty that God has over all of creation is expanded upon in Romans 9 when the Apostle mimics his expected opponents' responses to God electing some people and not others based upon His will and not on theirs.

Romans 9:14-18 - What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

(This referring to God's desire to harden the hearts of people towards Him and soften the hearts of others.)

Paul anticipates more objections from his audience.

Roman 9:19-24 - You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 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, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

This was Paul's basic reaction to such a charge against God. That just because God is in control of everything, even the hearts and desires of men, that doesn't somehow mean this causes unrighteousness in God (in Rom 9:14-18) or that it is not man's fault that he sins (in Rom 9:19-24).

His response to his objectors is not some philosophical speculation or correction on their understanding of God's control over all matter. It was more along the lines of, "How dare you talk back to God?"

Therefore, God controls all things (even the hearts of men who create evil and those who produce good), and that does not mean that God has any evil in him (Rom 9:14), and men are still held accountable for their own sins (Rom 9:19).

The important question is, do you hear your own objections ring along with Paul's opponents in this chapter or do you submit to God's total sovereignty and control and still realize your own culpability despite this control?

I just edited my post. I didn't like that I left a lot out. You know, there's only so much I can put in a post. If you really want to know what Calvinists believe look to our reformed theologians and understand what they have to say. I read Arminians to understand where they come from. Arminians should read Calvinists to understand where we come from better.

I'll try to be brief.

Calvinists do believe in free will, but not the same way as Arminians. We believe your will is limited in some way.

So as an example. I have a car, I can drive it anywhere I want. But I can't fly it. It's limited.

In the same way, before you were a Christian, you could sin any way you wanted to. You could choose to be a drug addict or a self-righteous religious type. But you couldn't have faith in Christ, because your heart only loved sin. This in the Bible is called the "flesh"

The Holy Spirit then came into your heart and gave you a new set of desires (or wills if you like). This is called in the Bible the "spirit".

For a Christian the flesh and the spirit are constantly at war. Sometimes you listen to the desires of the flesh and sometimes the desires of the spirit. That is why sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you make bad ones.

In a non-Christian it may seem they make good and bad decisions too. Well-ish. They can choose to be more or less sinful. But they don't ever stop sinning. They can give their life to save someone else and still do it in a sinful way.

One more aspect of this is that God is sovereign over which sins he allows us to commit, whether we are non-Christians or Christians. He may stop us from doing something, but allow us to do another. This is the bit where we descend into mystery. The Bible proclaims that we are responsible for our sins and God allows them to happen. It is a both and, not an either or.

Mans will is only free within the limitations of his nature.

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

What is that supposed to mean?

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In his unregenerate state. Being in bondage to his sinful nature he can only choose within the limitations of that nature

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

Which are?

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Are you asking what his limitations are?

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

yes

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By virtue of his bondage to his sinful nature he can only choose evil continually. Even any apparent good that he does do is not done to the glory of God but for his own self seeking glorification. Therefore he is limited within the bounds of his sinful nature in that he cannot do any thing which is pleasing to God because his desire is only ever to please himself.

We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
Isaiah 64:6

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This describes man in his unregenerate state

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

but they can still choose good even if they are doing so for the wrong reasons and with the wrong motives?

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The biblical definition of good is perfection. Man cannot choose perfection such as would glorify God. Anything less than perfection is tainted with sin and unacceptable to Gods Holy standard of righteousness.

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

In any amount of free will, whatsoever? If not, how is it we can make bad choices at times and good choices at times when God hates sin, particularly as it relates to day to day sin. Those such things as regularly overeating or smoking a cigarette, otherwise why should a person even try to quit such habits, if they have no control over them?

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The Christian is indwelt by the Spirit of God who leads him to make the correct moral choices. This is part of the Spirits role in the on going process of sanctification. It is a gradual process which culminates in glorification when he is clothed with a new body.

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

so then it depends how we define good? by God or by us?

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God's definition of good is the correct definition. The human definition of good is always relative to a standard which is less than God's moral law demands.

ALLorNOTHINGatall4CHRIST said:

but no matter what the correct way to view salvation is reformed and non-reformed both agree that not everyone will accept Christ, that being the case should we not ti define some sense of good in a human sense?

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like I said. Any human definition of good is always going to be relative to a standard which is less than God's law demands