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Free will/predestination

Monk Brendan

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I mean does God plan every single thing that happens in life? And I mean everything, not just saved people. It seems like the Bible teaches we do not have a free will (Ephesians 1:11-12) but common sense proves we do have a free will: God gets angry with sin in the Bible, why would you plan something and get angry over what you planned? You can't get angry at what you planned, otherwise you would not have planned it. And if we didn't have a free will why would we be punished for sin? Wouldn't that be like putting a gun in a baby's hands, making her shoot by pushing her finger against the trigger to make her kill someone and then punish her for killing someone? The common sense alone makes me believe we do have a free will, this would mean I am taking biblical teaches of no free will the wrong way.

Here is the verse you are quoting:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Yes! God has predestined us ALL to come to Him, and He draws all of us to Him. However, If we are made in God's image, as it says in Genesis 1:26, that means that WE have free will, because God has free will.
 
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Monk Brendan

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Would not reject and resist be the same thing? Also people can reject grace because you could offer to give me something I did not deserve and may I choose to decline it?

But it would not be Grace if you deserve it, would it?
 
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TaylorSexton

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God has predestined us ALL to come to Him...

Where does it say that in Scripture? Furthermore, what do you do about passages that seem to say the exact opposite, such as Rom. 9:22, 1 Pet. 2:8, and Jude 4?

However, If we are made in God's image, as it says in Genesis 1:26, that means that WE have free will, because God has free will.

That seems to me to be a big leap. First of all, there are facets of our image that are utterly ruined because of the fall, namely knowledge, righteousness and holiness. You are partly right, however. Human beings, like God, have a will, but the will is not some free-floating, morally neutral faculty. It is informed and influenced by desire. Our desires are fallen, and therefore we of necessity (not compulsion) sin, and do nothing but sin outside of the grace of Christ.

It all depends on how you define "free" in "free will." Here, for instance, is the Second Helvetic Confession (a Reformed confession):

In regard to evil or sin, man is not forced by God or by the devil but does evil by his own free will, and in this respect he has a most free will.

Second Helvetic Confession, IX.

However, that is not how most people define "free will." Most people define free will in a Pelagian sense, meaning that we are morally neutral creatures, equally able and liable to do good or evil at its own whim. However, this is not so, as Paul clearly proclaims, "For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:7-8). The text clearly says that those outside of Christ are incapable of doing any spiritual good. Sure, they may do good in the eyes of man, but not of God, for they are unable.

So, just because we are made in the image of God does not mean that we automatically possess everything God does because 1) we are in the image of God, not gods ourselves, and 2) we are fallen, and the better part of the image is damaged or altogether destroyed.
 
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bbbbbbb

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Here is the verse you are quoting:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Yes! God has predestined us ALL to come to Him, and He draws all of us to Him. However, If we are made in God's image, as it says in Genesis 1:26, that means that WE have free will, because God has free will.

This is strange logic, indeed. Using it, one might say that because God is omnipotent and omniscient all people are also omnipotent and omniscient.

The reality is that humanity is made in the image of God and are not made gods in any sense of sharing God's attributes.
 
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TaylorSexton

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The reality is that humanity is made in the image of God and are not made gods in any sense of sharing God's attributes.

Well, be careful, we do share some of his attributes, hence the systematic-theological category of God's "communicable attributes" such as knowledge, kindness, and love. Here is a good link with a short article discussing these "communicable attributes."
 
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bbbbbbb

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Well, be careful, we do share some of his attributes, hence the systematic-theological category of God's "communicable attributes" such as knowledge, kindness, and love. Here is a good link with a short article discussing these "communicable attributes."

Good point. Thank you. Thus, we are made in His image unlike members of the plant and animal kingdoms.
 
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