How aspergers makes it difficult to be a christian

[jackmt]

Are you suggesting that once we become Christians, we are perfect and sinless because of no free will?

I suggest you study Romans, John, I, II, and III John, etc. and hear what the Spirit says on the matter, not your own reasoning. Our will is either submitted to the will of Christ or to our own sinful passions. Those are our choices. Again, where and what is free will? Show me in Scripture.

 

[drag3049]

Do i have to spell it out? there's people throughout the old testament who screwed up. David slept with another man's wife. Jonah refused to go to Ninivah (however thats spelled). The Israelites really messed up. If there wasn't free will, then there would be none of this garbage happening. Eve would not have eaten that apple. If there was no free will, then things would be like the garden of Eden still. In that case, I wish there wasnt free will, but apparently free will allowed Eve to choose to disobey God.

 

[DCJazz]

I believe we have free will so far as to make our own choices, trivial or otherwise. But I also believe God's will is perfect and has our best interests at heart.

So make of that what you will.
As for the original post, I guess I have difficulty with people on subjects I'm not comfortable with. I'm good at talking to people about small things, though I sometimes forget to listen more than I talk. I know I'm socially awkward.

It's when I get to a point where I have to talk about my faith that I freeze up in terror. I think this is part Asberger's, and part spiritual in nature. I dunno.

 

[drag3049]

Also, if we didn't have free will, what is temptation.

 

[jackmt]

Do i have to spell it out? there's people throughout the old testament who screwed up. David slept with another man's wife. Jonah refused to go to Ninivah (however thats spelled). The Israelites really messed up. If there wasn't free will, then there would be none of this garbage happening. Eve would not have eaten that apple. If there was no free will, then things would be like the garden of Eden still. In that case, I wish there wasnt free will, but apparently free will allowed Eve to choose to disobey God.

Their self-will was bound up in their sinful nature. When they yielded to it, they produced all manner of evil. Where is any good in the actions of those who abandon God? They could not choose to do good, only evil. They could only allow God to do good through them by yielding to His Spirit and that at His doing. It is God at work within you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12,13)
Note the absence of God in those passages of Scripture you alluded to. Except perhaps Jonah, who was angry at God: he thought he knew better than God! When God is absent in our lives we can only do what is right in our own eyes, what serves our purposes.

 

[jackmt]

Also, if we didn't have free will, what is temptation.

Read Jas.1:13-18.
V.14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Again I see only your reasoning and no appeal to Scripture. Is this not the reason you do err, that you know neither Scripture nor the power of God? Mk 12:24

 

[Sabertooth]

I suggest you study Romans, John, I, II, and III John, etc. and hear what the Spirit says on the matter, not your own reasoning. Our will is either submitted to the will of Christ or to our own sinful passions. Those are our choices. Again, where and what is free will? Show me in Scripture.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him..." Deut. 30:19, 20a

"...if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Josh. 24:15

"Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness...?

Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness." Rom. 6:16, 19

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." Rom. 12:1, 2

The Bible is pretty clear that we get to choose which master we will surrender to. Jesus, in John 15; Paul, in Romans 6 (and elsewhere); and Ezekiel (33:12-16), among others, make it clear that it's an ongoing/daily choice. But, in your defense (when we choose God), He blesses/graces/empowers that choice.

 

[jackmt]

The Bible is pretty clear that we get to choose which master we will surrender to. Jesus, in John 15; Paul, in Romans 6 (and elsewhere); and Ezekiel (33:12-16), among others, make it clear that it's an ongoing/daily choice. But, in your defense (when we choose God), He blesses/graces/empowers that choice.[/quote]



Our choices seem to be limited to the desire to serve God in all the cases you cited. But "Work out your salvation [it is given] with fear and trembling, for it is God at work within you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure." He presents that choice to us. He makes us aware. He directs our choice. We can choose Him because He has first chosen us. At best we can say He has made us free (after choosing us) to choose Him, whereas we could not before.