"The Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ." Your point falls. Again. The authors here use the term very much differently from your viewpoint, yet you see the words. They're not what you assert. Actually quite the opposite.
That statement in "" has no biblical support. The Word only says:
And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment
The Lord said the Spirit came to do a work of conviction on the whole world (not only the "elect"), and that conviction is what will bring sinners to Christ. I have never heard anywhere in the Word that the Spirit directly CAUSES people to repent or believe, show me some verses if you can. The Spirit merely convicts people of their guilt, and they must respond out of their own free will to repent and believe in Christ. Regeneration preceding faith is false, read my response to Brother Chris.
Once more, with feeling: There are multiple definitions for "free will". Unless you can really, truly identify what definition is in use, you'll have no end of trouble trying to argue this issue. Because they mean different things.
"Free will" is not as complicated as you try to make it, free will is simply the ability to choose freely (without force or compulsion) between at least two or more options. The conditions of free will are:
1) Existence of at least two options to choose from
2) Exercise of choosing without compulsion
If any one of the above conditions is missing/deficient, then free will does not exist.
Look at your selected text. Why would the authors specify the spiritual realm? Why would they refer solely to the will, if all were corrupt? Why? Because it's the will that is corrupted, and spiritually unresponsive to God. In that sense it's indeed free -- of God -- and bound to its own corruption.
But where is the evidence in the Word that the will is corrupted, where? There is no evidence for what that text asserts. I read on, and then that text starts talking about how we need to be regenerated before we can have faith in Christ. All these are wrong and against what the Word teaches. Regeneration happens AFTER baptism, and baptism happens AFTER faith in Christ. Peter set out the order very clearly in Acts, faith always comes first, then baptism, then finally regeneration (through receiving the Holy Spirit). Go and read Acts again, and see the error that Calvinism teaches.
Once again, unless you actually start considering what they're saying, and compare it with what Scripture is saying and not your own personal opinion, there won't be any Scriptural conclusion.
I did consider what they say, and I know it is wrong and is contrary to what the Word says. I pointed them out with the Word and not just my opinions, but no one responds to my points. So now what?
Let's take a peek at what Scripture does say.
15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:15-23
Pretty sound viewpoint from Scripture. Willing slaves, that's what it is.
Yes, people are either willing slaves to sin or to righteousness, and how can you be a willing slave when you cannot choose between different options? And how can you choose if there is only ONE option in front of you? Paul said clearly that there are always TWO options, either you be a slave to sin, or you be a slave to righteousness. You yield to one of these two options, and you become the slave willingly. If you are born with a will so corrupt that you have no ability to choose to be righteous, then in reality, there is only ONE option available for you. Then in that case, you can NEVER be a willing slave, because you only had one option and you cannot choose. Doesn't that yet again prove Calvinism wrong?
The position you're taking was rejected a thousand years before Calvin. It's not even a leap for Calvinism. It's not even a long step. It's reiteration of a position held for centuries.
CANON 1. If anyone denies that it is the whole man, that is, both body and soul, that was "changed for the worse" through the offense of Adam's sin, but believes that the freedom of the soul remains unimpaired and that only the body is subject to corruption, he is deceived by the error of Pelagius and contradicts the scripture which says, "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezek. 18:20); and, "Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey?" (Rom. 6:16); and, "For whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved" (2 Pet. 2:19).
CANON 2. If anyone asserts that Adam's sin affected him alone and not his descendants also, or at least if he declares that it is only the death of the body which is the punishment for sin, and not also that sin, which is the death of the soul, passed through one man to the whole human race, he does injustice to God and contradicts the Apostle, who says, "Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" (Rom. 5:12).
CANON 3. If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle who says the same thing, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me" (Rom 10:20, quoting Isa. 65:1).
CANON 4. If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit himself who says through Solomon, "The will is prepared by the Lord" (Prov. 8:35, LXX), and the salutary word of the Apostle, "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
CANON 5. If anyone says that not only the increase of faith but also its beginning and the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly and comes to the regeneration of holy baptism -- if anyone says that this belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, it is proof that he is opposed to the teaching of the Apostles, for blessed Paul says, "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). And again, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). For those who state that the faith by which we believe in God is natural make all who are separated from the Church of Christ by definition in some measure believers.
CANON 6. If anyone says that God has mercy upon us when, apart from his grace, we believe, will, desire, strive, labor, pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock, but does not confess that it is by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us that we have the faith, the will, or the strength to do all these things as we ought; or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).
CANON 7. If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, as is expedient for us, or that we can be saved, that is, assent to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes all men gladly assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray by a heretical spirit, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, "For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and the word of the Apostle, "Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God" (2 Cor. 3:5).
Canons of Orange, 1-7.
Canon 1: None of the verses quoted in there even proves what it says. I see no evidence that the body and soul is "changed for the worse" from those verses. The only effect from Adam and Eve's sin that we know of from the Word is that they became spiritually dead and separated from God. This state of separation from God and spiritual deadness spread to the world, because ALL men sinned.
Romans 5:12 made it clear to us that sin and death spread to all BECAUSE ALL SINNED, and not because we inherited anything from Adam or Eve's offense. That is why we need the Lord to take away our sins and regenerate us through the Holy Spirit. The first Canon is already wrong and proves nothing.
Canon 2:
Romans 5:12 made it clear to us that sin and death spread to all BECAUSE ALL SINNED, and not because we inherited anything from Adam or Eve's offense. Canon 2 is wrong yet again.
Canon 3: Romans 10:20 talks about how God would send His Gospel to those who did not seek Him and how these people would accept His Gospel willingly. God is simply telling us through Isaiah that the Gentiles would gladly receive what the Jews rejected, though the Gentiles did not seek it.
Yes, God showed grace to the Gentiles, and they found the Christ, but God showed grace to the Jews as well, and yet the Jews rejected their Christ. Clearly,
we see that unlike what Calvinism asserts, God's grace is NOT irresistable, but in fact, His grace was rejected by His own people the Jews when they crucified the Lord. But what has all these got to do with praying to God and getting His grace? Canon 3's assertions are totally irrelevant to what Romans 10:20 talks about.
Canon 4: I cannot find that verse Prov 8:35, LXX, but Philipians does not prove what this canon says either.
Philipians 2:13 talks about God working in the life of a BELIEVER to will and work His pleasure, not an unbelieving sinner. There is no mention of cleansing the will from sin in this verse at all. Canon 4 is wrong and gives a very strange conclusion.
Canon 5: I fully admit here that I do not know much about faith, its source and impartation. But nevertheless, I do believe that Ephesians 2:8 is talking about salvation by grace itself. In that verse both grace AND faith are mentioned, so if the "gift of God" refers to grace and faith, the verse should read in the plural sense. So why is the verse in the singular, and not the plural if it indeed mean that grace and faith are both gifts of God? Philipians 1:6 is also not relevant at all in proving what the canon says. Yes, even if faith is given us by God as a gift, it also requires us to actively exercise this gift. Every spiritual gift is given by God, but man is also required to exercise that gift upon his own willingness. Faith, given as a gift, if not exercised on the part of man, will not confer anything upon him.
Canon 6: This is a big stretch, and I do not see how the verses quoted prove what this canon asserts.
Yes, everything good is given by God, but that does not negate the fact that man also needs to put what God gave him to use. God can give us all good things, but He does not force or compel us to use His gifts. We must use His gifts on our own accord, with our own free will. I do believe that we are given the power/ability to obey, seek, pray and do all things, but unless we exercise them on our own accord, God is going to hold us accountable for not putting His gifts to good use.
Canon 7: We need to hear the truth before we can believe it. That is what God does through His Gospel. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Truth, and He comes to convict all men of sin, of righteousness and of judgement.
I do believe that since God has clearly said that He "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4), He will give all people the ability to respond positively to His Gospel and be saved. So those who indeed are not saved rejected God's Gospel on their own accord, and they resisted God's Holy Spirit to their own destruction (as seen in Acts when Stephen was stoned by those Jews who resisted God's Spirit).