EmSw asked:
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To whom are you answerable for the choices you make?
Did you not have autonomous freedom to come onto this forum?
Do you not have autonomous freedom to choose which religious affiliation to adhere?
Do you not have autonomous freedom to believe as you wish?
Who is demanding you to be a Calvinist, or did you freely choose yourself?
Do you not have autonomous freedom to write about any belief you choose to hold in your heart?
Please tell us, who is threatening you if you don't do things his/her way.
Do you pray to God in every action you take to see if acceptable with Him?
Here is the definition of autonomy at Dictionay.com -
1. the right or state of self-government, esp when limited
2. a state, community, or individual possessing autonomy
3. freedom to determine one's own actions, behaviour, etc
4. (philosophy) 1.
the doctrine that the individual human will is or ought to be governed only by its own principles and laws
2. the state in which one's actions are autonomous
Let's use these definitions to answer some of the questions I presented above.
1. Do you have autonomous freedom to choose which religious affiliation to adhere? We will use #3 above. Cush, Marvin, did you have the freedom to determine Calvinism, and its offshoots, as the religious belief you personally desire? Was there a government or ruling body which stated you must choose Calvinism? If you chose Calvinism on your own, your will was autonomous.
2. Who demanded or commanded you to choose Calvinism? Did God determine for you to choose Calvinism? Please describe how you knew God chose Calvinism for you in which you had absolutely no choice in the matter. Did you adhere to some other belief before Calvinism? If so, why wasn't God's determination followed? Did you freely choose these other beliefs on your own (autonomy), without regard to a God's determination?
3. If it is God's determination, ordination, and will for you life to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, why did you say earlier you didn't? Is it because you determined autonomously not to do so?
4. Since God commanded us to cast away our iniquity to get ourselves a new heart, then surely this must be His determination for our lives. Would you agree? Or does man get to choose what is God's determination for our lives (autonomy)? Since very few on this forum think this is God's truth and way in getting a new heart, does man reject God's way and get to autonomously choose how to get a new heart?
He's probably still shaking his head about your lack of understanding concerning the so called autonomy of man.
So, my lack of understanding dictates how he behaves?
No man is ever completely autonomous.
I see we now are using the word 'completely'. Is there a partial autonomous?
Man can only choose within the nature God has given to him or subjected him to.
I am sure glad that's not the case. Every unbelieving person would CONSTANTLY and CONTINUALLY hate, murder, commit adultery, lie, steal, cheat, and drink.
Another reason that isn't true, is that God has given believers a new nature, and they surely choose not to live by it. How many believers freely choose to sin with the new nature?
Man can only make choices within the parameters of the circumstances the sovereign God has seen fit to place him in.
Did God put the paramaters of obedience in believers? Why do they still disobey God's word?
No one is sovereign over God. He is the only sovereign.
But I've heard if man rejects God's call to salvation, then he is sovereign over God. Do you believe if anyone rejects God's truth in His word, they make themselves sovereign over God?
Does man really have the power to make themselves sovereign over God?
You can make all the choices you want to. But those choices are always subject to the wishes of God and never autonomous.
Marvin, is it God's wish for us to sin? If it is, then you can make your argument. If not, then man's choices are not always subject to His wishes, even among believers. Believers make the autonomous decision to sin everyday. Believers make the autonomous decision to believe as they wish every day. Believers make the autonomous decision to belittle other believers every day.
"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil." James 4:13-16
Marvin, you and I do not have the guarantee to be around tomorrow. If the Lord wills, we will live and do this and that, but if only the Lord wills, will we be around tomorrow.
The autonomy of man is a myth and is not scriptural.
Depending on how you answered the above questions I posed, we will know if it is a myth or not.
Oh yeah, if Cush would like to answer those questions also, he is more than welcome.