PrincetonGuy
That's not what Joshua 24:15 affirms: 'But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD' (NIV).
Free will - the ability to choose gods or serving the Lord - was not lost at Adam's fall. Joshua 24:15 confirms this.
Oz
Did you read my post? Perhaps I need to simplify it.
All of the five points of Calvinism were deduced from the concept that God became absolutely sovereign when Adam sinned in the garden and man lost his free will.
God is NOT absolutely sovereign.
All five points of Calvinism are based on a false premise.
Indeed, in previous CF posts I have used the example of Joshua 24:15 to document that man retained his free will after the fall. I have also posted this:
The Jewish people prior to the time of Christ very strongly believed that man, despite the fall of Adam, retained the free will that Adam had in the beginning. This Jewish teaching is very clearly stated in Ecclesiasticus* 15:14 -20:
Ecclesiasticus 15:14 Hee himselfe made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsell,
15 If thou wilt, to keepe the Commandements, and to performe acceptable faithfulnesse.
16 He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand vnto whether thou wilt.
17 Before man is life and death, and whether him liketh shalbe giuen him.
18 For the wisedome of the Lord is great, and he is mighty in power, and beholdeth all things,
19 And his eyes are vpon them that feare him, & hee knoweth euery worke of man.
20 Hee hath commanded no man to do wickedly, neither hath he giuen any man license to sinne. (Apocrypha, King James Version, 1611)
Ecclesiasticus 15:14. It was he who created humankind in the beginning,
and he left them in the power of their own free choice.
15. If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
16. He has placed before you fire and water;
stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
17. Before each person are life and death,
and whichever one chooses will be given.
18. For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
19. his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
20. He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin. (Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version)
Jesus Himself was a Jew and there is no evidence in His teaching in the New Testament that He believed any differently. Indeed, He began His ministry commanding those Jews to whom He spoke to repent and believe in the Gospel.
Mark 1:14. Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,
15. and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. (NASB, 1995)
Therefore, we can be absolutely certain that Jesus believed that unregenerate Jews have the ability in themselves to repent and believe in the Gospel. Jesus was not just a man, He was the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity and there is no evidence whatsoever in the Scriptures that He ever changed His mind and concluded that unregenerate Jews are totally depraved.
Should we take a host of Scriptures out of context as Loraine Boettner and others have done, or should we agree with Jesus that men have, despite the fall of Adam, retained the free will that Adam had in the beginning and have the ability in themselves to repent and believe in the Gospel?
*Although Ecclesiasticus is regarded by Protestants, including myself, to be an Apocryphal book and not inspired in the same sense as the 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament Canon, it is theologically sound and was included in the Old Testament Canon until it was removed during the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, the Book of Sirach is found in the Septuagint, the version of the Old Testament most often used by the first century Christians and the version most frequently quoted in the New Testament, and came to be known as the Liber Ecclesiasticus, meaning the Church Book, because it was extensively used by the very early church to teach moral behavior.
