Windblown said:
I agree with klewis. There is sin in the world. When God made Adam and Eve he warned them not to eat from the tree or the knowledge of good and evil. He also gave them a freewill to choose between obeying him or going their own way which lead to destruction. We see that they had freedom to chose because God had to warn them not to use their freewill to disobey him. This is our freedom, our "terrible" freedom.
It is unfortunate and biblically unsubstantiated to equivocate the freedom of Adam and Eve
pre-Fall to the bondage of mankind
post-Fall. While we did not lose the faculty of choice in the Fall we most certainly lost all desire to obey God. It is this total lack of desire to obey God in the fallen man that prevents him from obeying. We no longer naturally enjoy the freedom from sin's controlling influence that pre-Fall man had. Sin has become part of our very nature and pervades our being to the fullest extent. There is no part of us that is untouched by sin's influence. When man fell he became controlled by the sinfullness inherent to his flesh. It is this susceptibility to sin that Paul likened to a form of "death." Just as a physically dead person is unresponsive to his environment, so, too, is a spiritually corrupted person unresponsive to the call of God. This is why it is necessary for God to
first rebirth us from above before we can ever respond in faith. If we still maintained the ability to
not sin (posse non peccare) then it would not be necessary that we be reborn spiritually
before we can come in faith to the Lord.
That fact is that the man was shot and killed was the direct dicision of the person who killed him. That was his freewill to do so and has sinned against God by destroying the life of another priceless human being made after the likeness of God.
Having the ability to sin does not make our will "free." Adam and Eve were created with the ability to sin. They were also created with the ability to not sin. Additionally, they were untainted by the effects of sin in their nature. Post Fall man does not enjoy such liberty. When man fell his nature was corrupted and the proper way to understand his inclinations are as follows:
Posse peccare - The ability to sin
Non posse non peccare - The inability to not sin (i.e., only able to sin)
It is curious how everyone will blame everything that goes wrong in the world and in their own lives on God. Instead you have to look at your own rotten, sin-filled heart and see that many of the events in your own life are because of the stupid, evil choices that you make or someone else making a decision that makes it that way.
I, personally, do not blame God for the evils that men do. I know that evil is unregenerate man's chief desire and that regenerate man all too often falls prey to the lusts of his flesh and commits acts of sin. While I wouldn't call the bondage that unregenerate man is enslaved to "freedom" I will acknowledge that he commmits these acts of treason without external coersion.
Choices have consequences and it saves you much pain if you think through to the very end result of everything you do, say, and think.
Good advice, though definitely hard to put into effect, at least for some of us.
God bless
