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Free Will
If God has already determined who his "children" will be; and who are "written in the book of life" Then how is that we have the choice of Free Will? If God determined that Juda would betray Jesus, so that the scriptures would be fullfilled; then obviously this apostle did not have "free will" did he? And if we sin and then repent our sins to God; did we not make the free will choice to go off into the darkness? What about those who have lived a sinful life, chosing to do wrong and then be changed through ministery and decided to change their life and live for God? I have a difficult time believing that my sins are those of God's will. I guess I have become confussed on this matter, when reading about the crusifiction of our Lord Jesus.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Craig on
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God is not willing that any should perish but that all men come to repentance. (2Peter 3:9) God elected us to receive all the benefits of salvation. (John1:12) Before time and eternity, God foresaw that I would receive Jesus as Savior. This is the Foreknowledge of God. Based on this Foreknowledge, God foreordained that I would be His and would receive all the benefits of salvation. (Romans 8:29) In other words, God foresaw my faith. He did not predetermine that I must believe. Rather, He predetermined the blessings and benefits of salvation. God knew before he fashioned us whether we would accept or reject Christ and he predetermined what the benefits and penalties would be.
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The calvinist teaching that God creates some people for heaven and others for hell is a false doctrine.
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Permalink Reply by Ramona P. Jacobsz on
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AMEN MY DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST... WE DO HAVE A CHOICE. GOD CREATED MAN PERFECT... SIN HAS CHANGED PEOPLE. WE MUST PRAY THAT MORE AND MORE OF HIS CHILDREN WILL TURN AWAY FROM SIN AND SERVE HIM AS HE DESERVES TO BE.
FOND LOVE IN CHRIST
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Mandy,
Some of my response is already covered in other replies, but I will include them here to make my reply complete.
Predestination and free will. It is not an either or, but actually "both." God has a plan that will come to pass. The prophesies have been given. The "end time" event will come to pass as God has said. God is sovereign and He is in control. These truths do not necessitate that God has to micromanage our life. God, in His authority and will, has given man freedom of choice (liberties). We have the freedom to choose many aspects regarding our life. We can choose our career, spouse, location to live. These choices are limited by the interaction with other humans, such as choosing to marry a person, but one's choice choosing to reject them as their's and therefore no marriage occurs. You also have the freedom to surrender to Jesus or reject Him. You can choose to go to church or reject church. The choice is yours because God has extended that liberty to you. Your activity will not derail the plan of God that arcs over all that is going on in the day to day activity of man.
God's plan has a purpose and will come to pass. God knows the future of each day's activity in advance. He knows when the end will come. Not because He predestined it to the last minute, but because in His foreknowledge He sees the culmination of all things. He did not set an hour glass into motion and say when the last grain falls the end is up. In fact He gave a clue to the timing in Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (NIV) There is a difference in knowing the timing and causing the timing.
Therefore, God's plan is unfolding and coming to pass and at the same time, in the midst of it all we have the freedom to make choices. God knows the choices we will make in advance. This knowledge does not mean that He made you act this way or that. He knew what you would do and fits it into His plan and purpose. He also plans your blessings along the way as well as the discipline that He may have to apply to our lives to help us become what we ought to be as believers. An example of a blessing awaiting one who comes to Jesus is the gift of the Holy Spirit to come and indwell us. The blessing is prepared for us, but not actually received until we accept Jesus as Savior. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a blessing that we may have coming, but not actualized until the time of sanctification. God also knows who will completely reject Him. This knowledge does not force Him to treat them any different. He loves them fully. They enjoy a full life on earth and often even prosper. What is amazing is that in His forebearance He knows they will reject Him and He gives them full life while the whole time they break His heart. God does not rejoice in anticpating their judgment, but weeps over their rejection and impending damnation due to their rejection of His Son.
One more aspect must be included. Sovereign God has given man free will, but He also may intervene at any moment overriding that will. For example, if a robber were to hold you at gun point and desire to take your life. The robber has chosen to kill you, God can intervene and save your life. We have multitiudes of stories where God has done just that and there are times He does not intervene. In those times we must find comfort from His Word, such as Rom. 8:28. He may work on the will of an unbeliever to surrender something to His cause. He may use them for a certain purpose, such as Pharoah. The Bible is clear on this and that is God hardened his heart. He did not harden it towards God. Pharoah's heart was already hard toward God. he hardened it toward Israel, because God knew what needed to happen to awaken the Israelites and the process that God would use to deliver them and to demonstrate His power.
A better way of saying what we have is "liberty" instead of free will. Their is a limit to our freedom and God limits His interaction with us allowing us these liberties.
Summary (Sorry for the length, but I see no way of stating this in a short form).
* God's plan is coming to pass and man cannot stop it.
* God is sovereign and has made a ruling that established man's liberties.
* Man has liberties in this life to make decisions affecting our life on earth and with Him, but we do not alter or strop His plan from coming to pass.
* God's foreknowledge enables Him to know our choices in advance.
* In that foreknowledge He establishes our blessing and displine, prepared for the right moment. He uses us and our decisions to fit into his plan. (Can you imagine God's plan as pliable. It can be stretched and altered in shape, but never broken or eliminated. It is flexible daily and yet set for eternity. The end wil come.)
* He has the sovereign privilege to override our decisions.
Thus we find that God is still fully sovereign and we have liberties in this life granted us by God.
In response to Judas. Father God knew the choices that Judas was going to make. God positioned Judas to be Judas (Jesus seleceted him) and at the same time fulfill God's plan all the way to the 30 pieces of silver, the betrayal, the kiss and even his death. God used Judas. God did not make Judas do these things. Judas was being Judas. Impossible for us to orchestrate, but simple enough for our omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Father in heaven.
Hope this helps,
LT
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Permalink Reply by Mandy on
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Dear Ron, Romona, Craig and LT; first I want to thank you all so much for taking the time to reply and help me to understand. I have been doing more reading and studying and am learning more. All of you have graciously contributed to my understanding of this. Blessings to you all.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Payne on
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Excellent article and summary LT.
Concise and clear on a subject that would require volumes,
yet you have covered it on a page.
Well done, Sir.
Ron
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