FreeGrace2 said:
I think you mistake "forbidding" with "preventing".
There must be clarity in what we say. Both the man's and the woman's ability to choose was clearly FREE. Not "hardly free".
The dire consequences have no bearing on making choices. People "burn themselves" all the time because of bad choices. They are still free to make those kind of choices.
So you don't believe that any born (not created) person has the ability to choose?? Where does the Bible teach that?
Rather, Paul taught that belief comes from the heart, not from God. Rom 10:9
Paul also taught that man has a conscience with which to know right from wrong. Romans 2:14,15.
And, Paul taugh that because God has revealed Himself and His divine power through creation, man has no excuse for not recognizing God as Creator and being thankful to Him. Romans 1:19-21
Man surely has a free will. That's the only way man can be accountable and have no excuse for his own choices.
What man among us all has chosen to live a sinless life? what man has chosen successfully to never die?
How come you just skip over everything I pointed out and ask frivolous questions? Would you please at least address my points?
Our Lord never sinned, nor could any take His life from Him, but He was born without sin and He was able to lay down His life and take it up again.
I suppose you have a point here, but I can't imagine what it may be. Could you clarify?
But you and I are bound to sin and bound to die ... all the freewill in the world cannot stop it.
See? You treat free will as some kind of power, which is ridiculous. Please don't, because it isn't.
Free will is opportunity. Freedom to choose.
And Paul doesn't say we were free he says we were slaves.
Well, you can twist what I pointed out from Paul and insert a totally irrelevant concept, I guess, to try to change the subject or create some smoke and mirrors.
Paul used the word "slaves" to illustrate that unsaved man is slave to sin. He has no opportunity for righteousness.
It is the saved man who has that opportunity.
Listen to Paul:
Rom 6-
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.
18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
All these verses deal with choice; what we as believers are to obey.
