Free Will compatible with Sovereignty

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EleventhHour

Guest
How is Free Will compatible with Sovereignty?

Many wrestle believing free will is incompatible with Divine Sovereignty. But I think the Westminster Confession, and the London Baptist confession solved this paradox some 300 years ago. From the LBC consider:

CHAPTER 3; OF GOD’S DECREE

Paragraph 1. God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass;1 yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with any therein;2 nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established;3 in which appears His wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness in accomplishing His decree.4

1 Isa. 46:10; Eph. 1:11; Heb. 6:17; Rom. 9:15, 18
2 James 1:13; 1 John 1:5
3 Acts 4:27, 28; John 19:11
4 Num. 23:19; Eph. 1:3-5

Here is the same in modern English provided by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

1. God, from all eternity, did—by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will—freely and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass. Yet he ordered all things in such a way that he is not the author of sin, nor does he force his creatures to act against their wills; neither is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

The way I understand this is, we freely choose what we want but our choices always follow the reasons (secondary causes) under God’s control that we base our choices on.
You know the term "free will" is not only about choice.
Choice is biblical, free will is a philosophical concept from the ancient Greeks.
The key word being ....."free"
 

Whispered

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2019
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www.christiancourier.com
You know the term "free will" is not only about choice.
Choice is biblical, free will is a philosophical concept from the ancient Greeks.
The key word being ....."free"
Very good. The Greeks, Aristotle and others when discussing free will, said there free ill concerns, freedom of action.

I see you had your soup today. ;)

"...A couple of centuries after Alexander, a subtle argument for free will was favored by early Christian theologians. They wanted human free will in order to absolve an omnipotent God of responsibility for evil actions. This is called the problem of evil. ..."
https://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/history/
 
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EleventhHour

Guest
Very good. The Greeks, Aristotle and others when discussing free will, said there free ill concerns, freedom of action.

I see you had your soup today. ;)

"...A couple of centuries after Alexander, a subtle argument for free will was favored by early Christian theologians. They wanted human free will in order to absolve an omnipotent God of responsibility for evil actions. This is called the problem of evil. ..."
https://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/history/
I did indeed I was really pleasant with the owner and he gave me bread too!! ;)
 
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7seasrekeyed

Guest
Hang around.
Everything I'm saying comes from the scriptures.


Here's an example of God's behaviorial manipulation and your desperation:

20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that h the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. - Romans 8:20-21
morass
 
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7seasrekeyed

Guest
You need a saved will before you can choose saved things.
you need a sit down with Jesus

you cannot grasp truth

done with this load of what bulls do inna field
 
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7seasrekeyed

Guest
Pardon my interjection. By Christ's death on the cross, for those that God gave him, caused them to be blameless, as far as, their security of heaven is concerned. They still do sin as they sojourn here in this world, and God chastens them, but they cannot lose their eternal deliverance, due to Christ being in them and them in Christ by being born again. Eph 5, therefore the statement that "they cannot sin"
you don't even understand what I was saying, let alone have an answer for a question I did not ask you

you Calvinists are desperate for converts it would seem
 
Nov 16, 2019
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God does not create mazes...He says ask of me
God puts people in restrictive environments in order to cultivate the behavior from them he desires.

2Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. - Deuteronomy 8:2-3

3 ...suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. - Romans 5:3-4

23 ...we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. - Galatians 3:23-24

23So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side e of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. - Genesis 3:23-24

10 ...God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. - Hebrews 12:10-11

Like rats in a maze we exercise our free will but within the restrictive confines of the Lord's will that He has established. All in the hope of crafting our will to be in conformance with His. He doesn't take away our free will. He just controls the environment in which we can exercise our free will. That's how the will of man and the sovereignty of God coexist.
we freely choose what we want but our choices always follow the reasons (secondary causes) under God’s control that we base our choices on.
 
Nov 16, 2019
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God offers a deliverance, here in time, to his born again children if they will follow his commandments, but God does not offer eternal deliverance to mankind.
11For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. - Titus 2:11
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
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...free will is a philosophical concept from the ancient Greeks...
Yet the Bible speaks of *free will offerings*. Check your Concordance. So the Greeks must have picked that up from the Hebrews.
 
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EleventhHour

Guest
Yet the Bible speaks of *free will offerings*. Check your Concordance. So the Greeks must have picked that up from the Hebrews.
When the Greeks spoke about free will this was in contrast to determinism. How free will was the will, that was their philosophical question.
A free will offering is an offering done with no compunction.
 

ForestGreenCook

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Jul 8, 2018
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1 Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
All of the born again elect do not have the full knowledge of the gospel. This is why Jesus instructed his apostles to go and preach to the "lost sheep" (born again babes in Christ) of the house of Israel, Matt 10:6. God changed Jacob's name to be called Israel. Jacob/Israel is the representative of the church of the elect. There is a difference in the "nation of Israel" and Jacob/Israel. When a person is first born again, they are babes in Christ and need to be fed the milk of the word, until they grow in knowledge from hearing the preached word, and are able to feed upon the meat of the word. Just as we were as new born babes into this world and gradually grow in knowledge, until we reach maturity. Isaiah 28:9-10, Whom shall he teach knowledge knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little.

In order to fully understand the scriptures, We must take into consideration that there are many words in the scriptures that have different meanings, according to the original Greek language, such as; All, Salvation, Death, Life, World, As many, Israel, etc. If these words are not divided within their context, and understood as meaning only one thing, the scriptures will contradict themselves, and lead the student to conclude that the scriptures teach eternal salvation by man's good works.
 

ForestGreenCook

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Jul 8, 2018
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I think if we consider the Biblical definition as pertains to God's Sovereignty that would help also.
Sovereignty [N]
of God, his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure ( Daniel 4:25 Daniel 4:35 ; Romans 9:15-23 ; 1 Timothy 6:15 ; Revelation 4:11 ).

If we accept that God is Sovereign and Omniscient (infinitely aware), then the question of our free will would I think be a matter of saying, our choices may stand to overcome God's predestination of the foreordination of the individual and their life. Both pertaining to God ordains what will happen in human history and in salvation.

How then do we reconcile the idea that we have the right to freely choose anything, including whether or not to follow Christ, with God's own words that tell us: "A person may plan his path,but Adonai directs his steps. " The Book of Proverbs chapter 16
Mayhaps we just think we're freely choosing for ourselves. When it is God that is leading us to choose whatever path we end up on?
Philippians 2:13, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
 
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7seasrekeyed

Guest
You cannot grasp spiritual truth without having the Holy Spirit.

what's wrong with you?

you cannot have the Holy Spirit until you accept Christ

this regeneration nonsense prior to salvation is a doctrine of demons...teaching spirits that deceive
 
Jan 17, 2020
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what's wrong with you?

you cannot have the Holy Spirit until you accept Christ

this regeneration nonsense prior to salvation is a doctrine of demons...teaching spirits that deceive
You cannot accept Christ until God gives you the Holy Spirit.
 

John146

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2016
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You cannot accept Christ until God gives you the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1 is very clear.

1. hear the gospel
2. trust/believe the gospel
3. sealed by the Holy Spirit

That's the order.
 
Jan 17, 2020
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Ephesians 1 is very clear.

1. hear the gospel
2. trust/believe the gospel
3. sealed by the Holy Spirit

That's the order.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (KJV 1900)
 
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7seasrekeyed

Guest
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (KJV 1900)

thank God we have the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth and do not have to depend on renderings of Calvinists who have things backwards

you were sneaky about your actual beliefs though Mr Dave

very disingenuous of you

you do not seem a credible witness as a result

you are quoting out of context and obviously are one of Calvin's students