Understanding God’s election
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Of course, freewillers will predictably answer "yes" to all the above questions since their "freewill" is powerful and effectual! 
But I do want to make a few observations about your last question that is alluding to Eph 2:5, which absolutely demolishes FWT!
We mustn't forget that freewillers vehemently insist that the new birth, spiritual resurrection, circumcision of the heart, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the new heart, etc. all occur AFTER a sinner initiated his own salvation by loving and electing God first, repenting and believing the Gospel. THEN God reacts afterwards by providing all the spiritual "perks" I mentioned and more. But...not according to Paul! If FWT were biblical, Paul could have never written what he did! He would have had to have said something along these lines, "God made us alive...after we believed and were still dead in our sins".
The second thing that is worthy of attention is that if the Ephesians had been raised up after they came to faith and repentance, then this implies that they overcame the power of death by themselves by their acts of repentance and faith, which would make the idea of a follow-up resurrection by God anti-climatic, absurd, useless and meaningless. Why would God need to raise them up, since WHEN they were still in their dead state, the sovereign power of their own 'freewill" freed them from the power of their spiritual state of death? In fact, they overcame the power of the Evil One who holds the power of death and did only what Jesus could do (Heb 2:14)! They themselves overcame the power of Satan and death and the evidence of this is that the "GOOD" soil of their own "GOOD" hearts produced the GOOD fruit of faith and repentance. This must be the case, since Jesus did teach that bad trees cannot produce good fruit (Mk 7:18)! Therefore, why would God need to add any spiritual "perks" whatsoever to people who already had good hearts that were able to bear the good fruit of repentance and faith?
The third noteworthy observation is that Paul clearly equates the Ephesians' spiritual resurrection with God's effectual grace with this last clause in v.5: "...it is by grace you have been saved". He gives zero credit to the Ephesians' faith and repentance as the reason or impetus for God's grace. Grace can never be Grace if the reason for Grace is ever found in the recipients' hearts or actions; for then God would in fact be rewarding or repaying them for their good deeds of faith and repentance. He would in fact be reciprocating favor upon them for the "favor" they first displayed toward Him! (As I have often said: In FWT, salvation is reduced to a quid pro quo business-type arrangement: Man must first do his part before God can do his. God is reduced to merely man's co-worker in his salvation! But this theory runs counter to numerous scriptures, including all the unilateral New Covenant promises.) Therefore, God's grace is indeed effectual because HIS power alone raised the Ephesians from their spiritual tombs! They had as much to do with their own spiritual resurrection as Lazarus had with his own physical resurrection! Lazarus was raised up by the power of Jesus' effectual grace; and so, too, were the Ephesians!
But I do want to make a few observations about your last question that is alluding to Eph 2:5, which absolutely demolishes FWT!
We mustn't forget that freewillers vehemently insist that the new birth, spiritual resurrection, circumcision of the heart, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the new heart, etc. all occur AFTER a sinner initiated his own salvation by loving and electing God first, repenting and believing the Gospel. THEN God reacts afterwards by providing all the spiritual "perks" I mentioned and more. But...not according to Paul! If FWT were biblical, Paul could have never written what he did! He would have had to have said something along these lines, "God made us alive...after we believed and were still dead in our sins".
The second thing that is worthy of attention is that if the Ephesians had been raised up after they came to faith and repentance, then this implies that they overcame the power of death by themselves by their acts of repentance and faith, which would make the idea of a follow-up resurrection by God anti-climatic, absurd, useless and meaningless. Why would God need to raise them up, since WHEN they were still in their dead state, the sovereign power of their own 'freewill" freed them from the power of their spiritual state of death? In fact, they overcame the power of the Evil One who holds the power of death and did only what Jesus could do (Heb 2:14)! They themselves overcame the power of Satan and death and the evidence of this is that the "GOOD" soil of their own "GOOD" hearts produced the GOOD fruit of faith and repentance. This must be the case, since Jesus did teach that bad trees cannot produce good fruit (Mk 7:18)! Therefore, why would God need to add any spiritual "perks" whatsoever to people who already had good hearts that were able to bear the good fruit of repentance and faith?
The third noteworthy observation is that Paul clearly equates the Ephesians' spiritual resurrection with God's effectual grace with this last clause in v.5: "...it is by grace you have been saved". He gives zero credit to the Ephesians' faith and repentance as the reason or impetus for God's grace. Grace can never be Grace if the reason for Grace is ever found in the recipients' hearts or actions; for then God would in fact be rewarding or repaying them for their good deeds of faith and repentance. He would in fact be reciprocating favor upon them for the "favor" they first displayed toward Him! (As I have often said: In FWT, salvation is reduced to a quid pro quo business-type arrangement: Man must first do his part before God can do his. God is reduced to merely man's co-worker in his salvation! But this theory runs counter to numerous scriptures, including all the unilateral New Covenant promises.) Therefore, God's grace is indeed effectual because HIS power alone raised the Ephesians from their spiritual tombs! They had as much to do with their own spiritual resurrection as Lazarus had with his own physical resurrection! Lazarus was raised up by the power of Jesus' effectual grace; and so, too, were the Ephesians!
ability to lay aside His human will to submit to the will of God while they were dead in their sins, lovers of
darkness, slaves to sin, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, captive to the will of the devil, hostile in
their minds toward God, with their stony heart incapable of loving Him or submitting to Him... though I do
pray that someday -and perhaps even soon- they may come to see the error of their ways and believe what
the Bible has to say about the natural man, instead of ascribing to him things only the spiritual man can do.
This is because you can't see yourself as divinely created new creation! Assuming you're a genuine Christian, you have freely chosen to become stuck in what you ONCE were instead of what you have become by God's grace and power.
The Great Paradox in the Christian life (like the Gospel itself!) is that genuine believers can indeed "hate" themselves, especially when caught up in sin since real Christians hate what is evil, hate what is sin. Sin never makes a born again believer feel good about himself. So...this is the bad news of the Christian life.
But the good news (or rather GREAT news) if that God loves his children and forgives us when we confess our sins to him and repent of them. And thereupon is what our minds and hearts should absorb like a sponge. When God grants us repentance, when we actually turn from our sins we should celebrate our God-given victory. We should rejoice and praise God that we have indeed become his NEW creation! And when we do this we can most definitely feel good about ourselves by the virtue of our identity with Christ and the fact that the Holy Spirit ministers to our souls daily!
The Great Paradox in the Christian life (like the Gospel itself!) is that genuine believers can indeed "hate" themselves, especially when caught up in sin since real Christians hate what is evil, hate what is sin. Sin never makes a born again believer feel good about himself. So...this is the bad news of the Christian life.
But the good news (or rather GREAT news) if that God loves his children and forgives us when we confess our sins to him and repent of them. And thereupon is what our minds and hearts should absorb like a sponge. When God grants us repentance, when we actually turn from our sins we should celebrate our God-given victory. We should rejoice and praise God that we have indeed become his NEW creation! And when we do this we can most definitely feel good about ourselves by the virtue of our identity with Christ and the fact that the Holy Spirit ministers to our souls daily!
The text certainly does not say what you claim. It says:
John 6:37
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me , and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
NIV
In other words, everyone the Father gives me.... The passage does not say that the Father gives me everyone on the planet or all on this earth
John 6:37
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me , and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
NIV
In other words, everyone the Father gives me.... The passage does not say that the Father gives me everyone on the planet or all on this earth
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Wait a minute! He effectually opened their minds? I hope he asked their permission first, otherwise he would have been treating them as wind-up toy robots.
free will and making a hoax of repentance and salvation. In fact the same person claimed people
believe God raped Mary rather than admit he was wrong about Mary being asked, and giving her consent.
Some say the most blasphemous things and misrepresent what others believe by lying their faces off,
then try to fool everyone into accepting that they are promoters of truth.
Yes, it does seem inevitable that at the root of all this promotion of free will nonsense and rejecting
what Scripture says of the natural man comes from their own sense of pride and being a "good person"
quite unlike the picture Scripture paints of the natural man in the very words of Jesus Christ Himself.
what Scripture says of the natural man comes from their own sense of pride and being a "good person"
quite unlike the picture Scripture paints of the natural man in the very words of Jesus Christ Himself.
But it was very, very likely mentioned in Oral Tradition which predates the time of Moses and written revelation by thousands of years! Job very likely predated Abraham, but yet Job played the role of family priest and offered blood sacrifices for his family. How did he know to do that? Or was he winging it? Good guess, maybe?
Yes, Jesus ALWAYS knew the outcome of EVERY scenario, as He knows all things, and exists outside of time while simultaneously being inside of time as well. Factor this in and much confusion.......melts away.
And much of the dialogue that we hear from Jesus is for OUR benefit, certainly not His.
He never needs to be informed from anyone about anything.
Such as this "situation".
[Luk 8:45 KJV]
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press [thee], and sayest thou, Who touched me?
And much of the dialogue that we hear from Jesus is for OUR benefit, certainly not His.
He never needs to be informed from anyone about anything.
Such as this "situation".
[Luk 8:45 KJV]
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press [thee], and sayest thou, Who touched me?
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I noticed that you "find it interesting that in John 15 Jesus tells his Disciples" he did NOT choose very many to follow him, implying that he had nothing to do with the ministry of Paul to the Gentiles, and indicating that God hates the greater half of humanity.
Yes, that is very interesting--and blasphemous!--unless you glean some other meaning? (I certainly do!)
Yes, that is very interesting--and blasphemous!--unless you glean some other meaning? (I certainly do!)
There is nothing wrong with temporary self-loathing under specific circumstances. I explained this recently in another post. If any professing Christian doesn't for a small season "hate" him/herself when they sin, then I must wonder if they're even born again. A born again Christian LOVES what he/she have become in Christ as God's new creation; but they also HATE the "old man" that still rears its ugly head in this life. A real Christian hates everything about his "flesh" but loves what he has become by, in and through the Spirit
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