Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
4,176
700
113
And those who omit "could afford to...but did not" didn't learn to read very well. :confused:

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put
and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.
Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came
and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow
has put more into the treasury than all the others.


They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty,
put in everything—all she had to live on.”



Mark 12:41-44​
 
Oct 19, 2024
3,698
837
113
Not as bad as the way you treat others that follow Jesus on this site, that is a direct slap to the face of the Man who said we should be known by our LOVE for each other. Christians are your main target, not atheist, not Hindus, Mormons, witnesses, or Muslims, nope your Holy Mission from God is to attack fellow believers in Jesus. You're the ultimate insult to everything Jesus taught so don't act as if you have some kind of moral high ground here. You expose yourself better that anyone could here every day with the way you speak to others. You're a joke everyone can see plainly, and it's sad not funny.

That's all I have to say to you, I dusted your mess off my feet a long time ago. Have a great day brother.
I love you and all Calvinists, which is why I warn against blasphemy or insulting the HS by ascribing to Him/God hatred of the non-elect, which is what the TULIP syndrome does although perhaps implicitly rather than admitting it ever since Augustine of Hippo originated the doctrine that Calvin ran with. I share what I have learned because God wants me to let the light He has given me as a lead learner shine--NOT because of claiming "moral high ground here", so your slander is the sad sin.

Although on CC most discussion is with Christians, the threads I began on this forum have various emphases:

Apologetics - explaining to atheists why faith in the NT God/Christ is the best belief
The Kerygma - sharing the Christian creed and how it differs from secondary teachings
The TOJ - listing the teachings of Jesus
The TOP - listing the teachings of Paul
Key OT Teachings - sharing teachings that are closely related to NT teachings
KISSed HOB - summarizing the history of beliefs
Applying GW to Politics - sharing how Christian faith might be salt and light in this world
Hermeneutics - sharing how applying Pauline methodology harmonizes Scripture and promotes unity
Mining Secular Music for Biblical Nuggets - doing just that with those who like secular music
Systematic Bible Study - exploring GW thoroughly rather than settling for proof-texting
Random Questions & Biblical Answers - a variety or hodge podge of topics, including God's peace plan

And again, my life is shared on OUR website <truthseekersfellowship.com> IOW, I bequeath it to all
who find it helpful as a resource (which is what I do, since I cannot remember everything I believe :^)--
--freely I have received and freely I share (MT 10:8).
 
Aug 22, 2014
3,208
1,096
113
45
All the above verses I agree with.

I'm not debating about sin or the fact that we all sin and need salvation.
I agree that flesh is corrupted by sin

But I do not see how we are guilty of sins we have not committed. God is just.
It's not so much we are born "guilty of all sin", and to be honest I'm not sure who is making that argument, but being "born into sin" means we are born of the flesh, spiritually dead. Being born disconnected from God as a result of Adams sin. God didn't make a mistake when He said

"but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

The DAY Adam ate he did die, spiritually and was disconnected from God that day. Since that day everyone born of them, born of the flesh, is born without a live spirit and disconnected from God, until Jesus. Who was not born of Adam, not born of the flesh, but born of what? That's right, the Spirit. Crazy how everything in Gods plan just fits together so perfectly. So it's not that we are born guilty of "every sin", but is the reason the newborn baby is just as disconnected from God as the 99 year old unrepentant sinner.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
4,176
700
113
Not as bad as the way you treat others that follow Jesus on this site, that is a direct slap to the face of the Man who said we should be known by our LOVE for each other. Christians are your main target, not atheist, not Hindus, Mormons, witnesses, or Muslims, nope your Holy Mission from God is to attack fellow believers in Jesus. You're the ultimate insult to everything Jesus taught so don't act as if you have some kind of moral high ground here. You expose yourself better that anyone could here every day with the way you speak to others. You're a joke everyone can see plainly, and it's sad not funny.

That's all I have to say to you, I dusted your mess off my feet a long time ago. Have a great day brother.


“Love one another as I have loved you” John 13:34​

Jesus told his disciples to love one another as He had loved them.

How did He love them?
With honesty.
Not by not dealing with denial, but confronting it.

Jesus was loving them, sometimes in a way as the timid types would view was most insulting!

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of
the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said.
“This shall never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter...
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind
the concerns of God, but merely concerns of men.” Matthew 16:21-23​

The body of Christ is to police ourselves with truth.
And, if need be... Without compromise.

There is a fine balance to knowing when that is to be done.
But, at times, the Truth will insult those whom see the truth as a demand to kill what they cherish and wish to cling to.
On the other hand... Some use that doctrine as a license to be rude and ignorant of Truth.

That's why it will be Jesus who will sort it out in the end.
A person’s wisdom yields patience;
it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.
Prov 19:11​
 
Jan 17, 2024
379
70
28
Take a look at the comments of his it's in response to, i'd call it harsh but realistic. He needs to be told such behaviour is unacceptable, he criticises so many but thinks he should be treated with unmerited respect.

Let alone the way he derails posts and discussions, it's bad for him as well as others letting him get away with it. His behaviour is unacceptable.
So it's acceptable to one up him and call him a troll. That's hypocrisy.
 
Sep 29, 2024
447
122
43
So it's acceptable to one up him and call him a troll. That's hypocrisy.
One up him? If you mean i possibly upvoted him once i can assure you it was an accident. He's a troll, i'm most certainly not, so question your use of the word hypocrisy.
 
Jan 17, 2024
379
70
28
Jesus was shown what was to happen, by the Father revealing it to him in the Spirit's power.

Just like the Father can show you something that is to happen in the future.
That would make this verse false before the wilderness incident.

John 18:4
Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon Him, stepped forward and asked them, “Whom are you seeking?”
 
Jan 17, 2024
379
70
28
One up him? If you mean i possibly upvoted him once i can assure you it was an accident. He's a troll, i'm most certainly not, so question your use of the word hypocrisy.
You know exactly what I meant about one up him.

He has been here a long time, he isn't a troll but a fellow member of this site.
 
Sep 29, 2024
447
122
43
You know exactly what I meant about one up him.

He has been here a long time, he isn't a troll but a fellow member of this site.
No, i didn't and i'm somewhat fed up with the likes of him, you and your ilk, telling me what i don't think or feel.
Your comments epitomise what i said about trolling and derailing posts. Create your own to play silly games in.
 
Sep 29, 2024
447
122
43
Just checked your profile and this post is the only one you've bothered commenting in, since February 19th. That's very interesting for sure.
 
Jan 17, 2024
379
70
28
No, i didn't and i'm somewhat fed up with the likes of him, you and your ilk, telling me what i don't think or feel.
Your comments epitomise what i said about trolling and derailing posts. Create your own to play silly games in.
Hmm your fed up with me now, that didn't take long. You are definitely quick to be fed up and slow on patience. You get fed up way to easy.
 
Sep 29, 2024
447
122
43
Hmm your fed up with me now, that didn't take long. You are definitely quick to be fed up and slow on patience.
Well, you and the other silly boy provide plenty of evidence why i don't welcome your participation on my posts. When you post rubbish, i'll call you out on it. Well, sometimes, i do have other things to do too.
 
Oct 19, 2024
3,698
837
113
No excuses accepted before God.....

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give,
not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.'
2 Corinthians 9:7​

That was not telling those giving to be cheerful.

It was a warning given to those collecting.
He should cause them to be cheerful whom you collect from.
Be fair and honest with the Word of God

......
Probably meant for both-and.
 
Jan 17, 2024
379
70
28
Well, you and the other silly boy provide plenty of evidence why i don't welcome your participation on my posts. When you post rubbish, i'll call you out on it. Well, sometimes, i do have other things to do too.
Now I'm a silly 57 year old boy.

Your acting like a poster child troll.
 
Sep 29, 2024
447
122
43
Also my love, the answer for you is clear, create your own posts to troll in, don't infest mine. Like i said, it's the only post you've commented in since Feb 19th, that says it all.
 
Sep 29, 2024
447
122
43
Also my love, the answer for you is clear, create your own posts to troll in, don't infest mine. Like i said, it's the only post you've commented in since Feb 19th, that says it all.
How about acting like a person of mature years? If you're capable.
Made me grin, should have been to says what :D
 
Jan 17, 2024
379
70
28
Also my love, the answer for you is clear, create your own posts to troll in, don't infest mine. Like i said, it's the only post you've commented in since Feb 19th, that says it all.
I'm your love and a troll interesting.

I was signed in for awhile but I was away for awhile even though it said I was online. You really don't know anything to say anything.