Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
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You are not getting the main point to eternal life.
And, everlasting condemnation.
No one will be in Hell to pay for their finite sins.
Jesus paid for their sins.
No one's sins will be mentioned at the final judgment.
They go to Hell for the same reason Satan and his angels ...
For their REJECTION of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Their rejection of God.
Sins are finite.
God is eternal.
Punishment will remain as long as God exists.
If a man's soul could be removed from existing?
Then that soul was NEVER created in God's image!
grace and peace ...........
And, everlasting condemnation.
No one will be in Hell to pay for their finite sins.
Jesus paid for their sins.
No one's sins will be mentioned at the final judgment.
They go to Hell for the same reason Satan and his angels ...
For their REJECTION of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Their rejection of God.
Sins are finite.
God is eternal.
Punishment will remain as long as God exists.
If a man's soul could be removed from existing?
Then that soul was NEVER created in God's image!
grace and peace ...........
In the Early (Ante-Nicene) Church, free-will was considered the ABILITY to make choices independent of external coercion by such mechanisms as fate or instinct. This was the way the Ante-Nicene teachers and apologists expressed it. For instance,
Irenaeus of Lyons, (120-202 AD) who was the student of Polycarp the disciple of John the Apostle.
Irenaeus of Lyons, (120-202 AD) who was the student of Polycarp the disciple of John the Apostle.
"1. This expression [of our Lord], ‘How often would I have gathered thy children together, and thou wouldest not,’ set forth the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man a free [agent] from the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his own soul, to obey the behests of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with God, but a good will [towards us] is present with Him continually. And therefore does He give good counsel to all. And in man, as well as in angels, He has placed the power of choice (for angels are rational beings), so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good, given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves. On the other hand, they who have not obeyed shall, with justice, be not found in possession of the good, and shall receive condign punishment: for God did kindly bestow on them what was good; but they themselves did not diligently keep it, nor deem it something precious, but poured contempt upon His super-eminent goodness.
(Against Heresies, book 4, chapter 37, paragraphs 1 – 7)-
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Yes, rejection of God/Christ is the first and primary SIN,
and saints are forgiven their sins as they strive for moral perfection,
but the souls who reject Christ are finite and thus just punishment is finite.
This understanding is good because it harmonizes divine love with hell.
whereas the view you shared does not by saying God is not free to destroy as well as create souls.
and saints are forgiven their sins as they strive for moral perfection,
but the souls who reject Christ are finite and thus just punishment is finite.
This understanding is good because it harmonizes divine love with hell.
whereas the view you shared does not by saying God is not free to destroy as well as create souls.
This is a straw man point of view which i have answered many times throughout this thread. Like your misinterpretation of free will, it would be understandable if i misinterpreted all the many posters, who like you, have posted the same question over and over. I'm sick and tired of answering it and my answer being ignored, however, most of the comments are from trolls wanting to derail the thread.
Will ask if i can sticky a comment to counter such activities, or that the thread be deleted. However, for now, yet again free will is the ability to execute decisions and actions without restraint/limitation, choice is the ability to choose between possible options, it doesn't have the agency involved in free will.
Unlike many here, i too believe although we don't have the agency/free will to save ourselves, we are capable of choosing to love God, who then sets out salvation in progress. I'm seriously sick and tired of the silliness on my post, might be best to request its deletion.
Will ask if i can sticky a comment to counter such activities, or that the thread be deleted. However, for now, yet again free will is the ability to execute decisions and actions without restraint/limitation, choice is the ability to choose between possible options, it doesn't have the agency involved in free will.
Unlike many here, i too believe although we don't have the agency/free will to save ourselves, we are capable of choosing to love God, who then sets out salvation in progress. I'm seriously sick and tired of the silliness on my post, might be best to request its deletion.
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Re "i too believe although we don't have the agency/free will to save ourselves, we are capable of choosing to love God, who then sets out salvation in progress": Does this agree with the view that God graces sinners with sufficient volition to ask/see/knock and then find repentance and salvation, and that there is no qualitative difference between faith that accepts God’s saving grace at conversion and faith that accepts God’s working grace while walking/living (EPH 2:8-10, 2CR 5:7, RM 1:17), but only a quantitative difference as each additional moment passes–and of course faith remains non-meritorious during the saint’s entire lifetime?