Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

So, precious friend, the thing I don't get is "how did God Create all things and man as good" and
then Adam "sinned Because he had no free will because of his choice being a slave to his totally depraved nature"???

Makes no sense, eh?

The first ADAM also had this ability, but, it went further in that he had the ability to please God. He could choose to
please God by doing what he was commanded, or disobey and die. He chose the latter and this ability was lost in the fall.

So, precious friend, the thing I don't get is "how did God Create all things and man as good" and
then Adam "sinned Because he had no free will because of his choice being a slave to his totally depraved nature"???

Makes no sense, eh?

Thanks Be Unto God Of His Wonderful SON And Everlasting Redemption!

Amen.

Being taken captive to the will of the devil... yes, somehow that just screams free will to the multitudes.

We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.

Everyone that argues that we are FREE in our choice just simple refuses to understand that our choices are always a slave to our nature.

No that is not true and your peddling False doctrine ---your making up your own False Doctrine which goes against God's word -----

We have a fallen Nature to sin -----we don't have to sin we choose to sin -----

God Speaking to Cain here -----WATCH THE -------IF YOU ----choice

“Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you ---do what is right, will you not be accepted?
But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it'” (Genesis 4:6-7).

You don't have to be a ROCKET SCIENTIST to understand This the God Himself says here ------it is your Twisted Veiled understanding that is in your WAY ------

sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it'” (Genesis 4:6-7).

You can choose not to Sin if we want to ---to SIN is a Choice -------we make ----

IF YOU -----Choose RIGHT ___YOU WON"T SIN -------IF CHOOSE WRONG YOU WILL SIN

Many have probably realised i don't think we can exercise free will, even think it's impossible for us to. Won't explain why i think it's an impossiblility for us yet, think it's useful for some to express why they think it exists first.

I have no doubt we have and can make choices throughout life, however, think our options are far more restricted than most realise. What do you think?

my greatness, you are a bit lost. restricted? why? barring problems out of the ordinary, anyone can think, speak & do whatever he or she wants. that's it. try this: "you are free to choose, you are not free not to choose & you are not free to choose the consequences of your choice"!

My post indicated that Adam was created good and had the ability to please God. I just believe that fallen man no longer has the ability to please God (in and of himself). The ability to please God was lost in the fall.

Adam and Eve didn't act of their own freewill in fact Adam and Eve are a great example of how there is really not freewill. God never gave them a choice, he told them not to eat from the tree or else they would die. Even when they ate from the tree even this isn't an act of freewill, Eve had to be beguiled into eating from the tree thinking that it would not kill her, but rather that is would make her wise.

I'm not asking how God enables freewill, because there is not freewill. I'm asking; how is there freewill if God has to enable salvation? The answer is obvious that there isn't freewill if God has to enable you to have salvation.

Again evil is opposition to God. So God can't be evil because God does not oppose himself. Being that he is God he is above all and owns all, so he can do anythiing he pleases with what he owns. It is ironic you cite Romans 9 since this chapter and those specific verses destroy the premise of freewill and destroy the premise of stating that God is unjust for destroying the vessels of wrath. Just like the potter cannot be called unjust for making some pottery just to smash it and the shards cannot protest against him, so God cannot be called unjust for creating a wicked person and destroying them.

Really this touches on the great error of the idea of freewill in that it essentially puts man on the level of God and makes man deceived into thinking that he has a right to judge God. Man is utterly incapable of judging God just as the clay cannot really judge the potter, but it is the potter who does whatsoever he pleases with the clay and nobody can ever tell him he is unjust to do whatever he wants to do with what is rightfully his.

As for old Pharaoh you might want to go back and read Romans 9:15-22. Pharaoh never had freewill, nor did Moses, but God raised both of them up for his purpose and his will. To show his might in destroying Pharaoh and Egypt and to show his mercy in saving Moses and the Israelites.

So there is not really freewill, nor is there binary of wills between good and evil, there is only one will which is the will of God and those that have faith in God and those that do not have faith in God, and yet even the unfaithful are bound into the will of God and can and will be used to further the will of God just like Pharaoh and just like Moses.

Ooh! Don't want to make the pot boil over on my post but don't think God's wise counsel to Cain is the best example to use.

No you wouldn't think that is the best example ---- because you want to be right instead of learning the Truth of what God really says about Free will to Choose ======

Might seem strange to you but that's what i was thinking about you.

No that is not true and your peddling False doctrine ---your making up your own False Doctrine which goes against God's word

No you wouldn't think that is the best example ---- because you want to be right instead of learning the Truth of what God really says about Free will to Choose ======

Slaves to sin... Romans 6:16 and John 8:34 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever... you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness. <= slavery is what "free willers" call freedom, while denying the very words of Jesus, and in the process, claim people who believe and promote what Scripture says are making it up LOL. The wicked man with a stony heart and a mind inherently hostile to God does not choose to love and/or believe in God any more than they choose to raise themselves to new life and/or circumcise their hearts. Just as a leopard cannot change their spots nor an Ethiopian their skin colour... At one time we too were enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures. Hey, that's Biblical also. Look it up.

Can't imagine ever wanting to change Scripture and i am a newish believer.

So your a Babe in Christ and on the Milk of the Scripture ----your a Carnal Christian ----

AI -------on a Carnal Christian

A carnal Christian is a Christian who lives a life that is more worldly or fleshly than spiritual. The term "carnal" refers to the body and bodily desires, rather than the spirit or rational Spiritual mind.

be changed by the renewing of your mind says God -----
Romans 12:2, which reads, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind