Churchwork
11-06-2008, 06:03 PM
1) God is completely sovereign, but not the way calvinists tell us. A god with sovereignty that disallows free-will is a creator of robots. OSAS arminians don't assume two basic choices: human freedom or God's intervention. Rather, we believe human freedom can be under God's intervention if we are willing recipients.
2) Love that is not freely given (with the free option to be withheld) is not genuine love or devotion because it doesn't allow a person to respond to God's love if they are automatons.
3) "...but Adam was not born dead to sin, he had free-ability to choose. How do you explain that?" With free-ability before the fall, after the fall he had limited ability enough to be drawn by God to come to the cross if willing (not by self-will), because he was still made in God's image.
4) Adam and Eve though not having eaten of the tree of life and yet sinned, they remain in the image of God with free-will (able to give free-will offerings). God foresees all their choices so responds accordingly, convincingly for those willing to receive His grace. God wants to commune with His image not robots, so the choice to assume you are a robot is the choice to worship a god not of the Bible.
5) Phil. 1.14 where we read the word voluntary or free-will, both indicate no compulsion and that the choice is truly free in context, just as Paul's choice was freely willing in the same verse.
6) Lev. 22.21,23; 23:28 free-will offerings still require the free-will, even though Israel is chosen. A free-will offering still indicates individual salvation in the chosen the nation. An Israelite could be in the nation of Israel yet not be saved, until offering free-will offering to God like Abel did.
7) Don't forget the verse in Revelation to take of the water of life freely. I am not even sure how to express free-will any more clearly than the Bible does, so to still reject it is totally belligerent and like gnosticism, looking for some secret hidden meaning in the next that is simply not there. We need to reject such notions in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just because a passage doesn't use the exact term, "free-will" doesn't mean free-will is not there. For example, Paul came to Christ of his own free-will. He was justified by faith, for he did not reject God's calling, which he could have done. The Pharaoh rejected God first the Bible says, so God hardened his heart further.
We can say calvinists choose the assumption they were robotically automatons instead of genuinely and repentantly coming to the cross; so goes the kind of salvation, so goes that kind of life, even unsaved tares trying to look like the saved wheat. Think of calvinism as a way to think you are saved but not receive the real substitution (of the sovereign God who predestinates by foreknowing our free-choice), nor effectively die on the cross with Christ so their self-life is stimulated and sadly, their spirit remains separated from God.
2) Love that is not freely given (with the free option to be withheld) is not genuine love or devotion because it doesn't allow a person to respond to God's love if they are automatons.
3) "...but Adam was not born dead to sin, he had free-ability to choose. How do you explain that?" With free-ability before the fall, after the fall he had limited ability enough to be drawn by God to come to the cross if willing (not by self-will), because he was still made in God's image.
4) Adam and Eve though not having eaten of the tree of life and yet sinned, they remain in the image of God with free-will (able to give free-will offerings). God foresees all their choices so responds accordingly, convincingly for those willing to receive His grace. God wants to commune with His image not robots, so the choice to assume you are a robot is the choice to worship a god not of the Bible.
5) Phil. 1.14 where we read the word voluntary or free-will, both indicate no compulsion and that the choice is truly free in context, just as Paul's choice was freely willing in the same verse.
6) Lev. 22.21,23; 23:28 free-will offerings still require the free-will, even though Israel is chosen. A free-will offering still indicates individual salvation in the chosen the nation. An Israelite could be in the nation of Israel yet not be saved, until offering free-will offering to God like Abel did.
7) Don't forget the verse in Revelation to take of the water of life freely. I am not even sure how to express free-will any more clearly than the Bible does, so to still reject it is totally belligerent and like gnosticism, looking for some secret hidden meaning in the next that is simply not there. We need to reject such notions in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just because a passage doesn't use the exact term, "free-will" doesn't mean free-will is not there. For example, Paul came to Christ of his own free-will. He was justified by faith, for he did not reject God's calling, which he could have done. The Pharaoh rejected God first the Bible says, so God hardened his heart further.
We can say calvinists choose the assumption they were robotically automatons instead of genuinely and repentantly coming to the cross; so goes the kind of salvation, so goes that kind of life, even unsaved tares trying to look like the saved wheat. Think of calvinism as a way to think you are saved but not receive the real substitution (of the sovereign God who predestinates by foreknowing our free-choice), nor effectively die on the cross with Christ so their self-life is stimulated and sadly, their spirit remains separated from God.