the only time our free will is restricted is when other people affect us. government, criminals, etc.
Yes.... it is peoples influence that take an individuals choice away but there is NOTHING that can take you away from God once you have chosen him. Romans 8:38,39 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nice quote from the Bible. This is so true. Once you get to know him you can't go away from him. Try reading James 4:8 Col
I dunno 'bout youse, but I would not want to live in a world without free will. And I know my Lord would not want me to either. I think that's really what bothers you both. Moneyspeaks declares himself a slave by virtue of his own nickname, and SEO - you declare yourself free of unaccountability by nothing more than a snakecharmers edict. If you ain't looking for Jesus - you're looking for trouble. Kae... wonderful scripture. I have heard this same scripture used effectively to suggest - as improbable as it may seem on the face of it, that once saved always saved. What do you think?
Of course we have free will...it is the ability to choose our own paths and make our own decisions...it is a good gift from God.
You and this snakecharmer thingy is making me laugh..LOL I have a firm belief in Jesus. You may not understand how firm my belief is in him. Inaccountable? Of course I am accountable. We all have to render an account with God as it says in the Bible. Therefore, I have no idea what you are on about if you don't recognise this in me. Col
Don't mean to step on toes, but could you translate this 'Christianese' ? I don't think that by using catchy phrases and generalities such as 'unaccountability' in regards to people who you hardly know is really helpful. I am a Christian, my husband is a minister, and I firmly believe that we have a free will, so am not picking on you for your stance. I am grateful to God that he made us that way, I just think that you should be careful showering around general statements in order to make yourself sound pious. Cindy
Once saved you are always saved. God chooses you. Your name was written in the book of life or not before the world began. (Study up on the elect) You can only reject him. Choosing to not reject God is not the same as choosing to be saved. Salvation is a gift, not something that's given because you asked. In fact, it's given to you while you were dead in sin and unable to ask for it. The trick is knowing if you're saved (not rejecting God would be a good start). It is entirely possible to appear saved and also to appear not saved. Nobody goes to heaven or hell until they die. Free will by definition is not free if it is restricted. Our choices are restricted by our beliefs, our environment, our sinful nature, etc. You can watch any reality show to see just how predictable people are.
Cindy, this was not addressed to you so let me bring you up to speed. There is amongst us here some unfortunate followers of cults. They know who they are, this is what I was addressing. As for "Christianese" I am surprised. I didn't even go into substutional death or any of it! As for writing something to sound "pious." Very unfair of you to say so and but - so be it. I am dead corn, and as the scripture from whence I choose my name suggests I do as I believe He instructs me. Systematic Theology is a favorite system of study for me... I highly recommend it to all. IN Christ
My studies started by organizing the four gospels. Then I moved further into topical studies. Being familiar with the gospels makes it a lot easier to make sense of what all the other NT authors are talking about and makes the OT make a heck of a lot more sense. I found that the pick a word and do a complete concordance of the word was a great starting place to figure out what the Bible says about various things. As you become more and more aware of the stories you can then bring them into the concordance studies and everything makes a lot of sense. One of my favorite concordance studies was "Lazarus." All the stories of that one seemingly insignificant person tell a very powerful rendition of the whole gospel.
Oh... man! Who talks like that! Where you just joking around, or do you actually talk like that? My challenge is how are you going to be an effective messenger for Christ if you speak in the King James Version? I really hope you were joking because that would be where the pious word might be raised again... As for people who are in cults, yeah - I don't doubt that some people in the forum have been given wrong teaching, and formed a belief system that does not reflect the true intent of the Bible - but I am interested to know how insulting them is going to let them see Jesus' love in you?
I don't know if you've read what Jesus told some people but he wasn't the nice person people always try to make him out to be. It's not about being nice to people. It's about telling the truth. A lot of times people forget that and just want to talk about the nice stuff. Well, the problem is that the nice stuff is pointless if you're not aware of the not nice stuff. The Bible is not a nice book in much of it. It tells people things they don't want to hear, much less believe. But that's what is needed before they can understand why they need the good stuff.
Oh, I totally agree with you there - but I also think that even though he confronted people, that he did it in love. He didn't just give broad accusations about people not being accountable - He sat with the people, building relationship with them and earning respect from them AND THEN telling them what they needed to fix. I think it's a pretty funny thing, this whole WWJD stuff - since the man himself often did everything opposite to what people thought he would do...
Ofcourse we have a free will.. whatever you heard that your destined blah blah.. it's all crap... and don't anyone convince me other wise... Just take control of your life.. and don't blame anyone but yourself if you fail.