justbyfaith
Well-Known Member
Here is the reasoning through TULIP that makes me to believe in free will.
If Irresistible Grace be the reality, then the reality is also either Limited Atonement or Universalism (the challenge of this post will be to show a third option).
It is not Universalism since Matthew 13:41-42, Matthew 13:49-50, and Matthew 25:46 all teach us that there is a furnace of fire for everlasting punishment.
It is not Limited Atonement since, God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4); and also, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). And, according to 1 Timothy 2:6, Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all;
But Irresistible Grace would seem to be the reality, because of such verses as 1 Corinthians 13:8 and Revelation 19:6. God is both Omnipotent, and His love never fails.
So His love will not fail to bring those whom He has chosen into the kingdom, right?
Nevertheless, the scriptures which show that it is not Limited Atonement also show that this would mean Universalism. Yet Universalism is not true because of the scriptures that I presented in refutation of that doctrine.
So then, it seems that there is now an irreconcilable contradiction.
I couldn't figure it out; because I was so intent on believing that God's love never failing and Him being Omnipotent meant Irresistible Grace.
But there is another answer (my wife, with the faith of a child, came up with it): that God, in His Omnipotence, Sovereignty, and Love, chose to relinquish a degree of His own sovereignty in order to give a degree of sovereignty to the ones whom He would create. In other words, FREE WILL.
In this, the Lord cannot fail to give to every man the thing that is chosen by him when all is said and done on his day of judgment. Whatever man chooses, the Lord in His Omnipotence will provide for man the choice that he has made.
Is there a third option other than free will, that can even be the truth; taking 1 Corinthians 13:8 and Revelation 19:6 into account?
I am interested if there is any other answer to this dilemma in Calvinism, that any Calvinist might come up with.
Lay it on the table. How does the above information not translate into the doctrine of free will and the sovereignty of man?
If Irresistible Grace be the reality, then the reality is also either Limited Atonement or Universalism (the challenge of this post will be to show a third option).
It is not Universalism since Matthew 13:41-42, Matthew 13:49-50, and Matthew 25:46 all teach us that there is a furnace of fire for everlasting punishment.
It is not Limited Atonement since, God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4); and also, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). And, according to 1 Timothy 2:6, Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all;
But Irresistible Grace would seem to be the reality, because of such verses as 1 Corinthians 13:8 and Revelation 19:6. God is both Omnipotent, and His love never fails.
So His love will not fail to bring those whom He has chosen into the kingdom, right?
Nevertheless, the scriptures which show that it is not Limited Atonement also show that this would mean Universalism. Yet Universalism is not true because of the scriptures that I presented in refutation of that doctrine.
So then, it seems that there is now an irreconcilable contradiction.
I couldn't figure it out; because I was so intent on believing that God's love never failing and Him being Omnipotent meant Irresistible Grace.
But there is another answer (my wife, with the faith of a child, came up with it): that God, in His Omnipotence, Sovereignty, and Love, chose to relinquish a degree of His own sovereignty in order to give a degree of sovereignty to the ones whom He would create. In other words, FREE WILL.
In this, the Lord cannot fail to give to every man the thing that is chosen by him when all is said and done on his day of judgment. Whatever man chooses, the Lord in His Omnipotence will provide for man the choice that he has made.
Is there a third option other than free will, that can even be the truth; taking 1 Corinthians 13:8 and Revelation 19:6 into account?
I am interested if there is any other answer to this dilemma in Calvinism, that any Calvinist might come up with.
Lay it on the table. How does the above information not translate into the doctrine of free will and the sovereignty of man?
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