The doctrine of no free will first teaches man is created like all animals, only with spirit and will for the body. All men and animals only do what they have to do with the body to survive.
Adam was not good, by being created in the image of God, nor did he do any good by obeying the commandment of God. Adam was only functioning good like all animals.
It then teaches God commands man by prophecy, to have self-will and sin. Once again, man has no choice but to obey God and sin wilfully.
And lastly it teaches Christ comes to deliver man from his will, and take over the body, without choice nor will of the man. Once saved, man finally has no will at all.
The last part is more a christ-possession of the man, than Jesus Christ entering the heart of man, by freely opening the door to enter and sup.
In all this teaching, man never has freedom to choose to do anything, but only to serve the body like all animals, then serve himself by God imputing self-will into man, and then serve a christ without will, that has come and taken over without choice.
Calvin's predeterminism says Christ will one day make someone to be saved, as by force, because that someone was prechosen to be saved.
The real devilishness of all this, is people who have heard the gospel, and believe Calvinism, will not choose to confess the Lord Jesus by their own free will, and be saved, but will rather wait for some christ-possession event to save them.
This means their saving faith is based solely upon such an event of forcible possession, rather than upon the truth of the word of God.
It is faith by a possessing christ-spirit, not freely receiving the Spirit of Christ by faith.
Many people here on ChristianityBoard.com preach that God has a free-will, and many are recorded in the
Was Adam Imparted Free Will From The Beginning Of Creation? thread.
The common free-willian refrain is along the lines of "God has freewill. Christ has freewill. Man was made in their image/likeness. Result? = Man has free will." (an actual free-willian quote).
Let us look at the verse that decisively separates man from animals, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26).
So, the free-willian philosophy holds that God free-will chooses to change between good and evil, and, since God created man in God's image according to God's likeness (Genesis 1:26), then man does precisely the same as God; therefore, man free-will chooses to change between good and evil.
A Will Requires A Host
The definition of free-will must be considered.
Free will: an autonomous will, an isolated willpower, detached volition, independent moral agency.
Next, considering "will", a will exists not in a vacuum; in other words, a will must be part of a host.
Respecting an unsaved person - the default first condition of every person, since a host (person) is required to host a will, then the person's will is part of the person's self, so the person's will is self-will because the person'a will is attached to the self-same person; on the other hand, the person's will is not free floating detached from the person, so the person's will is not free-will.
The Apostle proclaims a person's will is either one of but not both of:
- a person's will is controlled by God with "God having purified your souls in the obedience of the Truth through the Spirit" (1 Peter 1:21-22) and "it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
- a person's will is controlled by man with "the Lord knows how" "to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority, daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties" (2 Peter 2:9-10).
A person's will is dependent upon God (Christimage-will (bond-will), Romans 8:29), or a person's will is dependent upon man (self-will). No other will exists for a person; moreover, free-will is an illusion as conveyed by the Apostle Paul with "I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will" (Philemon 1:14).
While the unrighteous unbelievers daringly revel in their own glory founded in their self-willed "I chose Jesus" (2 Peter 2:9-10) thus their hearts steal God's glory, on the other hand, we righteousness of God in Christ believers worship the Glorious One (2 Corinthians 5:21) who sovereignly chose us (John 15:16, John 15:19 includes salvation).
Thus says Adonai YHWH (Lord GOD) "I am YHWH; that is my name; my glory I give to no other" (Isaiah 42:8), yet the free-willians try to steal God's exclusive glory in the salvation of man.
God's Will is not free will because a free-will does not have a host, yet a host is required for there to be an associated will; therefore, the Will of God is God's Will. See God's Will mentioned in 1 Peter 2:15.
NO SCRIPTURE STATES THAT GOD HAS A FREE-WILL.
God is unchangingly good (Malachi 3:6, Psalm 107:1) for the Word of God says "
no one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18), so God is exclusively good all the time while at the same time God never changes to being evil.
In effect, free-willian philosophy includes that God imparted God-like free-will into man, and it is established that man free-will chooses between being good and being evil according to man's God-like free-will;
therefore, God's free-will results in God fluctuating between good and evil because man's God-like free-will fluctuates between good and evil, so God changes to being evil by free-willian philosophers preaching that God has free-will.
THE RESULT, MAN CANNOT HAVE A GOD-LIKE FREE-WILL BECAUSE GOD CANNOT HAVE A FREE-WILL.
NO SCRIPTURE STATES THAT MAN HAS A FREE-WILL.
Free-will philosophy includes the man generated foundation that, by free-will, man can choose to be evil or good, even the ability for a natural man to free-will choose Jesus Christ unto the good of saving himself from the wrath of God.
The only way for free-willian philosophers to acheive free-will is for them to add to the Word of God, and it is written "do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar" (Proverbs 30:6).
Every person has a will, but a person's will is either one of but not both of (1) a self-will against God in evil for the natural flesh person (2 Peter 2:9-10) or (2) a will in Christ doing God's good by the Holy Spirit for the Born of God (Romans 8:29, Philippians 2:13, John 3:3-8).
The point is that there is no "free" (unassociated) will just floating around out there because a will is associated with a host,
and because of this fact, your will is under the auspices of yourself, and notice the word "self" in yourself which translates to your self-will which leads to damnation per the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 2:9-10), so you in your self-will daringly revile His Majesty, King Jesus, when you wrote:
Because the King's decree, the Word of God, had already been proclaimed in this thread:
- "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:16), so God chooses people to be friends (John 15:15 , the prior verse) and to believe (John 6:29) and to be born again (John 3:3-8) and for righteous works (John 3:21, John 15:5) and to repent (Matthew 11:25) and to love (John 13:34) and unto salvation (John 15:19 the same passage), yet you adulterate the Word of God into "
you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (the word of Gilligan).
- "I chose you out of the world" (Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:19, includes salvation), so God chooses people unto salvation, yet you adulterate the Word of God into "you chose me to get yourself out of the world and into the Kingdom of God" (the word of Gilligan) - compare your words to the Lord Jesus explaining that without the intervention of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God, you cannot even perceive the Kingdom of God righteously, much less King Jesus, with "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
- "What I say to you I say to all" (Lord Jesus Christ, Mark 13:37 - Jesus had taken the Apostles Peter, Andrew, James, and John aside in private and said this), so all the blessings of God mentioned above are to all believers in all time, yet you adulterate the Word of God into "What I say to you I say to you and only you" (the word of Gilligan).
