Here are some early Church Fathers who disagree with you. Speaking of Ignatius, he might have been taught by Peter and Paul. He became Bishop of Antioch in 60 AD.
Ignatius (AD30-107)
"Seeing, then, all things have an end, and there is set before us life upon our observance [of God’s precepts], but death as the result of disobedience, and every one, according to the choice he makes, shall go to his own place, let us flee from death, and make choice of life. For I remark, that two different characters are found among men - the one true coin, the other spurious. The truly devout man is the right kind of coin, stamped by God Himself. The ungodly man, again, is false coin, unlawful, spurious, counterfeit, wrought not by God, but by the devil. I do not mean to say that there are two different human natures, but that there is one humanity, sometimes belonging to God, and sometimes to the devil. If any one is truly religious, he is a man of God; but if he is irreligious, he is a man of the devil, made such, not by nature, but by his own choice. The unbelieving bear the image of the prince of wickedness. The believing possess the image of their Prince, God the Father, and Jesus Christ, through whom, if we are not in readiness to die for the truth into His passion, His life is not in us."
(Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, V)
This expression of our Lord, “How often would I have gathered thy children together, and thou wouldest not” (Matthew 23:37), ...snip... kindly bestow on them what was good. St. Iranaeus, Against the Heresies, IV, 37, I [/I]
Barnabas (AD100)
"The Lord will judge the world without respect of persons. Each will receive as he has done: if he is righteous, his righteousness will precede him; if he is wicked, the reward of wickedness is before him. Take heed, lest resting at our ease, as those who are the called [of God], we should fall asleep in our sins, and the wicked prince, acquiring power over us, should thrust us away from the kingdom of the Lord. And all the more attend to this, my brethren, when ye reflect and behold, that after so great signs and wonders were wrought in Israel, they were thus [at length] abandoned. Let us beware lest we be found [fulfilling that saying], as it is written, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Epistle of Barnabas, IV)
Justin Martyr (AD 110-165)
"But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both the opposites, nor of so many transitions. But not even would some be good and others bad, since we thus make fate the cause of evil, and exhibit her as acting in opposition to herself; or that which has been already stated would seem to be true, that neither virtue nor vice is anything, but that things are only reckoned good or evil by opinion; which, as the true word shows, is the greatest impiety and wickedness. But this we assert is inevitable fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of himself choose the good, but were created for this end; nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made." (Justin, First Apology, XLIII)
What you are doing is like using the fabric to measure the yardstick. In case you are unfamiliar with this terminology, the yardstick represents the standard of measure, and the fabric represents the commodity to be divided into fair increments of pieces (Proverbs 11:1) - properly the yardstick is used to measure a distance of the fabric.
Your opening ignominious Ignatius quotation requires scrutiny, but more on this further in this post.
The Apostle John warns:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
(1 John 4:1-3)
See "antichrist" "already in the world" at the time of John, so everything must be seen by believers through God given eyes (John 3:3-8, John 3:21).
The Truth (John 14:6) is the Word of God, and the Christ's words reverberate these 2,000 years for Lord Jesus says:
- "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).
- "I chose you out of the world" (Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:19, includes salvation), so God chooses people unto salvation.
- "What I say to you I say to all" (Lord Jesus Christ, Mark 13:37), so all the blessings of God mentioned above are to all believers in all time.
Christ's words define Christianity, even every moment of the 2,000 years you mentioned.
Man's words/commentaries are not the Bible.
Let's compare your unbiblical words of
So, all believers are but by choice. This context is NOT about future believers, but speaking directly to twelve men ONLY.
to the Word of God, bullet point with red text above by bullet point with blue text below:
- "you twelve men ONLY did not choose Me, but I chose you twelve men ONLY" (the word of Rightglory).
- "I chose you twelve men ONLY out of the world" (the word of Rightglory).
- "
What I say to you I say to all" (the word of Rightglory).
The treasure of your heart (Matthew 15:18) is consistent with your deficient interpretation of ancient commentary instead of the Word of God, so you agree with your foundation of the traditions of men leading to worship in vain (Matthew 15:9). As for my house, our foundation is the Word of God (John 1:1-5) in us by the Power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Plenty of ancient commentary exists that declares God is sovereign in the salvation of man, even among your deficiently quoted text above, but you are blind to the Word of God and you adulterate the Word of God, so it is no surprise that you adulterate ancient commentary (see en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Christian_Library/Epistle_to_the_Magnesians for a side by side comparison of the translation from the text tbat we have of Ignatius' letter according to historians (the shorter recension) versus the modern edited by another person(s)/editor(s) (the longer recension) and search for "Seeing, then, all" to properly compare ancient text - ESSENTIALLY, YOU TOOK A MODERN COPY THAT AGREES WITH YOUR OWN THOUGHTS INSTEAD OF THAT WHICH IGNATIUS WROTE - see that Ignatius did not use the word "choice" nor hint at "choice" in the shorter recension - in effect, you lied by causing Ignatius to lie - you even used a fabricated letter from Ignatius to try to prove your point - the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44) - your false witness letter is wrong glory @Rightglory, very wrong glory as you use your false witness against Ignatius as support for your false witness against the Word of God).
Even a little leaven (deviation from the Word of God) leavens the whole loaf (the person adhering to the deviation from the Word of God) (Galatians 5:7-9), and your blue text deviates from Jesus Christ's red text!
Anyone who says that he chose Jesus has opposed Jesus by uttering such a rejectful saying, as evidenced in Jesus' words. Such a person is a thief that steals God's glory in the salvation of man. Such a person thinks he saved himself from the wrath of God because his failure to choose Jesus would have left him unsaved.
All believers in all time are utterly dependent upon the Word of God for being saved from the wrath of God by God's grace for God's glory!
Just as the original post shows richly in scripture, Adam was not imparted free will, and no man thereafter was imparted free will either.
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