If humans cannot make choices, if we do not have free will, then we would not have the ability to sin. For sin is defiance of God
Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
bro Blake
If humans cannot make choices, if we do not have free will, then we would not have the ability to sin. For sin is defiance of God. Additionally, love is a choice. A person chooses to love. Without free will, we would not be able to love, as we could not make the choice of love.
_________________Farai Bamu
My love is very selfish, The only love That my Father can accept is the pure love of Christ. I can truly say I love God because He first loved me. The only vision I have ever had was in a long tunnel with a perfect light at the end as I could see it. The harder I ran and the more I tried to get to the Light It stayed at the end of the tunnel and no matter what I did I could never reach it. In the beauty of that light that I so wanted ot reach, I could not. When I stoped and just wanted the Light it began to come to me. When it enveloped me All I could do was give thanks and cry. That light has never left me and I am assured by the light Himself that no matter what comes as in all of Paul's awful lists, He is my Lord, and He loves me to the point of His own life given for me. I can only learn this love from the Author or that love. It is my choice to love God and in all His Glory, He is giving me the true desire of my Heart, and that is to love God with the Love He has given me and is teaching me to love Him, even to the depths of His own love for all His Children. May God richly bless you all, with the Love of a little Child in a manger that was sent by A Father's Love was beyond our knowledge, but by His Love is teaching us how to comprehend and return His Love. In Christ: Merry Christmas Phillip
_________________Phillip
Healingwaters wrote:God had that tree there so that man would sin and that His relationship with man would be severed so that He might destroy him that had power over death..
but we are born into sin with no choice in the matter as it is we are slaves to sin because that is our nature and only God can call us out of that.
_________________Josh Parsley
Here are a couple of thoughts. I think there are 2 aspects of God's for-knowledge. I believe some things He knows but does not force and others He forces to happen. God is sovereign but I believe some have a, well I would call it a sick understanding of it. God knows the beginning from the end, but the question is, "does He 'enjoy' everything that he knows?" If He does not "enjoy" it, then why is it happening? I believe that there are too many 'if's in the Bible to say that man has no choice. What are the 'if's for? There is no 'if' in many verses if God forces everything. Will God punish us according to God's choice? Or will we be punished according to our own choices? That would seem sick if you are punished just because God would like to punish many, just because He wants to. I believe God gives us choice. I'll use an example later. I say all this reverently and if you disagree I am sorry, it just seems very wrong to judge someone if you forces someone to do it. It would then be your (the forcer's) fault, not the one being forced. He couldn't help it. If God forced everything no one could "leave their first love," but God took it!I also believe that God does will things to happen and their is no stopping it. There will be no stopping this world burning up or you standing in judgment before God. There is an element of both stances in just about everything. In salvation, it seems that, God moves sovereignly upon the heart. You cannot force God to "save" someone. Then you would have the choice when God moves upon the heart, you could either obey or disobey. Imagine a man that has a field. He has a slave and an employee. Which one would he seemly love more? The slave, whom has no choice to work, or the employee that [u] chooses[/u] to work for him. The employee chooses to work for him and in turn the owner pays him. Which would would he get more joy out of? The one who has no choice or joyfull choices to work for him? No example is perfect but, I believe God loves you so much that you are given a choice.
bro PreachParsleyConsider Jacob and Esau.in Romans 9:13 Paul says:[b]10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder F35 shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. [/b]This is a reference to the O.T. Scripture of Malachi 1:2 which says:[b]1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by F1 Malachi. 2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. 5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. [/b]It is clear that God had decided what would become of Jacob and esau from before they were born. Jacob was loved while Esau was hated, we see that clearly in what becomes of both men and their descedants. Jacob because the father of the nation that bears his name but esau's (also known as Edom)descedants are at odds with God and are judged by Him often and their lands are left in desolation (there are various pronouncements against edom in the prophetic books, one of which comes because the edomites laugh and scoff at Israel's own judgement but edom receives and even more severe one) Both did not have a chance to do anything for or against God but God decided so that His purpose in election may stand. Who are we to question why the Lord does anything as He does, He is God and can do as He pleases. i am reminded also of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5[b]Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained F1 thee a prophet unto the nations. [/b]The Lord has decided what is to become of everyone that would ever live. He foreknew (which can also be rendered fore-ordained) and knew what would happen, but nothing at all could ever happen if it were not His will. As far as what will happen to those babies that are aborted and have been and will be, God has determined what is to become of them and for you to misrepresent my position by saying this:
So will all aborted babies go to hell? According to you they have sin. Burn baby burn? I don't believe it! Will we stand in judgment of our sin? Or Adam's sin?
bro PreachParsleythere are a lot of if's in the bible but we still can't escape "from before the foundations of the world..."
God knows the beginning from the end, but the question is, "does He 'enjoy' everything that he knows?" If He does not "enjoy" it, then why is it happening? I believe that there are too many 'if's in the Bible to say that man has no choice. What are the 'if's for? There is no 'if' in many verses if God forces everything. Will God punish us according to God's choice? Or will we be punished according to our own choices? That would seem sick if you are punished just because God would like to punish many, just because He wants to. I believe God gives us choice. I'll use an example later. I say all this reverently and if you disagree I am sorry, it just seems very wrong to judge someone if you forces someone to do it. It would then be your (the forcer's) fault, not the one being forced. He couldn't help it. If God forced everything no one could "leave their first love," but God took it!
It is clear that God had decided what would become of Jacob and esau from before they were born.
My point about the babies is that how could they go to heaven by your position? Have they been born-again before they were born? Now if we stand in judgment for our own sins then yes, they would be innocent.I'm just throwing some thoughts out there.. I don't know alot.
