Is free will biblical?

[ProphetMark]

I probably sound like Dave Slayer asking this but is free will biblical? What does the bible say about whether we have a choice whether to sin or not, and if we have sinned, whether we have a choice whether to follow God's way to forgiveness etc or not?

 

[Free]

Yes, we do have free will although it cannot over-rule God's sovereignty. We do have many choices in whether or not we sin and whether or not we forgive others or ourselves or repent before God. That is why Jesus could give the warnings he did about sinning and going to hell; that is why Paul could write so many warnings about Christian behaviour; that is why God will be just in judging us.

 

[AAA]

Yes, we do have free will although it cannot over-rule God's sovereignty. We do have many choices in whether or not we sin and whether or not we forgive others or ourselves or repent before God. That is why Jesus could give the warnings he did about sinning and going to hell; that is why Paul could write so many warnings about Christian behaviour; that is why God will be just in judging us.

But it seems that God doesn't judge based on whether one has sinned (since clearly, we all do), but rather based on whether one believes that the cross was the crucible of our sin. Isn't that what defines Christianty?

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

 

[mutzrein]

Yes, we do have free will although it cannot over-rule God's sovereignty. We do have many choices in whether or not we sin and whether or not we forgive others or ourselves or repent before God. That is why Jesus could give the warnings he did about sinning and going to hell; that is why Paul could write so many warnings about Christian behaviour; that is why God will be just in judging us.

But it seems that God doesn't judge based on whether one has sinned (since clearly, we all do), but rather based on whether one believes that the cross was the crucible of our sin. Isn't that what defines Christianty?

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

Does man have the 'free will' to choose life? Can one who has no life, choose to be born?

 

[justvisiting]

The Father forces no man to be Saved. Salvation is offered. Remember God has something you don't. Foreknowledge...which comes before predestination, calling, justification, glorification.
He is omnipotent...but we are created by Him with choice...a will.
Do you really think God would condemn the world...if they had no choice.
He wants ALL to be Saved. Man has a role in this process. To deny that is very incorrect.

 

[AAA]

Yes, we do have free will although it cannot over-rule God's sovereignty. We do have many choices in whether or not we sin and whether or not we forgive others or ourselves or repent before God. That is why Jesus could give the warnings he did about sinning and going to hell; that is why Paul could write so many warnings about Christian behaviour; that is why God will be just in judging us.

But it seems that God doesn't judge based on whether one has sinned (since clearly, we all do), but rather based on whether one believes that the cross was the crucible of our sin. Isn't that what defines Christianty?

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

Does man have the 'free will' to choose life? Can one who has no life, choose to be born?

Even if you could explain to me how your question is related to my post, I still wouldn't be able to answer it apart from the obvious answer: no.

 

[AAA]

Do you really think God would condemn the world...if they had no choice.

Well that's the challenge for Christianity to answer isn't it?

Read my post again, and then address the issue of whether one can really choose what one believes.

If you start out with the premise that God allows people to choose to be saved (ie. to choose to believe in Jesus), then you're forced to assume that it is possible for people to choose what they believe, otherwise the entire paradigm of your religion falls apart. So I'm not surprised by what you are writing: its the typical Christian position, and it is a tautology.

But can you really choose what you believe? Can you choose to believe that it is ever justified to stone a man to death for working on Sunday? Can you choose to believe that cruelty is better than love? Can you choose to believe that the passage of time is independent of your velocity? Can you choose to believe that there really were/are WMDs in Iraq? Can a 3 year old who dies of malaria in northern Sudan choose to believe in Jesus? What about a 14 year old in the same situation but who has been raised to believe in Allah?

Is it my fault that I once believed in Jesus, but no longer can, even though I have, with an honest heart, tried to do so? If I die today, is it my fault that I can't believe and will, according to Christianity, spend eternity in hell? How can that be my fault? How can God judge me for my honest beliefs?

 

[justvisiting]

There is a two part process. God speaks to the heart. The obvious things of Him are in creation and your very existence. The evidence that sin exists is around us. There is no other religion in the world that offers redemption from being fallen and in sin, that I know of. All the rest of them are simply attaining enlightenment.
I make no apologies from God, because you can't believe. The offer is made. You refuse. You already have more knowledge than most non-believers. God will judge you on that.
Don't confuse Jewish tradition, with the ways of God.
Christians are not under the law. It was a schoolmaster to show us our sin. Christians have imputed righteousness from Christ...but, if we walk contrary enough to the ways of God. It is possible to be rejected.
I'm not going to bang my head against the wall to explain to you that God is love, grace is freely given, man needs redemption, God is righteous...and every man shall answer according to his own knowledge.
Faith pleases God...not doubt. If that's where you want to stay...then you have made your own decision.
I don't apologize...and the Lord of the heavens and the earth...definitely does not apologize.

 

[Free]

Yes, we do have free will although it cannot over-rule God's sovereignty. We do have many choices in whether or not we sin and whether or not we forgive others or ourselves or repent before God. That is why Jesus could give the warnings he did about sinning and going to hell; that is why Paul could write so many warnings about Christian behaviour; that is why God will be just in judging us.

But it seems that God doesn't judge based on whether one has sinned (since clearly, we all do), but rather based on whether one believes that the cross was the crucible of our sin. Isn't that what defines Christianty?

I think it is a little more than that but yes, Jesus' death and resurrection are absolutely central.

John 3:16-18, "16 For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

While belief in Jesus' person (his "name", and all that that entails) and his death and resurrection are necessary for being reconciled to God, non-believers will be judged for sin as well. Luke 12:47-48 speak of varying levels of punishment just as 1 Cor 3:12-15 speak of varying levels of reward for believers. Obviously judgment and reward are based on the choices that we make.

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

According to Scripture we do:

Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, (ESV)

That Jesus sent out the disciples and then told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and all that follows in the NT, implies that we have freedom to choose.

Acts 2:37-40, 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? 38 And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. (ESV)

 

[AAA]

While belief in Jesus' person (his "name", and all that that entails) and his death and resurrection are necessary for being reconciled to God, non-believers will be judged for sin as well. Luke 12:47-48 speak of varying levels of punishment just as 1 Cor 3:12-15 speak of varying levels of reward for believers. Obviously judgment and reward are based on the choices that we make.

I wasn't aware of those passages (and I still haven't read them). Nevertheless, this concept does not seem to me to be widely accepted among Christians.

 

[AAA]

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

According to Scripture we do:

Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, (ESV)

That Jesus sent out the disciples and then told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and all that follows in the NT, implies that we have freedom to choose.

Acts 2:37-40, 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? 38 And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. (ESV)

I don't think that any of these paragraphs support the concept that we can choose what we believe. For instance, I can go and get baptized (I was when I was a baby but now it would be a hollow act), and I can go through the act of "preaching the Good Word" (I wouldn't believe a word of it). But surely, God would see right through me. He would know that I didn't really believe.

Could you choose to believe that rape was good? (I'm not implying that rape is good. I'm just trying to point out that we really can't choose what to believe.)

 

[mutzrein]

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

Does man have the 'free will' to choose life? Can one who has no life, choose to be born?

Even if you could explain to me how your question is related to my post, I still wouldn't be able to answer it apart from the obvious answer: no.

What I'm asking is, does man 'believe' in order to be born of God or does his birth enable belief?

 

[Joe67]

Deut 4:26-28
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell KJV

Rev 9:20-21
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. KJV

Heaven and earth are witnessing against us to give us repentance for our idolatrous worship of the works of our hands and and of our sorcerous abuse of our neighbor.

These are the sins that spring up in our hearts when we would do good in the name of the Lord. These sins are the iniquity that we are called to depart from when we take the name of Jesus. Like the 12 disciples who felt and declared that they would never forsake their Lord, we also must be scattered from our carnal security, and then the spirit of Christ shows us our spiritual wickedness of idolatrous worship and our spirit of uncleaness in abusing our neighbor. We are not aware of these deep-seated wickednesses until he tries us with his eyelids and the flame of fire. Revelation 19:12; Psalm 11; Romans 2:16. Only the elect are convicted of these sins and are given repentance and deliverance from them. The others become even more unrestrained in their religious zeal; worship zeal and/or humanitarian zeal. They do not know that when they would do good, evil is present with them; therefore they do not repent again.

Joe

 

[Free]

While belief in Jesus' person (his "name", and all that that entails) and his death and resurrection are necessary for being reconciled to God, non-believers will be judged for sin as well. Luke 12:47-48 speak of varying levels of punishment just as 1 Cor 3:12-15 speak of varying levels of reward for believers. Obviously judgment and reward are based on the choices that we make.

I wasn't aware of those passages (and I still haven't read them). Nevertheless, this concept does not seem to me to be widely accepted among Christians.

I'm not sure who believes that and who doesn't. I could be wrong but it does seem to be the case:

Luke 12:47-48, "47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more."

1 Corinthians 3:12-15, "12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."

I don't think that any of these paragraphs support the concept that we can choose what we believe. For instance, I can go and get baptized (I was when I was a baby but now it would be a hollow act), and I can go through the act of "preaching the Good Word" (I wouldn't believe a word of it). But surely, God would see right through me. He would know that I didn't really believe.

The verse from Deut. is about choosing whether or not one follows God--either they put their trust in him, that he is who he says he is, or they don't.

The passage from Acts comes at the end of Peter's speech on the day of Pentecost. He gives the gospel and finishes with pleading that they "save [them]selves from [that] crooked generation." What is meant by saving themselves is "repent and be baptized," the key word being "repent". To repent means "to turn from" or "to change one's mind".

 

[wavy]

According to the bible God can intervene with free will and incite humans to do whatever it is he wants them to do: examples, of course, include the Pharaoh, and the king of Israel himself. (see Pr xxi.1)


Finis,
Eric

 

[Ben Joiner]

To AAA,
Your question is an very straightforward one. "Can people choose to believe what they want?" I have often asked myself the same thing and really wondered if it was true. But after some though I decided that, "Yes they can."
If people cannot believe as they wish, then no one would ever be mistakenly certain about anything.
1 To believe a proposition to be true one must ignore any proof to the contrary.
2 Untrue propositions have must either have proof that they are untrue or proof that they are uncertain.
3 To believe an untrue proposition to be true one must ignore the proof that it is at best uncertain.
4 Therefore, belief in a lie can be only by a power that can contradict proof of truth.

Therefore, the only way people can believe lies is?????
1 Free will
2 A natural accident of brain chemicals produce the same result?
If you take option 2, some other concepts must come along for the ride. If there is no free will, then there is no pride or shame and thereby good/evil. It is then no more morally correct to take care of a baby then to murder one.

 

[RND]

I probably sound like Dave Slayer asking this but is free will biblical?

Yes.

What does the bible say about whether we have a choice whether to sin or not, and if we have sinned, whether we have a

The simple fact that Adam was given a commandment, and ignored it, should lay to waste any claim that man doesn't have a free choice or if it's Biblical.

 

[justvisiting]

Yes, we do have free will although it cannot over-rule God's sovereignty. We do have many choices in whether or not we sin and whether or not we forgive others or ourselves or repent before God. That is why Jesus could give the warnings he did about sinning and going to hell; that is why Paul could write so many warnings about Christian behaviour; that is why God will be just in judging us.

But it seems that God doesn't judge based on whether one has sinned (since clearly, we all do), but rather based on whether one believes that the cross was the crucible of our sin. Isn't that what defines Christianty?

Do we really have free will to choose what we believe?

Why no. You're restricted from believing.

 

[Free]

According to the bible God can intervene with free will and incite humans to do whatever it is he wants them to do: examples, of course, include the Pharaoh, and the king of Israel himself. (see Pr xxi.1)
Finis,
Eric

Which is why I qualified my belief in free will by stating that it cannot overrule the sovereignty of God. There are things that God would like to have happen ("that all men should be saved") and there are things that will happen (the crucifixion, etc.). It would seem that in order for the "must happens" it would be necessary to use people. But it is most likely that they have already made their bed, so to speak.

 

[MarkT]

I probably sound like Dave Slayer asking this but is free will biblical? What does the bible say about whether we have a choice whether to sin or not, and if we have sinned, whether we have a choice whether to follow God's way to forgiveness etc or not?

We are sinners, but when we sin, it's not so much a matter of choice but of weakness. We wouldn't boast of our ability to sin, saying, we can. What does it mean that we can sin? Is it something to be proud of?

We wouldn't say it is because God has given us freewill, lest we get caught up in our boast and bring condemnation on ourselves. Has God given us an evil gift? No. In our mind and in our spirit we serve God but with our sinful flesh we serve the law of sin; there's another law at work in our members, as Paul says, "I can see another law at war with the law of my mind" Romans 7:23

At one time we were all enemies of God. But then God sent out his servants to drag us into the church. Can we say why we believe and others do not? Except I just said we were compelled! And this is likened to a gift because it was of grace. It was God's goodwill to bring us into his Son.

But the haters of God don't share in our spirit. To the ignorant, Moses and Joshua spoke, saying those men had to choose. But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. Job 32:8 And a man`s spirit comes from God.

So saying, in these last days God has given men the spirit that they can hear and understand. So indeed he chose us. He gave us life. He didn`t give us the spirit of turning back.

Jesus said, 'You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep'. I think that pretty much sums it up for some. But then again, I`m convinced that there are some who can be turned. God is patient. Who can resist his will.

If I succeed in convincing you (or the other side succeeds), then you will have no choice, and all the freewill in the world will count for nothing.