I used to listen to this debate between Calvinism and Arminianism when I was in the States, I didn't feel either one was totally correct, today I personally believe that Calvinism is one side of the swing of a pendulum and Arminianism is the extreme on the other side, I believe the truth is in the middle between the two, ...God, being outside of time, can look down on the timeline of humanity and know/see who will accept the offer of His salvation and who won't, those that will accept His offer He intervenes in their lives to keep them from destroying themselves before salvation, those that won't it seems he blesses with material blessings more than His own kids Ps 73, ...I feel Ironside explained it best, ...before every human there is a door, above the door is written whosoever may enter, after entering, written above the door on the other side is foreknown before the foundation of the world, ...works for me.
I hear lots of talk about free will, my belief is Adam and Eve had free will, but it was lost to the rest of humanity because of the Fall, Scripture tells us Adams descendents we born in his fallen nature and image Gen 5:3 and Adam didn't have a free will after the Fall because we are told by the sweat of his brow he would eat his bread, that means work would be laborious, did Adam have a free will to change that, no, do we have a free will to change it or live outside of the curse, no. Scripture tells us we are in bondage to sin, so if we are in bondage to sin I don't understand how we can have a free will to stop sinning, ...in my life, before Christ, I realized some sin was wrong so I stopped doing it, but I just changed sins and started doing something else sinful, so can some one tell me where is the freedom of will to stop sinning, ...before Christ?
I believe, in one sense, Jesus spoke about free will when He said He came to set the captives free, I believe when it was the moment for me to be born again John 1:13, He opened the prison door (of not having a free will) and set me free (giving or allowing me to have a free will) to chose to receive Him or not.
...And for me that explains salvation between the two extremes of the swing of the pendulum.
After we are born again, regenerated, free will has been restored to us just like Adam and Eve had before the Fall, but that is dangerous, that means we have the freedom of will to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of life, when we are born again sin has been dethroned in our hearts, that throne is left empty, we have the free will to chose who will sit on that throne, ...me, myself and I, that means I'm exercising my will to decide what is good and what is evil in my life, which means eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (and that always brings death), ...a carnal Christian, ...or if I'm wise I will allow Jesus to take His rightful place on the throne of my heart and I will be eating from the tree of life, walking in the Spirit and it's the Spirit that gives life.
Blessings,
Gene
I hear lots of talk about free will, my belief is Adam and Eve had free will, but it was lost to the rest of humanity because of the Fall, Scripture tells us Adams descendents we born in his fallen nature and image Gen 5:3 and Adam didn't have a free will after the Fall because we are told by the sweat of his brow he would eat his bread, that means work would be laborious, did Adam have a free will to change that, no, do we have a free will to change it or live outside of the curse, no. Scripture tells us we are in bondage to sin, so if we are in bondage to sin I don't understand how we can have a free will to stop sinning, ...in my life, before Christ, I realized some sin was wrong so I stopped doing it, but I just changed sins and started doing something else sinful, so can some one tell me where is the freedom of will to stop sinning, ...before Christ?
I believe, in one sense, Jesus spoke about free will when He said He came to set the captives free, I believe when it was the moment for me to be born again John 1:13, He opened the prison door (of not having a free will) and set me free (giving or allowing me to have a free will) to chose to receive Him or not.
...And for me that explains salvation between the two extremes of the swing of the pendulum.
After we are born again, regenerated, free will has been restored to us just like Adam and Eve had before the Fall, but that is dangerous, that means we have the freedom of will to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of life, when we are born again sin has been dethroned in our hearts, that throne is left empty, we have the free will to chose who will sit on that throne, ...me, myself and I, that means I'm exercising my will to decide what is good and what is evil in my life, which means eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (and that always brings death), ...a carnal Christian, ...or if I'm wise I will allow Jesus to take His rightful place on the throne of my heart and I will be eating from the tree of life, walking in the Spirit and it's the Spirit that gives life.
Blessings,
Gene