Our rebuttal to the Free Will statements made by Jeremy Brown in 2001 will be in Orange done by s†vegas
Let us begin…
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7
God has placed these abilities within our souls: Emotions (love, hate, desire, envy, compassion, joy, passion, calm, etc.) Rational Thought / Logic. The desire and ability to worship God. Will (the ability to choose).
stvegas:
Mr. Brown started his statement off with Gen 2:7 talking about God making man then he threw in all these attributes of man without using scripture to back them up. It is true God made man out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into man In Innocence (before the Fall, before man became a complete and total sinner), YES. But do I believe and does scripture back up man having these same attributes unchanged AFTER The Fall? Not at all. lets look at:
We see here written in Psalm 14:2,3 (After The Fall of man) that no one does good not even one, it also says that no one seeks God. So tell me my friend, if no one is seeking God then how can they choose something they are not seeking?
Mr. Brown
Free Will is an ability God has given to man. It is one of the aspects that makes man higher and much different from the animals. Free Will is the ability to choose.
stvegas:
Once again Mr. Brown is assuming Free Will is something God gave to man, if that is the case why is it that NO WHERE in Scripture can you find the kind free will Mr. Brown says we have.
Mr. Brown quotes:
stvegas:
Here Mr. Brown is using scripture trying to prove a point that is not biblical trying to prove it biblically, that my friend is call heresy. Lets look in John chapter 6 verse 44
So reading scripture we see that only those drawn by the Holy Spirit will choose, well then you may say to me, yes The Holy Spirit draws everyone, and if that was so then everyone will be saved and no one will go to hell because the Holy Spirit was drawing everyone, which we all know is unbiblical.
Now do I believe in a “free will” like Mr. Brown is talking, No. However I do believe we have somewhat of a free will, but that not out side the sin nature. A man can choose to brush his teeth or not, but a man can not choose to not sin or to choose Christ as savior alone on his own will, The Will of a man can not go outside the realm of a man which is filled with sin, which we also know to be the sin nature.
Mr. Brown quotes:
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet I choose what I don't want. Philippians 1:22.
stvegas:
Well Mr. Brown here has not posted the whole scripture of the meaning. Lets look at what he failed to post:
Paul is not choosing what he doesn’t want, He is saying he doesn’t know if he will live or die and that in either case he excepts both which ever may be the will of the Lord, because Paul knows he has no will to choose if he lives or dies and that it is up to the Lord.
Mr. Brown:
Choosing, choices, is where our spiritual warfare comes in. Rather, the outcome of our spiritual warfare is determined by what choice we make.
stvegas:
It is hard for me to continue with this idea of Mr. Brown since we have already disprove this Free Will idea. Now we see Mr. Brown trying to pull all these ideas together thinking that since we can choose within the sin nature he assumes we can also choose out side the sin nature which is not biblical. That is why for the rest of this Page that Mr. Brown wrote he doesn’t use scripture because it cant be used to prove his idea, well not his idea but ideas of men proven to be heretics years ago.
Mr. Brown:
When Satan tempts us, we have to make a choice. We can choose to listen. Will we choose to give in? Will we make the choice to stand firm in Christ and resist the devil, so that he will flee from us?
stvegas:
Now again we see Mr. Brown trying to use the will of man inside the sin nature and make it point to something outside the sin nature. Also Mr. Brown says that we choose to stand firm in Christ which is not biblical either, Lets look at
Mr. Brown:
When there's is a lust due to sexual temptation, will we choose to be the man or woman of God and resist through Christ's strength?
stvegas:
Who is the one that gives of strength? Do we will our own strength or is it given to us by the Lord?
Mr. Brown:
When we hear the Gospel and the minister begins to speak of God's saving grace, we feel a tug at our hearts and we have the desire to become a child of God. The altar call is given and we feel the urgency of the Holy Spirit to go forward but then Satan starts throwing thoughts our way. He may say, "People will laugh at you if you go forward or they will think you are stupid if you go up there." That is when we have entered spiritual warfare. A choice must be made.
stvegas:
Salvation is not a feeling. The desire to become a child of God is not from our own will but given to us by the Holy Spirit as we see in John 6:44.
Spiritual warfare is not us making choices but it is when we actively seek the Lord and Pray as The Lord leads us and not as we will.
Mr. Brown:
The same happened to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when Satan tempted them with the fruit. He influenced them to eat the fruit that God said not to. They made the wrong choice and look where the world is now. (See Sin.)
That is spiritual warfare! That is choices! That my friends is free will!
stvegas:
Fallen man has no independant will operating outside of his Sin Nature that can "will himself" anything Divine "on his own". This is BECAUSE of the Fall. The days Mr. Brown are talking about were before the Fall. That was then, now we are after the fall. To talk about any Free Will in Innocence Adam and Eve had doesn’t apply to man in these days after the fall.
Jeremy Brown 2001
stvegas.
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