We certainly are reasoning together.
Now, to business. Splinting a broken arm or nudging or teaching or leading is one thing, controlling every aspect of existence is another.
At what point of control do we attain the robot slave condition? Splinting an arm? Hand feeding? Controlling the heartbeat? Controlling hormone and enzyme levels? Controlling the metabolism of each and every cell in the body? Controlling the splitting / creation of each cell?
Where would the Reformed analogy put the control of the individual by God?
You keep using this “Robot/Slave” phrase. Let me see if i can dispell that for you.
The only people to truly have free will are those whom God has chosen for his own. In this I mean that ONLY a child of God can choose to please God. Therefore, a child of God has the choice to please God by being obedient or displeasing him by being disobedient.
The man who is not a child of God cannot please God. His choices are limited to 1. sin, or 2. not sin. He does not have the will to please God by being obedient. He doesn’t have the ABILITY to please God, because he does not have God in him.
So, the only ones who have free will are the ones you cal robots and slaves.
Yes indeed. :)
At what point of control do we attain the robot slave condition? Splinting an arm? Hand feeding? Controlling the heartbeat? Controlling hormone and enzyme levels? Controlling the metabolism of each and every cell in the body? Controlling the splitting / creation of each cell? Where would the Reformed analogy put the control of the individual by God?
I agree with the way Irishtenor expressed it. The greatest level of freedom comes after we are saved. Only then can we choose to do good in God's eyes.
The "robot slave condition" is simply an artificial projection of man's POV upon God's. It doesn't actually happen in man's experience, so it is only abstractly true in our reality. We Reformers don't experience being robots any more than you do. AND, the ultimate truth is that God is in control of everything, using all of His ways, many of which are unfathomable to us.
To your question, I personally draw the line at whatever is part of God's plan. If it is actually part of God's plan that my heart rate for the next minute be at 76, and then drop down to 75 for the following minute, then God actively made that happen. If not, then He didn't. Many on my side would say the former, and I do not dispute them at all. On this I can only say that I am unsure whether God's plan encompasses all there is to encompass.
Therefore, in everything having to do with God's plan, He retains full control DESPITE what we experience.