Of course the gift of your birth talents can be refused--not at the time of birth but when one develops the ability to choose (age of reason or age of accountability.
No, you had no choice with regard to the time or place of your birth or who your parents were, at the time of your birth. But we who believe in free will don't claim that people come into the world capable of free choice. We claim that one has to have knowledge of right and wrong before one can have free choice. That comes at the age of 3 or 4 or 7 or 8 or whenever. At that point one has the choice of accepting one's parents, one's talents etc. Initially one doesn't understand that one has talents or even that one has a choice with regard to accepting one's parents. But as one develops, one realizes that one either loves of rejects one's parents. Most people accept but some reject and that's called alienation or dysfunction. And likewise one realizes, as one gains reasoning ability, that one has talents--at which point one can accept or reject them.
Note carefully what a talent is--it is an ability. And able-to-do something. Ref-using to do what the talent en-ables one to do is refusing the talent. Talents are nothing if not exercised. So whatever talents you were born with are meaningless until you exercise them, which you do as you grow and develop. And birth-talents are only a part of one's mature abilities--much of an artist's or a mechanic's talents have to do with the way his parents and teachers teaching and training of him(with his co-operation--he could have refused to be taught). With each tiny step in development he has a choice to cooperate, exerciese his talent or ability or ableness or not to exercise it. He "has" his talents/abilities only insofar as he uses them. And he can ref-use their use, ref-use his talents at each stage in their development, to the degree he understands that he "has" them.
Do you people ever stop to think through what you write? A woman is born with artistic talent. Her parents can refuse that gift for her if they don't raise her to recognize and develop her talents. She can refuse the gift by sitting around smoking pot and fornicating instead of developing her talent. What do you think the poor wretch in the parable was doing when he buried his talent in the ground instead of using it if he was not ref-using it? Did you ever think that ref-use comes from non-use?
Your denials of free will are so utterly at odds with all of our human experience. They simply make no sense at all. The very language you use to deny free will proves the existence of free will as I've pointed out to HarveyD a half-dozen times on this thread. Every breath you guys take, every act you do proves the truth of our free-will position, but you stubbornly insist that you don't act freely but that God imposes his will against your will.
Can't you see that your very stubbornness, your very ref-usal to believe in free will is a crystal clear example of your employing of free will? The truth is obvious to just about everyone else and when presented with the truth you freely choose not to believe it.
I know, I know, you would say that God keeps you from believing it.
Have it your way (have it by your choosing act)--you are free to believe what you believe, even if in believing what you believe you put the lie to what you believe. Everyone else chooses to believe in free choice to believe, you choose to believe that your belief comes to you from outside and against your free choice.
And such is it with being Born Again.
The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cr 2:14
Men do indeed have free will, but they will never seek God or desire him with that depraved will.
The free will of Adam was lost in the fall. Adam (and us though him) lost one set of choice options.
Jer 4:22 For my people [is] foolish, they have not known me; they [are] sottish children, and they have none understanding: they [are] wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Why? It is because a spiritually dead man cannot freely choose spiritual life. He needs spiritual CPR
NO We need a whole heart transplant
Eze 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
THEN the free will that God gave to Adam is restored.
Go and read Genesis 3 (the account of the fall) See what happened to the relationship between God the father and Adam after the fall
God was seeking Adam.Adam was not seeking God
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou? Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself.
That is the natural response of man to God since the fall
Man tries to make his own solution and covering, He does not seek out God
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
They thought they could save themselves.they had the solution they liked.
But it was not Gods solution, not one of their choice. They were now totally dependant on their "free will " , their dominion was gone. They hide and covered they did not seek and find .
THAT is the condition of carnal unregenerate man.
He can make choices. But he will never choose God. He will make insufficient choices that do not please God nor cover their nakedness
Unregenerate man will choose the lesser of two evils. BUT until he has that heart transplant he will never choose Gods solution
Most of us have been raised to worship at the altar of free will and choices
The fact is that all choices are made within a restricted set of circumstances
A man jumping off the empire state building can not exercise free will half way down.
Did you chose your sex? Did your chose your parents? Did you choose your country or city of birth? Did you chose your intelligence?
All of these things were predestined by your creator
He set up for you that parameters of the decisions and choices that will be available to you.
He could have had you born in India to Hindu parents in a low class. You never would have had an opportunity to go to school or to make the life choices you make today. You may never have heard the gospel to be saved.
Acts 17 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
All of our choices are governed by our preferences. Our preferences are part of that same creative process of the Father
Have you read the twin studies?
I read one that blew me away
Two brothers separated at birth. both had the same IQ, Both the same level of education, both loved firefighting (one was a professional and one a volunteer), both married women similar in appearance and both wives were named Jean. Both men had the same number of kids...and both drove red cars
Now these studies are done to show us the effects of genetics.
I know the designer of genetics. And His name is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is the great "I AM"
God has designed each of us in such a way that we will have preferences that will lead us to certain choices.
Because of the fall men will never seek God
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
In order for man to choose Christ he must have a preference for Christ. But the fall removed that preference. Man is spiritually dead.He can not choose life
Jhn 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Note here that Jesus says a man cannot SEE the kingdom of God. Man can not desire or choose what he can not see
So God gives those that are His a New heart
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
God then gives us a heart that will desire Him.. A heart that can see Him and choose Him...
Our will was put in bondage in Eden. The will we have is the will of Adam. Only the new birth gives us a truly free will. The desire and the will to choose Christ
I find it so interesting that people resent the idea that God has foreordained our eternity. If our father so loved us to foreordain our present, how much more important is our eternity?