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To: HarleyD

Odd: "Man is wholly evil, thinking nothing but evil thoughts. Therefore there is no free-will." Is it not antithetical to Evil that one turns the fallen will toward God's Grace in Christ? Such an act is not Evil thus the premise rests upon a fundamental flaw in reasoning ...


686 posted on 01/08/2006 7:55:53 PM PST by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: MHGinTN
Odd: "Man is wholly evil, thinking nothing but evil thoughts. Therefore there is no free-will." Is it not antithetical to Evil that one turns the fallen will toward God's Grace in Christ? Such an act is not Evil thus the premise rests upon a fundamental flaw in reasoning ...

And that is precisely the problem. For man to turn the fallen will towards God’s Grace would be a righteous work of God. But we know from scripture man is incapable of doing any righteous act before God (Romans 3) and is a “slave to sin” (Romans 6). How then can unrighteous man do a righteous act?

If man’s will is lethargic and God brings man around to make the right choice, why doesn’t every man make the right choice? Is God incapable of bringing everyone to a point of repentance and salvation? He certainly was able to bring Paul around. He simply spoke to the disciples, “Come follow me” and they dropped everything they were doing to follow Christ. Some like Jeremiah and John the Baptist never made a choice as they were filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb and consecrated before they were born.

Any act of man in his salvation, be it cooperation or faith, cheapens the act of God’s grace. It lacks honesty before God in the role that God’s mercy plays in the election of believers and the sovereignty of God in our life. This is why this was so roundly condemned by the early church fathers at the Council of Orange.

The fundamental flaw in reasoning rests with those who support free will.

744 posted on 01/09/2006 5:54:37 AM PST by HarleyD ("Command what you will and give what you command." - Augustine's Prayer)
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