[kosta50]

Scriptures include prophecies (predestination) and commandments (free will.) They are not mutually exclusive; either/or in this case is a false dichotomy.

You can dress it up any way you want, A-G, the Reformed believe man cannot resist God's will. So, man has "free will" only from his POV as Forest Keeper would say. But in reality what man does is exactly according to God's plan and will.

The only Freepers I've met who believe in strong determinism were atheists

I suppose you didn't deal with Calvinists on that issue.

Logically, part of that [atheist] belief is that the mind is merely an epiphenomenon of the physical brain, a secondary phenomenon which can cause nothing to happen

When the brain functions stop, so does the mind. Therefore mind is an epiphenomenon, or better yet a product of the brain activity. Mind does cause things to happen but not magically. You don't bend spoons with your mind, but the mind can invent a tool that does.

The person is an illusion. No mind, no soul, no spirit - all illusions. The brain did it, physically and involuntarily.

I have to admit I have not met too many atheists who think that way. Come to think of it, none!

[xzins]

The matter of miracles and how the NT portrays them is not much of an open debate anymore, but your take isn’t considered a valid one by anyone I know. It is, however, your free will choice to take it any way you like.

There are different groups that call themselves Reformed, but your take is pretty much on target. Nothing happens outside the will of God. That does not preclude you from having a will, though, and a choice IF the Creator made you with one. They say that He did, and that your destiny is set, nonetheless.

Some find that a great comfort and others find it something to be fought against. In any case, His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.

What is the proof that all of this is true?

That we live in a universe in which self-identity had an origin and that universe is heading to a conclusion.

[Alamo-Girl]

You can dress it up any way you want, A-G, the Reformed believe man cannot resist God's will. So, man has "free will" only from his POV as Forest Keeper would say. But in reality what man does is exactly according to God's plan and will.

I very strongly aver that no thing and no one can thwart the will of God.

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. - Matthew 3:9

The will of God also includes freedom of movement both physically and mentally.

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. – Luke 19:40

After all, men can walk but not teleport. Man can choose among finite options but not infinite possibilities unknowable to him.

And so again I say that Reformed theology as I understand it is not equivalent to the atheist's strong determinism which says the universe unfolds involuntarily, that the mind, soul and spirit are illusions which cannot cause anything to happen.

And if I am wrong on Reformed theology, I'm sure they'll let me know.

God's Name is I AM.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

You can dress it up any way you want, A-G, the Reformed believe man cannot resist God's will. So, man has "free will" only from his POV as Forest Keeper would say. But in reality what man does is exactly according to God's plan and will.

And FK would be correct. As Paul reminds us...

"For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" -- 1 Corinthians 4:7

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"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." -- Ephesians 1:4-6

Either God is in control of His creation, by the very nature that God has revealed to us of Himself in Scripture for His own perfect purpose and glory, or there is no God and the Bible is all fiction and we are autonomous, free-willing atoms hurling through time and space with only our own thoughts to consume us.

It's one or the other.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

the Reformed believe man cannot resist God's will.

"Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?" - Ecclesiastes 7:13

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"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." -- Isaiah 46:10-11