Dear elder, Rookie answered honestly, and in what appeared to me to be proper fashion.
If a man were to ask me how a note is sounded from a trumpet, you ask for me to answer you simply. Yet if I know the underlying truth to it, there is a subtlety that must be examined.
I could say a trumpet makes sound because somebody blows into it - yet this answer is as flawed to a person who seeks to understand as if I were to sell him a drydocked boat with a hole in it as if it works properly. To compare the boat to that trumpet in greater detail, the engine still runs, but that doesn't mean it will float.
No, the sound of a trumpet is generated by the vibrations it makes as air passes through it. The pitch of the sound is partially dictated by a great many variables involving the air stream, which is why a controlled level of air is necessary in order to play a trumpet with any level of bearability. To a person who wishes to understand, this is vital information. To a person who wants to know that you have to blow into a trumpet, it is absolutely worthless.
I am sorry, dear elder, that you took offense to Rookie's post. It is not an easy topic, and quite honestly, we take on the assumption that those coming for answers are willing to invest a deal of patience and effort into considering those same answers.
Let me try a slightly different approach:
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Joshua assumed that there was a choice man could make... but Joshua was a man and not (apparently at the time) speaking in the name of the Lord.
Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
(emphasis mine)
Yet if predestination is complete, then this act was set in motion, and Joshua was meant to fulfill its portion before he ever spoke, making the words roughly meaningless. Every man would do as he was destinted to in a cosmic play, with no respect to chosen part, form, or interpretation. Because it was not spoken by a prophet, the words are not dictatorial.
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Maybe these would be better answers for you, for their inconclusiveness is by suggestion of the reverse posibility (that they had the ability to do what God had not wanted them to do, and thus, choose):
Exo 7:13 And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
Deu 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.
Yet here is another verse with similar phrasing that is again suggestive of the opposite of free will being a viable medium:
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
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*Note: the entirety of the following is meant to represent a singular line of thinking. As it is, I am postulating a series of specific and related points without regard to "proper" theology or (to some extent) its correct notations. This means that I don't believe all statements below are theologically sound. I do this for the purpose of making it somewhat easier to follow, which can be a trick with the way I write, anyway. It is supposed to be a working reason and, I repeat, not line-by-line quotable.*
The concept of free will is, roughly speaking, one of preferred logic. There is no great way around that point. We know that God is capable of reaching in and influencing men. The best verse in the bible besides in which someone dies to this point (within my knowledge) is Ezra 1:1:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
The book of Jonah is also somewhat exemplary in demonstrating the fact that God will influence men. When Jonah disobeyed God, a great deal of trouble was set out to rally him.
Yet 2nd Peter suggests that that troubling is not for God's benefit, but for man's.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
(emphasis mine)
If his unwillingness for any to perish means that some will, either God is a masochist or He upholds himself to a completely different (and in some ways less severe) set of standards than He does man, in the light of God's hand guiding every nuance of existence.
In other words, God will not judge Himself by the same methods which He would call us unclean. It is fair for him to punish those without fault other than by His dictum whereas a forced penalty is inversely commanded us inexcusable:
Lev 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.
This is repeated again -- Mat: 5:43, 19:19, 22:39, Mar 12:31 (cf previous) Luk 10:27 (same) Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14, Jam 2:8
This altogether, in the (opposite) view that God maintains consistency with His judgement of man and His own righteousness (not altered by a literal hypocracy or self-injury on the emotional level), is the greatest suggestion of free will in the bible.
--As I said earlier, it is a complex topic with complex answers. There is no easy way through a mess that our forefathers had every right to lay open. The fact that we have not yet resolved it speaks highly of its complexity and/or our stubbornness. This is not a debate for simple thoughts, as often simple thoughts are what stir from it such discontent. There is no great "yes/no" easy answer for this one.
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I know I'm stepping on toes, please know that, all ye who respond. I also know that some of y'all probably won't finish reading before responding or quitting, and I most likely have put off our dear elder who asked this question quite possibly without knowing it resembles a can of used chew to a great many who tread here. I also most definitely have not read all the other discussions on this same topic. I am sorry, but some part of me still forces me to hit that "submit" button.
