Ah, good question! Ask the scriptures about that one. I'll not go down that road with you. Therein is the crux of the matter though. I can only give you my opinion based on what has been revealed to me through the scriptures. We must let the explicit rule over the implicit though whenever dealing with this subject. Also we must let the greater context of scripture rule over the situational context.Here is what I think about free will. Free will, in the Arminian context, is a myth. Free will, in context of "God's Greater Will and purpose", is however a reality. The unregenerate do have "Free will" insomuch as is afforded them to daily life. They have free will to work where they want, go to bed when they want, etc. but they do not contain the ability of free will to do what they "Ought" to do (i.e. Choose god). [We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.Romans 7:14]This is an explicit example of our context prior to salvation. We are slaves to sin completely. As slaves we cannot attain our own freedom from that which we are enslaved to. A slave back then was a slave until citizenship in the Kingdom was granted to them by executive order. A slave is also often a slave for lifetime and knows nothing else than that. So also is our life prior to Christ. We have the free will to do things only in the greater context of a life of sin.That scripture is also interestingly describing our lives subsequent to salvation. However, now, we have the law "written on our hearts" which adds a greater context (lives of freedom to do what we "ought".). Herein lies the dicotomy of living life as a Christian. We are now free to live for God without being held captive as slaves to sin under the "Law of Sin and death". The Law no more has the power to condemn us. That which once impeded our ability to serve God in freedom of conscience (through guilt) now is rendered powerless to condemn us through Christ's blood. However Paul later says this;"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law (law written on my heart); but I see another law at work in the members of my body (my earthly tent), waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." (Romans 7:21-23 Parenthesis mine) Because we have not left this earthly tent behind, we remain "Corruptible" and able to sin. The key is that through Christ's blood we are no longer condemned and thusly our conscience is cleansed to serve God (even though we still sin occasionally).As Paul said, this is not liscence to sin like wild pagans, by no means. Rather we have a liscence to serve God freely without the constant threat of judgment snapping at our heels. The "Free Will" which we now enjoy is not the Arminian idea of stepping in and out of Christ but rather the "Free Will" to serve our living Christ with our hearts "Cleansed of a guilty conscience" by the sprinkling of the Blood. Our free will as believers is not a negative towards freedom to sin but a positive towards freedom to serve as a New Creation, motivated by a New Spirit. We truely are "New Wineskins". If we do not serve then we only demonstrate that we are not new wineskins and unregenerate.The one thing that the Arminian version of Free will does that is simply nothing sort of atrocious is that it denies the New Creation that God has made of each and every believer. To think of believers as having the ability to step "in and out" of Christ by their own free will is, at its best, a worldly mindset as Paul says:"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:" (2 Corinthians 5:16-18).Nothing about this scripture leads us to believe that any of this is a result of our own free will. "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ". It is because of Christ that we are "In Him" and made "New Creations". How can anyone "Unmake" that which the Lord himself has "Made". We might as well "unmake the heavens and the earth" than to unmake a Christian, one of God's "New Creations"."May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God." (Galatians 6:14-16)Here we see Paul saying that following the Law did not matter. The only thing that mattered was whether or not one had been made a "New Creation" through Christ. So also we should say, "Free will or not free will, it matters not. What matters is the New Creation." The Arminian idol of "Free will" is a wooden statue that will not produce the righteousness that "surpasses that of the Pharisees" and definitely does not produce the righteousness required by God. The only thing Arminian free will does is "lower the bar" of the righteous standard of the Law in order to let in the "self-righteous" and worldly minded. It also introduces doubt, which is equivallent to the sin of "unbelief", into the minds of steadfast believers about the security of their own salvation and the Gospel as a whole. The subtle implication of that type of Free will is also that one will be able to stand before God on judgement day and claim righteousness of their own. There is no righteousness of any kind other than that of Christ's that anyone will be able to claim or attribute to their own merit towards the aquisition of heaven. If Arminian "Free Will" is scriptural then I guess Jesus was remiss when he simply handed the Kingdom over to the "little Children". Paul, actually a very righteous Pharisee, forfeits all rights to any of his own righteous deeds here in this scripture (which actually gives us an idea of their worth in God's eyes):"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." (Phillipians 3:4-9).Paul puts it all in perspective here. He suggests that anyone claiming any "obedience" or "righteousness" apart from that of Christ's own righteousness is actually putting "confidence in the flesh." and that person will be pitifully disappointed on the day of Judgement. He actually even qualifies true believers as only being ones who consider fleshly acts of righteousness as "Rubbish" and those who throw them off that they may be "found in Christ not having a righteouness of their own but that which is from God, and is by faith". The other thing the Arminian version of "Free will" does is that it implies that men have free will to do virtually anything but God himself is restricted and does not have free will to do that which "He" wills with his own creation. This is the most offensive to the nostrils of God, in my personal opinion. He is denied the Sovereignty due him. Think about it, did you exercise any will of your own to be born in a country that was primarily Christian so that you would redily hear the Gospel and be saved. No, it was by God's sovereign will that you be born here and heard the Gospel and was saved. He foreordained it! You could have just as easily been born in Iraq where you would have not heard the Gospel but would have rather been a Sunni Muslim or born in China and been a Buddhist monk.My advice to you Freecd is that you lay down the idol of "free will" and count yourself blessed that God chose you. For you did not choose him, he chose you while you were in the depth of your imprisonment in sin and death and called you forth from the grave and made you a New Creation. Even King David was familiar with the concept of God's sovereignty and predestination (I know that's a bad word for Arminians) over even over the days of his life,"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Palms 139:16)Be blessed! You have been chosen!!! Halleluiah!!!!Sincerely,Stevefreecd wrote:Even the angels in heaven have free will.When we go to heaven do we lose free will?
