Calvinists and Free Will

[travishowett]

A calvanist fell down the stairs. Upon standing up, he said thank God that's over.

[extremelycreativeusername]

I do find it comedic that in these shorts of people winning arguements against themselves, they always make the opposing side scramble together the weakest arguements😂

[dougscarberry]

I am a FreeWill Baptist. I strongly believe without Repentance there is no Salvation. Repenting is a Choice not something God forces a person to do.

[derrickpurdy]

The irony is that God didn't violate the free will of Jonah. He simply gave Jonah another choice to consider.

[AV_C]

The Calvinist confusion: You choose freely what has been chosen for you from before the foundation of the world…

[MarcoGonzaG]

Jonah without free will does not make sense...

[jonmaster]

The bible says “all will be without excuse.” The best excuse ever would be “I was born in total depravity, you never elected me—so Christ limited atonement never applied to me— you never sent after me irresistible grace, and ensured I persevered to the end.”

[andrejjackson]

Jonah's story is literally a story of freewill and God's mercy; saving both Jonah(he chooses to run and chooses to jump off the ship) and Nineveh(chooses to repent)

[Richard_Rz]

Jonah PROVES free will my brother. In fact since Jonah didn't listen, God had to do a miracle of creating a great fish to overcome Jonah's free rebellious will and actions.
Jonah was never willing but his actions were forced in the same way an older brother grabs the arm of a younger and smacks him with his own hand.

Otherwise, what did the fish help God overcome? Jonah's will. If God did change Jonah's will Jonah would have been excited to preach to the Ninevited!

Influencing <> changing a will.

[makedisciples]

Calvinists have the same vocabulary but a different dictionary.

When Calvinists speak of free will they mean the will God gave you because He is Soverign

Then God holds you responsible for the will He gave you

The best part of all of this is that though Calvinism is clever, it is being exposed by the light of Scripture. And the exposure is growing by multiplication, not addition

[CrimKazanawa]

This is why I immediately make the distinction between free will and free agency. Explaining the idea of constrained wills becomes simple once people recognize that only God's will is free because only His will is unconstrained. He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. Everyone else's will is constrained by time, location, ability, et cetera. It's not free.

Agency, on the other hand, is our freedom to make choice within that constrained will. We are completely able to choose whatever we want, and I will even grant the possibility of it being within our power to choose God (in a conversation to remain peaceful; scripture clearly states that we are dead until God causes us to be alive in Him, thus having no power to choose God since the dead can do nothing); our problem is that, because of the Fall, even if it is within our power to choose God it is not within our desire without the intervention of God Himself.

The interesting thing is that I find the question to be misplaced. Why are we more concerned with having free will than good will? Ironically, showing good will is to freely lay down your own will. The greatest among us are to be servants of all, and we are to be slaves to righteousness. If you're willingly laying down your will, why worry about whether that will was free?

Personally, as an aside, I tend to like Luther's term of "The Bondage of the Will".

[NickOtis]

I love you all in the Calvinism faith my brothers in Christ and sisters in Christ. I try not to think about too much about Calvinism because it just loses my focus on the Lord and I start thinking about it I'm truly saved or if I'm truly the Lord's child. I'm a thinker and sometimes I think too much about too much things I shouldn't be thinking about and it can mess with my relationship with the Lord and my mental health. I just want to focus on my relationship with the Lord and spread the good news of the Gospel the best as I can because I know that I'm a wicked sinner and I need the Lord's grace and mercy everyday and his forgiveness. I do believe that the Lord does search for people to have a relationship with him freely because I believe the Lord won't Force his love upon anyone because true love and has to be freely given it cannot be forced. Just like I can't force my love upon anyone that will be a wrong thing to do. I do believe God sends us love letters and flowers to us everyday if that is his word or through TV hearing a preacher or pastor preaching the gospel or hearing it on the radio.if a unbelievers walking outside and they see something on the ground and they pick something up and all of a sudden it's a gospel tract and they start reading it and that person gets saved through that gospel tract and that's when the Holy Spirit will work in that person Philippians 1:6) I do also believe that the Lord searches for the Lord The One and Only living God through Jesus Christ through our suffering. Because without our suffering we wouldn't come to the Lord and if the Lord gives us everything that we want on Earth we will be spoiled little brats and we wouldn't learn through our suffering. I do believe that the Lord gives us free will to choose him or not but I also believe that the Lord keeps searching for people and he keeps knocking on their doors waiting patiently for that person to walk with the Lord and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm not affiliated with any Church but there is one church that I go to even though it's been awhile is Lutheran Church.I do love watching Paul washer from time to time I think he is a good preacher and I do believe he doesn't water down the gospel one bit I did not know that he is a Calvinism but I heard that he doesn't believe in the whole doctrine of Calvinism. Another preacher I love listening to you one of my top favorite is Pastor Charles Stanley and Pastor Billy Graham. Another way that the Lord gets through people is through visions and dreams if it's his will to do so and in rare experiences through near-death experiences that some people experience heaven or Hell or both.. I would love a brother or a sister in Christ that can have a nice dialogue and conversation with me and to give me a little bit of wisdom because I believe it's really important to support one another in the body of Christ no matter what and to love one another because the real enemy is the devil and his dominions demonic spirits. LET'S DO OUR BEST TO WAKE UP EVERYDAY TO BE THE BEST MAN TO BE THE BEST WOMAN TO BE THE BEST CHILD OF GOD THAT WE CAN BE IN THE LORD'S IMAGEAND THE LITTLE LIGHT SHINE IN THE DARK WORLD BUT ALSO SHINE OR LIGHT UPON OTHER PEOPLE THAT DON'T BELIEVE THAT'S WHY THEY WILL SEE CHRIST LIKE CHARACTER AND HIS GOODNESS IN US BECAUSE THE HOLY SPIRIT ABIDES IN US. LOVE YOU ALL...✍️✝️🙌❤️

[cooljams_jams]

I was Arminian until this last year when I realized my camp was trying to save God from a fate worse than death--and I used that "God is a gentleman" line. Regrets were had.

[childofgrace]

Have you read the story of Paul? Jesus knocked him of his high horse, TOLD him he was going to testify about Him to the gentiles… I don’t remember Paul telling Jesus that his free will was being violated. Instead Paul called this very thing that Jesus did God’s Mercy!

[timsmith]

The Bible also says Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. ITS YOUR CHOICE TO OPEN THAT DOOR. IF ANY MAN HEARS HIS VOICE.

[TrentP]

Jonah received a direct command from God to go to Nineveh. When he refused, he was subjected to God's judgment. Yes God uses judgement to call us to repentance (he especially did it in the OT). However, JONAH WAS NOT OBLIGATED TO REPENT AND FOLLOW GOD. He could have just as easily died in the belly of the whale choosing not to repent.

Not a good argument.

[jacobcaster]

Wasn't there king who was made to live in the wilderness like a beast. Also, something about hardening the heart of pharaoh.

[Autonomous_Don]

*Molinism has entered the chat*

“I have arrived. Now take responsibility for your actions”

[gandalfthegrey]

“God will never violate a persons free will”
“You literally pray for God to change peoples hearts”

[johnmarkharris]

You have an ability to make choices. You choose sin unless God calls you in which case you choose God. It’s a “choice” which God decides for you.