Total depravity? 🤔🤔 The idol of 'free will'

Brotha j recaps the contradictions in our last discussion of Christopher Conner last fb live video. He affirms Total depravity one minute then rejects it... He also espouses some "Pelagianism" thought; see if you can catch it!

[builtspeed]

Very good observation on the inconsistency of the gentleman's flawed understanding between Total Depravity and Total Inability.

[builtspeed]

1 John 4:19 NASB
We love, because He first loved us.

[johnwestermark]

Stated clearly Brother J... Bless you and Kdub for standing for the Truth. 1 PETER 3:15.

[Itistinished]

Video don't lie! & a picture speaks a thousand words.

[chipseal]

In understanding the limits of our freedom in making choices, we must study how we make them. It is popularly assumed in the USA that we have the freedom to make ANY possible choice in every circumstance. (libertarian free will)

The will is free to make choices without external coercion or force. In this sense the will is free. The will makes choices determined by the greatest motivation or desire at the moment of choosing. Our greatest desire is determined by our nature and our nature as fallen sons or daughters of Adam is determined by God. (Psalm 33:15) We are free to choose according to our desires.

Just as it would be absurd to think that we could choose to do something that is physically impossible, like leaping over tall buildings or to travel back in time, our range of choices are bound by other limits as well. We actually limit the type of choices we bring before our minds for consideration from the start. The primary controller of our available choices (the “choice options menu”) is our nature, which in turn bounds our desires.

We make our “choice options menu” according to what we desire. Then we choose from among that limited range. We never actually consider any option outside or beyond them.

For instance, suppose you wish to buy the ingredients needed for a meal prepared at home from, say, Walmart. Ostensibly you can choose anything from among any of the wares displayed there, but in fact the range of your possible choices are already limited by your nature and your desires. In fact, you have excluded from your “choice options menu” both dry and canned dog food. Additionally, you have also excluded any food you don’t have a taste for. (For me that’s liver and grapefruit.) I will choose between say, pork or chicken, but not between pork, chicken and liver. I have excluded liver from my “choice options menu”. Liver is not something I will ever desire.

James reveals to us that; “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.” And Jesus taught that “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” // Mark 7:20-23

We are in a desperate state. The bible teaches that all humanity is unable to have upright or good desires, and that we are limited by our nature to turn to God.

“Yahweh saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” // Genesis 6:5

“The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.” // Micah 7:2-4

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” // Proverbs 4:23

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright” // Habakkuk 2:4

“to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” // Titus 1:15

“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” // Ephesians 2:3

Because of the effect of the fall of Adam, everyone has a natural inclination to rebellion. No one exists in a neutral place. We are either with God or in rebellion to God. Unless God acts to change our very being, we are helpless to perceive spiritual truths and to desire God.

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” / Romans 8:5-8

“ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” // 1 Corinthians 2:14

“If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel” // 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” // Romans 3:10, 11

“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born from above” // John 3:3

In light of who we are, all the decedents of Adam are cursed with a human nature that will always exclude turning to God in faith because he cannot desire it. To glorify the One who made him and give thanks to him will never be placed on his “choice options menu”, because he does not desire to do such a thing.

[LeetaChrist]

BROTHA J....Faith comes from the will of someone...Matthew 17:20 and I'm going to make sure truthseekers see this video 🙋🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️