Recently I got involved in an online discussion with another woman on the the subject of free will vs. predestination. I have edited and reordered some of my responses to share with people here. I hope that people will understand that if you disagree that I do not hate you. It is more for the purpose of persuasion and showing verses that support what I say. If this seems too much like teaching and you are a man, you do not need to read further. Also, this particular post is meant for Christians.
Do you believe that faith is something that we do to gain salvation or that it is a gift of God given to us by His grace?
Ephesians 2:8-10 not only points out that faith is a gift of God and not of works, but it also points out that God even prepared the good works Christians will do beforehand that we should walk in them. Even with vs. 5 of Ephesians 2 you can see that we were dead in our transgressions and God made us alive. A dead person cannot choose anything without God first making him alive. He makes us alive and changes our will.
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), Ephesians 2:5 NASB
Here are some more verses that point out God's sovereignty and choosing:
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. John 6:37
And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." John 6:65 (all in NASB)
The "whoever" that believe or call upon the name of the Lord are the ones that in love He predestined to be adopted. ( Ephesians 1:4-6 ) All that the Father gives to Jesus will come to Him. When we say otherwise, we are questioning God's power / sovereignty. People do choose to sin ... that is all they can do apart from God's doing ... and they are happy to do so, but God in His love and mercy chose to save some ... not on the basis of what they have done.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. Romans 9:14-18 NASB
Before Jacob and Esau were born God had already chosen one over the other ... before they had done good or bad.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Romans 9:19-22 NASB
Here is a link that I would recommend reading through:
http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A167/gods-absolute-sovereignty
Do you believe that faith is something that we do to gain salvation or that it is a gift of God given to us by His grace?
Ephesians 2:8-10 not only points out that faith is a gift of God and not of works, but it also points out that God even prepared the good works Christians will do beforehand that we should walk in them. Even with vs. 5 of Ephesians 2 you can see that we were dead in our transgressions and God made us alive. A dead person cannot choose anything without God first making him alive. He makes us alive and changes our will.
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), Ephesians 2:5 NASB
Here are some more verses that point out God's sovereignty and choosing:
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. John 6:37
And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." John 6:65 (all in NASB)
The "whoever" that believe or call upon the name of the Lord are the ones that in love He predestined to be adopted. ( Ephesians 1:4-6 ) All that the Father gives to Jesus will come to Him. When we say otherwise, we are questioning God's power / sovereignty. People do choose to sin ... that is all they can do apart from God's doing ... and they are happy to do so, but God in His love and mercy chose to save some ... not on the basis of what they have done.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. Romans 9:14-18 NASB
Before Jacob and Esau were born God had already chosen one over the other ... before they had done good or bad.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Romans 9:19-22 NASB
Here is a link that I would recommend reading through:
http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A167/gods-absolute-sovereignty
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