If (as previous Christian answers said) Free Will has limits, where do those limits lie?

Question

(For the reference question & answers from earlier today, see:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al9JkdWl1zCYxUrx3WHZ0F_sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070922093210AAPwQjJ&show=7#profile-info-AA11043053 )

I asked (in summary), If you by Free Will choose to violate Christ's commandments, is that a form of doubt? Or is free-will not so absolute?

Answers included:
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"it isn't a conscious choice that I hate God's law or want to disobey it"

"Free will is not absolute."

"if we could adhere perfectly to the commandments we wouldn't need a Savior in the first place."

"sometimes you can't always control your actions"

"at times we can entertain thoughts and become selfish and loose our self control"
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Each of these answers suggest that Christians experience Free Will as limited, i.e., there are things that we cannot do based on choice.

So what, then, are the limits of Free Will?

Is it conceivable that much of what we see as Free Will in others is in fact not their choice?

Answer 1

It amazes me that the author of the statement: "if we could adhere perfectly to the commandments we wouldn't need a Savior in the first place." hasn't thought through the repercussions of what he said.

1) Why would a perfect designer create something designed to screw up all the time?

2) Was the savior required because of some inherent design flaw in God's creation?


Once you assume infallibility and benevolence, there are a lot of problems with Christian belief structures.

Answer 2

These, in my opinion are not free will, but I'm not saying that means it's God's will, just that it is the natural state of our humanity (examples only, not limited to only these) Sexuality, who we fall in love with and when, gut level emotional reactions, doubts and questioning, etc.

And for an off the wall but related comment, I can't even have free will over the color of my hair the dye washes out within a week! If I can't control that how am I supposed to control the really big stuff in life? - sorry, done now.

Answer 3

Free Will (FW), on simplified view, is man's ability to say YES or NO to the Truth or what is Good. I'ts not the ability to choose between Pepsi and Coke or Soup and Salad. Animals can choose too but they don't have FW. I believe it is irrelevant to talk limits on FW because it is simply, a sort of "switch" that's turned ON so people can choose among the available choices while seeing the bad and good in each. But the number of choices themselves may or may not be limited. This "switch" is not turned ON in animals so that there is no good or bad involved when one animal chooses to maim or kill another.

FW makes it possible for us to say "I did it because it is good" or "I did it despite it being bad". Animals on the other hand can only say, "I killed it because its dinner time".

Answer 4

God's word says, the law was a "schoolmaster" to bring us
to God. How? It is evident that no man can keep the law.
It shows us our depravity not our righteousness, and it shows us, how very much, we needed for God to come and keep it for us.

Have you ever given thought to the lesson found in Romans
9:17? "For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this
same purpose have I raised thee up, THAT I MIGHT SHEW
MY POWER IN THEE, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE
DECLARED THROUGHOUT ALL THE EARTH". How did
God accomplish showing His power in Pharaoh? By having
complete control, of the most powerful man of that time's,
"free will". Romans 9, goes on to say that the potter has
POWER over the clay. No, we may think that we control
our own destiny, but we are worms in the dust.

Romans 9:24, "Even us, whom HE hath called not of the
Jews only, but also of the Gentiles", is telling us that God
works the same today as He did in Pharaoh's day.

Isa 43:13, "Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is
none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, AND WHO
SHALL LET IT?" Do we "let God" ?

Answer 5

"How can Christians probable believe that omniscience and loose will can concurrently exist?" sufficient of those ridiculous blanket statements. you're late to speak with Christians that understand what the Bible says and believe it. The doctrine of election runs for the length of Scripture and is heavily lined in Ephesians. guy does no longer have loose will to the volume that he likes to believe he does - God is continuously and continually the only calling the images.

Answer 6

We always have a choice. We must be willing to live with the results of that choice, whatever it may be.

Answer 7

Free will has no limits. Anyone is free to do (or try and do) anything they want, good and bad. We choose to limit ourselves bc we dont want to inccur a negative reaction.

Answer 8

Free will is exactly that, However its relative, I live in the US, I have free will, but not to Kill, steal, etc.

Where did those principals come from, why from the Law of Moses that God gave him after bringing the Hebrews out of Egypt in 1513 bce, that law was done away with by the death of Jesus, but the principals remain

So to do something that conflicts with the principals of God's law is abusing your FREE WILL.

(Ephesians 2:15-16) . . .By means of his flesh he abolished the enmity, the Law of commandments consisting in decrees, that he might create the two peoples in union with himself into one new man and make peace; 16 and that he might fully reconcile both peoples in one body to God through the torture stake, because he had killed off the enmity by means of himself. . .

(Colossians 2:14) . . .and blotted out the handwritten document against us, which consisted of decrees and which was in opposition to us; and He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake.. . .

So where do we get our values? well western civilization was founded on the Law/principals given to Israel in 1513 BCE, thats where the standards come from Judeo/christianity

Now Just like traffic laws protect us from dangerous drivers, so God's laws are for our benefit. they protect us from Sexualy transmitted diseases , children whithout parents & a civilazation that is based on those principals