Believers: Define this "free will" that god has bestowed upon all of us...?

Question

obviously i didn't clear up the definition of free will before proving that it was limited/illusional...

please tell me what "free will" means to you...

first guy: Free will is choosing A or B..okay, noted...

shints: so we're all rats in a maze, or monkeys in a cage...depending on how you view it, understood..

So what i'm getting here basically is that free will is tatamount to constant "A or B" choices...

Answer 1

I believe I still want the free will to disobey gravity and fly!

Answer 2

What's Christ pupil ? How are you ? To me free will means what ever you will(desire to do) to do the choice is not forced on you or anyone. Although free will doesn't mean we our free from consequences of our actions. Perhaps some see God as forcing himself on them or making them do what they do not wish to. Is that what the scriptures show us ? No, it does not. Then again when you look in the O.T. there is stories that seem to show God was forcing and enforcing his will on Israelites. The truth is as even Jesus states in Revelations "Behold I stand at the door and knock".. that not forcing but pleading to the heart of man. As far as the OT remember they made an agreement with God as states in Hebrews 8:7. " FINDING FAULT WITH THEM"... It wasn't with God or his Laws it was them , they did not keep their promises because it was based on faulty human condition of man's heart. They was sinners like us and just kept backsliding and worshipping idols and so forth. Read the books of the O.T. I'm always reminded how much sinful some of them became. When I read it either begans like this..."AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD...." Right after they heard God speak the Ten Commandments they sinned soon after when Moses went to recieve the Law they made an idol and partied.(exodus 32:7-9)" They have turned themselves quickly out of the way which I commanded them..." Another thing the law of Moses had curses against them in case they broke the Laws or not meet all the requirements needed to appease their sins. It was a contract like the ones we make when we co-sign or sign for credit cards every body wants payment. Their payment was the death sentence or sacrafices and annual feats called holy day "The feasts of the Lord..."(Lev.23; & colosians 3:14-17) Never the less not to get away from the answer it remains we still have free will but the consequences comes after the judgement when christ comes. Adventist believe in a investigative judgement ( The hour of Judgement;now /revelations.14:6&Daniel 7:26) and in the executive judgement that comes in the 2nd death(hell's fire) in revelations 20:11-15. The only one in earth's history that forces people to worship him is Satan and the antichrist church goverment (Rev.13:4,12,15) We should know who that is and truthfully speaking with respect to catholics that are unaware and God fearing (The ancient Roman Catholic Church of the dark ages)

Answer 3

Yeah....free will...you choose A, B, or C....which will lead you to other choices of A, B, or C, which just keeps going. Of course, you also have the free will to jump over to other paths, as well. If you're tired of choosing B, you can always back up and try A or C....

Answer 4

After looking through the answers here, I am seeing that people are not understanding free will in terms of how God interacts with man. Being able to choose between right and wrong is only naturally extrapolated to being able to choose one's own salvation. Arminian theology says that this is the case, and Calvinism says that it is not.

Free will has to do with the ability to have fellowship with God. I believe that mankind lost that ability completely with the fall of Adam. In other words, man did not partially fall down and catch himself. He fell all the way. Does that mean that man is as evil as he could possibly be? Of course not! But it does mean that left to ourselves, and with no intervention from God, we do not have the ability.

Therefore, no, no free will. Free agency, yes, we can make our day-to-day decisions. But none of them lead to God of our own ability.

Answer 5

Free will is the ability to choose to sin against God or not to sin against God.

Sin separates us from God. He bestows upon all of us the ability to choose to distance ourselves from him or draw closer to him.

Edit:

looks like you are planning to misinterpret what I said.

Not A or B - sin or no sin is what I said

That is the free will that God gives. Free will may have many other definations, but this is the free will God gives.

Answer 6

Daniel 4:34-35, "...I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: AND ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH ARE REPUTED AS NOTHING: AND HE DOETH ACCORDING TO HIS WILL in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: AND NONE CAN STAY HIS HAND, OR SAY UNTO HIM, WHAT DOEST THOU?"

Isaiah 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?"

Romans 9:20-21, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus? HATH NOT THE POTTER POWER OVER THE CLAY, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"

God's ways are so far above man's that we can't begin to understand them!!! Most people say, that God's making man without free will, isn't fair. Fair to whom, God or man?

Romans 9:22-24, "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make HIS POWER KNOWN, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of HIS glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had AFORE PREPARED unto glory, EVEN US, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"

Notice, "EVEN US" in verse 24, God is the same today as he was in the days of Jacob and Esau. To God the glory.

Jesus said in John 6:37, "ALL that the Father giveth me SHALL COME TO ME; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out". Where is the "free will" in this statement?

Answer 7

Free will is the choice to do good or evil. To love or not to love. If God wanted robots He would have created them.

Answer 8

Free will is simply the ability to choose to follow what God wants you to do, or not.

Answer 9

I am free to choose what I do within the limits of physics and society. I am free to choose how to react to what I do or what is done to me.

Answer 10

Free will ( in my opinion) means that we are able to make up our own mind and choices. Certainly things in our environment, upbringing..etc... contribute, but in the end it is the individual who decides what they will do or what they will not do.