Bible Questions Answered:
"What Is meant by free will?..”
Pasha/ Saint Petersburg Russia
Bible Answer:
Bible Texts:
Question: If God is all
sovereign, can it be that mankind has a free will, the ability to
choose Him, or not?
Answer: Yes.
God, who is sovereign, has chosen to
give man, free will! He is created in the image of God, and this
means he has power, power to choose what way he goes. To the right or
to the left, to the narrow way, which leads to life, or the
Broadway that leads to death.
Genesis 1:26 KJV
And God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness..."
“But Pastor haven't you read the
scriptures that state, our way is ordained of God?”
God's Sovereignty:
Psalm 135:6 KJV
Whatsoever The Lord pleased, that
did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
Habakkuk 1:12 KJV
Art thou not from everlasting, O
Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast
ordained them for judgment; and, O Mighty God, thou hast established
them for correction.
Acts 13:48 KJV
And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad, and glorified
The Word Of The Lord: and as many as
were ordained to eternal life believed.
Ephesians
1:4,5,11 KJV
4 According as He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the
good pleasure of His will,
11
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will:
Ephesians 2:10 KJV
For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them.
I Timothy 2:7 KJV
Whereunto I am ordained a preacher,
and an apostle, (I speak The Truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher
of the Gentiles in faith and verity (Truth).
Jude 1:3,4 KJV
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me
to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend
for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
4 For there are certain men crept in
unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and
denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
My this sure looks
like we do not have a choice! Actually it looks like that, if one does “not,”
know the whole council of God!
Here is what The
Word tells us concerning God's ordaining. He ordained those who He
foreknew, would choose Him!
God's
Foreknowledge:
Psalm 147:4 KJV
Great is our Lord, and of great
power: His understanding is infinite.
Isaiah 42:9 KJV
Behold, the former things are come
to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell
you of them.
Isaiah 46:9,10
KJV
9 Remember the former things of old:
for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none
like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure:
Jeremiah 1:5 KJV
Before I formed thee in the
belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth
out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto
the nations.
Daniel 2:20,28
KJV
20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed
be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His:
28 But there is a God in heaven that
revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what
shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head
upon thy bed, are these;
Matthew 24:36
KJV
But of that day and hour knoweth no
man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
Acts 3:18 KJV
But those things, which God before
had shewed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should
suffer, He hath so fulfilled.
Acts 15:18 KJV
Known unto God
are all His works from the beginning of the world.
Romans 8:29,30
KJV
29 For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom He called, them He also
justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Romans
11:1-4;33,34 NKJV
1 I say then, has God cast away His
people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of
Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away His people
whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture
says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
3 “Lord, they have killed Your
prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they
seek my life”?
4 But what does the Divine response
say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have
not bowed the knee to Baal.
33 O the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments,
and His ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of
The Lord? or who hath been His counselor?
I Peter 1:1,2
KJV
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia,
2 Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God The Father, through
sanctification of The Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of The
Blood Of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
II Timothy 1:9
KJV
Who (God)
hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, (Salvation) not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began,
Dear Christian, we
are elect and ordained of God, from before the foundation of the
world. Somewhere in ancient past, before creation history, God saw in His
infinite wisdom, who would turn to Him, and those would not. For
those who would turn to Him, He ordained (elected) them, to a path
way of salvation through His son. (I Peter 1:2 KJV "Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God The Father,)
Revelation 13:8
NLT
"... The Lamb who was
slaughtered before the world was made."
Psalm 37:23 KJV
The steps of a good man are ordered
by The Lord: and He delighteth in his way.
Does God, just
arbitrarily choose this one will be saved, that one will be lost,
this one will be saved, that one will be lost. How preposterously
unbelievable!
The Calvinist's
prayer surely must be, “Oh may God's dice never wear out.”
The Great Living
God, beyond descriptions of wisdom or knowledge, envisioned life eons
of time into the future, and saw all of mankind and their individual
choices, regarding Him. Knowing that information He determined their
blessing or judgment.
Psalm 145:17 KJV
The Lord is righteous in all His
ways, and holy in all his works.
Psalm 4:3 KJV
But know that The Lord hath set
apart him that is godly for Himself..."
Created in the
image of God, we have a free will, to choose The Lord, or reject Him.
Joshua 24:15 KJV
And if it seem evil unto you to
serve The Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the
gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the
flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as
for me and my house, we will serve The Lord.
Salvation
Prayer
Jesus, be merciful to me a sinner. I
confess and forsake my sins, and ask you to forgive me, and make me a
child of God, for you have said, “...whosoever shall call on the
name of The Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:21 KJV
Thank you for dying for me, taking my
place in judgment, that I might be pardoned. I take you as the
Savior, and Lord (Master) of my life. Help me to read your word,
confess you, and live for you.
Amen
John 1:12 KJV
“But as many as received Him, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name: “
John 3:16,17 KJV
16 For
God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
world; but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 6:37 KJV
“...him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out.”
Acts 2:21 KJV
“And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever shall call on the name of The Lord shall be saved.”
Acts 4:12 KJV
“Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.”
Romans 6:23 KJV
“For the wages of sin is death;
but The Gift Of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 10:9l, 10 KJV
9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth The Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
II Corinthians 6:2 NKJV
For He says: “In an acceptable
time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped
you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.
Dear Friend, today, is the day to call
upon the name of The Lord. We have no promise of tomorrow!
Proverbs 27:1 KJV
Boast not thyself of to morrow; for
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Hebrews 4:7 KJV
"...To day if ye will hear His
voice, harden not your hearts.
Acts 2:21 KJV
And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever shall call on the name of The Lord shall be saved.