The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Calvinism

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]God says I am utterly corrupt; I too say I am utterly corrupt. That is the accurate assessment of the cross of us. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." Therefore I am not totally deprave that I can't choose God, but rather I am utterly corrupt that I must accept that assessment of me. That is the difference between calvinism and armenianism I believe. One is true, the other is not. One operates under the grace of free-will thereby receiving the grace of God, and the other reduces this God-given free will and grace that flows that accepts God's truths, assessments, righteousness, holiness, redeption, wisdom.</font><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>May I ask, what scriptures do you use to back up your myth of "free will"? [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile[/img] I agree that one is true and one is not, but it's not arminianism sir. Where exactly in scripture do you see this "god-given free will"?<br>Do you deny God's absolute sovereingty and freedom, which are surely explicit in scriptures? Do you believe Eph. 2 when he clearly states that man is Dead in sins? Sir the scriptures are clear regarding Total depravity/Total Inability of man.<br><blockquote>Romans 8:6<br>To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it <span style="background-color:yellow;">does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God</span>.<br>John 6:44 <br><span style="background-color:yellow;"> No one can come</span> to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. <br> <br>1 cor 2:14<br>14The natural person <span style="background-color:yellow;">does not accept the things of the Spirit of God</span>, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.<br></blockquote><br><br>There's plenty more on such, but we'll start there.<br>You would do well to read the following articles. [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/readit.gif" alt="readit" title="readit[/img]<br>The Myth of Free-Will<br>Free-will A Slave<br><br><blockquote><br>Philosophy and religion both discard at once the very thought of free will; and I will go as far as Martin Luther, in that strong assertion of his, where he says, `If any man doth ascribe of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright.' It may seem a harsh sentiment; but he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but that he gives both; that he is `Alpha and Omega' in the salvation of men...I assert on Scripture authority from my text, that ye will not come unto Christ, that ye might have life. I tell you, I might preach to you for ever, I might borrow the eloquence of Demosthenes or of Cicero, but ye will not come unto Christ. I might beg of you on my knees, with tears in my eyes, and show you the horrors of hell and the joys of heaven, the sufficiency of Christ, and your own lost condition, but you would none of you come unto Christ of yourselves unless the Spirit that rested on Christ should draw you. <span style="background-color:yellow;">It is true of all men in their natural condition that they will not come unto Christ</span>.(Spurgeon, from "Free Will- A Slave")<br></blockquote><br><br>in Christ,<br>Carlos