(May 17, 2017 at 10:53 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(May 16, 2017 at 1:12 pm)SteveII Wrote: You can't have free will without a non-physical process that is capable of physical causation (a mind)
Couldn't the Holy Spirit fill that role?
SteveII, I’d like to know how your think about total depravity. Scripture teaches that in our fallen and corrupted state we are slaves to sin (John 8:34, Titus 3:3, Romans 8:7), that people cannot of their own choice turn towards the Lord (1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Mathew 11:27) and it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that people are called to salvation (John 6:44-45, John 3:27, Romans 9:16).
Also, it certainly seems like God is able to constrain or overpower free will when it suits His purpose, as when Peter denies Christ three times. So generally, it seems to me that libertarian free will in not something natural to man as a conditioned being – only God has unconditioned free will. However, when our hearts and purposes are aligned with His we partake of that unconditioned free will, i.e. Christian Liberty.
Well, I call the immaterial mind that governs reason, freely chooses action, is the conscious command center of the body, is the enduring "I", and the thing that can be intentional about something the soul. I believe our soul is tainted by sin and we cannot do anything about that. Anyone who has had a 2 year old child can attest to the fact that we are born knowing how to sin.
I am not a Calvinist-- I think we have libertarian free will and God's foreknowledge is routed in his middle knowledge (molinism).
