(March 24, 2012 at 9:17 pm)Christian Wrote: I think people are taking the meaning of freewill out of context. Freewill was not meant to be free as in free from everything (no strings attached). It is indeed meant to be a voluntary sacrifice (Lev. 22:23; Ezra 3:5). My definition of freewill is to accept Jesus as my personal saviour and continue to do whatever is permitted from the teachings of the Bible.
This is in line with the biblical account of the understanding of what we deem freewill. One must understand the actual term is not found in scripture, but the freedom to choose where we wish to spend eternity is.
How?
God gave us choice. In the simple act of choosing one must have options, these are the options we are all presented with. but first some biblically based definitions:
Sin, Is anything not in the Expressed Will of God.
Evil, is a malicious intention to commit sin.
Not all sin is Evil but all evil is sin.
All sin, Evil or not deserves Death in God's economy.
Free Will is the choice I was talking about earlier, In short it is the ability to be outside of the expressed will of God.
In other words Free Will is the ability to sin. that is subsequently why we had to have a Redeemer, so that when we made our choice (Whether to spend eternity in Heaven or not) the choice we make has Merritt.
Remember we are not choosing whether or not we sin, because the simple act of choosing is sin. (That is why it can be said that none are without sin or All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.) Once we choose to spend eternity with God, we find redemption for all of the smaller choices that lead up to our big decision.
The term "Freewill" as pop culture defines it is not the "free Will or Freedom of Choice" found in scripture. We do not have the ability to choose any path or any version of reality we want. It is not because we are locked into destiny it is because we are slaves to the situations we place ourselves in. In other words we are bound by the consequences of our actions, and there fore can not act freely or independently of consequence or God.
Free will as it is often times represented, is a philosophical illusion.
Again Biblical "Free Will" is being able to have a Will, Free from the Father's Will. In other words it is the simple act of sinning.
If you can sin then you are experiencing free will as the bible outlines it.
