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Thread: Where does the BIBLE say we have FREE WILL?

  1. #1

    Where does the BIBLE say we have FREE WILL?

    Is this a different topic or the same with a new Title? Hard to tell sometimes when things go "off topic". But I'll try.

    Every so often in discussions a comeback includes the words "free will" and often it's "FREE WILL".

    A meaning of free will is "the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion".

    So where in the BIBLE are we told that we have a free will, one that can make choices free of any influence from anything, unconstrained?

    Arguments against (which may help one provide arguments for) can be found in the article Bondage of the Will.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    In Philemon.

    Philemon 14 NASB but without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will.

    The will doesn't operate free of all influence by the way, but the freedom of the will implies that one is capable of going against all influence and even against all reason, just with great difficulty. The will is not unrestrained yet it is technically free. The renewal of the mind and learning to walk in step with the Spirit changes the restraints as we are yoked with the yoke of Christ instead of the yoke of this world.

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    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    Aren't there about 4 threads on this now?

    Choose you this day whom you will serve...apparently they had been given free will to choose...IMHO

    And then there is the Garden..Eat whatever you want except the tree of knowledge of good and evil...eat it and die....choice.

    Now if you view free will as will without consequences..that's another story...

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    The Bible implies free will and free choices throughout. Sometimes people are hindered by their own lack of knowledge or their own blindness. One cannot choose what one cannot perceive.

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  8. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Quest View Post
    Choose you this day whom you will serve...apparently they had been given free will to choose...IMHO

    And then there is the Garden..Eat whatever you want except the tree of knowledge of good and evil...eat it and die....choice.
    That's a common argument Quest but just because someone is told to do something does that mean they can?

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FunFromOz View Post
    That's a common argument Quest but just because someone is told to do something does that mean they can?
    When that word is preached with Spirit conviction and power then yes.

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    You will be held accountable for your actions which is sowing and reaping - Gal 6:7,8

    According to that verse, if one says they are not responsible to reap what they sow... they are mocking God.

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    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FunFromOz View Post
    That's a common argument Quest but just because someone is told to do something does that mean they can?
    yes

  13. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Quest View Post
    yes
    Oops, because a friend just wrote on Facebook how his daughter couldn't do the maths he was telling her to do as (home) school work yet her seven older brothers had no problem with it.

    What went wrong there?

  14. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    Philemon 14 NASB but without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will.
    It's interesting how that's translated. In various versions I see:

    but would be voluntary
    not because you were forced
    but of your own accord
    according to willingness
    willingly.
    but voluntary.
    etc.

    As there are so many different translations of the word can we rely on "free will" being the correct one.

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