Those who do not understand the following will oppose Reformed Theology and will instead embrace Free Will Theology:
- God is sovereign over all his creation, even man’s sinful choices. Man is still fully responsible for his sinful choices, and God will hold him accountable.
Isaiah 46:10-- I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
Acts 2:23-- This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
Acts 4:27-28-- Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
- Man is free to do anything he wants, but is not free to do what he ought. Free Will, as most understand it, is only an illusion.
Matthew 12:33-37-- Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Mark 7:21-23-- For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
- Unregenerate man only wants to sin and is incapable of doing righteousness, including believing in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:1-3-- As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
Romans 3:10-12-- As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
I Corinthians 2:14-- The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- In order to be free to do what he ought, including believe in Christ, God must resurrect man’s soul through regeneration. Man must be born again.
John 3:3-- I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
John 6:35-40--"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:44-- "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:64-65-- Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
- Then and only then may man believe in Christ.
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