{"id":358,"date":"2011-11-07T20:19:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T20:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/?p=358"},"modified":"2015-02-27T09:23:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T17:23:05","slug":"thoughts-on-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/thoughts-on-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on “Free-Will” Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"
I was engaging on the topic of free-will in the immediate wake of Love Wins among the Amazon review comments. \u00a0Here is a bit of what I shared with an individual defending free-will as a marker of true love…<\/div>\n
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I have had trouble with Bell’s take on “free-will.” \u00a0It just doesn’t make sense to me that if “God is love” and “love never fails” that God will not triumph through that love with every heart. \u00a0Free-will is often championed as the honoring of our choice by a truly loving Being and yet we have in Phil 2 the God who will have every knee to bow and every tongue confessing “Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,” somehow, apparently\u00a0against their will. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>However, \u00a0I cannot comprehend how this is forced since it says it is to\u00a0“the Father”\u00a0<\/em>not to the judge. \u00a0I think it is appropriate to compare this to earthly fathers. What would bring you glory as a father: a child that publicly admitted you were right all along while at the same time rebelling, hating, and rejecting you in his heart? \u00a0(Sitting down on the outside while standing up on the inside?) \u00a0Or a child that had “come to his senses” and proclaimed that you indeed were a most loving, kind father of integrity, “singing your praises” to others? \u00a0Surely God must be greater than Napoleon<\/a>\u00a0who himself even said that anyone can make someone bow in obeisance while the real power lay in someone who could make you love them (he referenced Jesus Christ).<\/p>\n

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Also if you believe in the concept of man’s ultimate free-will you would have to admit that in order for us to have our “free-will” God loses His.\u00a0(“He is not willing that any should perish but all should come to the knowledge of the truth.”) \u00a0On the other hand if you believe God preserves OUR free-will you have to admit at some point He violates it and forces everyone to bow and \u00a0confess. \u00a0No matter how you look at it either we lose our so called “free-will” or God loses His true and Divine Free-will. \u00a0But the bottom line is this: Who do you think\u00a0authentically<\/em>\u00a0possesses true free-will?<\/div>\n

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In relation to Rob Bell’s chapter on this subject, I don’t know if I would say it is a matter of “God getting what He wants.” \u00a0I would say rather that since He is love and love never fails it would be the nature of love to consume all hatred and rebellion and heal it. If God is the freest Being in the universe, then to be caught up in His<\/em><\/strong> freedom and to lose our skewed notion of what freedom is (which is actually slavery<\/span>) is the only true freedom there is! \u00a0To honor our “free-will” would be to first heal it and then give it back to us…that is, our original freedom to love and obey our Creator and Redeemer. \u00a0This I believe is the way in which He will finally dispel forever our false sense of freedom and restore our original identity and freedom in Christ redeemed before the foundation of the world (Eph 1)!<\/div>\n

“Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.”<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1 Peter 2:16<\/p>\n

“Outside of Christ we are slaves, the best of us are all slaves. In Christ, the lowest of all is a free man and a king.” \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Richard Sibbes \u00a0Glorious Freedom<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Free-will Part three: Napoleon\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Also see series of articles on Free-will apologist Lee Strobel<\/a><\/p>\n

Also helpful is the understanding the idea of Divine Romance which does not violate man’s freedom but redeems and heals it:<\/p>\n

Have You Considered the Power of Divine Romance?<\/a><\/p>\n

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I was engaging on the topic of free-will in the immediate wake of Love Wins among the Amazon review comments. \u00a0Here is a bit of what I shared with an…<\/p>\n

Read MoreThoughts on “Free-Will” Part Two<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[20,14,48,49,13],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-will-2","tag-1peter-216","tag-free-will","tag-love-wins","tag-phil-2","tag-rob-bell","excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4247,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}