Mark

TL,

The problem I have with your view, is that no scripture saids such things. You are arguing from ‘reason’ and not the Bible. Please use the Bible. However let me address just one of your points because it is an important one.

“3. Without our acceptance of God’s choice, then we are not free people but robots destined according to our birth to follow a preplanned destruction, in essence some people were hated by God at their creation, while others were preferred.”

This is often the critique of Calvinism. But let’s explore what a ‘free-will’ is. First it is not in the Bible, at leat not in the way that we often describe it. So what is a free-will? The most often explaination I hear is that it has to be a ‘will or choice that we make, which is not coerced from an external person/thing’. But such a definition is wrong. No choices we ever make are in that sense ‘free’. Any choice we make always comes from a desire in our minds, even if it is sub-conscious. No think about it, if I walk up to a forked road which way do I choose? If there is no inclination either way then I would not choose any ( which is precisely the Arminina description of free-will). There has to be a reason why I go left instead of right.

Why is it we choose to eat when we do? Why do we sit instead of stand? Why do we bother engaging in conversations like this? There is a will or inclination inside us that makes us choose. I choose to sit because it is more comfortable than to stand etc. Think about why Eve ate the fruit. Her desire turned from God to desiring the fruit, her inclination changed. At that point she desired the fruit more than God, as did her husband Adam.

So the definition that Arminians often give for free-will is a nonsense statement. Our will is never free in that sense. We always choose what we desire. So this is the important part, since the Bible declares that out nature is sinful. That is, our desires are sinful. Unlike Adam and Eve, we are born with a desire that is sinful, so therefore we will choose or will from our inmost desire- sin.

That is why the Bible speaks about needing a new heart. God gives us a new heart, so that our desire might change from sin to him. So the questions arises does God give this new heart to all people. The Arminian says yes, the Calvinist no. So therefore the Arminian needs to show from scripture, where it is that God gives this new ‘will’ to all people. Some say at birth, some say later on. Jeremiah 31 tells us God gives this heart to ‘his people’ not all people. These people have their sins forgiven and the law wirtten on the heart.

So our will is never free in the sense that Arminains wish it was. Our will always chooses according to our desire. So if you wish to show to me that God enables or gives all people this new desire/heart than please do from the scriptures. I fear though that you will not have much luck. One looks in vain in any Arminain apologist to find such scriptural support for an unbiblical doctrine.

Our will is not free- it is before rebirth corrupted by sin. Only God can enable us to desire him and thus choose his son as our own for salvation. So yes we are Robots- we always choose according to what we desire most. Our will is never free from our desires. Thanks be to God, that he has given us a new heart to will after Him. To enable us to follow Him rather than our natural sinful desire.

Finally regarding 2 Tim 2, at least look over again the verse and it’s context. You may believe that God gives all the ability to repent but the Bible does not declare that. I encourage you to be faithful to the Bible not one’s theology.