Saturday, June 6, 2009

Free Will - God's Style? Not Even Close Part 2

NonStampCollector, has put together three YouTube videos that attempt to show inconsistency in the Christianity based on what we teach concerning human free will and salvation. The author is an atheist and he is criticizing Arminianism. Look at the second video below to see what he is saying





In the second video, the argument is advanced that God is like a government that imposes taxes and but says that we have the choice not to pay. However if we don't pay we will be punished. It's an analogy parable....but a flawed one. Like the citizens of a government who are indebted to the government we are indebted to God because he owns everything and because of our many trespassed and rebellions against him. However a more apt way of looking at is from the point of view of one who is bankrupt and owes so much in back taxes that we can't possible pay what we owe. This is the state of every human being! Added to that we are so sick and oblivious to how sick we are. Added to that we are like militant radicals hostile to the very government (God) that wants our salvation. Here are some scriptures that illustrate these points:

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
- Isaiah 64:6

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
- Romans 8: 5-8

What government would ever say to it's citizens: "You have free will so pay your taxes but only if you want to."? No all governments will force you to pay because of the threat of punishment. God is not like that. He knows we can't pay. He knows we are bankrupt. He knows that we are hostile.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. - Isaiah 53:6

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
- Romans 3: 22-24


Instead God gives some people a "New Deal" but better than any of Franklin Roosevelt's. He changes them and pays the debts for them. All they have to do is believe and their taxes are paid. This is the ultimate Bailout and its for the individual! This has nothing to do with who you are. God's choice. Just like when the government gives grants. Not everyone gets a Bailout. No one who asks God for this Bailout is refused. Not like the government at all.

He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. - Acts 16: 30-32

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. - Romans 9: 14-18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." - 1 Corinthians 1: 18-19

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