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From Kristos Vocabulary Booster

Gary McNees wrote:
> Bart Goddard wrote:
> > gkmcnees@comcast.net wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >>God sovereignly chooses all that occurs, including every FREE
> >>will choice that everyone makes.
> >
> >
> > You really can't see how self-contradictory this statement is?
> > If God makes the choices, then what on earth could "FREE" mean?
> >
> > Bart
>
> Put it, "God sovereignly determines all that occurs, including every
> FREE will choice that everyone makes."
>
> That is, God uses our free will (when I say free will I will ALWAYS
mean
> that the person has the power of contrary choice)to accomplish His
> end.

But that is exactly the basic problem with the discusion. That
definition is based upon an incorrect analysis of the dynamic. ONLY
the believer has true choice. Only he who has been regenerated. The
unbeliever has only one and but one inclination -and that is to self.
That was the whole point of the fall. "That you might become as gods."
What does that really mean? It means that you become self-determining
instead of having only the orientation to be God-conscious. When fall
man "chooses" what appears to be a choice between two opposites, is in
fact merely a choice between that which will arrive at the same
destination. That is because the destination never is other than self.

We must stop thinking synthetically and think after God,
antithetically. There are only two inclinations of the will, that of
self-consciousness (the flesh) and that of God-consciousness (the
Spirit). The non-believer only has the former while the believer,
before death, has both. This is what Paul wrestles with in Rom 7.
Suddenly he has this new inclination to please God but he recognizes
that he has not power to bring that desire to fruition for there yet
resides within him that old inclination to always please self first.

Sanctification is the process whereby God grows us up more and more to
to live in the orientation of being God-conscious, i.e. having the
mind of Christ.

Human maturity means we grow more independent.
Spiritual maturity means we grow more dependent. . . . on God.

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