Vincent Mercado Supporter Skeptic turned believer, Catholic, father of 3

The Bible says Man has free will. Man rejects, saying he has no free will. 

We go back to the story of Man's fall (Genesis 3). Eve gave the fruit to Adam and he ate. Their eyes were opened and they hid from God.

God asks, "Where are you? Who told you were naked? Have you eaten from the forbidden tree?" Now, God is all-knowning, yet he asks these questions, why? Not because he doesn't know, but he is extracting a confession. Adam could have answered, "I am hiding. I saw I am naked. Yes I ate from the tree."

But he doesn't want to be culpable, as if he had no choice. He blames, not Eve, but God, "The woman YOU gave me, she gave the fruit and I ate."

April 16 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

JD Abshire Supporter

As already stated, Adam in his un-fallen condition prior to disobeying God's instruction concerning the forbidden fruit did in fact have a free will. The result and penalty for disobeying God's command was three fold. 1. He died spiritually immediately. 2. He began to die physically, he began to age.
3. He would one day die eternally. So much for man's free will!

In exercise of his now fallen nature, rather than calling out to his creator and begging for forgiveness what does he do upon hearing the Lord call for him? He hides and as Vincent pointed out starts passing the buck I.e. (the Eden syndrome).

The important point to realize here is that the Lord went looking and searched Adam out, Adam went into hiding. Adam's initial response to the Lord's calling is also noteworthy. Although they had made themselves aprons of fig leaves as a covering for their bodies (v.7), he responded to the Lord's call by saying: "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." (v. 10).

Naked in what sense? I believe Hebrews 4:13 tells us. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do". Although Adam knew he had sinned against God he now exercised his sinful, depraved nature or "free will" in hiding from God.

What does the Lord do? He initiates the foundation of substitutionary atonement. Innocent blood must be shed, a life must be given in order to cover the sins of the guilty. Genesis 3:21 "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them." This along with the Levitical sacrificial system was a foreshadowing, a type or representation of the coming savior who would not just cover sin as in atonement but as the apostle John stated in 1:29 "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 

Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"

Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"
Romans 3:11 "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."

Left alone in his unregenerate condition and without divine intervention man definitely has a free will but it is not toward God. He can certainly operate within the confines of this fallen nature but what does that get him? Sin, death and hell.

April 16 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report