Predestination / Free Will (4b)

Second, Human Ability (Man is Willing)
• Faith before regeneration
• Spiritual Life is Offered
• We must accept Christ
• Mankind is under the dominion of sin, but all men have free will (it’s up to them whether to be willing or not) and the ability to co-operate with the wooing, prevenient grace that God offers to all mankind. Since God desires for all men to be saved, it must be possible for all men to be saved. Anyone can choose to come to Christ for salvation.
• The beggar analogy: A gift must be accepted or received.
o The Arminian beggar must reach out his hand to accept the offered alms. He reaches in order to be reborn.
o The Calvinist beggar reaches out, because he has already been reborn. The objection: Why do some accept/receive Christ while others do not? What makes the difference? If it is not grace, then it is something in man (ie, intelligence) which in a sense “merits” or conditions salvation.
• Scripture:
“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-19)
“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)
“‘Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?’ declares the Sovereign LORD. ‘Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?’” (Ezekiel 18:23)
“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
“He said to them, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.’” (Luke 13:24)
“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. ...All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ...For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ...No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ...I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.’” (John 6:35,37,40,44-45,47)
“If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:17)
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32)
“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:38)
“But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.” (Acts 14:2)
“They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.’” (Acts 16:31)
“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he
determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ ...In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:26-28,30)
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:21-22)
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ...How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:9,14-15)
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:13)
“[Praying for all men] is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
“(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10)
“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” (James 1:18 (cf 1 Peter 1:23))
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:22-23 (cf James 1:18))
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22:17)
• Additional Scripture (Numbers 14:11; Isaiah 65:1; Matthew 18:12-14;23:37; Luke 15:11-32;
John 1:9,12;3:16-17,34;11:45; Romans 2:4; 1 Corinthians 9:19; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Hebrews 6:17-18;7:25;11:6)
• Conclusion: Arminianism presumes human ability and desire to obey, repent, and believe, since these things are commands of God. All it takes, according to Arminianism, to free us from the bondage of our sin nature is the message of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit’s wooing.