Man's Free Will in the Garden of Eden?

In this blog below is a response I had given today to a friend who is strongly opposed to man's 'Free Will' as seen in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

 

Johnny Soporno Larry makes an interesting point!

The 'Gift of Free Will' was unrealized by Mankind, who had been kept enslaved by God as docile and unreasoning/uncritical pets, in the Garden of Eden - given the freedom to do all they pleased, providing they didn't engage their 'Free Will'... (After all, there was only *ONE WAY* to experience free will, and that was to eat the Forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge!)

You'll remember, Lucifer got himself booted out of God's good books for complaining that Humans has this potential for Free Will (despite their unwillingness to utilize it) by alerting Eve to this truth...

Free Will, the application of which got Adam & Eve chucked out of Paradise, and condemned their entire breed to damnation from that point forward...

Anyway, Man is commanded by God to drink alcohol, and forbidden by God to have anything other than unprotected sex, so essentially the only way to defend oneself is to operate OUTSIDE God's boundaries, no?

Jerry Douglas Sheppard Johnny, you make an interesting point about man's free will. However, I disagree with your conclusion about the matter. Man was never "kept enslaved by God as docile and unreasoning/uncritical pets, in the Garden of Eden. That's a gross exaggeration. God did give us a brain to think and reason with. The truth is God gave man the "gift of free will" for a reason. Not for enslavement as you suggested, but for the freedom to choose. Everyday we all make decisions based on the freedom of our will to choose. However, there are consequences associated with the choices we make in life. For example, If I choose to shoplift at some store and get caught in the act, and end up going to court to suffer the consequences. Remember, I made the choice according to my free will to do so. It was a bad choice on my part. However, if I exercise my free will to help a friend who is in desperate financial need. I chose to do so, which is a good use of my free will. So in referring to God "chucking" Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and suffering the consequence of their choice they had made as being somehow unfair of God to do that. Not so my friend. To begin with, Adam and Eve's free will was already in operation before they chose to eat the forbidden fruit.

This of course leads me to the rest of the point you had made: “given the freedom to do all they pleased, providing they didn't engage their 'Free Will'... (After all, there was only *ONE WAY* to experience free will, and that was to eat the Forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge!)” Your statement, “given the freedom to do all they pleased” is a contradiction, because you are assuming Adam and Eve never “engaged their ‘Free Will’...” and then you added that “there was only ONE WAY to experience free will,...was to eat the Forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge!)”  You argue that Adam and Eve had “the freedom to do all they pleased,” but on the other hand, you say they never “engaged their ‘Free Will’” and that “there was only ONE WAY to experience free will” and that was to partake of the forbidden fruit that God had warned them not to eat of. Do you not see the contradiction in your statement here? The fact Adam and Eve had “the freedom to do all they pleased” in the Garden of Eden clearly indicates by your own admission that they had free will. For example, Adam and Eve by the exercise of their ‘Free Will’ could choose to eat of the number of other fruits available to them on the various trees in the Garden of Eden.

God’s command for Adam and Eve to not eat the ‘Forbidden Fruit’ from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil (see Genesis 2:9, 15-16) was a test to see if man would freely choose to love God by obeying His command. “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). Man was not made for himself, he was made for God. He owes his existence to God period. “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his...” (Psalm 100:3). If man can convince himself that God does not exist, then he is not responsible to Him. Apart from God, man seeks to set himself up as god.

Preterism: Is it Biblical?

Recently within the Church the prophetic teaching "preterism" has arisen to challenge the pretribulational, mid-tribulational, and post-tribulational views on the prophecy of the end times according to the Scriptures. According to Thomas Ice, he gives three groups of preterists: mild preterism, moderate preterism, and extreme preterism. This last group which is sometimes referred to as full preterists will be the primary focus of this blog. The term "preterism" comes from the Latin word preter which means "past." This of course refers to the preterists understanding of certain eschatological prophecy that they believe have already come to fulfillment. Full preterist teach that all Biblical prophecy in regards to the tribulation, second coming of Christ, and the final judgment of the wicked, etc. has been all fulfilled just prior to 70 A.D. (To be Continued...)

Comfortably Numb?

Over the past while now, I have dealt with some problems within the Church in some of my past blogs. I do not take joy in writing about and exposing current issues affecting the Church, such as the problems of social cliques, spiritual snobbishness, and spiritual pride, etc. This of course is nothing new, for the Church has been plagued with such problems since its inception. However, in order to fix a problem, one needs to first reveal what the problem is in order to face and resolve the trouble confronting the Church at large.  

Having said the above, let's consider today's question in the above title of this blog that has no doubt caught your attention. Comfortably numb? So how does this relate to the Church? First, let's look at the meaning of the words "comfortably numb" to see what we can learn. The word comfortably means: "providing comfort or security; feeling at ease." The term numb conveys: "lacking sensation or emotion." 

Spiritual Sacrifices

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice."

(Romans 12: 1, KJV)

 

In today's blog I will be talking about five points on areas where we are to live sacrificially for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. No doubt, when we hear such terms as "sacrifice" in relation to the Christian's life, we cringe and resist, because it requires of us to give up ourselves, to actually die to ourselves. I am not talking about literal physical death here, but rather a daily dying to our old life and ways that cater to the lusts of our flesh. A daily refusal to respond to the desires of our flesh life period. In ourselves we cannot do this, but as we daily yield ourselves to God, and allow Him to work in our lives He will help us to live in such a way that we will joyfully experience the life of Christ being lived through us! So let us consider what these five points on sacrifice are and how it can help us to live sacrificial fulfilling lives. 

1. The Sacrifice of our body. Rom. 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." (KJV). Many Christians live contradictory lives. They are more of a "dead sacrifice," instead of a "living sacrifice."  

2. The Sacrifice of Joy. Psalm 27: 6 "And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD." (KJV).

3. The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving. Psalm 107: 22 "And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing." (KJV).

4. The Sacrifice of Praise. Heb. 13: 15 "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." (KJV).

5. Such Sacrifices are Well Pleasing to God. Heb. 13: 16 "But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." (KJV).

My Future Plans for Blogging this Year...



I will no longer be writing as much this year as I did last year, though I might have my moments when I do, but it won't be consistent. I will still continue to write blogs each month as the Lord gives me direction and spiritual nourishment to continue this ministry. My desire is that God will get all the glory and the people who read my blogs may be edified.

Since I am quite busy these days, my time to write on my blogger is much more limited than it was last year. Over the next while, I will be working on and off in completing a lot of my unfinished blogs I had written last year. I hope to do another series of questions and answers to add to my blog this year. So watch for them. It will not be right away, but they will come in the next while as the Lord leads.

Also from time to time, I will be posting other devotional articles written by other authors [these author's names will be posted at the beginning of their articles] that I hope will be a blessing to my readers as well.  I warmly welcome any reader of my blogs, who may have any questions they would like to see me answer in my upcoming blogs to write them in my comments box in any of my past or present written blogs. Particularly in this year's blog comment boxes, hahaha.

Well, that's it for now, until the next blog.

Favoritism: The Enemy to True Christian Fellowship

"My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism."

(James 2: 1, NIV)

 

One of the biggest problems in today's Church is "favoritism" shown towards the wealthy and popular Christians within local congregations. For example many leaders within such congregations got their position through popularity and being favored, instead of being chosen for the role of leadership based on one's godly character. Try confronting such christians in a local Church about their guilt of showing partiality towards others, and they will either out right confess it does exist, but its not a problem in their congregation, or they will say it does not exist. The funny thing is the very ones why say favoritism does not exist in their Church are usually the ones who are favored. How fitting are the words in this quote I came across: "FAVORITISM: The only ones that say it doesn't exist are the ones getting it." Sad but so true. In ancient Biblical times some Jewish communities were guilty of this sin of favoritism. (A Work in Progress...)