This entry is a continuation of Are We “Free”. If you have not read that entry yet, I would suggest you read it and it’s comments before continuing with this entry.

Again when you get into the issue of “free” will I think “free” is the wrong term to use here. No one is free. If you are free then go join the Cardinals Baseball team, because apparently you are free to do so. It is very easy to think of the word “free” in the wrong way and it is better to not use the word at all. It’s not a matter of being free or not being free, but it is a matter of being able to choose. You can’t choose on all things, but you are allowed to choose some things. For example did you choose who your mother was? That wasn’t your choice, you didn’t have a free choice to go to any parent you wanted to go to, but instead God knew you before you were born, formed you in the womb, and he placed you where you are, it was not your decision to make. You also cannot make the free choice to fly. If you go and jump off the roof of your house you are going to fall to the ground, there is no dispute about this you don’t get a choice. And just like we live under the laws of gravity we also live under the laws of God and there are certain things that we do not get a “free” choice on.

I do think it is clear that people get to make choices and real choices that have real consequences. I can eat and drink when I want, and I can even climb up to the roof of my house and jump off if I choose to do so, there are some freedoms of decisions, but to say we are “free” is a mis-communication.

I am having a very hard time agreeing with the fact that people who are not saved have the choice to do good, because it seems to me that scripture teaches without the Holy Spirit you don’t have the power to do good. Paul says that he wants to do good, but he cannot carry it out in Romans 7:18. He cannot carry it out because of what he says in 7:14, “…I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.”

I definitely do not claim to have all the answers, but as always I seek to be as biblical as I can about all such issues. The Bible most certainly talks about Sovereignty, Predestination, Election, and all of those other issues, so they are real things that God wanted us to be aware of, so I seek to try and understand them to the best of my ability. In order to do that I not only seek the answers in the Bible, but I also seek the opinions and teachings of other pastors, philosophers, and theologians. I would not call myself a Calvinist because I do not completely agree with every single point Calvin makes, but I do agree with most of what he says. I have great respect for Calvin because he was a tremendous theologian and a man truly blessed by God with wisdom and discernment and he was used in a great way during the reformation period that has helped to make our religion what it is today. Many people are instantly against Calvin and do not pay attention to anything that he taught as a theologian just because they disagree with one or two points that he makes, and that is both a shame and a unfortunate assumption. There are many great truths, and a lot of wisdom that comes from Calvin, Luther, and many of the other reformers in that time period.

I do not agree with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, but that does not change the fact that our religion was born out of the teachings of that very Church. Over the years we continued to look at the teachings of the Church, found things we did agree with that stood the test of time that we still hold true today, and then found things that we did not agree with that we changed in order to be more obedient to the inerrant scripture of God. So does that mean I should hate the Roman Catholic Church and their teachings and the Reformed Protestant Churches that don’t share the same belief that I do on only some issues not all of them? If I disagree with something my parents teach me, does that cause me to reject all their teachings they ever taught me alltogether? I do not support the wrong views of scripture, but I also do not support recjection of the views that are right.

It is my same issue with the whole Harry Potter series. If you have not read the books or seen the movies then you have no right to cast an opinion on something you know nothing about. Just because people hear that Harry Potter has magic in it they cast it off as witchcraft and sinfulness only by what they hear from others. In the same way people who know nothing about Calvin and why he is a Reformer and the theology he taught and the things that he did hear from other people his teaching on election and they completely reject him as being a heretic. That my friends is not right. The bible says to question everything an hold on to the good. I think we can definitely find a ton of good to hold onto in the teachings of all the puritans, reformers, and all the other people who shaped our religion into what it is today. That doesn’t mean we should believe every single thing, but we should question it all, put it to the test against scripture, and what we find to be truth we hold onto.

Pressed