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Help!
Jan 18, 2012 0:43:48 GMT -5
Post by todbou on Jan 18, 2012 0:43:48 GMT -5
Hey Mike, I need your help with a discussion I am having with an Atheist at work. God blessed me with the opportunity to share my faith with 3 guys from work today and, one is an Atheist who posed a question my answer to which, I believe confused us both. He began his quesiton with an assumption, "You believe in free will, right?..." Of course I stopped him there and explained my Calvanistic ways, so he turned his question around by saying, "so since God is sovereign and in charge of everything, then we really are not in control of ourselves, so why does God cause some to be evil/sinful?
How would you respond to such a question?
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Help!
Jan 18, 2012 17:25:21 GMT -5
Post by Mike Miller on Jan 18, 2012 17:25:21 GMT -5
My response really applies whether one is a Calvinist or not. I would respond to the guy that I believe that everyone is sinful. As I've said before, anyone who has ever been around a toddler understands that humans are not basically good, but basically sinful by nature. We don't tend to do the right things, but we all do wrong things. It's in our nature. However, because we are all inclined to sin, God's grace restrains us from being as sinful as we might otherwise be. I am so thankful that at least to some degree, our wills are not completely free. I am thankful that God constrains us all from being completely evil all the time. God does not make us sin, but He certainly allows us to do what we want (Romans 1:24-32)--but only to the extent that he chooses within His ultimate will. Were it not for the grace of God keeping us from having completely free will, evil would be completely unbounded.
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