If God already knows what's going to happen, where does free will come in?

 

A better term would be permissive will. God is omniscient. He knows all.

A better term would be permissive will. God is omniscient. He knows all.

It's a paradoxical situation.

It's a paradoxical situation.

 

God allows people to perform within His permissive will. Noone does anything without God knowing it beforehand. He knows all that will happen before it does. And in this vain, a person cannot come to Christ without the Holy Spirit enabling the person to do so. In other words, (this will cause a stir) he chooses whom will come to Him before the foundation of the world. He knows who is going to be saved before they even desire to profess Him as Savior. He knows the time they will come to Him. He knows it all. The human race is essentially dead to spiritual things until the Holy Spirit quickens them or brings them to life. Once the Holy Spirit quickens a lost sinner they cannot help but come to Christ. They are made miserable until they come (conviction). How do you know you are one of the elect? If you have a desire to come to Christ you can rest assured you are. No one will have that desire apart from the Holy Spirit giving it to them. Some will say, then why spread the gospel? First of all, we are commanded to do so, second, we don't know who the chosen are, only God knows. As Spurgeon once said, "they do not wear a yellow stripe down their backs." We are responsible to come to Christ.

I don't claim to know how to explain it all, but I do know we serve and have an awesome God.

Why does Satan continue to tempt us?

 

According to the book about spirituality I am reading now, its your ego that is tempting you.... Not Satan....

 

G

Also, we are tempted daily by Satan, its how we respond to the temptation.

 

Flip Wilson liked to say..."The devil made me do it", well he didn't really get it. The devil can't make you do anything, but he will try very hard.

According to the book about spirituality I am reading now, its your ego that is tempting you.... Not Satan....

 

G

 

To move this thread in another direction on the same sorta topic,

 

some people believe that Satan is already Revelations bound and temptation going on now is based on our own evil desires.

 

What do you feel about Satan already being Revelations bound and the evil going on now is manmade?

To move this thread in another direction on the same sorta topic,

 

some people believe that Satan is already Revelations bound and temptation going on now is based on our own evil desires.

 

What do you feel about Satan already being Revelations bound and the evil going on now is manmade?

 

I disagree. I don't think Satan is already bound.

 

But, to take it a little further...

 

I don't believe that every time we are tempted it is Satan who is doing it. You could attribute all temptation to him indirectly I suppose, but I don't feel that every temptation a person suffers is a direct attack from Satan himself. I believe he has numerous "helpers", if you will, who tempt people. I also believe that we're often tempted from our own sinful desires.

 

So, I'd say we have a combination of evil from Satan and his followers and evil as a result of mankind's own sinful desires. But, as I said, you can trace it all back to Satan, so he would be responsible for it indirectly. I'm just trying to differentiate between attacks directly from Satan, from other demons, and from our own sinful desires. I think there is a difference.

 

From my understanding, God is the only being who can be everywhere at once...Satan does not have that ability. He can only directly tempt/attack one person at a time.

 

Just my two cents...

To move this thread in another direction on the same sorta topic,

 

some people believe that Satan is already Revelations bound and temptation going on now is based on our own evil desires.

 

What do you feel about Satan already being Revelations bound and the evil going on now is manmade?

 

I am not sure what you mean by being Revelations bound.

 

But to answer your questions, yes, I feel that the majority if the issues we face today in all of our lives is driven by our ego. I believe that God has given all of us choices, unfortunately, its our ego that makes most of them for us.

 

G

I once ask a group..."What kind of world would we live in if everyone obeyed the teachings of Jesus?" Or even just did the 10 commandments. The key word here is Everyone.

I am not sure what you mean by being Revelations bound.

 

But to answer your questions, yes, I feel that the majority if the issues we face today in all of our lives is driven by our ego. I believe that God has given all of us choices, unfortunately, its our ego that makes most of them for us.

 

G

 

In Revelations, it indicates that Satan will be bound and prevented from deceiving the nations for a period of time.

Satan continues to tempt us because he desires that we fall into sin so that God is dishonored. We do not lose our salvation if we have been truly saved --- just our testimony and witness . . . and most of all --- we have glorified Satan instead of God.

So as long as I have been saved .... what once was sin to me before I gave my life to the Lord is no longer sin to me anymore ? So Judas is in Heaven even though Jesus said that " If we betray the Son of man it would be better for us if we had never been born." What about John's letters to the 7 churches of Revelation that Christ was warning if they did'nt change he would come and remove their candlestick ? How can they lose their salvation if it is impossible for them to ? Could John have misunderstood what he was supposed to have written and if so then I can't buy none of the Word if one part is wrong. Ddn't Paul say that he had given some back over to Satan. How could that be if you can't lose your salvation ? What about those that have worked for God and done great things for him and on judgement day the scriptures tell us he will tell them " depart I never knew you ?"

So as long as I have been saved .... what once was sin to me before I gave my life to the Lord is no longer sin to me anymore ? So Judas is in Heaven even though Jesus said that " If we betray the Son of man it would be better for us if we had never been born." What about John's letters to the 7 churches of Revelation that Christ was warning if they did'nt change he would come and remove their candlestick ? How can they lose their salvation if it is impossible for them to ? Could John have misunderstood what he was supposed to have written and if so then I can't buy none of the Word if one part is wrong. Ddn't Paul say that he had given some back over to Satan. How could that be if you can't lose your salvation ? What about those that have worked for God and done great things for him and on judgement day the scriptures tell us he will tell them " depart I never knew you ?"

 

What did Paul mean when he said that?

 

1 Corinthians 5:3-5 ...I have already pronounced judgement on the one who did such a thing...you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

 

It seems he's suggesting to deliver him to Satan for his own good...not because he's lost and they're just giving up on him and turning him away.

So as long as I have been saved .... what once was sin to me before I gave my life to the Lord is no longer sin to me anymore ? So Judas is in Heaven even though Jesus said that " If we betray the Son of man it would be better for us if we had never been born." What about John's letters to the 7 churches of Revelation that Christ was warning if they did'nt change he would come and remove their candlestick ? How can they lose their salvation if it is impossible for them to ? Could John have misunderstood what he was supposed to have written and if so then I can't buy none of the Word if one part is wrong. Ddn't Paul say that he had given some back over to Satan. How could that be if you can't lose your salvation ? What about those that have worked for God and done great things for him and on judgement day the scriptures tell us he will tell them " depart I never knew you ?"

 

In regards to your reference from the letters to the churches in Revelation I believe the lampstand (candlestick) refers to the Holy Spirit being removed. Then the big debate becomes whether or not that means Salvation or the presence of God is removed leaving those to "fend for themselves."

So as long as I have been saved .... what once was sin to me before I gave my life to the Lord is no longer sin to me anymore ? So Judas is in Heaven even though Jesus said that " If we betray the Son of man it would be better for us if we had never been born." What about John's letters to the 7 churches of Revelation that Christ was warning if they did'nt change he would come and remove their candlestick ? How can they lose their salvation if it is impossible for them to ? Could John have misunderstood what he was supposed to have written and if so then I can't buy none of the Word if one part is wrong. Ddn't Paul say that he had given some back over to Satan. How could that be if you can't lose your salvation ? What about those that have worked for God and done great things for him and on judgement day the scriptures tell us he will tell them " depart I never knew you ?"

 

Who said anything about Judas being saved? I surely didn't. The Lord himself called him a devil. If you are truly saved you can never lose your salvation . . . ever. People make false professions all the time. They never were saved to begin with . . . they are still unregenerates. You cannot lose something you never had.