Free Will

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Gen 4:7

Scripture Affirms Man Born with Free Will:

1)       God is NOT Responsible for man’s sin

2)       He Does Not have to Over Power man’s will to make him believe

3)       Man is capable of Right action and the Ability to Obey

4)       Babies are Born Innocent

Effects of Sin Inherited from Adam:

1)       God Directly Responsible for sin!

2)       He MUST by Necessity Overpower man’s will if he is to believe

3)       Man is incapable of Right action or Obedience

4)       Babies are Born depraved

Therefore the Entire Scheme of Salvation by Faith is Changed: Under Free will man Must Repent and PROVE his repentance by his Deeds. His faith must WORK or OBEY, meeting the Conditions of Redemption, BEFORE Mercy Can be Granted. The Result is Purity of Heart, Zeal to Do Right and Full Vindication or (Justification)

Under the Sinful Nature Doctrine:  Repentance is OUT the Window! No Conditions or Deeds are Necessary. God Provides the Grace to off-set your Depravity enough for you to believe, Accepts you in your sins, Fully Forgives and then COVERS your sin by either ‘Imputing’ the Righteousness of Christ or ‘Cleaning’ you up later.

Results:
1) Cannot Preach as to Convict of Sin

2) Gospel is Receive, Not Repent

3) No Redemption can take Place, because No Holy Spirit is Present to Convict.

4) Continued sin is not an issue, but foregone conclusion

5) No One can Say ANY sin will disqualify you from the Kingdom!

Origins of the Doctrine:  Augustine (354-430AD)

1)       N African Catholic Bishop of Roman Empire

2)       Converted from Gnostic/ Manichaean Paganism

3)       Originated the Doctrines behind: Unconditional Predestination, Election, Irresistible Grace and Total Depravity. (man completely unable to do anything right)

Note: When Christians first encountered Manichaeism, they deemed it a heresy, since it had originated in a heavily Gnostic area of the Persian Empire. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) converted to Christianity from Manichaeism, in the year 387. This was shortly after the Roman Emperor Theodosius I had issued a decree of death for Manichaeans (in 382 AD) and shortly before he declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire (in 391). According to the Confessions of St. Augustine, after eight or nine years of adhering to the Manichaean faith (as a member of the Manichaean group of "hearers"), Augustine became a Christian

The Bases of Manichaeism/ Gnostic Teaching:

1)       Denied the Real Incarnation & Bodily Resurrection of Christ

2)       All Matter is Corrupted, therefore man’s Spirit is Pure but his Flesh is Vile

3)       Man’s Dual Nature is effected by Darkness and Light, Influenced by one or other

4)       Everything is Predetermined

Therefore History Proves that Augustine Converted to Christianity out of Necessity and Never really abandon his Pagan Doctrines.

The Time Line:

1)       Apostolic Church, early Fathers Preached free will, Repentance and Faith

2)       By 3^rd Century Rome was Gaining Pre-Eminence & Authority over Church

3)       In 325AD Constantine ‘Converted’ Held Council of Nicea. Declared Christianity Roman Religion

4)       So Began the Councils, Bishops, the Established Church, Gov Controls

5)       By 417AD the Creeds were in Place, Roman Church in authority, Opposition put down and the Doctrines Defined for the Next 1000 years!

The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646:  

Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.
II. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.

III. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. IV. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

V. This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.

VI. Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal.

The actual sins that men commit are the fruit of the corrupt nature transmitted to them by our first parents. By reason of this corruption, all men become wholly inclined to all evil; sin disables them. They are utterly indisposed to, and, indeed, rendered opposite to, all that is good.

Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who works when and where and how He pleases. The same is true of all elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called through the preaching of the gospel. Men who are not elected, even though they may be called upon to embrace salvation by the preachers of the gospel, and may be the subjects of some common operations of the Spirit, cannot be saved, because they are not effectually drawn to Christ by the Father, for which reason they neither can, nor will, truly come to Him. Much less can men who do not receive the Christian religion be saved, no matter how diligent they are to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the teachings of the religion which they follow.

The Stronghold of Support for Fallacy of Sinful Nature Doctrine:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. PS51:5

The word, ‘Shapen’ is NOT in the Hebrew Text! It appears in the English Translators to show David acknowledging the sin of his mother, not his personal sin. Having followed her in down the path of immorality, he laments that his sin is ever before him, spreading itself also to his sons and family.

Job14:1-4, 15:14, ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean”

Then it would stand to reason that as Saints, Cleansed and Purified by faith of all Carnality, we would be able to Produce another Saint.

Ps58:3 ‘The Wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies!’

If sin is Transgression the Law according to ones ‘knowledge’ of that law, HOW can an infant, who CANNOT yet SPEAK, tell lies? This Text is not to be understood in a literal sense, since it would defy reality. And it would Contradict many other passages that show children are born innocent and even FILLED with the Holy Spirit in the Womb! (Lk1:15)

Think about it. If Augustine was correct on original sin, then Babies are Born Depraved Sinners as Children of the Devil! (for the Bible testifies that sinners are children of Satan, Jh8:44, 1John3:8,10) Do you REALLY Believe that Children, of who Ps127:3 says, ‘Are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward.’ Are children of the Devil!?  

Job 15:14 "What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"

 BUT this is not God Speaking, it’s the words of Eliphaz one of Job’s supposed comforters in his distress. Of Whom God said does not hold to Truth. (Job42:7)  So again, it’s a stretch to use this passage to support the notion of original sin. (Like all the others)

 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Eph2:1-3

‘By Nature’ in this Text does not refer to something we were Born with. Again, that would make God a Tyrant. Creating us as Children of His Wrath! Outrageous. No. The Word simply means: ‘a mode of feeling and acting which by long habit has become nature.’ It is CLEARLY a Learned Response Paul is speaking of, Voluntary Wickedness! Fulfilling the lusts of our flesh and becoming separated from God as a result. Peter refers to this same Truth in 1Pet1:18, where he says you were redeemed from your aimless conduct RECEIVED by Tradition from your fathers! (not inherited in birth.)

It is also used in Rom2:14: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law.”  If this ‘Nature’ was Corrupted, as supposed, HOW could the Gentiles use the SAME Nature to KEEP the things contained in the law? Wouldn’t it stand to reason they would violate it instead because of this Nature?

Rom. 5:12, 18, 19 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned...Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

Does the Bible teach that men are "made righteous" involuntarily through Christ? Of Course not! That would be Universal Salvation of all mankind, a false heresy. Then WHY is the Reverse thought to be True? That men are ‘made sinners’ involuntarily through Adam? Rather sin entered the world through Adam, when he and Eve Transgressed and Death as a result passed to all men, ‘BECAUSE ALL SINNED!’ (Rom5:12) Many in fact did not Sin after the ‘likeness’ of Adam, (who Transgressed God’s Law) But sinned against Conscience, not knowing the law. (Rom2:14-15)

Nothing was Imputed to them from Adam other than a likeness of evil desires enticed by the lust of the flesh:“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” James1:13-15

 

1)       Rom 5 Is Discussing Redemption, not a sinful nature handed down from Adam

2)       Main is Shown Doing Right things in Scripture

3)       Rom2:14 shows the Gentiles (Heathens) Doing Right by their own Conscience!

4)       Scripture affirms everywhere man is responsible for the Light he is given

Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have ought out many schemes.” Ecc7:29.  “

”Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” Ezk18:19-20

Quote: that the end of life may to you prove the beginning of salvation. You have become old in superstition; as young, enter on the practice of piety. God regards you as innocent children. 

Quote: being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: "Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matt19:13-14 (Also See: Mark10:14, Luke18:16)

for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), Rom9:11

Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. Isa7:15-16

Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. Deut1:39

Also see: 2Kings21:16, 24:4, Joel 3:19, James4:17

Also Scripture Makes Clear that Children do not inherit the guilt or sin of the parent: Deut 24:16, 2 Kings 14:6, 2 Chron25:4, Ezekiel 18:2-4, Ezekiel 18:19-20

Satan’s Master Piece! Man Born a sinner!

First and Foremost, the Sin Nature Doctrine EXCUSES the Sinner!

1)       It makes his Sin a Calamity instead of a Crime!

2)       It makes God Responsible for the sin!

3)       It creates double-minded, complacent professing Christians and breeds deception

4)       It cause Ministers to excuse sin and not preach against immoral behavior

5)       It Contradicts the Bible!

6)       It Creates a HUGE Problem with Jesus being born of a woman into flesh

7)       It Promotes other False Doctrines

8)       It is absurd and unfounded, supported only by Conjecture and improvable!

By it, Satan has Taken himself OUT of the Picture! Man is to Blame for all wrong doing in the world, not the devils temping anyone. Man’s own Nature is corrupted, incapable of Virtue in thought or Deed. Satan need not Prowl seeking to devour anyone! The inevitable consequences of all man’s actions are already wicked and depraved. Satan need not launch his fiery darts or lay in wait to deceive, the sinful nature will do it for him! He can just sit back and wait for the preachers to keep telling their lies and the so-called Christians to keep ‘coming’ in their sins.