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发帖数: 3781 | 1 Choice And Human Responsibility
Frederic Farrar has rightly said, what God commands "must be in the power of
the will, since ability is the measurement of obligation." 5 G. Campbell Mo
rgan stated firmly, "We cannot study this Bible without being brought face t
o face with personal responsibility ... when the voice of God speaks, man's
will is free to obey or to disobey." 6
Kenneth Foreman said, "If there is anything the Bible shows it is that God d
oes hold men responsible for their actions. God's 'thou shalt' is spoken to
free persons, not to puppets."7
Yet Gerstner astonishingly says, "It is your decision to choose or reject Ch
rist, but it is not of your own free will."8 How it can be my decision when
I am not free to choose is meaningful only to Calvinists. To all others the
statement is an obvious contradiction.
Calvinism clearly requires its own peculiar understanding. Pink wrote, "Thos
e who speak of man's `free will,' and insist upon his inherent power to eith
er accept or reject the Saviour, do but voice their ignorance of the real co
ndition of Adam's fallen children." 9
Yet Jesus clearly taught that the unregenerated man can indeed decide in his
will to do God's will and thereby know the truth: "If any man will do [i.e.
, wills to do] his [God's] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it b
e of God, or whether I speak of myself' (John 7:17). He spoke this not to th
e elect but to the unregenerated multitude and rabbis who would soon crucify
Him. Bishop J.C. Ryle, who stood so firmly against Romanism in England in t
he nineteenth century, commented:
The English language here fails to give the full force of the Greek. It is l
iterally, "If any man is willing to do - has a mind and desire and inclinati
on to do God's will ...... It should never be forgotten that God deals with
us as moral beings, and not as beasts or stones. 10 |
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