The Bible describes God as “holy” (Isaiah 6:3), “righteous” (Psalm 7:11), “just” (Deuteronomy 32:4), and “sovereign” (Daniel 4:17-25). These attributes tell us the following about God:
1) God is capable of preventing evil, and
2) God desires to rid the universe (heaven and earth) of evil.
As long as man remained obedient to the will of God, his Maker, all was well with him. His life was perfectly balanced because it was centered in God.
As soon as he listened to Satan, however, and set his will against God’s, all began to go wrong. His life was now off center and out of balance. It was no longer subject to one central Will. Alienated from God, man now reaped the fruits of his rebellion, not only in his banishment from Paradise but in the self-will of his offspring.
How does God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will work together? This is a core question since apart of free-will, man would be but an automaton or robot.
a multi-part study series
By Arthur J Licursi
In this series we look into exactly how it is that
God Saves Lost Men
and then Works In Believers unto the
completion of the whole new creation being.
We will learn important truths by comparing:
The free-will choice for every person while alive is to either… just live out their temporal life and days on earth for 60, 70, 80, 90 years however they want to, or… receive and enjoy the fruit of the “eternal life” of God that is freely offered to everyone through placing their faith and trust “in Christ” as their Savior.
Man was created as a tri-part being with a body, soul, and human spirit. Then also man's soul is tri-part, consisting of the mind, emotion and will. Thereby, man is a thinking, feeling, and willing (choosing) being. By these faculties man possesses the capacity to make choices when he is confronted with divergent options.
Where will we go and what will we say, or do?
These are choices that believers face and must make daily in a myriad of situations and circumstances. We must choose in regard to our relationship with others, then what to buy, what we say, where we will go, will we extend ourselves to certain others, will we be restrained and turn away from certain situations? All these are to be governed by the Lord in the life of the Christian. The Greek word translated "Lord" actually means "owner" or "governor."