Election/Free Will

Aloha Friends and Family,
It appears that my GrandSon,  Rev. Riley Fraas,  has my mailing list?  My apology,   My thoughts to him were as follows:

Aloha Riley,
OK… Stuck on Page 16…  of your Book,  “Chosen To Be Holy” 

Of course,  SEEMS your point of view of Predestination and election are totally disconnected from Foreknowledge, Free-Will and Love.     ( LOVE can not exist without Free Will.)  So you have erased Rom. 8:29, 1 Peter 1:2 and Acts 2:22 and you can not do that.  If you are going to proof text anything you have to use all of the scriptures on the subject:  You have come from a Calvinist camp that excludes all the “conditional” scriptures from their doctrine.  The New Testament is absolutely packed with conditional scriptures that indicate that we are totally responsible in our eternal choice of light or darkness.  We are born headed for hell and the grave as the children of Adam.  But our Creator has made a way of escape for us in Christ Jesus if we want it.  1 John 1:17  An “IF” Conditional Verse of hundreds concerning free will.

As I wrote you before,  Our Creator, in HIS dimension of Eternity,  knew from the beginning who would be seeking HIS light or not and has made our access to HIM and light possible in HIS predestination.  But we are now locked in the dimension of time and do not have that knowledge,  1 Cor.13.  So if we have an interest in the light by our free will then we can work out our salvation with faith and expectancy by God’s grace.   “Whosoever will, may come and drink of the waters of life freely.” Rev.22:17 by Christ Jesus.

  29 becausehoti thosehos he foreknewproginōskō he alsokai predestinedproorizō to become conformedsymmorphos to theho imageeikōn ofho hisautos Sonhyios, thateis heautos might beeimi the firstbornprōtotokos amongen manypolys brethrenadelphos. 30 Andde thosehos he predestinedproorizō, thesehoutos he alsokai calledkaleō; andkai thosehos he calledkaleō, thesehoutos he alsokai justifieddikaioō; andde thosehos he justifieddikaioō, thesehoutos he alsokai glorifieddoxazō

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1 Peter 1:2 Mounce Reverse-Interlinear New Testament (MOUNCE)

elect according tokata the foreknowledgeprognōsis of Godtheos the Fatherpatēr byen being set aparthagiasmos by the Spiritpneuma foreis obediencehypakoē andkai for sprinklingrhantismos with the bloodhaima of JesusIēsous ChristChristos. May gracecharis andkai peaceeirēnē be yourshymeis in ever increasing measureplēthunō

Another scripture concerning the use of Foreknowledge:  Acts 2:22

22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:  23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:  24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.   (lucifer only had the right to kill sinners at that time.)

So again, your doctrine must be inclusive of the free will, love and the foreknowledge of God of knowing what choices we would make and weaving them into HIS final Vision of creating an eternal family.   I was offended by your use of my mailing list without my permission.     Perhaps you will send my thought out on your list as well?     Love you much,  GDad<><

More on the subject:

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/foreknowledge.html

“Calvin states no less dogmatically than Luther that foreknowledge leaves no room whatsoever for free will. Period. We are astonished that Calvin repeatedly makes fallacious, unbiblical statements; and doubly astounded that so many leading evangelicals continue to praise him for being so logical and such a great exegete.

If God cannot know by His foreknowledge what every person will think and do by their free will, then He is not God. Moreover, the fact that God is able to allow man freedom of choice while still effecting His eternal purposes unhindered is all the more glorifying to His sovereign wisdom, power, and foreknowledge.

What is future to us may not be future to God: He sees not only our past but our present and future as already having happened. From this understanding, God’s knowledge of what in our experience hasn’t yet happened would have no effect upon its occurrence and therefore would leave us free to choose.

Even Augustine (known as the father of modern Catholicism), whom both Calvin and Luther admired, clearly affirmed that there is no incompatibility between God’s absolute sovereignty and foreknowledge and man’s free will:

Therefore we are by no means compelled, either, retaining the prescience of God to take away the freedom of the will, or, retaining the freedom of the will, to deny that He is prescient of future things, which is impious. But we… faithfully and sincerely confess both.

Dave Hunt,  The Berean Call:   Acts 17:11


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On 5/30/2019 6:49 AM, Riley Fraas wrote:

832095867.8237960.1559234967548@mail.yahoo.com“>

Dear Friends, Brothers, and Sisters,


I have just released a study guide on Ephesians. It is now available for order in paperback and e-book. It consists of 13 lessons on Ephesians with about 12 review questions after each. Also included is an answer key and a new translation of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. The intent of this book is for it to be a comprehensive resource for group study. 

It is also available in a large print paperback format. If you do read it, I’d like to know what you think. 

I thought you would like to know. Be blessed, Friends, Brothers, and Sisters!

grace and peace in Christ,

Riley Fraas

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