Arminians and OVers spend half their time insisting on their right to their free will, BUT when it comes to the evils which come from within man, from the lusts of their own hearts, suddenly they have a brain seizure and amnesia. Now they SUDDENLY don't have free will. NOW it is--GOD MADE ME DO IT, SO GOD IS EVIL. GOD ORDAINED IT, SO I HAD NO CHANCE--ALL GOD'S FAULT.
Now they can no longer remember that they have free will. Now they are obsessed with the false accusation against God that He "forced" them. Strange how one minute they insist on a will so free that God's will must give way to THEIR will, but in the next moment they commit iniquity, and SUDDENLY they are creatures without the free will they shortly before insisted upon. They believe the will of the eternal, immutable God must give way to the vain, momentary will of creatures whose life is nothing more than a vapor.
They dare think that God's OWN will and His immutable decree must be suspended upon their SUPERIOR RIGHT to be, shall we say, SUPRAwilling creatures? Therefore, they think, (ha, ha!!) the future must be open. How vain! They actually believe God has empowered them to stand at the helm of history, and that He, the God of history, must stand back when they demand that He do so. The future of all must be open--left to be determined by their vain frolics. Really now! They have had too many trips to Disney World.
The truth is, God has ordained (decreed) WHATSOEVER COMES TO PASS. If He has not decreed it, it shall not--will never--come to pass. If He has decreed it, it shall, without fail, come to pass; and it will do so--in accord with His providential rule--precisely at the appointed time.
It is true that we all have free will, but our free will is without power against His decree. Against the brass mountains of His decree and providences, any will of man that is not in accord with His decree from everlasting is crushed to powder--"The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. He frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot carry out their plans. He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them." (Ps.33:10,11).
Many times, the devices of the crafty which He frustrates involve the evil that they would otherwise do. Then there are times when His common grace, and longsuffering are at an end and, as judgement, He gives them up (Rom. 1:24,26,28; Ps 81:10,11) to walk according to "the lusts of their hearts" (Ro.1:24)
If men got what they deserved, there would never at any time be a restraint upon their wickedness, and life on earth would become a veritable hell. God could have been just to decree that He would never exercise common grace to restrain the evils in the hearts of men. Grace is His to dispense as He pleases. It is a gift, and FALLEN, GUILTY CREATURES have no claim on it.
If He HAD decreed that sinful fallen creatures be allowed to walk forever in the lusts of their hearts, as their wicked state deserved, they would have no right to complain against Him. He would then have given them free will to the utmost, and He could have gotten glory to Himself by demonstrating His just wrath against every one of their transgressions; but He is gracious and longsuffering and therefore often delivers men from the evils of their own nature.
Let every OVer and Arminian understand this: "let no man 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." Jas.1:13-15
The fact that He has decreed that wicked men shall at times be given up to walk in the lusts of their own hearts DOES NOT MEAN THAT HE IN ANYWAY SHARES THEIR GUILT. That would mean that EVERY guilt of man is also His guilt.
You want free will? You got it!! Don't charge OTHERS with the wickedness of the deeds you CHOOSE to do with that free will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"God has made all things for Himself--even the wicked for the day of evil."
"Even the wrath of man shall praise you, and the remainder of wrath you will restrain."
