As a new Christian and actually for the first 10 years as a Born-Again believer, I "learned" theology from reading lots and lots of biblically inaccurate Gospel tracts and from bits and pieces of sermons and Sunday School lessons.  Yet in those first 10 years I never realized I was reading and hearing was not really the true Gospel of Jesus Christ but rather what is called the "Free-Will" gospel or more specifically, the doctrine of Arminianism, named after Jacobus Arminius.  This "other gospel" has so permeated Christianity that it is preached and accepted as the "one true gospel delivered to the saints" in practically every church and seminary that calls itself "bible believing" nowadays, except those that adhere to the doctrine known as "Calvinism".  Sadly, most Christians in these "free-will" environments don't learn the truth because the institutions they are in actually have an entire system of bad theology built around their Arminian free-will "gospel" that undermines each point of the corresponding correct theology in Calvinism.  For more information about this subject click HERE.   In the meantime, let me just point out my above claims by example:

You say we all have a free will?  Do you even know what that means? Click HERE to learn why your will is not free.

You say some choose Christ and some don't? The Bible says you've got it backwards... Scripture says God does the choosing.

You say the sin of unbelief condemns people to hell (while the Bible says their SIN condemns them to hell - all their sin - not just the sin of unbelief).

The Bible says that none of the unsaved seek after God.  (Romans 3:11) Are you the one and only exception that sought after God even while you were yet unregenerated?

The Bible says the unsaved are spiritually dead. (Ephesians 2:1) Are you the one and only exception that was a spiritually alive unsaved person?

The Bible says that the unsaved are slaves to sin. (Galatians 4:3) Are you the one and only exception that was not a slave to sin before you were saved?

The Bible says the unsaved are spiritually blind, and lame and naked. (Revelation 3:17) Are you the one and only exception that was not blind, not lame and fully clothed prior to salvation?

The Bible says the unsaved are spiritually lost. (Luke 19:10) Are you the one and only exception that was not lost?  You knew where you were going? You knew you were headed for heaven?

The Bible says that the unsaved are enemies of God. (Romans 8:7-8) Are you the one and only exception that was not an enemy?  You were just an "average" guy waiting for an opportune time to accept Christ?

The Bible says that the unsaved are at the mercy of God. (Luke 18:13) Are you the one and only exception to that rule too?  God was at your mercy, waiting and hoping for you to accept His Son?

Sorry Charlie. God is God.  His is in charge.  His is sovereign. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  You are most definitely at His mercy, like it or not. 

But you say God is a gentleman... He won't force anybody to accept him against their will.

The Bible does not call God a gentleman.  In fact it says:

Daniel 4:35 - "All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?"

Notice that in the above verse from Daniel, it does not say "He doeth according to his will unless an unsaved sinner does something to change His plans".  And here is a free will preacher's least favorite Bible passage:

Romans 9:18 - "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.  19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?  20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?  21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"

They may argue that it does not mean what it says, because  in their minds it sounds like a God who is "not fair".  This viewpoint turns salvation upside down and backwards.  What is not fair is for God to have had to sacrifice His only begotten Son to save anyone.  But we are talking grace and mercy here for people totally unfit for the holiness of heaven.  We are not talking fairness from the perspective of those whose opinions are seriously prejudiced by sin.

If God is going to have a people for Himself, He has no choice but to make sinners willing precisely because they are lost, blind, lame, naked, dead, helpless and without hope, unless He intervenes and takes out their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Oh, but wouldn't that make us just a bunch of "puppets" if God accepted us rather than us accept him?  What it makes you is alive when you were dead.  And if indeed, God is the potter and we are the clay, then He can do what He wishes with the clay (read Ephesians chapter 1 if you need more clarification on what God does).  If the lost sinner is the one who ensures his or her own salvation, then it makes the sinner something better than lost.

Psalms 110:3 - "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power."

Philippians 2:13 - "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Ezekiel 36:27 - "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."

The bottom line is this:

People who think they get saved by accepting Christ and not solely by a supernatural act of the Almighty (and through the preaching of the gospel) have seriously misunderstood what it means to be LOST.  If you are one of those folks you have a BIG problem.  What is that you ask?  You attribute to yourself qualities and abilities that God himself declares are NOT IN YOU, like the ability to turn to God while yet unsaved. 

If you are truly saved, then and only then read the following, meditate upon it and accept it as Biblical truth:

• Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

• I am ungodly apart from the Spirit of God dwelling within me. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

• I was lost but now am found. (Luke 19:10)

• I did not find myself. God sought me out and found ME. (Romans 10:20)

• I did not choose God. God chose me. (John 15:16)

• God chose me from before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4)

• I was spiritually dead and did not even know it so how in the world could I have sought God. (Ephesians 2:1)

• God had to open my spiritual eyes and save me before I was capable of knowing him, seeking him, following him, or serving him. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

What the free-will churches have done is rewrite the gospel to:

• Make man better than God says he is, and therefore capable of choosing the God that he is in rebellion against.

• Make God less than the Bible says He is, and therefore not electing people but rather relinquishing that task to those (the spiritually dead) who are actually incapable of accomplishing it. 

You say that's not exactly true, do you?  You say you agree that God elected people but only those whom He saw would choose Him when He looked down the corridors of time.  What nonsense, that's not choosing.  That's letting someone else do the choosing and then saying you did the choosing. That's called "lying".  God's not a liar.  Either HE did the choosing or the spiritually dead sinner does the choosing. And in my Bible, God says He does the choosing:

1Corinthians 1:28 - "And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen"

John 15:19 - "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

Ephesians 1:5 - "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will"

In order to "have an answer for everything" (meaning every objection to their free-will theology), these free-will churches have also distorted the truth about:

• Whom God loves and whom Jesus died for

• What Christ accomplished at the cross

• Whether or not you can lose your salvation

• Whether or not a person's will can resist or overpower God's will

• Whether or not "the sin of unbelief" is the unforgivable sin

• What happens to infants and children when they die

Does it matter if I believe in Free Will?

After all, shouldn't Christians just agree to disagree at times? The real question is, does it matter to God if a Christian believes the truth about God, the truth about the extent of the lostness of mankind and the truth about the Gospel of salvation.  Read these Bible verses and then decide for yourself if it matters what you believe about these things:

3John 1:4 - "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

Galatians 1:6 - "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

2Thessalonians 2:10 "... they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Summary

I strongly urge you to think "outside the box"... Do your own bible studies independent of your own church or denomination.  If you have never spent lots of quality time looking at Calvinism and why it is an absolutely true biblical doctrine and it is actually just a very accurate and concise summary of the Gospel, then how can you be sure that you have not been misled about the most important and essential of all doctrines in Christianity? 

I also recommend that you do some research into Church history also.  Find out who the Reformers were of the Protestant Reformation.  Find out what they believed.  Find out how modern day churches have drifted away from sound Biblical teaching regarding the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man.  Read books that were written by great Bible teachers of the past like John Gill, Martin Luther, John Owen, John Calvin, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, Robert Young, Arthur Pink and others.  And read biographies ABOUT these people so that you will know why they are worth learning from.  Ask yourself why so many churches and so many Christian book stores are full of books that were published recently by people who are popular for reasons that have nothing to do with the deep things of scripture, but simply because they are good story tellers who don't know any more about the sovereignty of God and depravity of man than most other professing Christians.

And lastly, I have to admit that I personally believe that Matthew 24:24* (and Galatians chapter 1) is referring to the false "free will" gospel that has replaced the unpopular truth of salvation by grace alone with the much more popular gospel of accepting Christ, as if the Alpha and Omega was just one more religion at a religious salad bar for self-righteous sinners of the world to choose from.  As for me, I don't tell people to "accept Christ" to get saved.  I tell them what sin is to a thrice holy God.  I tell them that all human righteousness is as filthy rags to God.  I tell them to seek the Lord while He may be found. I tell them what God tells me to tell them... from scripture.  God will use my preaching as He sees fit, to convert or condemn the hearers who are lost and to comfort, encourage, sharpen and perhaps chastise the hearers who are saved.

Don't like this message?  Well then you are not alone... "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." [1 Corinthians 1:18]

Ray Kane

* "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." [Matthew 24:24]

SEE ALSO:

• The Myth Of Free-Will
• Do All Bible-Believers Believe The WHOLE Bible?
• Decisional Regeneration
• Who Accepts Whom?
• Accepting Christ
• Objections to God's Sovereignty Answered
• Salvation Is Of God
• How Dead Is Dead?
• Of Those Texts Of Scripture Which Seem To Favour Universal Redemption
• Propitiation - A Big Word For A Great Accomplishment