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In article <02278CC9-BA81-CA32-DB38-4774EC95326A@srcbs.org>, Bob Felts says...

>Gary wrote:

>> "Bob Felts" wrote in message
>> news:153.21.08.05.277551000@srcbs.org...

>> > Gary McNees wrote:

>> Bob Felts said: "So there are some things that God
>> _cannot_ will, therefore His will isn't free."

>> Since this is what Bob means when he says "free will," it
>> is plain why there is so much confusion and arguing about
>> free will.

>> Two points:

>> 1) God cannot lie. So this is something God cannot do.

>> 2) You cannot fly to the moon (without any machine).
>> Hence you have no "free will."

>> Such reasoning it so ludicrous that it is not worthy of
>> response.

>If that were the argument being made, I would agree with
>you. But you don't understand what is being said.

Is that so? He quoted you directly. Or do you deny having
said that "His will isn't free"?

>Making a choice is a mental action. Flying to the moon is
>a physical action. You are equating apples with oranges
>when you (wrongly) compare the two.

No, he is doing no such thing. There is an all-important
distinction between 'wish' and 'will'. You can _wish_ to do
what is physically impossible, but you cannot _will_ it. Nor
can you choose it. How many times must you be told this
before you get the point? When will you finally do your
homework and read Book II chapters 22-25 of St. John of
Damascus's "On the Orthodox Faith"?

But of course, you really would rather ignore this
all-important distinction, to give yourself an excuse to
hold on to Calvinist fantasy.

>> The Calvinist theory is, evidently, that since man does
>> not have free will to fly to the moon on his own, he
>> cannot receive Christ by faith!

>Not so. The Calvinist theory is that the unregenerate man
>cannot will to believe the Gospel.

Oh, how easy it would be for you, if we would believe you,
when you say "not so". But no, we will not make it so easy
for you to pull the wool over our eyes.

The fact of the matter is, Gary's illustration is apt. But
this is embarassing to you, so you deny it groundlessly, and
hope we will not notice that did it groundlessly.

But Gary was not kidding when he said he read and studied
much Calvinism. And the fruit of that "much study" was to
decide that yes, Calvinism _is_ as bad as claiming a man has
no free will because he cannot flap his arms and fly to the
moon.

Give up your equivocation, Bob. Stop pretending you can
legitimately confuse 'will', 'wish' and 'choice' just
because your forefathers in confusion, the Calvin