Queen's Road Cell

 I gave homework to think about 'free will' (which only Bon did - well done, Bon!) A common concept of free will is that we have the power to choose in any way we please, independent of prior events or inclinations. This would be 'libertarian' free will. It is said, then, that if our choices are guided, then we could not be held responsible for them. There would be incompatibility between the soverignty of God and the 'free will' of man, and God is held to have abdicated soverignty to man to enable meaningful choices to love and follow Him. Similarly, because of the Fall, the world is 'broken', and God likewias abdicates responsibilty for the presence of evil. On the other hand, Scipture rejects libertarian free will. We have moral responsibility for our choices, yet God remains sovereign over them. He balances these 2 things with absolute justice in a mysterious way (Acts 2:42)   6. Bloody and battered in the stocks of a lightless prison, Paul and Sila...

 For Thought and Discussion:  a. Why was it necessary for God to open Lydia’s heart to respond to Paul’s message (see 16:14)?  Beause it is not the wisdom or persusasiveness of the preacher or witness that moves people to saving faith - it is the gift of God. We took time off to consider the necessity of God's work in causing people to respond savingly to the gospel message. As with the Gentiles of Cornelius' household (Ac 11:18, cf. 2 Tim 2:25), it is God who enables saving faith (Eph 2:8-9), not our own efforts.   Ruth mentioned John 6:44-45, 65, which also speaks of man's inability to come to God unless God draws him. In my view, then, Scripture speaks of God's monergistic work in salvation, not a synergistic effort where He takes 99 steps and we take 1 step. We are not merely helpless, needing only to open our mouths  to receive life-giving medicine. We are dead, completely unable to respond without the work of the Spirit  (Eph 2:1, 5; Co...