Very interesting; It is fascinating that you have taken the mystery of why adam sinned and consequently concluded that it is a mystery why anyone choose God. There is, however a fundamental difference between Adam (man in his pre-fallen condition) and man (in his post-fallen condition).
Adam before the fall was not contaminated by sin. Sin was not in his life. He had no sinful nature. Now what do I mean by a sinful nature? Do I mean that he had some entity outside of himself causing him to sin? Certainly not! The word nature here is meant in the following sense: genetically controlled qualities of an organism, or the inherent character/basic constitution
of a thing.
Now what does this all mean? Since words are nothing more then
symbols annotating meaning. I will give you a word picture:
The nature of a lion is to kill. This desire to kill and hunt for food is not outside of the
lion but an inherent characteristic of the lion.
Here’s another:
A doe naturally is a peacful animal. It goes from place to place grazing. It will only fight to
defend itself or family but does not seek other animals with the desire to kill
them.
Both of these animals are examples of how God created them with
particular natures.
Now, getting back to man…
Man before the fall did not have a natural inclination to sin. He naturally did not want to sin. Or did he? That is another question that I will leave for another time –for time’s sake. However, if you do say this, then your stating that God created man with a nature (desire/ inclination) to sin. This opens up a can of worms.
We do know that man(after the fall) is born with sinful desires in his heart. It is part of our nature to rebel against God. This passed down from Adam, thus resulting in a sin nature. Adam’s choice to sin without a natural desire to sin is nothing like our choice to sin because we indeed have a sin nature.
To illustrate this point is another word picture:
A doe choosing to kill another doe and eat it is wholly different than a doe eating
grass. The first doe is going against its nature by killing and eating one of it’s own. The other doe is only following its nature.
When we analyze how we choose our actions, this point becomes more clear. Man, or decision making entity, decides to act or make a decision. We only ever do what we want to do.
What does this mean? Well, let’s first examine what this doesn’t mean. This doesn’t mean that I am always 100% for an action– as in I even want to take that course of action, such as going to work. I don’t want to go to work. I would much rather do various other things. So then why do I go to work? Because I would rather work than starve. My desire to not go to work is less then my desire to starve. Once again, even in an action I am not completely for, I still did what I wanted to do.
If your desire to not go to work was 51% and desire to go to work was 49%, would you go to work? No, because you would rather not work than work. Very simple concept but yet very hard to truly absorb.
How does this apply to the discussion at hand? Since man only does his greatest inclination at any given time, then he is bound by his desires. Therefore, if man does good then his desire was to do what is good over that which is evil. Likewise, if man does what is evil that means his desire to do what is evil is greater than his desire to do good.
Is man prior to being saved and receiving a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone evil or good? Before you say that is a false dichotomy… What if he is morally neutral? He could, theoretically, be neutral but by what basis does he choose right from wrong? He would have to choose based on an arbitrary decision or a decision outside of moral considerations. This would make his moral decisions meaningless and God’s corresponding wrath of his meaningless decisions unjust. If man chooses to make a moral decision it has to be meaningful.
Once again, how does he make these decisions? Based off of his inclinations or desires. How does he receive these inclinations or desires? Are they against his nature or from his nature.
If you answered they are against his nature, this is impossible. If they are against what he was, then he couldn’t possibly do it. If he did this, it would only prove that this was a part of his nature. It all goes back to you can’t do what you don’t want to do. You can’t use what you don’t have.
If man is morally evil, then it is impossible for him to choose good. His evil desires will always be greater than his nonexistent good desires. Even if man did have a 49% good and 51% percent evil, he would still never choose to do good. He would have to be morally good, or at least 51%
good and 49% evil, to choose good — I.E. choose the goodness of the gospel of
Christ. If this were the case, then all men would choose good. However, we know this is not the case.
What if man was 50% good and 50% evil? Could this be a possibility? Unfortunately, no. If this was the case, man would be unable to make a decision at all. This lack of a decision would be a decision to not choose God. Thus, all men would go to hell. This is not reflective of reality.
This brings us to the question: if all men are evil (at least 51% evil), then why would anyone choose good? According to my previous words he wouldn’t. This is an accurate assessment, and this is where Calvinism comes into play: God is the one who places that desire into man, giving him the desire to choose good over evil. God, which is his sovereign right, also allows other men to remain in their evil state.
Now, I am in no way trying to convince you of Calvinism through this analysis of man’s decision making. I am simply trying to say that Calvinism is completely logical, and the alternative is either undiscovered or illogical. I say undiscovered because it is a possibility. This is, however, highly unlikely. God has given teachers to the church, to discover and share His truth. Truth is important to God, and He wants us to worship Him in truth and in spirit. It is possible that God would not have revealed this mystery to one of His servants. But, it is unlikely that God would leave us in the
dark on such an important truth.
Remember, fellow servant of God, that He created logic. Without logic, there would be no way to interpret anything or put meaning on any of God’s Word. Logic is not a Christian’s enemy, but his friend.
Some things are beyond logic, but they are never illogical. Is man’s moral inability to choose what he doesn’t want to illogical? –quite the opposite Man choosing what he has no desire to choose is illogical.
In conclusion, we have to study the Word of God and see what it reveals about the condition of man. I see that the Word consistently teaches that man is evil and not that man is good. If this is true, you then match this up with understanding that man only does what he desires to do. The result is total inability. This leads to the question: how is anyone saved? And you have a mystery until you read the scriptures and find out about God’s sovereign election. Thus, the doctrines wee refer to as Calvinism.
Now, there is so much more I would like to say about why Adam, Satan, and the angels choose evil, but that would be too much for this one article. I would also love to show you in scripture where God talks about the condition of man and sovereign election, but this again would be too much for this article.
I hope this helps. God bless you; abide in the fear of the Lord and shun evil.
Many Start, Few Finish: Luke 5:12-15
In Luke 5:12-15 we find a man who has eprosy, a man totally in total desolation and completely; he needs a savoir
and known other. No one else but Jesus can cure this man of his incurable. All man is in this condition due to sin. It is just not as obvious or apparent as leprosy, but it is none less real.
This man approached Jesus as we all should: with worship and humility. In verse 12 ‘…saw Jesus he fell on his face and said Lord if you are willing, You can make me clean. ‘ Once he received his healing, verse 13 ‘immediately the leprosy left him’, He quickly became disobedient and forgetful of what the Lord commanded him. The Lord commanded, not suggested, that he was ‘to tell no one and but go show yourself to the priest…’ even though this commandment was
strange and was counterintuitive to the man, he was still required to be obedient to it.
Let this man be a lesson. So many of us start the race off strong but so few of us finish it. James 1:22 “… he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” Let us be better than this. Let’s not forget the men we were, and the men we are striving to become.
The Christian life is a marathon not a sprint. Many have started off strong, but few and finished the race they have started.
Finally, the cleansed man reveals to us sometimes God commands us to do things that we don’t agree with or seem strange, but this shouldn’t be surprising to us for the Lord said ‘my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not
your thoughts.’ Are job as his slaves is not to question Him, Our Master, but to obey him – regardless if we agree or totally understand. This is part the process of renewing our minds.
Philippians 1:12 & 20 & 28-29 – God works all things for his glory.
God bless you; be blamess, upright, fear God, and shun evil — Job 1:1.