Saturday, April 30, 2011

Chosen But Free by Norman Geisler

After reading Norman Geisler’s book Chosen but Free. Chapter one is called Ideas do have consequences and this chapter is one that I kept coming back to when I was reading through the book because it stood out in my mind. Once I read the chapter title I knew this was going to be the chapter I would keep coming back to because it is a topic that I am very interested in studying. As the book states, “the thoughts we entertain tend to influence our choices.” “Belief leads to behavior. Ideas lead to actions.” I find these sentences to be powerful statements that are life changing. This is the theme and key to the whole book. If your beliefs in God are not strong and faithful then your actions towards God will be weak and faithless. In Christianity if you do not have strong beliefs and actions towards God then you are more likely to sin and fall further away from God. Your ideas influence everything that you do. If you question God or His ability in your life then your faith is fleeting from God and Satan will cause you to see more wrong with God causing you to lose faith. Our beliefs lead to our behavior because if you have a strong faith in God and your faith then you will want to bring more people closer to God by soul winning. How one thinks about divine sovereignty and human free will and to the extreme they hold them out will affect one’s lifestyle. Either one of these views can lead to a good or bad consequences depending on how one holds each issue. If one holds the theory of divine sovereignty to an extreme view then one could feel helpless that there is nothing that person can do to change their future because God has already planned it out. Everyone wants to have the ability to choose their own path in life and to make their own decisions because no one wants to believe that there life is already planned out for them and that no matter what they do they cannot change it.  One can also take free will for granted by choosing whether to accept or to reject salvation. By not excepting God then one could lose an opportunity that could potentially save their life in some way depending on whether they are living a destructive lifestyle. Faith in God gives one a new outlook on life and a new found confidence and ability to make life decisions easier. Free choice has always been a plan for us from God but free choice leads people sin more because we already have a sin nature that we are born with. Free choice can be the worst or best thing in someone’s life because some people have a bad habit of always choosing the wrong path in life to go down. Divine sovereignty and free will are both topics that I enjoy reading about and I love the fact that Norman Giesler put biblical verses to prove everything that he was saying.
 Word Count: 516

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