Okay. Thank you.
What you don't believe is what is.
This Hebrew word comes from the Hebrew word
nadab, of which
Topical Lexicon says...
The verb נָדַב consistently underlines a movement of the heart that is neither coerced nor merely dutiful. It describes people stirred from within to give, serve, or step forward because they have first been moved by God. Throughout Scripture this spirit of readiness is linked to worship, stewardship, civic responsibility, and warfare, revealing a multifaceted biblical theology of voluntary devotion.
“Yes, it's true that Hosea shows God acts freely. But the only coherent meaning of ‘free will’ in Scripture is a will free from sin, just as I have claimed. Hosea 14:4 says, ‘I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away.’ Notice the subject: God heals, God loves, God turns anger away. Israel did not heal themselves, and God could not have chosen the other. That’s unconditional love, not voluntary choice. So, if Hosea proves free will, it proves God’s will — a will free from sin, immutable and faithful — not human autonomy.”
According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon...
STRONGS NT 1635: ἑκών
Paul uses both
hekón (willing) and
akón (unwilling) to show that his stewardship was not voluntary. Whether willing or unwilling, he is bound to preach. His point is not that he volunteered, but that he could not have chosen otherwise and been right before God. Hosea and Paul together prove God’s free will, not human autonomy.
The Greek word
hekousios - meaning free will, is the neuter of a derivative from
hekon;
voluntariness -- willingly, which is (an adjective, a primitive term) –
properly, willing; "unforced, of one's own will, voluntary" (J. Thayer), i.e. acting on one's own accord. The root (hek-) emphasizes intentional, deliberate action (choice), i.e. "of free-will" (J. Thayer).
Philemon 1:14, Paul does use
hekousios — voluntary, unforced. But notice the context: he is contrasting compulsion with consent in Philemon’s generosity. He is not teaching libertarian free will -> could've done the other.
Paul is showing the Holy Spirit is working in him through considerate brotherly love, so that Philemon’s goodness would be uncoerced, not forced.
adjective
Done or undertaken of one's own free will.
a voluntary decision to leave the job.
Acting or done willingly and without constraint or expectation of reward.
a voluntary hostage; voluntary community work.
Normally controlled by or subject to individual volition.
The act of willing or choosing; the act of forming a purpose; the exercise of the will.
The result of an act or exercise of choosing or willing; a state of choice.
The power of willing or determining; will.
These works are not beliefs. There are facts - works of academia.
The definition of the words here, are not subject to change based on one's belief.
They describe
free will, voluntary, willful, deliberate, and intentional action.
You cannot
accept them... so you claim, but at the same time
do not believe them.
You’re mistaken. I never said I don’t accept lexiconic terms. I fully acknowledge the academic definitions of
hekón and
hekousios as voluntary, unforced, deliberate. What I am saying is that they are being taken out of context when used to prove libertarian free will — the idea that one ‘could have done otherwise’, or the false autonomy of "the capacity to choose sin".
In Philemon 1:14, Paul contrasts compulsion with consent in generosity. In 1 Corinthians 9:17, he contrasts willing with unwilling, but either way it is stewardship. And in verse 16 he says, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach,’ which shows he could not have chosen otherwise and been right before God. So the definitions are facts, but the application is wrong. They describe posture in context, not metaphysical autonomy.
I cannot continue this conversation with you, as it would be similar to talking with someone who says they don't believe seas and oceans exist, simply because of their beliefs., and opening works of academia and showing that person that what they are denying is actually proven knowledge makes no difference to them.
Oh, come on. I do believe in seas and oceans? <-- I'm on the record. I don't want you to leave the discussion of my own free will in brotherly Love.
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