You are more important than you know

There is a difference between:

1. being deceived you have free will
2. not being sure if you have free will
3. attempting to educate yourself about the various arguments for creatures having or not having free will
4. knowing for certain that you do not have free will.

As a small thought exercise on the subject of having that spiritual and educational journey, see yourself as giving someone directions on which turns to take to end up at their desired destination. (destination is from the same root word as ‘destiny’, destination being used these days more particularly to mean a location goal while destiny is used to cover the whole life journey and end as relates to a final spiritual state. )

They ask for directions. You know where the place they are trying to get to actually is and where you both are now and reply with specifics on directions to get from where you are now to where they would like to be at the other end.

Suddenly, out of nowhere as far as you knew in advance, someone else shows up to dispute what you said. That disputation can take on a myriad of forms.

1. The disputer can accuse you of purposefully trying to get the one on the journey lost in whatever conversational way that comes out. They don’t give better specifics, they only showed up to call you a liar overtly or by implication. The disputer counters your specifics point by point in such a manner as to make plain that the disputer knows full and well the destination and knew that you had given correct specifics to the one on the journey and the disputer’s point is keep the one on the journey on any journey possible while discrediting you as a potential guide for all time. The disputer had arguments worked out in advance against your specifics and yet as far as you understood, the specifics you gave were spontaneous directions to a specific place. Something that seemed new and spontaneous to you has brought out an opposition you didn’t even knew existed but yet was well prepared to refute you in advance. In the middle of everything else going on, that understanding hits you.
2. The disputer can present their own set of specifics in contrast to yours but you know the one on the journey will not get to their desired destination with those specifics. They showed up to get the one on the journey frustrated and lost and part of that job is to dispute what you said in the nicest way possible given your and the traveler’s cultural background. One way of doing that is the disputer speaking to the one on the journey in a sound-a-like, look-a-like, emotionally indistinguishable vocabulary and manner that in fact has completely different meanings from the one you spoke and will cleverly get the one on the journey lost while instilling a feeling of having successfully arrived or being blessed by turning aside from the destination to the one on the journey. Initially to you it seems the disputer is in fact not a disputer but one who pointlessly confirms what you just said because it seems to you they only repeated what you had just now said and you only learn otherwise after many persons have asked for directions to that same destination, the same thing has happened and they never made it to the destination. For the longest time, you don’t understand how the ones on the journey can get lost after hearing two sets of what you initially thought were identical directions. After many such conversations, you now understand that the disputers purpose was both to confound the traveler on their journey and to deceive you that all had been done correctly that could have been done to guide the traveler to their desired destination and that the traveler had in fact reached it.

3. The disputer tells the one on the journey they are on the wrong journey, indicts you as not looking out for the best interest of the one of the journey, tells a witty joke about an unrelated subject and then laughs, using the laughter as supposed proof of camaraderie and friendship with you and the one on the journey and the ridiculousness of what you just said. This is sometimes accompanied with a third, fourth and fifth party walking up to the conversation or walking nearby, and generally giving the impression that they have repeatedly made it to the other destination than what the traveler asked for and have a high opinion and value the input of the disputer while they skeptically look at you.
4. The disputer starts carefully explaining a completely different and unrelated subject in great detail that they know in advance is of interest to the one on the journey …Or to you, while ignoring the traveler before the traveler could get complete directions from you. A favorite is the subject of having opinions and certainty wherein you are subsequently accused not of giving “wrong” specifics, ( and that means the disputer doesn’t have to be conversant on the subject at hand or actually know the way to the destination but is trying to enforce emotional rules in general about how any conversation can be had at any time so as to guarantee that the traveler will get lost very politely ) but of valuing your own “opinion” and wallowing in the sin of pride against other alternatives, all of this as a general observation that the traveler must agree with or openly admit a profound ignorance of even the vocabulary of the new conversation. Now that the traveler has supposedly agreed to the “emotional rules of giving and accepting directions”, the disputer starts over on other subjects.
5. The traveler is well known to the disputer, who takes every opportunity to start a conversation nearby with a fake traveler having the appearance of close if not identical values and desires as the real traveler about getting to the same destination, only to have that conversation repeatedly melt down into a quarrel or otherwise vain waste of time so as to discourage the traveler from even the subject of that destination. By the time the traveler shows up in front of you, they are a bit paranoid and very frustrated and distrustful of everything you say and suddenly the same conversation starts up nearby.
6. The disputer makes assertions about the destination questioning its existence and then shifts into an emotional manipulation framing his or her presence as integral to the travelers safety. When the traveler begins to realize that your specifics are being directly challenged, the disputer essentially asks the traveler “which you rather believe?” as appealing to outright fantasy over actual fact

You find all of this disturbing and amazing: somebody stopped for directions, you gave them what you knew to be complete and accurate directions and suddenly ..all this. What is going on? You get the general impression that what you thought would be a casual encounter with someone on their way to somewhere else is in fact of vital importance to a third party you may have heard a little about, but had never encountered and from what you had heard of that third party, they had nothing to do with the subject at hand. Over time, encounter after encounter, you come to understand why that third party has every stake in getting the traveler lost and keeping them lost. But the travelers for the most part, never do.

Now understand what is being asked; that the desired destination is certainty whether or not creatures have free will and the definition and obtaining of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have begun a journey with the expectations of encountering, at least at some point, some rather explicit directions on the subjects. You think the ‘knowledge’ is Out There, or In Here, and you only have to reach out and grab it and that certainty can be done by you with enough information or done to you by God ..with enough information. You start out thinking that of course you have free will and will use that freedom to investigate whether or not you actually have it. The vast majority have rather a naive outlook that the subjects are of interest only to individuals whenever they ‘happen to think about it’ and the answers can be had for the taking in a kind of idealized privacy and focused attention span that in fact does not exist and will not exist ‘during’ your investigation or after you are certain …except in short spurts you will always remember for the rest of your life partly because of the shear contrast with the storm. The moment you had the thought to really investigate the Arguments, the fight is on with an adversary you had formerly mistaken for a combination of your personal identity and a friend, quite beside its outright henchman and those who are just ignorant and are deceived they know it all. None but God will give it to you and even then you will have the constant impression of having to fight for every scrap of honesty and to see through the methods of many liars.

But that also means you are that important, beyond what you realized. Thoughts don’t come from nowhere and they are not self-derived.

Daniel 10:12 And he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to humble thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come because of thy words.

Luke 21:14,15 Settle therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand your defence, for *I* will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your opposers shall not be able to reply to or resist.

If God intends to give you understanding, you can’t miss and you can’t escape. If He doesn’t, you cannot obtain it and will only join the adversary to your soul as an ally. You’ll end up the very sophisticated disputer and happy to oblige.

Isaiah 26:10 If favour be shewn to the wicked, he doth not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness he dealeth unjustly, and beholdeth not the majesty of Jehovah.

Romans 9:15,16 For he says to Moses, I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy, and I will feel compassion for whom I will feel compassion. So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shews mercy.

If it were only a matter of disputing words and concepts in a single, powerless language, truly the conversation would be worthless and would be one proof from the side that says you have free will that it is a worthless conversation to have. Why quarrel? Thus the success within a certain limit of the Disputer’s method of starting many such conversations only to have them carefully guided so as to result in vain rhetorical circles that melt down into quarrels and insults and as much as he can, to portray that as the archtypical and inevitable result of the investigation.

But it isn’t the case that the words are all the same on both sides. God’s Word, in the Bible and that He speaks through me and has spoken and will speak through many others is powerful and not at all will-neutral, powerless ‘information’ you are to take and do something with to better yourself. The truth is Christ Himself. You will gain a Who (Father, Son/Word of God/Jesus Christ ) and Holy Spirit, not a ‘what’ as Truth in Jesus Christ. The disputer seeks to keep from you a ‘what’ and is himself deceived. He actually believes his vain ruse is the truth and it is easy to be deceived by his sincerity that is his best honesty. If you are destined to be my brother or sister in Christ, then you will encounter Disputers aplenty and come to understand that persecution is not mere emotional negatives against you or even physical death to kill your body, but is an entire army of complete lives who are occupied day and night to discourage you, get you lost in conversation, make your activities out to be vain and to make you an evil sign in the midst of a larger populace as an larger method of controlling behavior over nations.

And that is by God’s design as if to overtly say “Only those I choose can worship me in truth. You can’t drive by and leave me some ‘worship’ on the doorstep. No one saves themselves.” God has constructed a living gauntlet and maze which He will run through you or you will die somewhere in it.

Matthew 9:12,13 But Jesus hearing it, said, They that are strong have not need of a physician, but those that are ill. But go and learn what that is–I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I have not come to call righteous men but sinners.

Amos 5:21-24 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell a sweet odour in your solemn assemblies. For if ye offer up unto me burnt-offerings and your oblations, I will not accept them ; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fatted beasts. Take away from me the noise of thy songs, and I will not hear the melody of thy lutes; but let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream.

The attentive observer will note the exact similarities between  the attacks against the gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of the lie of human free will and the lies of the press and Democratic Party in the favor of the criminal and murderer, Hillary Clinton.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen