Scripture does not describe a free will that is free and independent of God.  No, there is no such free will.  Any "free will" we may designate in man is granted by the Father scripturally, it conceptually is an agency, always in the context of God's own overriding and consuming will in his created universe.  Otherwise to be free of God's own will would be to exist in nothingness.  The lauding and magnifying of man's own "free will" is truly an exercise of his own arrogance.

Therefore, to the extent this scriptural understanding of the sovereignty of God and man's "free will" guide the answer to your questions, they do co-exist.

WickStick,
any good C-plan man knows the "any" refers only to the "elect"; God does not give a rip about the rest.

and Dman, do you think that or has that been put in your head?  I somehow think we both have "chosen" to think the way we do, whether out of "arrogance" (to quote you) or out of ignorance, or both.

I am just a poor, ignorant sinner, but the more I examine the C-plan vs. the A-plan, the C-plan seems to be more and more gnostic.  I have a friend here locally who keeps a picture of the 4 Reformers on his desktop, and he is like talking to glazed-eyed cult member.  But, then I talk to A-plan people, and many of them are downright legalists!

I will pray for unity among all believers!  LOL

It is interesting that God can do anything that He wishes or wants.  He does as He wills.   Absloutely anything except, of course, to give man the free will to chose.  That is completely beyond His capability.  The other thing of course is that even though God created man in His own image, it only took one lowly man Adam to completely undo that so that any image that God created in man is ruined for all time and has to be repaired by God for those He "elects".  The rest as you noted, He couldn't care less.

Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

Isa 58:2  For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.

Amo 5:14  Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.

2Th 1:6  God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
2Th 1:8  He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Rev 15:3  and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.

Rev 16:7  And I heard the altar respond: "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments."

Rom 1:18  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Rom 1:19  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

If we do not have a free will to choose God how can God be just.

What can be known of God has been made plain to all the Godless people, because God has revealed it to them.

News flash we know we are guilty, and must choose either to come to God when He calls or die in our sins.

Rom 1:20  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Men know and yet refuse to obey the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Rom 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Rom 1:22  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
Rom 1:23  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Those godless fools know He is God, and yet do not give Him thanks.

Big holes, really big holes.

Joh 8:28  So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
Joh 12:32  But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."
Joh 6:44  "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

The message of Jesus is the Way the Father draws all men to himself, through His Son Jesus Christ.

Rom 1:16  I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Choose this day a blessing or a curse.

FTL

Sorry, I meant to respond but got involved in something else.

Yes, I think we mostly agree here.  My post was not so much sarcasm as tongue-in-cheek.  God cares dearly for each and every one of us.  When asked which of her eleven children she loved the most, my wife's grandmother replied, "The one that is away until he returns and the one that is sick until he is well."  That love came from God who, I believe, feels very much the same way.

Something that I've been theorizing with on this matter.  Ok, we know God knows what's going to happen before it does, he sees the timeline outside of the linear, and knows full well the complete story of man from the beginning to the end.  Now, if he saw the entire show and decided that without his intervention, many would turn away from him, in his wisdom opted to step in from time to time and nudge these individuals towards the right path, similar to a shepard tending his flock, knowing full well, these lost lambs can be recovered and saved, yet require his help in the process knowing the outcome if he did not, then his freewill is clearly defined in those circumstances.  You almost think of there being two time lines, one with his intervention, kind of like a trial run where man is left to his own devices using his freewill unabated, and one with his involvment, the final run so to speak.

What this does is allow man to still have free will, it also allows a guided effort by God to keep who has the potential to be saved, saved, and the ones where no amount of prodding by him will get them to change their mind and their own use of their own freewill, which in all scenereo's turn away from him, he leaves them to their own devices knowing they refuse to be saved.

It's just a theory guys, but it helps to make more sense of it all and I can't say it's impossible for him to run things this way, for he can do anything he wants.

It is God's will that you all humans must urinate.

You get up in the morning and realize God's will is about to be done.

Now the choice, you can go to the bathroom, or you can wet your PJ's, either way God's will, will be done.

In the beginning God through Christ created all things, In the end God through Christ will judge all things.

In the middle we can choose Jesus Chrsit as our savior, or meet Him as the judge.

The choice is yours.

FTL

There is no conflict between the sovereignty of God and God's giving man free will.  The conflict is only in what some say that God cannot do, such as , giving man free will.

Hi Jimmy,
It is not a question of God not being able to do any thing! It is a question of has He given.
I have searched the Sciptures and have not found any evidence of the natural man having a the will to do anthing (apart from Grace) but sin!

God Himself, cannot sin!!!

Rom 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;
  Rom 3:10 as it is written,
"THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
  Rom 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
  Rom 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
  Rom 3:13 "THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,"
"THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS";
  Rom 3:14 "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS";
  Rom 3:15 "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
  Rom 3:16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,
  Rom 3:17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN."
  Rom 3:18 "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."


Hobbit