Questions on Natural Man’S Freewill

with its Biblical Answers and Historical Surveys

I Corinthians 2:14 –“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned”.(KJV)

Almost a hundred percent nowadays from different sects and denominations adhered, believed, and
teaches that man’s salvation is depending on how man exercises his own decision/freewill. Some have contention
and criticized others not knowing that they are in harmony in the teaching about the freewill doctrine. They
teaches different ways of salvation like salvation by good works, obedience of the law, baptism, church
membership and while others are right thought in salvation only by merit of Christ at cross of Calvary. But then the
essence of their teachings are harmonized by the freewill doctrine as they preaches that man should initiate first in
exercising his God given freewill and decide to do good works, obey the law, be baptized, be a church member, or
choose Christ in order to be born again and be save. By their differences, they are united in the salvation that
depending upon the decision or choice of man. Is that what really the Bible revealed to us that our salvation is
depending upon our own decision that even we are in our natural state being a natural man we can be save though
exercising our own will/decision? I can’t even imagine God who created a creature who is far greater than Himself
because of freewill, that God cannot do as He pleases or dispose His Plans over man the creature because of his
freewill and because of that it compels us to study the will of the natural man according to the passage given above.

I- What does it mean of being a Natural Man?

Answer: To understand the meaning of being natural man we must first examine the term “natural”.
1 – Natural means- of or pertaining to one’s nature or constitution; inborn. (Webster Illustration
Contemporary Dictionary pg. 482).
2 – Natural according to Vines– PSUCHIKOS, belonging to the PSUCHE, “soul” ( as the lower part of the
immaterial in man), natural, physical, describes the man in Adam and pertains to him(set contrast to
PNUEMATILOS,” spiritual”)I Cor.2:14;15;44(twice) 46 (in the latter used as a noun); Jas.3:15
”sensual” (RV.marg. natural or animal), here relating perhaps more especially to the mind, a wisdom in accordance
with, or springing from, the corrupt desires and affection; so in Jude19. (Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of
Old and New Testament Words, pg. 426-427).
3 – The Bible describes the natural man as:
a- A sinner from the womb (Psa.51:5; Isa.48:8).
b- Born in the flesh Jn.3:6.
c- Evil from childhood (Prov.22:15; Gen.8:21).
d- Defiled of sin from head to toes (Isa. 1:5).
e- The faculties of the human nature are being ruled by sin: heart – (Gen. 6:5;8:21; Jer.17:9; Matt.
15:18); mind – (Rom.8:5,7); conscience – (Tit. 1:15); eyes –( Prov. 21;2;IICor.3-4;Rom.3:8); ears
– (Jn.8:43,47;Jer.5:21;Isa. 43:7).
f- Unregenerate having not the Spirit of God (Eph.4:18; Jude19, Rom.8:8-9).
g- By nature children of wrath (Eph.2:3).
Therefore the natural man is corrupted of sin and is dominated of its sinful nature (Job 25:4-6).

II- Why the Natural Man become corrupt, deprave and dominated by sin?
Answer: Back from the days of the first human being our first human father Adam. God created him with natural
body (Gen.2:7; I Cor. 44-46), God gave Adam a helpmate which was created out of Adam’s natural body whom he
called Eve (Gen. 2:21-23). Before Eve was created God has already commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil because in the day you eat the forbidden fruit you shall surely die (Gen.2:16-
17).Although Eve knew the forbidden fruit perhaps through Adam, she was beguiled and fall by the shrewdness of
Satan. Adam after he saw Eve holding the forbidden fruit knowing Eve did ate and disobeyed God’s commandment,
he Adam exercise his undefiled freewill and did ate the fruit, he chooses to disobeyed his Creator than to lose a
beautiful wife like Eve. When Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit that God forbade to them has actually experienced
death at the day they ate the fruit. It is not by substance of the fruit that they died and fall into sin but because of
disobedience to God death came upon them not the physical death that they have experienced but spiritual death
because Adam lived 930 years physically after he did ate the fruit (Gen.5:1). In the Bible death means separation,
like the physical death the body and the spirit are separated (Jas.2:26), in spiritual death as experienced by our
first parents they become separated from the holiness of God because of sin (Isa.59:2; Eph.2:1), they become short
of the glory of God (Rom.3:23).
Adam the first human after his fall into sin did not lost he freedom to will but the freedom he possesses
could not extend anymore to spiritual apprehension, knowledge and emotion. He loses the spiritual ability and
connection to God whereby Adam is free to will only to fulfill the desires of his sinful and fleshly fallen condition, he
become a slave of sin (Jn.8:34; Rom.6:20; 2Pet.2:19) that made him not to seek God but instead decided to hid and
covered his sins (Gen.3:8; Job.31:33; Rom.3:10-11). After his fall into sin, Adam eventually exercised his will to
dressed up himself before the presence of God but then it did not meet the required standard of God, so it is needed
that God clothed him up (Gen.3:21). As far as the Bible shows clothe symbolizes two righteousness: 1-man’s
righteousness (Isa.64:6). 2- God’s righteousness (Rev.19:8; Rom.8:33; 2Cor.5:21). The consequence of Adam’s
disobedience results death and as Adam the first human being created directly by God he represents all the human
race that thereby put all his race unto death physically and spiritually (Rom.5:12,17-19). Every human being born
naturally in this world inherits the corrupt, deprave and dominant sinful fleshly nature of Adam (Psa.51:5;
Isa.48:8; Gen.8:21; Job.14:4).

III- Why the Natural Man received not the things of the Spirit of God and neither can he know them?
Answer: Because natural man is:
1- Dead in trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1). A physical dead person is impossible to understand because he
neither can see nor can hear (Eccl.9:10), the same situation of a spiritually dead person cannot receive and
understand spiritual things (Matt.13:13).
2- Still in the flesh (Jn3:6) and those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom8:8), always mind and do the
things of the flesh (Rom.8:5; Gal.5:19-21).
3- Not born again in the Spirit. John 3:3 states-“Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of
God”. The word see rendered in Greek ιεδο “iedo” which means to know, understand, perceive. Man must
be born again to know/understand the spiritual realm of God, 1Cor.2:14 says - …”spiritually discerned”.
4- Alienated from the life of God; “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of the heart”(Eph.4:18).
5- Servants of corruption (2Pet.2:19).

IV- What is the will of a Natural Man?

Answer:
1- Loves darkness rather than light (Jn.3:19).
2- Wise to do evil than good (Jer.4:22).
3- Likes to fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal.516-21; Eph.2:3)
4- Cannot cease from sin (2Pet.2:14)
5- Never seek God (Psa.10:4; 14:1-3; Rom.3:10-12).
6- Impenitent (Rom.2:5).
7- Never come to Christ (Jn.5:40 compare Jn.6:44).

V- How the sinful nature effect to the will of a Natural Man?

Answer:
The sinful nature of a natural man effects the will in the way that the nature controls the will, and the will is
the cause of man’s action. Let us elaborate this in a backward sequential way; 1 st- action is being execute through
will, 2nd- the will is influence by inducement and reason of the mind with the desire and inclination of the heart. 3 rd-
mind and heart is ruled by the nature. In the case of a natural man, his knowledge and emotion is bound to follow
his sinful nature as he acts as an agent or servant of it. The nature does affect the heart and mind to incline and
convince the will to cause an action. The Bible shows examples of how the human exercise will.
 1- Eve the first woman, mother of all human race. By her eyes she got knowledge of the fruit as it states;
“It was pleasant to the eyes”. Her mind induces the will because of the pleasantness of the fruit of which
she saw. Her heart desired to the fruit of which she gained knowledge. Then her will cause action to
picked the forbidden fruit (Gen.3:6).
2- Delilah, she willed to beguile Samson because she knew that from doing so she could earn money,
because her heart was already a lover of money (Judges 16:4-6)
3- Saul the first who reign as king of Israel- his heart was envied and his mind was troubled because of
David’s fame. Saul’s envied affection and troubled mind cause him to willfully intent to kill David but it
failed (1Sam.18:8-11).
By these examples, we can see how the mind and heart influence the will and cause to act. The will is not
dependent in its own as to act contrary and separately from the faculties of the human nature. Christ said “for out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt.
15:19).
Now the natural man in his sinful state that is governed by the sinful nature, we can certainly says that his
will and volition acted freely in harmony to the affection and knowledge of the dominant sinful nature. Our Lord
Jesus Christ already taught this truth;”Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt,
and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good
things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart
bringeth forth good things: and evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things “(Matt.12:33-35). That is
the reason why spiritual things are only foolishness to the natural man because his heart is set to love darkness
than light (Jn.3:19), having a deceitful heart (Jer.17:9). His mind is set to do the things of the flesh (Rom.8:5),
having a mind who is wise to do evil than good (Jer.4:22). He cannot discern spiritual things because he is still in
the flesh and those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom.8:8).

VI- Is the Natural Man’s will is free ?

Answer: When we talk about the freedom to will of a natural man, he is free to will but not in the sense that his will
is free beyond his natural sinful state, he is free within the boundaries of his sinful condition but could not surpass
or extend in exercising and attaining spiritual things. The natural man’s will is subjected only into one direction
that is downward, he is free to act sinfully according to the lust and will of the flesh (Rom.8:5, Gal.5:19-21). The
prevalent thoughts among the freewill advocates nowadays is that man is his sinful natural state has not lose its
freedom to will, that there is freewill/decision remained in him and that God is waiting for the sinner to exercise
that will/decision and come to Him. However, that would be a direct contradiction to the plain statement of Christ,
No man CAN come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him(Jn.6:44 KJV). Now if men are free and
not in a bondage of sin or slave of sin, the question is: What is the sense of Christ freeing sinners from their sins?
Christ said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the
house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall free indeed.” (Jn8:34-36). Is
there any wise men in the Christian denominations that could say Christ is wrong for stating we are in the bondage
of sin?
In further explanation and illustration to this I prefer to quote Elder Tom Ross in his book the “Abandoned
Truth”- it says:
Man’s will is free only within the boundaries of his nature. It is free in only one sense; it is free to act
according to its sinful nature but totally free from holiness. Romans 6: 19-20 states: “ I speak after the manner of
men because of the infirmities of your flesh: for as ye have yielded (willfully submitted to) your member servants
to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now(now that you are saved) yield your members servants to
righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were FREE FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS”
(emphasis Tom Ross). Jesus taught precisely the same truth in John 8:34; ..”Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever
committeth sin is the servant of sin”. Jeremiah 13:23 states: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”
This truth can be illustrated in several ways. A. W. Pink wrote: I hold in my hand a book. I release it; what
happens? It falls. In which direction? Downwards; always downwards. Why? Because answering the law of gravity,
its own weight sinks it. Suppose I desire that book to occupy a position three feet higher; then what? I must lift it; a
power outside of that book must raise it. Such is the relationship which fallen man sustains toward God. Whilst
Divine power upholds him, he is preserved from plunging still deeper into sin; let power that power be withdrawn,
and he falls his own weight of sin drags him down. God does not push him down, anymore than I did that book. Let
all Divine restraint be removed, and every man is capable of becoming, would become a Cain, a Pharaoh, a Judas.
How then is the sinner to move heaven wards? By an act of his own will? Not so. A power outside of himself must
grasp hold of him and lift him every inch of the way. The sinner is free, but free in one direction only free to fall,
free to sin…. The sinner is free to do as he pleases(except as he is restraint by God), but his pleasure is to sin...
G. S. Bishop gave the following illustration: A man is free to use his hand. The man is free, but the hand is
not free; the arm and muscles control it. The hand is the slave of the muscle, and acts as the muscle compels. In like
manner, man is free to use his will, and is therefore always a free agent; but the will itself is not free. It is controlled
by the affections, which are evil and earthly and sensual, and these again are controlled by the understanding and
judgment, which call evil good and which are perverted, blinded, deluded, by the god of this world. (Tom Ross,
Abandoned Truth, “The Doctrines of Grace”. Pg.48-49)
In addition to this as we further go through the scriptures, there is a much clearer illustration or more vivid
symbolic thing that describes the inability of man and his slavery of sin as we are figuratively represented as a
dying leaf “But WE ARE ALL as an unclean thing , and all our righteousnesses are as FILTHY RAGS; and we all
do fade as a LEAF; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away(Isa. 64:6). Upon comtemplating this
passage as a leaf separated and fallen from the tree, we can imagine that a leaf has no ability nor will to go back to
branch where

VII – Does the Natural Man by exercising his own will save himself ?
Answer: If a man can save himself by exercising his own freewill, God would not suffer to send His only begotten
Son to died at the cross of Calvary and He would have not also send the Holy Spirit to regenerate and make us what
is spiritually good. But the fact still remains that we are unable to save ourselves by just exercising our own will
since it is under the dominion of sin and always love to sin(Jer. 13:23; John 8:34), and cannot do what is pleasing in
the eye of God(Rom. 8:8; 1Cor. 2:14). That is why God from eternity ordained Christ to died for our sins(1Pet.1:18-
20)and the Holy Spirit to make us alive and guide us in all spiritual affairs(John 6:44-45;14:26).
The Bible declares that man may obtain salvation not of his own will but only by the grace of God as apostle
Peter said: “But we believe that through grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they”(Acts 15:11),
apostle Paul added: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not
of works lest any man should boast for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. “(Eph. 2:8-10). Now on this stand point shows very clear
that only by God’s grace that we are saved for IT IS NOT OF OURSELVES IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD and no man can
add or mingled with it by his own decision/freewill or other efforts because salvation is purely FREE-GRACE of
God and not by man’s freewill/decision, read this following passages:
“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God[children of God], even to
them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood [not by bloodline], NOR THE WILL OF THE
FLESH[decision of the flesh], NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN[decision of the man], but of God” (John 1:12-13).
[emphasis mine]
“So then it is NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH[ that decides], nor of him that runneth[that works] but of God
that sheweth mercy”(Rom.9:16)[emphasis mine]
“For it is GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU BOTH TO WILL and to do His good pleasure” (Phil.2:13)
[emphasis mine]
“Of HIS OWN WILL BEGAT HE US with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His
creatures” (James 1:18).[emphasis mine]

VIII – What is the Belief of the Ancient Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ regarding this Freewill
Doctrine?
Answer: Before we come to show to you the standing of the ancient churches of Lord Jesus Christ regarding the
freewill doctrine. Let us first present the identifying marks of the church of which truly owned by Christ because in
this modern times a lot of sects claimed that they too are the true church of Christ notwithstanding that they are
just but a man-made churches, only founded by men or an apostate churches who already departed from the
doctrines of Christ. The true church built and founded by Jesus Christ can be identified through its distinguishing
marks with its Biblical foundation and Historical existence.
Let us turn for a while to another vital truth in identifying the Lord’s church because our Lord only glorified
in His own church (Eph. 3:21). Christ church will be identified through its distinctive Biblical marks like the
following:
1) Built only by Christ and not by any human founder (Psa.127:1 compare ITim.3:15; Matt.16:18;
1Cor.3:11; 1Pet.2:4-8,Col.1:18)
2) Built during the personal ministry of Christ and not on this recent days or even before the human birth
of Christ(Matt.4:17; Luke 3:23; 1Cor.12:28; compare Luke 6:12-16; Mark 3:14)
3) Built at the seashore of Galilee, City of Bethsaida, country of Israel. It was not built in Italy, Rome nor
elsewhere in the continent of Europe, nor in America, nor in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, nor in any
place in the world(Matt.4:18-22; John 1:35-51). The word church came from the Greek word εκκλεσια
“ekklesia” which means a called out assembly, Christ started calling out His assembly at the seashore of
Galilee.
4) Built with the promise of perpetuity as a local assembly (Matt. 16:18; 28:20) and in continuity of
holding Christ doctrines (1Tim.3:15; 2Tim. 2:2; 1Cor.4:6; Eph. 5:26-27)
5) Built with doctrines and practices originated only from Christ (Mark 7:7; 1Tim.4:1; compare
Matt.28:20; John 14:26; 2John 9: & Jude 3-“once delivered”)
There are more distinguishing marks to identify the true Christ’s church but time limits us to present those other
marks and because it is not the subject that we are studying here. These marks stated above are enough to nullify
the claims of man-made churches as Christ’s church and it is also enough to invalidate the claims of apostate
churches because they did not continue in the doctrines of Christ but adopted and followed the estranged doctrines
which is against the plain teachings of Christ. The Catholics or Roman Catholic church who claimed an ancestry
from apostle Peter could not find any solid proofs as a true church of Christ. Their history is a gradual departation
from Christ doctrines and was officially commenced to established as Catholic church or Universal church in the
time of Constantine the great in the 4 th century. Then popery started during the time of Gregory the great on
AD.590. The insistence of Catholics as Christ church lied in a matter of fabrication and in fact if we carefully
examined the origin of their teachings and practices we will find out that mainly their doctrines and practices
cannot traced back from Christ but originated in pagans and human creeds. Notice these proofs as it is excerpt as
follows:

Cardinal Newman wrote a clear admission on the origins of the Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, he
said: “Temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, holidays, and season devotions, processions,
blessing of the field, sacerdotal vestments, tonsure[of priest & monks & nuns], images… are all of pagan origin …
(The Development of the Christian Religion pg.359, by Cardinal Newman).
The Assumption of Mary
“Assumption of the Virgin (Latin assumere, “to take up”) in the Roman Catholic church and the Orthodox
church, the doctrine that after her death the body of Mary, the mother of Christ, was taken into heaven and
reunited with her soul. Defined as an article of faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950, the assumption was first
commemorated as the Feast of the Dormition (falling asleep) of Mary in the 6th century. This feast later developed
into the Feast of the Assumption, now celebrated in the Roman Catholic church on August 15 every year”.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The Immaculate Conception
“Immaculate Conception, Roman Catholic dogma holding that from the first instant of its creation,
the soul of the Virgin Mary was free from original sin; this doctrine is not to be confused with that of the
Virgin Birth, which holds that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin mother… Finally in 1854, Pope Pius IX
issued a solemn decree declaring the Immaculate Conception to be a dogma essential for the belief of the
universal church. Under the title Immaculate Conception, the Virgin Mary is invoked as the patron of the
United States, Brazil, Portugal, and Corsica. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is December 8”.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 The Symbolism or Iconic worship, Pope’s Infallability, & The doctrine of Transubstantiation
“It was in accordance with this reasoning that in 787 the Seventh General Council the last in which
the Greek and Roman churches concurred declared that pictures and images, the cross, and the Gospels
should be given due salutation and honorable reverence… Innocent III became undisputed head of the
ecclesiastical domain. All disagreements of the higher clergy were ordered to be referred to him, and his
decisions were final. He reserved the right to move bishops about among their sees. He forced through
the fourth Lateran council (in 1215) the acceptance of the dogma of Transubstantiation, the doctrine that
during the celebration of the Mass the substance of the bread and of the wine in converted into actual or
real body and blood of Christ”. (Man’s Religions, pg.651 & 656-657, by John B. Noss)
The blasphemous declaration of Pope as a God
“Pope Nicholas I declared: that the appellation of God had been confirmed by Constantine on the
pope, who being God cannot be judged by man” (Labb. ix Dist: 96 can. 7, Satis evidentur, Decret Gratia
Primer Para).
“To believe that our Lord God the pope has not the power to decree as he is decreed, is to be
deemed heretical” (Extravagantes of Pope John XXII Cum-inter, Tit. XIV, Cap. IV Ad Callem Sexti
Decretallium Paris, 1685).

These proofs are enough evidence to nullify the claims of the Roman Catholic Church as the true
church of Christ for the reason that mainly their teachings and practices originated not from Christ but
were merely created by their owned councils or was only adopted from the pagan religion. Apostle John
said: “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God” (2Jn.9)

Now then the undefiled true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ bears the Biblical marks of a real
Christ’s church are always comforted in the promised of Christ that He always abides His Church till the
consummation of Ages(Matt.28:20), that He might present His church, a glorious church, not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:27). Even though
Christ’s churches suffered great persecutions from their enemies yet they did not revenge and harm any
other men but continued to raised the banner of truth and showed godliness to all men.
We shall examine the Baptist history because there were many Baptists denomination who
claimed great depths of antiquity back from the time of Christ. But that exclude those Baptists sects who
only imitated the name Baptist but then only founded by men such like the General Baptist of John Smyth,
Seventh Day Baptist of Joseph Beizel and others. To examine the history of Baptists is not a history of
finding and tracing its name/placards in the centuries of such like the Churches of God and Churches of
Christ in these modern times who falsely claimed as true church of our Lord because its denominational
name/placards was written in the New Testament but nevertheless only founded by men. Baptist history
was written in a cruel bloody trail, full of sufferings and persecutions, their line of existence can traced
back from the first church set up by Christ here on earth. There are numerous historians to quote but we
prefer the testimony of non-Baptists in order to prevent the criticism of biasness.