Note: This was written before the author’s conversion to Orthodoxy.

Here’s a real obvious passage which shows the incomplete autonomy of man and God’s power over his will:

Abraham’s servant prayed when looking for a wife for Isaac, “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham…may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’—may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac” (Gen 24:12, 14).

The Scripture then says:

Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder…[T]he servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” She said, “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. Now when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking” (Gen 24:15, 17-19).

The Scripture says elsewhere, “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” (Prov 16:1).

When God answered the servant’s prayer, is it not clear that God provided the answer of Rebekah’s tongue? And, if he can control her response to a question, how does He not also control her heart and her will?

I’m not quite sure how Arminians would explain this, and there is not a good explanation other than an exegesis that has been informed be Reformed soteriology.