The points of the so called "free will" discussion appear to be as follows:
- The total depravity of man. Is it or isn't it?
- God's fore-knowledge? Is it in conflict with His justice? His power?
- Reward and Punishment
- Fatalism; Does the bondage of the will eliminate responsibility for sin?
The Total Depravity of man
"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Ecclesiastes 7:20 " For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin."
Romans 5:12-14 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come."
St. Augustine (of Hippo, heh-heh) said :"Man's original capacities included both the power not to sin and the power to sin ( posse non peccare et posse peccare ). In Adam's original sin, man lost the posse non peccare (the power not to sin) and retained the posse peccare (the power to sin)--which he continues to exercise. In the fulfillment of grace, man will have the posse peccare taken away and receive the highest of all, the power not to be able to sin, non posse peccare ." (On Correction and Grace XXXIII.) I've never read this in original context, I found this on a website. I realize of course, that St. Augustine is not on par with Scripture, but the Romans ought to recognize him as fairly authoritative.
If it were possible for man without Christ not to sin, I'm surprised at the very small evidence of genuinely good non-Christians. Yes, I know genuinely kind pagans, genuinely loving pagans, genuinely loving pagans, but I really know no genuinely good pagans.
Supposing man was really, deep down inside, good, then I think the world would be prevalently good with a few mistakes and goofs here and there. But the utter confusion of the world without God is so complete, that while in every culture a particular virtue is thought important, there are generally several prevalent vices, that completly "cancel out" any virtue. Man is not just confused, he is dead in sin.
God's Foreknowledge
Does God know the future?
I will not cite passages at this moment, but cast your mind around, and think back to the many prophecies in Scripture that have been fulfilled so exactly as to leave no doubt that God perfectly knows the future.
Some will argue, I suppose, that He knows the future because since He is not bound by space and time He is present in it. Suppose that is the case (and so it would seem to be), then it might not be necessary that He controls every detail.
But this leaves God in an awkward state, past, present, or future, it would seem as though He must view it rather as we do, but with the disadvantage that His acting would interfere with the free-will of humans, His "hands-off" area.
If God does not foresee the future, then His knowledge is incomplete and imperfect. If His knowledge is incomplete, is not, then, His power limited? His power limited, we cannot confess "God the Father Almighty" as we have for hundreds (almost thousands) of years.
Reward and Punishment
Understand first of all, that we are condemned by nature. Nothing we can do will save us, for our nature is evil. God does not take neutral man and make half of them "good" and half "bad". He takes some sinners and redeems them, and some He destroys.
A)Punishment
"What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden."(Romans 9:14-18)
He hardens some. He fixes them in their sin, which directly or indirectly He willed through Adam's sin. Adam would not have sinned had God wished Him not to, for God knows all things and if Adam's sin would not bring glory to Him, He would not have created Adam. How could He?
One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he called.
B) Reward
Christians are promised a "reward." This is Scriptural language, so let me not be said to quarrel with it, but what is the reward for? I have been told by some that this is a reward for following God, but would you reward a corpse for keeping up with the hearse it was riding in?
Surely, we have been made alive in Christ, but this must mean we no longer live in ourselves, we live in Christ. The life we have can hardly be our own, and we will not be rewarded for following. We will be rewarded for the righteousness of Christ: His works on earth, His death and resurrection, and His good works through us. As the sin of our first head, Adam, is imputed to us, despite the fact that we did not actually participate, so the righteousness of our new head, Christ Jesus, is imputed to us, through no act of our own. We did not will our sin and so do not will our salvation.
Fatalism
I was asked this question recently:
"What if God came and told you that He had predestined you to go to Hell and there was absolutely nothing you could do to redeem yourself? How would you feel, what would you do?"
The obvious flaw in this is: has God ever done that? Is there any reason that He would? Why ever would He say that?
But ignoring that, this shows a very flawed understanding of the doctrine of predestination.
Predestination is not fate. Fate is impersonal, God's will is supremely personal. Everything we do is directly tied in to the end. It is not as though nothing we do matters, every detail is part of the extreme detail of God's plan. It seems that some think we believe that only the "big stuff" matters. When, in Romans 8, Paul speaks of all things working together, he means all things and does not exclude any details of anything. It is not a matter of "all the big stuff" but rather all the everyday stuff as well.
If God has predestined us to go to Hell, then He has also predestined us to sin. Predestined or not, sin is still, at least in some sense, a choice. We do not respond to some preprogrammed course of action, but rather to things we see, hear, feel, etc. at the moment.
Predestination is not a get out of jail free card. God will not tell you that you are predestined to go one place or do one thing. What purpose would that serve?
We don't for what we are predestined, although we can see where someone may be heading. If they bear bad fruit, then their faith is probably dead. If we see ourselves bearing bad fruit, we should be on our knees repenting. Through God's power and only God's power are we brought back, our own sinful hearts will not admit our sin, and certainly not repent of them. I have no problem asserting that a man without Christ cannot possibly choose Christ. The Holy Spirite (and through Him, Christ) must enter into the man before he can so much as see the extent of his sin.
- Fatalism says that no matter what you do, the end will be the same, the one that is fated to be.
- The doctrine of Predestination says that because of what you do, the end is what God willed.
See the difference?
Closing Statements--
There is a complete failure in the so called "free will" arguments to account for sin or salvation. By the arguments I have heard, man is basically good, so most sin cannot be explained, or man is basically evil so how can he do good if he is free to choose?
I have heard few arguments of any sort on behalf of free will. I have heard almost entirely questions skirting around the matter to speak about something not being discussed.
This is by no means perfect, there are so many Scripture passages I forget to quote that I meant to, I haven't quoted from Luther like I meant to and not as much from Augustine as maybe might be useful, but I hope this is clearer than previous posts on my other blog or on the ISLAS forum.
Disclaimer: I make mistakes, I say things I don't mean. I may not have read this through enough times. I'm not brilliant.
For random people reading this: This is a response to Roman Catholics and not Arminian-non-calvinist-type Baptists. I'm not sure if in this case it makes much of a difference, but it might. God bless!
Posts
