As much as I’m troubled by the doctrine of unconditional election, I think I’m even more bothered with the belief that God not only controls but brings to pass everything, anywhere, and at any time with whomever. To believe that God desires abortion … because, after all, it is legal in the United States (and elsewhere) is something I can’t accept. To me, I can only conclude that yes, we as individuals are free to make decisions and carry out actions of our own free will and volition. I recently came across a Facebook forum in which determinism was being discussed and one individual put forth some rather cogent questions and answers.
Q. How did we get free will?
A. God sovereignly decreed that humanity would have the freedom to choose.
Q. Is it possible to believe that humanity began completely determined, but then somehow was able to out-sovereign God?
A. I don’t think so.
Q. Was making humanity free God’s intentional design?
A. Yes.
Q. Why might God decide to grant humanity the freedom to make their own decisions?
A. The reason God would choose to grant free will to humanity is because our love, obedience, worship, and glorifying him would actually means something! Otherwise, all of these things are little more than robotic, artificial, preprogrammed, fake and worthless. If God is pulling our strings and making us do these things, those things have no actual value!
Q. But what if determinism is true?
A. If determinism is true, then God is doing nothing more than loving and worshipping himself through us. And if that’s happening, then God is little more than a bipolar psychopath who’s apparently at war with himself.
Note: This post is largely the product of Nick Craig’s comments in the FB forum Soteriology 101 Discussion:
Martin's Mercurial Musings 