Revealing Questions Concerning the Will of God Over His Creation:
Installment number four: Question #2
If the answer to the first question, “does God know our future choices” is yes, then the second question is begged, were our choices really free? To adequately answer this question we must define what is meant by “choices” and by “free”. Briefly, our choices encompass all the decisions we make, whether as individuals or part of a larger cooperation; the actions we determine to take and all our preceding ruminations regarding the action—action being defined as some sort of speech or movement. The word free may herein be defined as the ability and necessity of making a choice based on our desires and affections. Thus we are free to choose according to our desires, so it could be said that we always choose freely, according to our greatest desire, and our desires are necessarily limited by our capabilities, whether mental or physical. Consequently, the puritan Jonathan Edwards wrote broadly on this very topic in his work, “The Freedom of The Will.
Over against the Reformed/historical (and I think biblical) view of God’s providence, we sometimes hear explanations like this, “Well, we know that God could have created a world in which He retained His sovereign control over the will of man but we know that He decided to withhold His sovereign reign over the will of man and His choices in order to establish human culpability and to protect Himself from being charged with evil. The evidence for this is the fact that evil exists at all.”
So the answer to question two is yes, God can and does know what I will choose and the choices I make are also free, because my freedom is established (not denied) by the fact that I choose according to my strongest desire; my choices are governed by my affections. As a mater of fact, I always choose based on my strongest inclination. My will not only influences my decisions, it (in the immediate sense) determines them. The fact that I always do what I want also establishes the compatibility between God’s ordination and knowledge of my future choice and the freedom of my choice. Remember Genesis 50:20:
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
In that verse we see how Joseph’s brothers did as they pleased, they desired to sell Joseph into slavery; they were not forced to do so. At the same time, God had ordained all those events and meant them for good; so we can see that the same event can be purposed for wickedness by evil men, and purposed for good but a holy God. So God has done as He pleased and accomplished what He had determined from before the foundation of the world, not acting in response to what Joseph’s brothers had done, and Joseph’s brothers freely chose to act upon the evil intentions of their hearts, thus human freedom (the ability to choose according to our desires) and God’s sovereign ordination are compatible.
Installment number four: Question #2
If the answer to the first question, “does God know our future choices” is yes, then the second question is begged, were our choices really free? To adequately answer this question we must define what is meant by “choices” and by “free”. Briefly, our choices encompass all the decisions we make, whether as individuals or part of a larger cooperation; the actions we determine to take and all our preceding ruminations regarding the action—action being defined as some sort of speech or movement. The word free may herein be defined as the ability and necessity of making a choice based on our desires and affections. Thus we are free to choose according to our desires, so it could be said that we always choose freely, according to our greatest desire, and our desires are necessarily limited by our capabilities, whether mental or physical. Consequently, the puritan Jonathan Edwards wrote broadly on this very topic in his work, “The Freedom of The Will.
Over against the Reformed/historical (and I think biblical) view of God’s providence, we sometimes hear explanations like this, “Well, we know that God could have created a world in which He retained His sovereign control over the will of man but we know that He decided to withhold His sovereign reign over the will of man and His choices in order to establish human culpability and to protect Himself from being charged with evil. The evidence for this is the fact that evil exists at all.”
So the answer to question two is yes, God can and does know what I will choose and the choices I make are also free, because my freedom is established (not denied) by the fact that I choose according to my strongest desire; my choices are governed by my affections. As a mater of fact, I always choose based on my strongest inclination. My will not only influences my decisions, it (in the immediate sense) determines them. The fact that I always do what I want also establishes the compatibility between God’s ordination and knowledge of my future choice and the freedom of my choice. Remember Genesis 50:20:
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
In that verse we see how Joseph’s brothers did as they pleased, they desired to sell Joseph into slavery; they were not forced to do so. At the same time, God had ordained all those events and meant them for good; so we can see that the same event can be purposed for wickedness by evil men, and purposed for good but a holy God. So God has done as He pleased and accomplished what He had determined from before the foundation of the world, not acting in response to what Joseph’s brothers had done, and Joseph’s brothers freely chose to act upon the evil intentions of their hearts, thus human freedom (the ability to choose according to our desires) and God’s sovereign ordination are compatible.
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