Free Will
Is the Human Decision to Accept God’s Grace a Meritorious Work?
Is the human decision to accept God’s grace a ‘work’ that we contribute towards our salvation? Roger Olson writes, “Isn’t the bare human decision to accept and not resist God’s grace and mercy unto salvation a meritorious work? Arminians respond with a resounding no. In sum, and by way of preview, classical Arminianism argues that [...]
Quotable Quotes – Steve Lemke, Does Human Choice Contribute Anything to Salvation?
“[I]n and of themselves, people’s choices accomplish nothing. Perhaps the best model is the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5. Naaman, the commander of the Aramite army, had leprosy. He asked for help. The prophet Elisha told him to go wash in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman initially rejected that notion, complaining about [...]
Quotable Quotes – Norman Geisler on Extreme Calvinism and Blaming God for Evil
“Not only does extreme Calvinism tend to undermine personal responsibility, it also logically lays the blame squarely on God for the origin of evil. Many years ago, when the late John Gerstner and I taught together at the same institution, I invited him into one of my classes to discuss free will. Being what I [...]
Tozer – The Freedom of the Will
“IT IS INHERENT IN THE NATURE OF MAN THAT HIS WILL MUST BE FREE. Made in the image of God who is completely free, man must enjoy a measure of freedom. This enables him to select his companions for this world and the next; it enables him to yield his soul to whom he will, [...]
Tozer, The Sovereignty of God
GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ATTRIBUTE by which He rules His entire creation, and to be sovereign God must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free. The reasons are these: Were there even one datum of knowledge, however small, unknown to God, His rule would break down at that point. To be Lord over all the creation, [...]
Quotable Quotes – William Lane Craig on Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom
“From God’s foreknowledge of a free action, one may infer only that the action will occur, not that it must occur. The agent performing the action has the power to refrain, and were the agent to do so, God’s foreknowledge would have been different. Agents cannot bring it about both that God foreknows their action [...]
Quotable Quotes – Tozer on Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom
“In the moral conflict now raging around us whoever is on God’s side is on the winning side and cannot lose; whoever is on the other side is on the losing side and cannot win. Here there is no chance, no gamble. There is freedom to choose which side we shall be on but no [...]
William Lane Craig on Universal, Divine, Causal Determinism
What objections can be raised against the Reformed view of Universal, Divine, Causal Determinism? William Lane Craig answers (Link): “At least five come immediately to mind: 1. Universal, divine, causal determinism cannot offer a coherent interpretation of Scripture. The classical Reformed divines recognized this. They acknowledge that the reconciliation of Scriptural texts affirming human freedom and contingency [...]
