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"something will happen that brings about the war which will end the world as we know it... There will be a vicious cycle of storms and earthquakes that lead to the final battle the world has awaited."
-- Dotson Meade, 1999
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Sovereignty and Free Will
Posted on Saturday, May 17 @ 19:48:29 PDT by Mazuur |
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by Jack Cottrell
One of the most perplexing problems in theology is how God can maintain His absolute sovereignty while holding man fully responsible for his sin. If God is sovereign, must he not be the ultimate and determinative cause of everything, including the so-called free acts of men? And if so, must we not then conclude that man is not really free and that he is not responsible for his actions? On the other hand, if man is really free to choose between good and evil, must he not then be the ultimate cause of his own actions? And if so, must we not conclude that God is less than sovereign? Is there any way to solve the problem of divine sovereignty and human responsibility?
Reformed theology emphasizes the apparently contradictory nature of this and other problems of doctrine, yet declares that inability to understand completely such as antinomy is not sufficient grounds for the rejection of any part of it. Reformed theology rather holds to both absolute divine sovereignty and full human responsibility, appealing to the distinction between proximate and ultimate causes as a possible solution or at least as an anthropomorphic way of understanding the relation between sovereignty and responsibility. Man himself is said to be the proximate cause, while God is the actual and ultimate cause, of man's free acts. Ultimate choice is not ascribed to man.
How does so-called Arminian theology approach the problem of sovereignty and responsibility? The answer is that Arminianism also holds to both the sovereignty of God and the full responsibility of man, though not in the same sense as Calvinism. Man is said to be not simply the proximate cause of his own free acts, but the ultimate cause of them. Man is said to have full freedom of will in the sense of being able to choose good as well as evil.
The Arminian doctrine of free will is, of course, strongly denied by Calvinists. It is said that such a notion of free will is a virtual denial of the absolute sovereignty and responsibility by just doing away with sovereignty. Such a doctrine of free will precludes the sovereignty of God, it is affirmed.
This is indeed a serious charge, and it is this very problem that I propose to deal with in this paper. Is it true that the so-called Arminian doctrine of free will makes God anything less than sovereign? If man has the ultimate power of choice between good and evil, is the sovereignty of God excluded from the outset? As the question is put, it is not entirely nor even primarily a problem of what does the Bible teach. It is rather a theoretical or logical problem. The idea of the charge seems to be that the Arminian understanding of free will logically requires a denial of the sovereignty of God. It is on this level, then, that I propose to discuss the problem: is there a logical incompatibility between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man?
At this point the terms free will and sovereignty must be more carefully defined. In this paper free will is understood as the ability to freely choose between good and evil, the choice being actually determined by the will of man and not by the will of God. For example, when the gospel invitation is offered, it is assumed that man has the ability to either accept it or reject it by an act of his own will. The use of the term sovereignty in this paper may best be explained by saying that it means that God's decree is all-inclusive, that God's control is absolute and all-inclusive, and that God's knowledge is completely independent and all-inclusive. We may now turn our attention to the problem as it was identified earlier, does the doctrine of free will make God anything less than absolutely sovereign?"
Article continues here: http://www.dabar.org/SemReview/sovfrwill.html
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Re: Sovereignty and Free Will (Score: 1)
 by mazuur on Monday, May 19 @ 07:48:03 PDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | What a brilliant piece of work (minus his futurist input)! I almost (years back when I was still a futurist) went to Cincinnati Bible Seminary and studied under Cottrell (as many of my friends did). But, God indeed did use external circumstances to sway my decision not to go. At the time I was really bummed God was making it clear for me not to go (as it was not in his will for me), but, now I am so very pleased He did that very thing. God, for sure, is in control and knows what is best for us.
Too bad Cottrell is a futurist. He would be a tremendous scholar to have in the Preterist camp. Maybe I should, and have thought about it, mail him a package with King’s book in it.
-Rich |
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Re: Sovereignty and Free Will (Score: 1)
by tom-g on Monday, May 19 @ 11:57:02 PDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | How did this argument originate? And in the absence of biblical authority to determine the answer, as the author in his conclusion acknowledges he has not done, then why even discuss it?
If the scripture declares God is sovereign then that is the answer. If the scripture declares man has free will then that is the answer. If the scripture declares God is sovereign and man has free will then that is the answer.
But in no case is there a contradiction in the scripture since free will and sovereignty are two different properties not being compared in the same sense at the same time to the same being.
If the question is the free will and sovereignty of man to choose to do either good or evil then the answer is absolutely not. Man has no ability to choose to do good. That which is operating in man is the evil. Sovereign free will to choose to do good would mean that man has the ability to choose to not be man, which would be a violation of the law of non contradiction.
For man to have the ability to choose to do good he needs the Savior the Lord Christ Jesus dwelling within him. Armenianism or Reformed Theology to the contrary not withstanding.
Tom |
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Re: Sovereignty and Free Will (Score: 1)
 by Seeker (truth4u@gmail.com) on Sunday, May 25 @ 14:09:58 PDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Very good article with decent reasoning. I've really been studying the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism lately, so thanks for posting. |
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- by mazuur on Wednesday, June 04 @ 06:36:23 PDT
- by Virgil on Wednesday, June 04 @ 06:58:57 PDT
- by Seeker on Wednesday, June 04 @ 17:48:17 PDT
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