Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Free Will (FW) vrs Predestination (PD)

Without getting into general epistemology (a severe handicap) my best understanding is that the Biblical support for PD is much stronger than it is for FW. My anecdotal experience has shown FW to be more popular in the church community but the reasoning is has been largely reason based rather than Bible based.

In my own reading of the Bible there are numerous clear examples of God overruling the free will of people, the most famous being the Pharaoh who had his heart hardened by God (Exodus 4:21 being just one of many many such verses in that book). He also allows Satan to overrule the free will of others such as in the case of Judas Iscariot.

In Romans 9 Paul speaks directly to this issue and his position clearly favors PD quoting the OT "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." 9:16 goes so far to say that salvation does not depend of man's effort or DESIRE. To answer objections that this might make God unfair Paul's response is rather heavy handed saying "who is the clay to speak back to the potter?"

I am not qualified to make a fully developed air tight argument but these examples from the Bible are not isolated.

1 comment:

Jackson said...

I will let you borrow my book, "Arminian Theology." It will provide some good reading on the subject of Free Will and Predestination, including clarification on points where people on both sides often talk past one another.