Super-Sovereignty VS. Free Will

                                                         

I want as many to be saved as possible. So, I try to eliminate any unnecessary barriers that block one from God.   Consider former Christian and now Atheist Vel who calls herself "Club Schadenfreude".  Besides her video with TV evangelist Ray Comfort, she and I bantered on WordPress. Her complaint was "The bible teaches Calvinist predestination. That is, this god already chose who it will save, then damns the rest through no fault of their own."  And "Your god has no interest in free will per your own bible, that states that this god has already chosen who it will allow to be a Christian."  

First, some explain that the words predestinate and predestinated as used in the Bible simply mean that whatever path we chose, we would naturally arrive at the destination that path leads to.  For instance, if I walk east far enough, I automatically get to the Atlantic Ocean. Walking west far enough automatically leads to the Pacific. The same with choosing either good or evil paths. We reap what we sow.  But for Vel I said it was just her interpretation, and most believers do not see those texts like that, maybe less than 2%. That is, "double predestination", most rejecting Calvinist predestination to hell but not heaven, while predestinationists to heaven only are still a minority. 

A prominent text used by predestinationists to bulwark that belief is Romans chapter 9. Therefore, see the Internet article Early Church Fathers on the Freedom of the Will and Romans 9 by Micah Currado.  As for Ephesians 1, God called some because He knew they would respond. But responders may choose to not follow through or eventually walk away. This present life is a testing period. The ones God did not call, He knew they would never respond.  Most importantly, for the first 375 years of Christianity the early Church (outside of the heretical gnostic sect) completely agreed that all of humanity has complete free will. Free will is synonymous with the ability to make choices. 

Examples are: "We maintain that each man acts rightly or sins by his free choice."---Second Apology of Justin Martyr chapter 7; AD 160.  "There is nothing to hinder you from changing your evil manner of life, because you are a free man."---Melito's Discourse chapter 1; AD 170. "God has always preserved freedom and the power of self-government in man."---Irenaeus Against Heresies chapter 15; AD 180. "God's will is especially obeyed by the free will of righteous men."---Clement of Alexandria's Stromata Book VI chapter 17; AD 195. And Origen slammed Gnostics for misusing Scripture to thus assert that some had ruined natures incapable of salvation, and for essentially destroying free will. (Origen De Principis book III chapter I; AD 225).  For the full list, read FREE WILL AND PREDESTINATION pages 285-296 in A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, David W. Bercot editor, Hendrickson publishers. 

Then came Augustine circa AD 410. Despite some excellent teaching, he was unfortunately caught up with Gnosticism for years.  And sadly, he was later beholden to Manichaeism, a popular religion that mixed Christian, gnostic, and Pagan elements. So, this influential man's theology became tainted thereby, which led to challenging and downplaying the importance of free will. Worse yet, and much later, came John Calvin circa 1535. He studied Augustine but ignored his sound teaching and magnified the corrupt ideas. So much so that he founded the doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. For a strong response, see the Internet article What About Calvinism? by Brent Philips; Valley Church of Christ.

The Bible need not explicitly spell out that we have free will in all aspects of life as it need not expressly state that everyone breathes air. That's because everyone makes five thousand free will decisions every day. Anyone who thinks otherwise is brainwashed and extremely delusional.  Those who claim that free will does not exist are pushing an agenda. Consider that the existence of free will is one of the strongest if not the strongest line of apologetics for the existence of God and reason to believe. That is because, if everything is purely natural, everything should be predictable robotic cause and effect. To have free will to act otherwise implies the supernatural. So, Atheists like Samuel Harris say that free will does not exist. 

Then the Argument from free will (see Wikipedia). It contends that omniscience (God being all-knowing) and free will are incompatible.  That is because if God knows everything that will ever happen beforehand, everything essentially already happened, so nobody has freedom to act otherwise. Many see the inescapable dilemma here and so propose contrived solutions such as *inherent* omniscience (God only knows everything He chooses to know) or Molin-ism.  I simply deny that God is omniscient, and the Bible never says that He is. Saying that it teaches thus is eisegesis: reading into it one's own presupposition. 

Also, God cannot misuse His sovereignty to sin by being a respecter of persons (James 2:1,4 KJV) or by using unfair discrimination. He must either extend His grace to all or to none. 2nd Peter 3:9 KJV.  And Scripture was completely written by men who were believers and only written for those who had the chance to hear and believe.  Believers already agree that babies, toddlers, and those who lived before Christ's era would be exempt from faith in Christ because they are not accountable. So, neither should animals, space aliens, those on isolated parts of Earth, etc. be accountable for Christian faith. They are, however, accountable for seeing God through creation and following their conscience.   "Then why do missionary work?"   It's simply a good thing to do. 

Now if God knew beforehand that everyone would sin if He created them, then created them anyway, then failed to provide some with hope of salvation from sin, it would be equivalent to my Atheist acquaintance's contention that the Bible God chooses to capriciously damn people. Objecting to such demonic nonsense or refusing to accept it is not emotion, it is logic. In conclusion, this "super-sovereignty" merely masquerades as theology that honors God more than the original faith. It is a perversion of the Gospel (Galatians 1:6-9) which can turn people away from God. So, before this minority position can spread, let us eradicate it like we did with smallpox.