"Free will" does not exist in the sense that we imagine or define. It has simply become the convenient descriptive label given to a conceptualised "black box" which has the "tardis-like" property of being larger inside than outside, and which contains such a vast array of factors and elements that we can never even begin to number them let alone name and categorize them all. These factors and elements consist of every single bit of data or information, large or small, great or minor, significant or seemingly meaningless, which has ever gone into our lives to make up the sum total of who we be. All events we have experienced, all persons we have encountered, every thought or idea or feeling shared in our presence, every cause-and-effect lesson we have tasted, every experiment we have performed, every interactive and dynamic portion of input and feedback from others, every preference or taste we possess, and every awareness we have ever obtained of all these things in other lives around us and through history, exists in this black box.
Every single one of these factors goes into every selection we make every day from the greatest to the smallest, and literally does its unique share to predict and dictate the outcome and nature of that selection. Yet because we can never begin to encompass them all, catalog them all, or account for their place in this process so as to predict our own selections using them, let alone step outside ourselves and this process in any fashion so as to "game the system" and rig it up to ensure we absolutely DO NOT make the selection these factors combine to dictate we will make, we cannot wrap our heads around it and call it a mystery. We stuff these all into this invisible conceptual "black box" and call it instead, "free will". We call it that simply because we may at times experience the making of a selection to occur in a relatively "independent" fashion, apart from the VISIBLE external input or influence of other minds. Yet because of the absolute power of the combined total of ALL these INvisible elements and factors going into our selection, our "will" can hardly said to be "free" in any sense of the word -- it has, in fact, been completely determined and shaped by forces we had no choice about having to have be part of our lives.
The word "free" means just that: boundless and unrestricted. Whatever will human beings exercise even in a purely philosophical sense cannot be said to be "free" because our choices automatically become limited by the presence and awareness of results we cannot avoid.
For example, we do not have the "freedom" to jump from the top of the Sears tower and coast gently downward on the residual breezes having a nice pleasant ride across the air until we land softly and safely in a meadow outside the city. Gravity, which we do not have the "freedom" to suspend when we wish, will ensure instead that we die a swift painful death.
We do not have "free will" to choose to eliminate everyone who vexes or annoys us either so that we may enjoy our lives in peace. Human laws will ensure that we have anything but peace as a result, and even if we somehow manage to cover our tracks and escape detection, the mere fear thereof will ensure we have anything but peace as a result, if our own consciences don't do us in first.
We do not have "free will" to buy whatever we want -- we must first have sufficient money. We do not have "free will" to buy a $650k home if our income only qualifies us for a $120k mortgage. We do not have "free will" to be celebrities if the world refuses to acknowledge and applaud us. We do not have "free will" to drink lye without our esophagus being burned through with holes as a result. And no matter how deeply and desperately we desire to escape our own condition, we do not have the "free will" in ourselves to simply decide we will never sin nor err again and have it be so.
In fact the Bible states quite the opposite. It states that all men have been shut up under condemnation (in order that God might have mercy on us ALL). It states that the carnal mind -- which we bes born with, get no choice about (another example of how we bes not "free willed") and cannot escape while in this life or body, exists in a state of enmity against God and not only DOES not obey but in fact CANNOT. It could not subject itself to God's law even if it wanted to, even if it tried!!! That bes our lot as creatures born into this fallen world -- we all get conceived in iniquity and born in sin from the start, and without Christ we haven't a chance. Scripture goes even farther to indicate that none of us in our natural state understand nor seek after God, even with the offer of salvation on the table from Him; rather HE must actively impart grace to us to open our blind eyes and deaf ears, speak His word of life into us that we even MAY respond to Him AT ALL and MAY be prompted to seek Him AT ALL. We do NOT have "free will" to choose Christ from merely our natural selves outside the present and active agency of God's grace upon our lives. The Bible makes this abundantly clear.
Even after His grace imparts to us the awareness of His mercy and desire for it, and enables us to ask and receive of Him, we still retain these bodies and these carnal, sinful minds. We do not get new bodies and new minds yet. But we do get new hearts and new spirits, and until we enter the next world these exist in exquisite tension with the old self and the carnalness of our birth into sin. We bes told to RECKON ourselves dead to sin because in reality, we bes not so dead; we still of our own natural selves WILL fulfill the lusts of the flesh, WILL sin or err, even while not wanting to -- this struggle gets depicted quite viscerally in Romans 7. We have hope only in Christ in this regard, in HIS grace HIS mercy HIS power to forgive, cleanse, and lift us into HIS life so we may taste of it by walking in HIS Spirit, wherein (and ONLY wherein) we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. But this, too, comes as an act of grace on HIS part. We may ASK for it, yes, but we do not get to dictate it. We do not get to just decide it to be so whenever we wish; we must have HIM to impart it. All spiritual and righteous life resides in Him and outside Him exists no such life. And even the desire that causes us to seek Him and ask for this comes from an impartation of grace from God. It bes ALL of grace, start to finish, none of it coming by the will of man.
Thus does Moriah state then that both in the broad philosophical sense as well as the specific sense of the Christian faith concerning man's dilemma, condition, plight, and God's plan and provision for his reclamation, restoration and reconciliation, "free will" proves to be a myth. It simply does not exist.
Every single one of these factors goes into every selection we make every day from the greatest to the smallest, and literally does its unique share to predict and dictate the outcome and nature of that selection. Yet because we can never begin to encompass them all, catalog them all, or account for their place in this process so as to predict our own selections using them, let alone step outside ourselves and this process in any fashion so as to "game the system" and rig it up to ensure we absolutely DO NOT make the selection these factors combine to dictate we will make, we cannot wrap our heads around it and call it a mystery. We stuff these all into this invisible conceptual "black box" and call it instead, "free will". We call it that simply because we may at times experience the making of a selection to occur in a relatively "independent" fashion, apart from the VISIBLE external input or influence of other minds. Yet because of the absolute power of the combined total of ALL these INvisible elements and factors going into our selection, our "will" can hardly said to be "free" in any sense of the word -- it has, in fact, been completely determined and shaped by forces we had no choice about having to have be part of our lives.
The word "free" means just that: boundless and unrestricted. Whatever will human beings exercise even in a purely philosophical sense cannot be said to be "free" because our choices automatically become limited by the presence and awareness of results we cannot avoid.
For example, we do not have the "freedom" to jump from the top of the Sears tower and coast gently downward on the residual breezes having a nice pleasant ride across the air until we land softly and safely in a meadow outside the city. Gravity, which we do not have the "freedom" to suspend when we wish, will ensure instead that we die a swift painful death.
We do not have "free will" to choose to eliminate everyone who vexes or annoys us either so that we may enjoy our lives in peace. Human laws will ensure that we have anything but peace as a result, and even if we somehow manage to cover our tracks and escape detection, the mere fear thereof will ensure we have anything but peace as a result, if our own consciences don't do us in first.
We do not have "free will" to buy whatever we want -- we must first have sufficient money. We do not have "free will" to buy a $650k home if our income only qualifies us for a $120k mortgage. We do not have "free will" to be celebrities if the world refuses to acknowledge and applaud us. We do not have "free will" to drink lye without our esophagus being burned through with holes as a result. And no matter how deeply and desperately we desire to escape our own condition, we do not have the "free will" in ourselves to simply decide we will never sin nor err again and have it be so.
In fact the Bible states quite the opposite. It states that all men have been shut up under condemnation (in order that God might have mercy on us ALL). It states that the carnal mind -- which we bes born with, get no choice about (another example of how we bes not "free willed") and cannot escape while in this life or body, exists in a state of enmity against God and not only DOES not obey but in fact CANNOT. It could not subject itself to God's law even if it wanted to, even if it tried!!! That bes our lot as creatures born into this fallen world -- we all get conceived in iniquity and born in sin from the start, and without Christ we haven't a chance. Scripture goes even farther to indicate that none of us in our natural state understand nor seek after God, even with the offer of salvation on the table from Him; rather HE must actively impart grace to us to open our blind eyes and deaf ears, speak His word of life into us that we even MAY respond to Him AT ALL and MAY be prompted to seek Him AT ALL. We do NOT have "free will" to choose Christ from merely our natural selves outside the present and active agency of God's grace upon our lives. The Bible makes this abundantly clear.
Even after His grace imparts to us the awareness of His mercy and desire for it, and enables us to ask and receive of Him, we still retain these bodies and these carnal, sinful minds. We do not get new bodies and new minds yet. But we do get new hearts and new spirits, and until we enter the next world these exist in exquisite tension with the old self and the carnalness of our birth into sin. We bes told to RECKON ourselves dead to sin because in reality, we bes not so dead; we still of our own natural selves WILL fulfill the lusts of the flesh, WILL sin or err, even while not wanting to -- this struggle gets depicted quite viscerally in Romans 7. We have hope only in Christ in this regard, in HIS grace HIS mercy HIS power to forgive, cleanse, and lift us into HIS life so we may taste of it by walking in HIS Spirit, wherein (and ONLY wherein) we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. But this, too, comes as an act of grace on HIS part. We may ASK for it, yes, but we do not get to dictate it. We do not get to just decide it to be so whenever we wish; we must have HIM to impart it. All spiritual and righteous life resides in Him and outside Him exists no such life. And even the desire that causes us to seek Him and ask for this comes from an impartation of grace from God. It bes ALL of grace, start to finish, none of it coming by the will of man.
Thus does Moriah state then that both in the broad philosophical sense as well as the specific sense of the Christian faith concerning man's dilemma, condition, plight, and God's plan and provision for his reclamation, restoration and reconciliation, "free will" proves to be a myth. It simply does not exist.
