Does mankind have free will? Does this impact God's sovereignty? Does the physical laws we find in the universe give any insight into this? I'd like to explore this here.
A child is struck and killed by a car. Was this in accordance with God's will?
The car struck her because the driver was drunk
The driver was drunk because he had become a slave to alcohol
He was a slave because his parents were not able to teach him avoid the trap of an addicting substance
His parents didn't do a great job because of actions of their parents
A chain of cause and effect can go all the way back to Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve failed when the were tempted by the devil through the serpent, and Satan and cronies have been adding misery all along the way.
Lucifer turned into the evil devil because God made the universe such that rebellion was possible
So all this is a result of the way God made the universe.
So was the child's death in accordance with God's will?
Texts supporting free will.
Notice that the texts below are appeals to mankind to do the right thing, to repent, to choose what is right.
Source
- John 7:17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
- 1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
- 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
- Gal 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
- Joshua 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
- Mark 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
- Rev 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
- Rom 13:2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
- Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
- Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
- Deut 30:19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live...
- Ezekiel 18:30-32 “Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
Texts against free will
Notice that these texts show that regardless of what a man might want to do, God is all powerful and is able to override everything.
Source
- Isaiah 46:9 I am God, and there is no other; ... I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.
- Dan 4:35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”
- Prov 16:4 The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. NOTE: see here for alternative translations.
- Psalms 33:10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations
- Eph 1:11 in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
- Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
- John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" John 6:44
- Rom 8:7-8 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
Does God control the Universe?
One of my friends who follows a Reformed faith which often emphasizes the sovereignty of God, asked me once, "
Do you think there is any part of the universe, any atom or any minute element, that is not under the control of God?" I have thought about this questions often. The implication is that if all the parts of the universe ARE under God's control, then they must be doing exactly what He wants them to be doing.
- What does it mean to be under the control of God? Is God actively thinking about every atom and choosing a unique and individualized path for it? Or is God massively parallel (to use a computer concept), and doing all the things all at once? Did He decide how things would work (i.e. establish physical laws), and then consistently stick to those principles? If those physical laws are used to kill someone with an exploding bomb, does that mean that God "did it?"
- If God wanted to, could He set up a universe that contains randomness? Classical physics from Isaac Newton envisioned a world comprised of atoms all zooming around with individual speeds, masses and directions. And if one could just know all the little parts, then once could predict how everything would play out, like a gigantic clockwork. Nothing can vary, and the entire future is already determined by the current state of the all the atoms. But with careful study of God's universe, we have actually found that there appears to be built in randomness at the level of the quantum. (More about this here.) If God did not want everything to be boringly predictive and instead created aspects of the laws of physics that are random and NOT predictable, would that mean that God is not in control? I would argue NO. As a computer programmer, I can create a tiny artificial world inside a computer. Think about a computer game that appears 3D with characters running around inside it. I can make that world operate by any rules I want, and if I choose to make some elements random and surprising even to me, I would argue that the computerized world is still under my control.
- Can there be a conflict exist in God's universe between His ultimate will (that all be in harmony), and His practical individualized will (e.g. striking the priest Uzzah dead for touching the ark to teach His people proper respect)? In my example of the exploding bomb above, God might have a will to establish consistency in the universe. So the laws of physics are always the same, all the time. He may also have a will to not have children killed by cruel bombs. So there is a conflict. He could quickly alter the laws of physics such that they work differently such that no child will be killed by a bomb. But how would that play out? Think about Cain and Abel from the book of Genesis. God could see that Cain was angry with his brother Abel and considering murder. God came down and personally tried to reason with Cain and head off the situation. But when Cain didn't cooperate, and instead used the laws of physics to kill Abel, God did NOT send an angel to grab Cain's hands, or suddenly change the neurons in Cain's brain so they thought differently, or alter the physical laws such that his murder failed. Why not when God clearly didn't want Abel killed? Because to do so would violate the His principle of autonomy for His children, taking away their free will and turning them into robots. Instead, God solved the problem a different way, though Christ.
- When Eve ate the forbidden fruit, was this in accordance with the will of God? Did God predestine this action? Was there a chance that she could have NOT eaten it? My belief is that God chose to create a universe wherein it was possible (though not desired) for one of His creations to turn against Him, and thus Lucifer became the devil or Satan. Was this in accordance to God's will? Yes and no. 'Yes' in that God maintained the rules of the universe that allowed for this horror -- just as the rules would later be used in the murder of Abel. But 'No' in that God did not want such things to come about. But once there is an enemy, it is possible for others such as Eve to be persuaded to join in distrustful rebellion. And that is exactly what happened. It was probably inevitable that this would happen on one of the home worlds of the Sons of God (Job 1:6). But was God happy about all the death that would be caused as a result? No. To repeat the text above Ezekiel 18 “...I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!"
Conclusions
- God is Sovereign in that He has all the power. So my Reformed friends are correct in this.
- God has used His power to establish rules and principles in the universe. Like gravity that never changes.
- Sometimes His principles can conflict with each other.
- Just because God enables something to happen doesn't necessarily mean that He is happy about it.
- So God being "in control" doesn't mean God wants everything to be the way it is.
- I have never known anyone to be able to explain HOW free will works. But I think it is God's most precious creation, and He went to amazing lengths, even submitting to death on a cross, to show us how to submit our will to God and how it is the only way to be truly free from horrors of a wrong path.
I suspect this will be controversial. What do you all think?
Kevin
Well that’s one way to interpret those verses but how does that interpretation stand up to other scriptures?
Passages that support free will
“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,”
Deuteronomy 30:15-19 NASB1995
“I will destine you for the sword, And all of you will bow down to the slaughter. Because I called, but you did not answer; I spoke, but you did not hear. And you did evil in My sight And chose that in which I did not delight.””
Isaiah 65:12 NASB1995
“They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.”
Jeremiah 7:31 NASB1995
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Genesis 6:5-6 NASB
“But as for Israel He says, " ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE."”
Romans 10:21 NASB
“You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Galatians 5:4 NASB1995
“And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ ””
Luke 13:6-9 NASB1995
“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,”
Romans 2:4-5 NASB1995
“If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;”
2 Timothy 2:12 NASB1995
I can post a lot more examples that refute the idea that God controls everything.
I don't mean that thoughts aren't actually thoughts. I probably should have just said that what we think of doesn't necessarily constitute anything valid.
