The Reformed view of Free-will

[BBAS 64]

Good day,

We do not deny free-will just define it in a biblical fashion

1689 LBC Chapter 9.


CHAP. IX.
Of Free Will.
1. God hath indued the Will of Man, with that natural liberty, and power of acting upon choice; that it is 169neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil. 2. Man in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power, to will, and to do that 170which was good, and well-pleasing to God; but yet 171was mutable, so that he might fall from it. 3. Man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly lost 172all ability of Will, to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, 173and dead in Sin, is not able, by his own strength, to 174convert himself; or to prepare himself thereunto. 4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of Grace 175he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone, enables him 176freely to will, and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that by reason of his 177remaining corruptions he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good; but doth also will that which is evil. 5. The Will of Man is made 178perfectly, and immutably free to good alone, in the state of Glory only.

RC Sproul explains further- Short 3 min video

 

[JAL]

Sproul only pays lip service to freedom. Here's another video of R.C. Sproul:
What Is Free Will?: Chosen By God with R.C. Sproul - YouTube
where he clearly denies real libertarian freedom. He says that we always act according to our strongest desires, hence these desires predetermine our choices. This is determinism. He certainly makes an excellent defense of his position, for example he argues that:
(1). Without a desire/motive, our "choices" would just be random acts of no moral significance.
(2). In fact, without desires, we wouldn't choose anything at all. We'd be stuck in a sort of paralysis of indifference.

He uses the terms "cause" and "effect" to summarize his argument: An act (i.e. an effect) MUST have a cause, it cannot and does not just spring forth out of nothing.

Really? I mean, he's also denying creativity/invention, isn't he? The artist or inventor didn't create anything new - he entirely got his idea from something or somebody else? Sproul is reasoning like this, "I can't pinpoint a clear and meaningful definition of libertarian freedom because it sounds like random chaos. Therefore libertarian freedom does not exist."

Freedom doesn't exist? Creativity doesn't exist? Two problems here.
(1) These are things that we all seem to experience on a regular basis.
(2) Without real freedom, the Bible makes no sense. It makes no sense that God would punish us for predetermined behavior impossible to escape.

Annoyingly, like all Calvinists, he continually conflates two separate issues:
(1) Was Adam free before the fall - is freedom possible in THAT condition?
(2) Is fallen man free? On all sides there is probably some agreement that a person with a sinful nature has a severely reduced degree of freedom in regards to moral choices. Therefore, this is often a moot point in the debate as to whether real libertarian freedom is POSSIBLE.

If freedom is not possible, there is no point in praising God. Why does He deserve any credit if His behavior is predetermined by His own innate, holy desires? He does not.

Conclusion: Even if we are unable to clearly DEFINE real freedom, we MUST postulate it if we are to make sense of the Bible. And we have good reason to postulate it, because we all SEEM to experience it. Examples:
(1) Most adults become upset with their children for bad behavior - they believe their children could have freely made better choices.
(2) Most of us have looked back at least once in our lives and said, "I wish I had handled that situation differently. I regret my choice. I COULD have made a better choice."

 

[bling]

Good day,

We do not deny free-will just define it in a biblical fashion

1689 LBC Chapter 9.


CHAP. IX.
Of Free Will.
1. God hath indued the Will of Man, with that natural liberty, and power of acting upon choice; that it is 169neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil. 2. Man in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power, to will, and to do that 170which was good, and well-pleasing to God; but yet 171was mutable, so that he might fall from it. 3. Man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly lost 172all ability of Will, to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, 173and dead in Sin, is not able, by his own strength, to 174convert himself; or to prepare himself thereunto. 4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of Grace 175he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone, enables him 176freely to will, and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that by reason of his 177remaining corruptions he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good; but doth also will that which is evil. 5. The Will of Man is made 178perfectly, and immutably free to good alone, in the state of Glory only.

RC Sproul explains further- Short 3 min video

RC Sproul understands and believes Adam and Eve had true free will, but believes that was removed from everyone following the “fall”.

Would that not suggest: God lacks the power and/or Love to provide all other humans the free will He provided Adam and Eve?

He will go on to say God only provides a righteous desire to some people who then can make a free will choice to do something right, but does that also suggest God lacks the power and/or Love to grand all humans this desire?

We are really talking about some virtually miraculous ability for an individual to make some very limited autonomous free will mental choices, so does God have the power and Love to grant man this limited ability if man needs this ability to become like God?

What does RC Sproul see as man’s objective while here on earth and does man have a choice in fulfilling that objective?

RC Sproul talks a lot about the unbelieving sinful man being dead, a slave to sin, not being able to do anything righteous, honorable, glorious, worthy and holy, which I fully agree with!!!

Sinful man can do different sinful thing by his choice so for selfish reasons (sinful reasons) man can choose to humbly accept pure undeserved charity from his enemy while still hating his enemy. He can choose to hang in there, continue to be a good soldier, be macho, be willing to take the full punishment he deserves and not; wimp out, give up and surrender to his enemy.

While “dead” by the definition Christ used in the Prodigal Son Parable, the son still did stuff like turn to his father for a job, he fully did not deserve.

The autonomous free will mental choice to be humbly willing to accept pure undeserved charity is a choice a slave can make, God is at everyone’s elbow, so you do not have to leave your spot.

There is a very important free will choice the nonbelieving sinner makes which determines if he/she will be showered with unbelievable undeserved wonderful gifts or not. I emphasis “undeserved” since he/she cannot do anything deserving of anything, in others words, nothing worthy, honorable, glorious, holy or righteous.

It has to be a choice between two sinful (selfish) actions which a sinner can do, so one sinner choosing one way over the other is no better then the sinner choosing the opposite.

God has provided every mature adult with very limited free will to make this choice and designed (foreordained) everything to allow the mature adult to have this choice as many times as needed to be a true his/her choice.

The person chooses to either wimp out, give up and surrender to his/her hated enemy and just be willing to humbly accept pure undeserving charity from his/her hated enemy while still hating the enemy. The person can choose to be macho, hang in there, be willing to take the punishment they fully deserve, maybe even maintain some thought of pride and not surrender. Both are done for selfish reasons.

The choice is not random but fully the God given responsibility of the person making this choice with this amazing unique God given power to make the choice.