Free Will. Scripture. Philosophy. Shenanigans!

What is our ultimate authority? Is it the Church (as Rome)? Is it philosophy? Is it Scripture?

I assert that one of these three has absolutely no place, or at least a very small place, in Christian theology. It is philosophy. Scripture has authority and so does the church. But philosophy does not.

Sadly, especially in America, philosophy is one of (notice I did not say the only) the driving factors in biblical interpretation for a vast amount of churches. These churches are ones that hold to the philosophical construct of libertarian free will. Who are these churches? Well, the Methodists, Wesleyans, *most* Baptists, the Pentecostals, and the seeker-sensitive mega-churches.

This is not a new idea, however. C.S. Lewis once said, "If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

Lewis is essentially arguing that free will is a necessity for any and all goodness, love, and joy. In other words, we must be inherently able to will those things in order for them to have any meaning.

I realize attacking C.S. Lewis is sort of like attacking St. Peter, but he is flat wrong here.

We must ask the relevant question here, however. Do the Holy Scriptures teach this? And our answer must come in two forms.

First, before the fall of man, we can say yes. Adam and Eve had free will. God created them good. This is to say, Adam and Eve were not sinful in the Garden of Eden as we are sinful today.

However, after the whole fruit-eating incident, something happened. We have what Christianity refers to as the fall of man and original sin.

Original sin puts our will in bondage. We are sinners not by choice, but by nature. Our original nature was not so, however, and thanks be to God, this will be removed at the Parousia.

Ultimately, the free will stance so prevalent today has two major problems per Holy Scripture. First and foremost, Scripture militates very clearly against this philosophical construct repeatedly. The free will folks insist on making decisions for Jesus and making the right choices, as if we, in our own power, can do those things. The problem is, the Bible says we cannot. Two quick quotes from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans ought to clear this up once and for all. It won't, but it should.

Romans 3:10-12: it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 8:7-8: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

And there it is. The free will folks would exhort us to seek God, choose Christ, and submit to God. St. Paul flatly says we don't do those things and we can't do those things.

End of discussion. Or at least, it should be the end of the discussion.

The second problem is that the more extreme free will folks appeal to the Garden of Eden as their example. They opine that we are in the same situation as Adam. This is to say, we are in that same spot and are able to choose to disobey or obey. This, to put it bluntly, is sheer Pelagianism and puts a person outside of the Christian faith. Why? Because it denies the Gospel. No, I do not think Pelagians are Christians. When you reject salvation by grace as they do and get God totally incorrect, how can that be anything but another God?

[I am *not* saying that every professed Christian who believes in free will is not a Christian.]

Ultimately, the extreme logical-deduction free will folks flatly reject the fall of man and some even go so far as to throw ignorance on God (Open or Free Will Theism) in order to continue in their heresies. Thankfully, classical Arminian theology does not go to this level.

To sum it up, denying original sin denies the Gospel. Denying the Gospel denies Christ and Christianity, no matter how loudly one says the name of Jesus.

Free will in the libertarian sense is a sacred cow that needs to be burnt up.

Think about it. This stance is something different than salvation by grace alone, and as such, it's something different than what the Scriptures teach.

"If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly." ~Martin Luther