Correcting Free Will Confusion in Christianity
Not having free will is Biblical!
I will preface this post by stating that there are theologians out there who have a greater understanding of Biblical theology than I do. However, I feel what I have to say is really important and should cause Christians to reconsider the common insistence that we are free creatures.
A large part of the work I have done in the field of philosophical theology is addressing the free will issue. Following my postgraduate studies in philosophy and religion, I spent some time considering divine sovereignty and free will deeply, and the Lord revealed to me some important insights which I have shared in the various books I have written.
When I considered what freedom to act independently of the will of God would really mean, I came to the conclusion that the idea is highly problematic. I thought about how I didn’t choose the number of arms and legs I have, how I don’t control my digestion or circulation, how my hair and nails are growing aside from any ‘willing’ on my part, and how I don’t know (and am unable to plan) which thoughts will arise in my mind in an hour’s (or even a few minute’s) time.
The fact that I am not in control of my body or any of my physical and mental processes inescapably points to the fact that God is animating everything that I experience as part of my living state. If someone were to ask me, ‘what are those things that you do independently of the will of God?’ I would have to boldly and honestly reply, ‘nothing’ (I go into greater depth and offer further arguments along these lines in my book God’s Grand Game: Divine Sovereignty and the Cosmic Playground, which is downloadable for free to paying subscribers).
The implications of our lack of free will are very interesting in terms of Biblical theology. An obvious question to ask is whether Christian theology really makes sense if we don’t have freedom of action. After all, why would God raise us from the dead and judge us, with some saved and some damned, if throughout our lives we have never made choices with free will?
I think there is a Biblical argument to be made for our lack of free will, in particular as regards the doctrine of predestination. An important Scripture that refers to this doctrine is Romans 8:29-30:
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
This is one Scripture which places Christian salvation entirely in the hands of God, and there are others, though this will suffice for the purposes of my arguments in this short article.
According to the doctrine of predestination, God decides which human beings will be saved and damned according to foreknowledge (so before they are even born). Theologians have sometimes tried to formulate complex arguments that maintain our free will in light of this, but these arguments always fail on close inspection, because the reality is that we are not free at all, whichever way you view the idea.
I have agonised over why it is that God might do this - damning some people to the torments of hell before they are even conceived in their human bodies, and it has caused me more despair than I want to recall.
One idea that makes this concept easier to fathom is that God is perfectly just. And so we may consider that the amount of suffering someone will go through in hell could accord with the amount of suffering they have caused during their Earthly life. Even without free will, this perspective is seemingly fair.
But the idea of this kind of gradation of states of torment wouldn’t sit well with Christian preachers who are vocal about the bipolar nature of human destiny; that some will meet with everlasting hell and some with everlasting paradise. But in the absence of free will, how can everlasting torment be a just punishment?
It could be, for who are we to question God:
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
Sobering stuff.
So it could be that the correct response to predestination in the light of our lack of free will is quiet acceptance that God does whatever He will.
The hard part of this is that sensitive people feel utterly distraught about the idea of everlasting hell, even if they are quite confident they are saved. I don’t know how the idea cannot be distressing to anyone, especially if we truly love our neighbour as ourself.
Of course, it is this thought that compels so many Christians to evangelise, though I’ve often struggled with the concept of preaching the unconditional love of God, when from this perspective it is not at all unconditional love that God shows to everyone. Those He predestines to damnation will be damned, and those who He predestines to salvation will be saved. Maybe it’s a reality we just have to live with and accept whatever the fate may be that God has predestined for us?
There’s much more to this, and I can’t go into greater depth here, as the nature of my Substack publication is that I try to make my articles short and concise.
But I will close with a note to say that at times recently, I have found double predestination to be an idea that is very hard to accept. Could it really be the truth? Or does God have a plan to be truly merciful to every being He has created and bestow His love and mercy upon everyone? While it would frighten me to ever question the sovereign will of God, I can’t help but secretly hope so.