Part 10 Free Will
There are three distinct and separate schools of Christian theology. These are Arminianism, Calvinism and Christian Universalism. It is only the Arminianism view that has Mankind having freewill to chose to believe in Christ or be damned for all eternity.
Arminianism
“In the Arminianism view, the free will of Man can frustrate and thwart God’s will to save all mankind.
According to Arminianism: Christ died for all people and God wills all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. However, God’s will can be frustrated and thwarted by man and God’s grace can be resisted by man’s free will, because ultimately it is left to each person to decide whether he wishes to be saved or not. Therefore, in order to go to heaven each person must choose and accept Jesus Christ before he dies. All those who die without choosing Christ will be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire (hell), where they will remain and be eternally tortured.
Some Arminian Christians believe in annihilation instead of endless torture.”
From http://www.godoftheages.com/site/1351515/page/686563
This is the most popular view, most Christian churches are Arminian.
“Doubtless the problems of freedom and necessity contain an insoluble element. But we can look at them practically. You insist that everything depends on human choice. I reply, see how on the contrary man's choice is limited at every hand. First, man is born in sin; that is, certainly not wholly free. Take, next, the facts of life. In the first place man can exercise no choice at all as to the time and place of his birth - facts all important in deciding his religious belief, and through that his character; no choice as to the very many and very complex hereditary influences molding his entire life, though most often he knows it not; affecting for good or for evil every thought, every word, every act of his; no choice at all as to the original weakness of his nature, and its inherent tendency to evil. More, still, man can exercise no choice at all on this vital question, whether he will or will not have laid on Him the awful perils, in which, on the popular view, the mere fact of life involves him. Further, man can exercise no choice at all as to the strength of that will be receives; no choice at all as to the circumstances that surround him in infancy and childhood, and which colors his whole life; man has no choice as to the moral atmosphere he must imbibe in those early years of training, which color almost of necessity, the whole after life. "But a creature cannot" you reply, "choose these things, from the very nature of the case." That, I answer, only proves my point, that a creature cannot be wholly free, from the very nature of the case. What the facts point to, is that God grants a limited freedom, intending to train man, His child, for the enjoyment hereafter of perfect freedom.
Freedom enough is granted to resist God for ages; freedom to suffer, and to struggle; to reap what has been sown, till, taught by experience, the will of the creature is bent to the will of the Creator. If all this does not involve a freedom that is real, though limited, then human words are vain as a vehicle for human thought.
Further, this pleading for endless sin in hell on the ground that it is freely chosen by man, would, if true, but enhance the great difficulty of the popular creed - the victory of evil; for plainly, the more free on man's part, the more wilful his choice of sin, so much the more complete is the triumph of evil, so much the more absolute is the failure of the Cross.
To preserve man's dignity he must be permitted to become the slave of evil if he will, the associate of devils for ever - to secure his prerogative of freedom he must be allowed to sink into hopeless servitude to sin.
A lunatic is to be restrained; a criminal to be imprisoned; an incendiary to be arrested; but the moral criminal, the spiritual incendiary, these are not to be constrained even by grace divine!
But again, it obviously follows that if man is in this sense free, i.e., is free to defy God finally, then either (a) God does not in any real sense will the salvation of all men, but does will man's absolute freedom, at the cost of his salvation (if the two conflict), or (b) He does will it, but is unable to accomplish it.
From Christ Triumphant”, by Thomas Allin
Men make choices and decisions every day, but something (or Someone) creates a circumstance that causes these decisions. If I scratch my body (my own choice), I do it because I have an itch. If I eat a meal (my own choice), I do so because I am hungry. If I hurt another person (my choice), I do so because they did some harm to me. For every choice we make, there is a cause greater than the choice. It is your basic cause/effect principle. For every effect (in this case our choice), there is some cause that prompted the action. As no one would deny that God is sovereign over all things (including Satan), it is God who can change circumstances as He pleases to bring about the desired effect. In this way, we may think we are totally independent from God in the choices we make, but in reality, there is Someone greater than ourselves working behind the scenes to bring about a perfectly orchestrated finale. God is the great conductor who controls and leads men to respond with a simple wave of His baton.”
From http://www.savior-of-all.com/freewill.html
“FREE WILL - FREEDOM OF "CHOICE"
CONSIDER THIS:
Methuselah had 969 years to find God and get his life right.
Yet a child may be born to a prostitute, drug addict mother and a Mafia "hit man", alcoholic father who beats his wife and kids everyday. The child grows up in the ghetto, on the street, joins a gang and is murdered in a shoot out at the age of 14.
According to what we're taught, God says "Well kid, you had 14 years to find Me and get your life straight and you didn't get it right -- so YOU'RE DEAD MEAT. You're going to BURN because you didn't accept Me as your Saviour in those 14 short years!"
In this "parable" the boy responds by saying "But why did you give Methuselah 969 years and me only 14 years? That isn't fair!"
And the boy is absolutely right! IT ISN'T FAIR!! SO GOD WOULDN'T DO THAT!!
God is the ULTIMATE in fairness.”
From http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/judgment2.htm
Copyright © M J Farquharson 2006, 2020 & 2021