This is exactly what I believe about Free Will

In a great blog post, Tom Talbot briefly defines and describes "free will", it's role, and it's limits, just as I understand them. A must read!


The Essential Role of Free Will in Universal Reconciliation

I believe in free will. I believe that our freedom plays an essential role in the process whereby God, first, brings us into existence as rational and self-aware beings, and second, perfects us as his sons and daughters. But as a universalist, I also accept two additional Pauline claims: (1) that the very same “all” who died in Adam will most assuredly be made alive in Christ (I Corinthians 15:22), and (2) that our destiny “depends not on human will or exertion, but upon God who shows mercy” (Romans 9:16). So how do I put these two seemingly disparate ideas together? Fortunately, Paul himself teaches us exactly how to fit them together consistently. For though Paul clearly rejected the idea that we choose freely between different possible eternal destinies, arguing instead that our destiny is wholly a matter of grace, he nonetheless stressed the importance of choice. “Note then,” he wrote in the eleventh chapter of his letter to the Romans, “the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise, you also will be cut off.” So how we encounter God’s love in the future, whether we encounter it as kindness or as severity, is indeed, Paul implied, up to us--a matter of free choice, if you will. But our ultimate destiny is not up to us, because God’s severity, no less than his kindness, is itself a means of his saving grace. In particular, God’s severity towards the unbelieving Jews--even his willingness to blind them, to harden their hearts, and to cut them off for a season--was according to Paul but one of the means whereby God saves all of Israel in the end. In Paul’s own words, “a hardening has come upon part of Israel . . .. And so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-26). What our free choices determine, then, is not our eternal destiny, which is secure from the beginning, but the means required to achieve it. For the more tenaciously we cling to our illusions and selfish desires--to the flesh, as Paul called it--the more severe will be the means and the more painful the process whereby God shatters our illusions, destroys the flesh, and finally separates us from our sin. A virtue of the Christian religion, as I see it, is that Christians are never permitted to take credit for their own redemption or even for a virtuous character (where such exists). All credit of this kind goes to God. But the Christian religion also stresses the importance of free choice, of choosing this day whom you shall serve. Nor need there be any tension between these two emphases, provided that we regard our free choices as determining not our eternal destiny, but the means of grace available to us. Essential to the whole redemptive process, I am suggesting, is that we exercise our moral freedom--not that we choose rightly rather than wrongly, but that we choose freely one way or the other. We can choose today to live selfishly or unselfishly, faithfully or unfaithfully, obediently or disobediently. But our choices, especially the bad ones, will also have unintended and unforeseen consequences in our lives; as the proverb says, “The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps” (16:9). A man who commits robbery may set off a chain of events that, contrary to his own intentions, lands him in jail; and a woman who enters into an adulterous affair may discover that, even though her husband remains oblivious to it, the affair has a host of unforeseen and destructive consequences in her life. In fact, our bad choices almost never get us what we really want; that is part of what makes them objectively bad and also one reason why God is able to bring redemptive goods out of them. When we make a mess of our lives and our misery becomes more and more unbearable, the hell we thereby create for ourselves will in the end resolve the very ambiguity and shatter the very illusions that made the bad choices possible in the first place. That is how God works with created rational agents. He permits them to choose in the ambiguous contexts in which they first emerge as self-aware beings, and he then requires them to learn from experience the hard lessons they sometimes need to learn. My point is that a pattern of bad choices can be just as useful to God in correcting us and in teaching the lessons of love as a pattern of good choices can be. And perhaps that is one reason why Paul himself raised the embarrassing question: "Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1). After all, "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). But Paul's correct answer is also most emphatic: "By no means!" That the pain I experience when I thrust my hand into a flame may serve a beneficial purpose--because it enables me to avoid an even greater injury in the future--hardly entails that I have a good reason to thrust my hand into the flame again and again. And similarly, that the misery and unhappiness that sin brings into a life can serve a redemptive purpose--because it can provide a compelling motive to repent--hardly implies that one has a good reason to keep on sinning and to continue making oneself more and more miserable. More than a few have charged that universalists operate with an overly sentimental conception of God's love. But no one who actually reads the early Christian universalists, especially St. Gregory of Nyssa, could possibly come away with that misconception. If anything, the idea that God will in the end destroy sin altogether rests upon a more rigorous conception of God’s holy love than does the idea that he will keep sin alive throughout an eternity of hell. For according to the former idea, God will not permit any of us to cling forever to our illusions or to remain forever ignorant of the true nature of our selfish choices. We are free to sin and perhaps even to sin with relative impunity for a while, but in no way are we free to sin with impunity forever. So unless we first repent of our sin and step into the life that Christ brings to us, God will sooner or later--in the next life, if not in this one--permit our illusions to shatter against the hard rock of reality. In that respect, God's holy love is like a consuming fire (see Hebrews 12:29); it will continue to burn us until it finally purges us of all that is false within us. The more we freely rebel against it and try to defeat it, the more deeply and inexorably it will burn, until every conceivable motive for disobedience is consumed and we are finally transformed from the inside out. And so God will eventually destroy sin in the only way possible short of annihilation: by redeeming the sinners themselves.

-Tom

Thanks for reading. Now go and make the right choices!

-Jack

Removing the "Free Will" Smokescreen

According to one of the modern “gospels” (which is really not good news at all), In spite of a considerable amount of Biblical claims to the contrary, God either cannot or will not save all. Free will is given as the reason for this impotence. Since God doesn’t want forced worship from a bunch of robots, he has given everyone the freedom to choose to go to Hell forever. Added to this, for good measure is the caveat, that if you pass this lifetime without choosing Jesus, the doors close forever leaving the damned in a fiery alternative with no exit…ever! For many “Christians” this sums up their understanding of the gospel: All you have to do is pray a “sinners prayer and mean it in your heart” and “voila” you have escaped from the bad ending.

I wonder how many even consider that this concept casts God in a very poor light. To justify this scenario, if one even ponders it at all, one has to accept that God is either unable to save all of creation, or He just doesn’t want to, and if either of these is true, then God either isn’t Love, or He isn’t all powerful. Those who maintain that He is Love have to concede that He isn’t powerful enough to save those who don’t want to accept His gift. Of course they will tell you that He is all powerful, omnipotent even. “Then why doesn’t He save everyone?” I ask.

“Because they refuse to accept Him.” They reply. “God is a gentleman and He won’t force His will on anyone.” They say.

And that is it! Because man must have free will, God is not responsible for sending them to “eternal “ damnation in Hell fire. He merely allows them the freedom to reject Him.

Really?!

Let me think this through. We have an all powerful, God of Love who is also all wise, and more than exceedingly smart, yet He can’t figure out a way to deliver all the beings He made. He couldn’t have chosen not to make the ones who were going to choose Hell over Himself? Is it because He didn’t know what choices were going to be made by each, or He didn’t want to deliver all. In the first case He isn’t really all knowing, in the second He isn’t really Love.

Does anyone see a problem here? A further problem with this belief is that the Bible clearly teaches that God IS Love and that Love works no ill to his neighbor and it also teaches that God wants everyone to be saved. Hmmm. So how do we account for this?

I don’t pretend to be even as clever as the perceived God of Christianity today, but I could come up with a few scenarios that would seem to work out better than the common belief and still leave “free will” intact. For instance, just make everyone rational and give them a clear understanding of the choices.

Choice A: Subject your will to Jesus and enjoy eternal bliss enveloped in perfect love and free from all pain, suffering, sorrow, weakness and darkness.

Choice B: Subject your will to no one and by default it becomes subjected to Satan and now you get eternal pain and suffering sorrow weeping agony and darkness.

Unless one was deluded, the choice would be simple and I am confident that given the choice everyone who was not ignorant, or deluded would choose option A.

So free will is absolutely no impediment to everyone being saved. The impediment comes in the form of blindness, delusion, ignorance, deafness and any other defect that God is free to heal, without affecting the freewill of His creatures. What law binds God from healing these defects? Certainly not the law of love. Scripture is explicit regarding this. Ga 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. The “free will” argument, excusing God for sending people to “eternal” damnation is no more than a thin smoke screen, obscuring an inconsistency in the modern Christian belief. Namely, an all powerful, all wise and benevolent God of love who is willingly sending most of His created ones to never ending torment and misery.

The main problem with “eternal damnation” is that it has no benefit to anyone. Not to God, nor to those who are saved by Him, and especially none to those who are the victims of it! It is a cruel and heartless concept depicting hateful vengeance without mercy and is purportedly inflicted on men for simply not making the right choice, whether it was in total ignorance, or drunken delusion it matters not. The mercy that endures forever is no longer enduring here, while the flames that endure forever prevail over the mercy that was hailed to prevail forever. Isn’t it strange that it’s okay for the Bible to be wrong about His mercy enduring forever, but it is heresy for the Bible to be wrong about Hell lasting forever?

So exactly what purpose would Love have in creating a place of unending, inescapable fiery torture that has no exit plan anyway? There is NO viable answer to this question nor does there need to be! Why? Because He didn’t ever create such a place. The place He created that is described in Scripture, is a place for which He holds the key. It is a place to be avoided if at all possible by those who understand, yet Scripture says all shall have their part in it. Jesus himself tasted death and Hell and He was made better for it. (Rev 21:8; Mark 9:49; Heb 5:8,9)

All the judgments of this life and the life to come are perfectly designed to bring about the changes that will make us all, just like Jesus. Does that mean I want to go through them? The answer to that should be plain. You don’t see me touching the burners on the stove when they are hot, nor do I intentionally touch the wires in the electrical panels I service until I know they are de-energized. Furthermore, I go to great lengths to warn others about the two potential sources of pain, discomfort and even possible death. The penalty does not have to be fatal, in order to have a corrective effect, nor to inspire me to warn others against the consequences of careless behavior. When my children (or apprentices) don’t heed the warnings, and touch the hot burners or energized wires, they get judged, but the judgment serves to deter such foolish behavior, thus it is merciful judgment, for it makes them wiser and more disciplined in the future. Our loving God has established these loving judgments. They are written into the very laws of nature.

The spiritual application is easy. All sin is harmful to the sinner, it brings consequences. The consequences are designed to curtail the sin, to make the perpetrator wiser and more disciplined. All God’s judgments for sin are designed to eventually lead the sinner to the place where Jesus lived. The place of perfect surrender to His will.

Joh 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

It is consistent with Love to discipline and judge to bring about correction. It is not consistent with love to hurt with no hope of benefit. If an all wise and loving being saw fit to create those who would never be fit to be in His company forever, He could simply make a place of isolation in which He cared for them in the best way they could receive. There is no point in tormenting them if they cannot benefit.Even the judgment of death has a remedy and benefit. (Ecc 7:1;Rom 6:7)

What would you think of a dog lover who had a pack of dogs, some that were loyal and disciplined and loving, and some that were vicious and untrainable. Suppose He gathered up all the untrainable dogs and placed them in a pit where they could bite and devour one another, where they were subjected to sub- zero temperatures at night and unbearably hot temperatures in the day, fed just enough putrid meat to keep alive though it made them vomit, which they then ate. What would you think of him if he did everything he could to make them suffer? Infested their pit with fleas, and ticks, taunted them, burned them, harassed them continually?

Could you think of a better way to treat bad dogs? Apparently the SPCA is kinder to vicious dogs than the majority of today’s “Christians” think God is to human beings who simply don’t believe in Him.

Is the “church” today just like the Israel of Jesus day? We have placed “tradition” above the word of God, and as a result, we are preaching a false “Gospel” and we have accused those few who are preaching the true gospel of heresy. Are we also exclusivists. Just like Jonah, who didn’t really want Nineveh to repent and be saved? Like the Pharisees who went wild when Paul informed them He was sent to show that salvation is for the Gentiles as well as the Jews? (Acts 26:20,21) Do we reject and persecute those who teach God is the savior of all? (1Ti 4:10) Like the Pharisees persecuted the disciples of Jesus.

Today, God is still working His salvation for the entire world, but the traditional churches have clung to the tactics of fear which guarantee power and control for them, regardless of the logical fallacies, regardless of the blot it puts on God. Logical fallacies like Love that isn’t loving. Like power that can’t deliver. Like an all powerful being who wants to save all but chooses to create a world in which He can’t get what He wants.

Fear of God may be the beginning of wisdom, but perfect love casts out fear. The kingdom of God is about love not fear. Listed among those who are going into the Lake of Fire is the fearful. (Rev 21:8)

The only true indication of being delivered is love. (1John 2:5 and 1John 3:14) Love is the first fruit of the Spirit. Ro 13:10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Surely God is Good enough, powerful enough,(Mark 10:27) loving enough,(Jn 3:16) merciful enough,(2Cor 1:3) willing enough,(2Pet 3:9) smart enoughand wise enough,(Rom 11:33) to save all those whom He has created.(2Cor 5:19) He will use the laws He has created to teach us to be like Jesus. (1Co 15:22-27)

What I Believe About God

I believe God is Love. I believe Love is His essence. Nothing He does or is can contradict Love.
1Jo 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ;1Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

I believe God is almighty, omnipotent, unlimited in power.
Ge 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD?; Jer 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Jer 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?; Mt 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." ; Lu 1:37 For with God nothing will be impossible." Re 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

I believe God is good… all the time.
Ps 86:5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. ;Ps 119:68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. ; Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. ; Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. ; Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

I believe God is all knowing, omniscient, unlimited in knowledge.
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, ; Ps 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. ; 1Jo 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.; Heb 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. ; Ps 33:13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

I believe God is merciful and that His mercy endures till there is no more need for mercy.
1Ch 16:34 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. ;Ps 106:1;107:1; 118:1,2,3,4,29;136:1,2,3,4,…all the way to verse 26 every verse mentions His mercy endureth for ever. :Jer 33:11 ;

I believe that God loves every single creature He has created.
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 1Jo 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.; 1Ti 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ; Joh 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ; Ro 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ; Ro 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ; Job 36:5 Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.

I believe that God causes everything to work together for good for those He loves.
Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. ; 1Jo 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us. ; 1Co 13:8 Love never fails. (Therefore all will eventually love Him in return.)

I believe that God wants everyone to be reconciled to Himself.
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. ; 2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. ; 1Jo 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. ; 1Jo 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. ; Joh 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

I believe that God is patient and will wait as long as it takes until all willingly embrace Him as their Lord.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Lu 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

I believe that God will accomplish all His will, including the reconciliation of all His creation.
Isa 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. ; Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. ; Ps 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. ; Isa 45:23 By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.'24 "Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed, all who were incensed against him. ; Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. ; Re 5:13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!"14 And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. 1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ; Ro 5:18 Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. ; 2Ti 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. ; Ps 89:31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. ; Ps 103:9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. ; Isa 57:16 For I will not contend for ever, nor will I always be angry; for from me proceeds the spirit, and I have made the breath of life. 17 Because of the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, I smote him, I hid my face and was angry; but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and requite him with comfort, creating for his mourners the fruit of the lips. 19 Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the LORD; and I will heal him

I believe that God’s justice and mercy are identical being defined from the point of reference of the observer.
Le 18:5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. ; 1Ch 16:14 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth./ Ps 119:64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: Every act of judgment is an act of mercy for it works to bring correction which when received will bring blessing. Every act of mercy is just because Jesus paid for every sin. 1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I believe that God, in His sovereign power, has given free will with a limitation, that He never allows any of His creatures to cause harm to themselves or to others that He cannot repair.
Ro 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. ; Mt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.