A biblical argument against the idea that free will is the reason that God cannot save everyone.
First let's look quickly at two passages recording the same account. The account of the deliverance of the boy who kept throwing himself into the fire and water.
(If you are familiar enough with this passage, feel free to skip down to the next section. )
Mr 9:17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master,
I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
18 And wheresoever he
taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and
pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and
they could not.
19 He answereth him,
and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall
I suffer you? bring him unto me.
20 And they brought
him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell
on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
21 And he asked his
father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
22 And ofttimes it
hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou
canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway
the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help
thou mine unbelief.
25 When Jesus saw
that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him.
26 And the spirit
cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch
that many said, He is dead.
27 But Jesus took him
by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
Matthew describes the same event, but from a different perspective:
Mt 17:14 And when they were come to the
multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
15 Lord, have mercy
on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the
fire, and oft into the water.
16 And I brought him
to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17 Then Jesus
answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be
with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked
the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very
hour.
Matthew saw a lunatic, but Mark saw a demon.
Matthew saw a boy who, due to his lunacy, kept falling into the fire and water.
Very self destructive behavior. Perhaps even suicidal.
Mark saw a boy who was being manipulated by a demon and said that the boy was
cast into the fire.
I would gather that the boy was casting himself into the fire and water because
the demon had convinced him that it was the thing that he (the boy) wanted to
do.
Did the boy have free will? Well, he did
and he didn’t. He was using his own
muscles, and choosing to throw himself into the fire, true. But his thought
process was in bondage to an outside force that he, at the time, had no power
to resist, even though the fire was causing wounds and pain to the boy, his
will to avoid pain was over ridden by the demon.
Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
In this account, it is made clear that Jesus is not in any
way hampered by the free will decisions of the boy, to cast himself into the
fire, and that the boy’s free will choices are not the root problem. The only
hindrance is in the faith of the boy’s father, and the faith of the Lord’s
disciples.
19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how
long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
23
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to
him that believeth.
24 And straightway
the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help
thou mine unbelief.
This healing had nothing to do with the faith of the child…
Should that surprise us? Oh, but did it have anything to do with the
free will of the child? How could it?
Jesus indicates that the child was deaf, and dumb and it doesn't appear that Jesus ever asked the child permission to do anything. What needed to be done here? Do you find it interesting that Jesus did NOT see fit to punish
the child for his wilfull stupidity? Perhaps because of his deaf and dumbness.
Is it normal behavior of any person acting under the influence of his own free
will to continually subject themselves to the pain and destruction of fire?
Is it reasonable to say that anyone who behaves in such a way is not acting as
a free agent but rather as one who is
under the influence of some other force?
Was Jesus solution to force the child not to jump into the fire by using
restraints? Was it to discipline the
child, to discourage the foolishness?
Was it to reason with the child? Was it to cast the child into the fire
and say, you stupid child, you like fire, go for it, burn forever! J NO. Of course not!
Jesus simply removed the force that was
against the child. (the demon, the lunacy, the deafness, the dumbness), and voila,
the child no longer behaved in such a way. Jesus set the child free, exactly
what He came to do.
Lu 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Now I ask,
Did Jesus violate or infringe upon the free will
of the child?
Did Jesus succeed in saving the child from his plight?
He saved the child from the demon of
deafness and dumbness. He opened the ability for the child to hear and speak,
just as he opens our ability to hear Him, and speak with Him.
Is any human being such that, were he free from deception and
demonic influence, he would choose to cast himself into the pain of burning for
eternity, or any other form of anguish? With the promise of life and endless happiness, would anyone that was NOT in bondage to deception even choose to be annihilated? That's preposterous. (If one did, they would endlessly wound all who loved them.)
Is there a human being anywhere, from Adam till present, who would not choose,
of his own free will: mercy and perfection, life and love, over the darkness
and agony of eternal torment, were he
free from demonic influence and ignorance and blindness and stupidity?
I think not. So, unless one is under the
deception of deterministic thinking, that God has elected some for this sort of
end, then one has
to face the fact that “free will” is no excuse for a loving God to send anyone
to eternal torment. As long as God has
the power to remove the demons and their influence, the will to choose life
will follow.
Now this being demonstrated, this power of Jesus
to remove blindness, deafness, spiritual forces that work against us, should
Jesus refuse this mercy to any of His
created ones for all eternity…
Well, that just wouldn’t be nice.
It wouldn’t be
good.
It would defy any definition of agape love.
It would do violence to our
sensibilities.
It would make God out to
be the monster that Calvin believed Him to be.
In essence God would have to
pick and choose who He wanted to deliver, and who He wanted to remain in the
darkness of blindness, and the misery of torment forever,
and those He wanted to
bless with perfect bodies and white robes and bliss.
Some say that for some mystical reason, that death is the point of no return.
It's true, we have known people to go to the grave without being healed and set free to
worship Jesus.
Is there no hope for these?
What did we learn from
the resurrection?
What did we learn from Lazarus in Bethany, or the widow’s
son, or Jairus’ daughter, or the graves opening at Jesus resurrection?
Why does Jesus have the keys of hades and
death?
Some deny the power of the resurrection.
But Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Death is no hindrance to Him!
No hindrance at all to His work
of:
healing,
giving sight,
loosing burdens,
granting forgiveness
cleansing from sin, or
setting captives free.
It seems reasonable to imagine that death removes all the distractions of life so that the person can see like they've never seen before.
He that is dead is freed from sin, says Paul.
Unbelief is sin,
rebellion is sin...
why do we suppose that one who is free from sin would go on rejecting God?
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.
Why would we suppose that this promise ends at death? Who restricts God here? Is He no longer, 'Just', to forgive after we die? Is He no longer, 'Faithful', to forgive after we die? Can He no longer cleanse, just because we are dead?
If He could raise Himself from the dead, why would we dare say there is anyone He cannot raise after they are dead?
Man’s free will is no excuse for God to allow anyone to remain dead in trespasses and sins forever. God alone would have to take the responsibility of such a decision on His shoulders.
If we believe in God, that seems to leave us with a choice between some form of Calvinism and Universalism.
