God’s Sovereignty vs Human Will

First, what is libertarian or autonomous free will ?

According to the opponents of Universalism, God won’t save everyone because to do so would require that He intrude upon and override the rebellious will of many unbelievers.

We are told that God values the dignity of our free will. Does He value free will over the value of 45 billion people or more? Five sparrows sold for two pennies and yet not one of them was forgotten by God. He knows the very hairs of our head and they are all numbered. (Luke 12:6-7) That doesn’t sound like a lack of value to me. How is it that they think He is willing to lose 45 billion people? God is not willing that any should perish! (2 Peter 3:9)

This free will idea sounds logical enough and because of that it is trotted out by apologists, theologians, and Christian YouTubers as an explanation as to why God will not save everyone even though He is able to do it. He so deeply loves every one of His created beings with a love that is beyond our ability to fathom, yet He can’t seem to come up with a plan to reconcile everyone even though He had eons before He made us to do so?

In the mind of most Christians God is smart, but not the possessor of all knowledge. Oh, they think they know this, but they don’t act as though they do. They fail to see that He not only knew the outcome of every decision made throughout history and knows the result of every decision made by anyone living now or in the future but knows what would have happen as the result of any decision we could have made but didn’t. There is not one iota of knowledge that God doesn’t possess, including a viable plan to save everyone orchestrated before the ages began. (Isaiah 45:23)

 They don’t believe that God is able to do what He said that He would do, so they restrict Him in their theology in the areas they do not understand. They don’t know why God will not save everyone even in the face of such a great love that He paid a horrific price – for every one of us. So, instead of examining the scriptures as to why they believe that God will not save everyone, they conjured up the free will argument. I say “conjured” it up because there is nowhere in scripture that says that God will never violate free will.

The Paradox of Free Will

First, as mentioned, it is not Biblical. I would ask those that believe this to be a viable explanation as to why Universalism isn’t true to show me the passage that says God will absolutely not violate our free will. (As soon as you read that, all those who read and study the scriptures had examples of events where God did, in fact, violate free will come to mind.) We will get to those shortly.

Next, if God loves us, He will save us. It is that simple. To think that the overwhelming majority of the human race – past, present, and future – will be cast into excruciating eternal torment because God didn’t want to violate anyone’s freedom to choose is unthinkably absurd. We wouldn’t let a man step off the curb in front of a truck to keep from interrupting him on the phone. How much more would the God of the universe save His children from calamity?

Next, Jesus spoke of counting the cost:

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, (Luke 14:28-29 ESV)

God started with His plan and purpose before the foundation of the world. He declared the end from the beginning, sent the Word out of His mouth that it would not return unfinished, He declared from ancient times that which has not yet occurred, that every knee would bow, and every tongue would swear allegiance to Him. He has spoken, and He will bring it to pass; He has purposed it, and He will do it. (Isaiah 46:9-10. 11b; 45:23 ESV)

Do we think that a God, with perfect foreknowledge and ultimate power at His disposal, would create a person He couldn’t save? Let alone 45 billion of them? Wouldn’t a God who loved His people provide for their redemption and reconciliation in a plan that excludes no one? His plan, in place since before the ages began, accounts for everyone, without exception. Doesn’t that make sense?

Keep in mind, our ways are not God’s ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts. His ways and thoughts are far above our own. For instance, we cannot fathom any reason or good that could come out of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, or the reasons God would have to allow the senseless death of an 8-year-old boy struck by an SUV while marching in a Christmas parade. However, because I cannot see the reason and sense of it doesn’t mean that there is none and to say there is no reason or sense just because I can’t see it, would be arrogant of me.

In the same sense, I can’t fathom what would take place in the hearts of those consigned to the fire of the Refiner’s crucible, how it is that a time of chastisement and correction can burn away the sin of unbelief in their hearts until they come to know the truth and repent. I cannot see clearly and distinctly how that would not be a violation of free will, but God knows. His disciples once asked how anyone could be saved when considering that not many rich would make it into the kingdom. Jesus said that with man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

So, for us to consign the bulk of humanity to an eternal perdition because we cannot understand how God can reconcile everyone He loves and for whom He paid the ultimate price, while preserving that precious free will men and women are purported to have, seems to me to be the pinnacle of arrogance.

The scriptures are filled with statements of universal salvation – they’re everywhere and in the New Testament particularly. So much so that the Christian pundits online must address them with explanations that are woefully inadequate – explanations that do not come from the scriptures.

Most who would say things like, “God cannot save everyone because He won’t violate free will”, do not really understand free will and are not ready for an in-depth discussion about it. I don’t know that I am. Look at some of the conclusions drawn by scholars relative to God and free will. I do not include them here for any other reason than to show you that there is robust debate on the subject of Biblical free will.

“The consensus of scholars who focus on the study of free will in the ancient world is that the Bible does not explicitly address free will.”

Paul Linjamaa, Free Will and the Configuration of the Human Mind, in The Ethics of The Tripartite Tractate: A Study of Determinism and Early Christian Philosophy of Ethics (2019).

The leading scholar on the subject of free will in antiquity, Michael Frede, observed that:

“Freedom and free will cannot be found in either the Septuagint or the New Testament and must have come to the Christians mainly from Stoicism.”

Michael Frede, A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought. Sather Classical Lectures 68. Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford: University of California Press, 2011. xiv, 206

Frede wrote that he could not find either the language of free will nor even any assumption of it in the New Testament or the Greek Old Testament. According to Frede, the early Church fathers most certainly developed their doctrine of free will from the pagans.  (Michael Frede, A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought, chapter 7)

Another Oxford scholar, Dr. Alister McGrath, concurs entirely with Frede,:

“The term ‘free will’ is not biblical, but derives from Stoicism. It was introduced into Western Christianity by the second-century theologian Tertullian.”

Alister McGrath, Christian Theology, 351.

Pauline expert, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, unequivocally insists that, Paul firmly believed in divine determination as an intrinsic part of his whole conception of God. (Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Fate, Providence and Free Will: Philosophy and Religion in Dialogue in the Early Imperial Age, 2020)

The Paradox of Free Will

The debate for the existence of free will in the scriptures:

The Bible seems to be lacking an abundance of passages that explicitly argue for free will. However, just because there aren’t many doesn’t mean there aren’t any, and there is an abundance of scriptures that imply free will. There is one that can be seen as presenting a strong implication, if not an outright explicit teaching of the existence of human free will:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

What an extraordinary passage of scripture that lets us know that God is faithful, powerful, and true to us in providing what we need, when we need it, to avoid sin. God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to…what? To choose! Temptation is an enticement to choose evil, but God, while allowing the temptation will provide the way of escape – He will provide another choice!

(But wait! First, He will not let you be tested beyond your ability to resist. God monitored and gaged the type and intensity of the testing so that it wouldn’t be more than we could bear and provided the choice that would help us escape. Is that free will?)

So, the lack of an explicit argument from scripture, demands that one must make an implicit one to arrive at free will in the Bible. We don’t have to read far into the biblical narrative before coming upon a point of reference in Adam and Eve, whose willful disobedience of God implies a capacity to choose.

(Just as in the passage above, God provided the crossroads, the opportunity to make a choice, and He had provided everything the first couple needed to avoid sin. However, there was a variable they hadn’t seen before – the serpent, God’s agent. There are those who would argue that when God introduced the devil into the equation, free will was handcuffed given the fact that He knew they would fall. The first couple were not equipped to resist the adversary.)

Okay, one might argue that as the narrative of humanity continues in the Old Testament, it implicitly affirms free will in the blessings God promised Israel in exchange for obedience to the commands and statutes given them at Mt Sinai. Joshua’s challenge to Israel to, “choose you this day whom ye will serve”, assumes the ability to do so on the part of the Israelites and Joshual affirms implicitly that he has the power to do so when he proclaims, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 KJV)

(Both in the aggregate and individually, Israel was burdened with a yoke they were unable to bear so that God would do what the law, weakened by the flesh couldn’t do – sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. How could they have possessed free will when they were incapable of obeying the law? Romans 8:3)

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” 

Matthew 23:37 NASB

One might argue that Jesus assumed a capacity to choose on the part of the Jews when He proclaimed this prophecy. (However, it is hard to see free will here when everything about the Messiah and His ministry, was foreordained of God and declared to us through scripted prophecy, including the actions of the Jews in Jerusalem.)

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. (Acts 4:25-28 KJV)

God determined before the ages began that the rulers, the kings of the earth, Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel would be confederate, in league against God and against His Christ to do what He decided to do. God put it in the hearts of those people to crucify the Messiah! Free will?

The debate for the lack of libertarian free will in the scriptures:

The scriptures declare that God has decreed whatever comes to pass. From before the ages began, God has declared things that have not yet occurred. He said that His counsel would stand, and that He would accomplish His purpose in its entirety (Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV) and that no one can stay His hand. (Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 16:4) He also said that He works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11) and that, the heart of man may plan his way, [but] the Lord establishes his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

God said to Moses that He would be gracious to whom He would be gracious, and that He would show mercy on whom He would show mercy. (Exodus 33:19) In other words, it is entirely up to God who it is that will receive grace and mercy and we have no choice in the matter. Jesus said that no one comes to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44) and, of course, we are saved by grace, but we don’t get that grace unless it is given to us by God – it is a gift. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began (2 Timothy 1:9 ESV)

When Rebekkah was pregnant with Jacob and Esau, before they were born and before either had a chance to do anything either good or bad, she was told that the older would serve the younger in order that God’s purpose of election might continue. (Romans 9:10-12)

God raised up Pharoah to sit on the throne of Egypt so that He could send plagues and decimate him, showing His power on him, that God’s name would be proclaimed in all the earth. (Romans 9:17)

The potter, says Paul, has the power to make of a lump of clay one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use. He refers to vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and vessels of mercy, which have been prepared beforehand for glory. (Romans 9:21-23) His metaphorical use of jars of clay to represent people is telling, don’t you think?

In the end, there are two things, primarily, that are problematic with the idea that humanity possesses any degree of real (autonomous) free will: (1) that which we’ve been discussing – the absolute sovereignty of God, and (2) mankind’s bondage to sin:

Everyone has and continues to sin (Romans 3:23) and Jesus taught that we are slaves to sin (John 8:34). Obviously, slaves are not free. We don’t exercise our own will when we sin, rather, sin is a cosmic power to which humans are enslaved. “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” (Romans 11:32)

Because I have not seen many excerpts that sum up what we’ve been discussing as succinctly as the one below does, I am going to cite it as a means to close. It was not written by a Universalist, but the author recognizes the paradox of free will in the scriptures.

In conclusion, we must try to understand the effort to import (libertarian) free will into the Scriptures. The reasoning is usually to preserve human autonomy because it is seen as the key to moral responsibility. This is also done to preserve God’s justice. God cannot be seen as just if He would condemn those who cannot choose against their depraved wills. Yet in these attempts to preserve God’s justice and human responsibility, damage is done to the Scriptures. The Bible emphatically affirms human responsibility for sin and God’s justice, but it also clearly rejects libertarian free will. Scripture clearly affirms that 1) God is sovereign over all affairs, including the affairs of men; and 2) man is responsible for his rebellion against a holy God. The fact that we cannot completely harmonize these two biblical truths should not cause us to reject either one. Things seem impossible to us often simply because we do not have the mind of God. It is true that we can’t expect to understand the mind of God perfectly, as He reminds us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Nevertheless, although we cannot fully understand all things, our responsibility to God is to believe His Word, to obey Him, to trust Him, and to submit to His will, whether we fully understand it or not.¹

So, as we can see, the matter of Biblical free will is not cut and dried but is fraught with the unknown. To use a presumed unwillingness on God’s part to violate something we may or may not posses to any great degree, is strategically untenable as an argument against Universalism. (It doesn’t work for me and it shouldn’t for you either.)

ENDNOTES

¹What is Libertarian Free Will? GotQuestions? Website, https://www.gotquestions.org/libertarian-free-will.html, (accessed 9/29/23)