How does God control man's will?
- Thread starter Jeffrey Setiawan
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No Other Name
Puritan Board Senior
Nicely done.
When I read this part: "Man has a will, but his will is not free." I heard in my head the two gruff voices of Gerstner and Sproul insisting that we have never made a choice that we didn't want to.
Unregenerate man has a will and freedom to do whatever he wants to under the category of actions that do not lead to righteousness - even feeding the hungry or giving to the poor counts for only his own self-righteousness and a puffed self-alignment to the moral, the greater good.
This is only to say I agree with you and to ask you (and anyone else that feels inclined to respond): does regenerate man pre-glorification have a mutable free will to a lesser degree than pre-Fall Adam or simply more options post-regeneration?
Thank you.
When I read this part: "Man has a will, but his will is not free." I heard in my head the two gruff voices of Gerstner and Sproul insisting that we have never made a choice that we didn't want to.
Unregenerate man has a will and freedom to do whatever he wants to under the category of actions that do not lead to righteousness - even feeding the hungry or giving to the poor counts for only his own self-righteousness and a puffed self-alignment to the moral, the greater good.
This is only to say I agree with you and to ask you (and anyone else that feels inclined to respond): does regenerate man pre-glorification have a mutable free will to a lesser degree than pre-Fall Adam or simply more options post-regeneration?
Thank you.
Jeffrey Setiawan
Puritan Board Freshman
I think the will of regenerate man pre-glorification and pre-fall Adam has no difference. They both are able to obey and disobey God. It is only at glorification that man will be able to only obey God.
Knight
Puritan Board Sophomore
Since we all agree definitions are important, another way to illustrate in what sense men are free is as follows:
Psalm 119:108 Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.
Our offerings of praise are voluntary, conscious, choices. This does not speak to whether or how our wills are caused, but it does, at least, illustrate an important metaphysical point: we are not purely passive, causally inert beings. Contra Malebranche, God is not the only active agent.
Psalm 119:108 Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.
Our offerings of praise are voluntary, conscious, choices. This does not speak to whether or how our wills are caused, but it does, at least, illustrate an important metaphysical point: we are not purely passive, causally inert beings. Contra Malebranche, God is not the only active agent.
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