Question on WCF Chapter 9.1

[Rom]

In Chapter 9 - Of Free-Will:
I. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined to good, or evil. (Matt. 17:12, James 1:14, Deut. 30:19)

I believe I understand the totality of the teaching of WCF 9, but the phrasing in paragraph 1 of the phrase "any absolute necessity of nature" escapes me. What is the Confession speaking of here? What does "absolute necessity of nature mean". I am probably being dense. Is nature in this case distinct from the 4-states that the Confession goes on to list in paragraphs 2-5? What nature is this that it speaks of?

Thanks!

 

[chuckd]

I believe it is saying our choices are not necessary, but rather contingent. Also stated in 3.1. If our will is either forced or necessary, then it is no longer a will.

 

[Rom]

Thanks Chuck, I definitely agree with what you are saying, and it comports with the rest of the Confession. But the phrasing of the Confession seemed rather peculiar to me. Perhaps the use of English being subtly different just makes it ring odd to my ears (eyes?)

 

[Contra_Mundum]

The Confession states there that man's will has natural liberty, such that its nature (the virtue of what it is) shall not be supposed to be absolutely (i.e. unalterably) and necessarily (could not be otherwise) determined (fixed) to a moral or amoral bent.

 

[Peairtach]

The inability of Man's fallen will is a moral inability rather than some metaphysical/ontological "damage" to the will.

Also,God by His power (omnipotence) and wisdom (omniscience) and omnipresence preserves Man's freedom from what would be, in the absence of the totally sovereign God, the depradations of "chance" and "fate", like two hands round a guttering candle in a howling gale - poor analogy, but "as it were".

The more consistently someone denies the God of the Bible, the more he will be a hard determinist as regards Man. E.g. orthodox Marxists are hard determinists.

The sovereignty of God mysteriously establishes Man's freedom, and the absence of God's sovereignty would paradoxically be fatal to the freedom of the will.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

 

[Rom]

Thanks, all! Wonderful stuff.