Dizerner
Active Member
If I don't have free will, I have no way of knowing what I would be determined to believe.
I would think that would be pretty obvious.
Yes, Calvinists—free will IS in the Bible.
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If I don't have free will, I have no way of knowing what I would be determined to believe.
I would think that would be pretty obvious.
I think that is not rational
If what you are to believe has been determined and you could not vary from it, where is your freedom to choose what you do believe?
Dizerner
Active Member
By definition you have no freedom under determinism—that's the whole point of the system, lol.
So there is no free will in the matter then if determinism is held to.
Dizerner
Active Member
Yes, that's correct, you are determined to believe in determinism, lol (under their system).
So any theology that holds to the determination of all things is truly denying a free will in man.
Dizerner
Active Member
Yes, 100%, but they will play some semantic shenanigans.
They will start to use "free will" in a way that means non-free to hi-jack the terminology with equivocation.
Many believe in Compatibilism, which says determination and free will are both simultaneously true, even though they contradict.
So they can be quite difficult to deal with.
civic
Active Member
Compatibilists deny LFW.
Dizerner
Active Member
Libertarians would say LFW CANNOT be compatible, that is why we add the L to it.
But it gets complicated when they attempt to define a self-contradictory position.
Yet they still try to make man's responsibility and determinism compatible.
In order to understand this better theologians have come up with the term "compatibilism" to describe the concurrence of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Compatibilism is a form of determinism and it should be noted that this position is no less deterministic than hard determinism. It simply means that God's predetermination and meticulous providence is "compatible" with voluntary choice. Our choices are not coerced ...i.e. we do not choose against what we want or desire, yet we never make choices contrary to God's sovereign decree. What God determines will always come to pass (Eph 1:11). In light of Scripture, (according to compatibilism), human choices are exercised voluntarily but the desires and circumstances that bring about these choices about occur through divine determinism.
Monergism.com How can God be sovereign and man free
civic
Active Member
Yes talk about an oxymoron and inconsistent theology
Indeed
In his book “Chosen by God,” R.C. Sproul argues that free will is not incompatible with God’s sovereignty. He writes: “Free will is not the ability to choose independently of God. It is the ability to choose between different options that God has provided.
What Is Free Will?: Chosen By God with R.C. Sproul
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