What Does the Bible Teach About Free Will?

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, talks with Vic who wants to know what the Bible teaches about free will.

Hank indicates that whereas the phrase “libertarian freewill” is never stated in Scriptures, the concept is still communicated. We have the freedom to act or act otherwise. Just as we never find the word “Trinity” in the Scriptures, we still find expressed there is one God revealed in three persons who are eternally distinct. So, the concept of libertarian freewill throughout the Bible. The human will, though not morally neutral, still has ability to respond to the effectual calling of God. We can resist or respond to it. We have to maintain the sovereignty of God, the justice of God, and genuine human culpability.

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[radiootoo]

So, "Hank", our host, is Hank Hanegraaff? "Hanegraaff became increasingly discontented with evangelicalism; a period of research and seeking led him to the Eastern Orthodox Church." Whoa. And he survived cancer?

[calvinpeterson]

Another great video!
God says choose this day!

[ExtremePacifist]

Always remember first and foremost Jesus has done everything we need for eternal life with Him, and Jesus is offereing His free gift to every single human being He created, and each one of us have two choices, either we accept His free gift of eternal life with Him, or we reject it and spend eternity without Him. Accepting Jesus now means one becomes His Bride, friend, servant, and His Holy Spirit lives within us, and we have a real and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father God, Christ Jesus, Holy Spirit. and since each one of us either have a personal relationship with Jesus or rejecting Him we do not, how can one have a personal relationship with someone else without being free to choose everything we think, feel, say and do? I freely choose to accept Jesus as my Lord, God, King, sand Saviour, and through His Holy Spirit living within me and guiding me, i am following Jesus and communing with Jesus and worshipping Jesus, all day long every day. Praise Jesus.

[thy-ine]

SHARED UNDERSTANDING ABOUT FREE GRACE AND FREE WILL THEOLOGY COMMENT (PART ONE)

Free Grace Theology (FGT) tends to diminish that man's will is enslaved to sin. Man's will can only be regenerated by the grace of God's will. Apart from this truth, Free Grace theology can make it easier to arrive at Pelagius, who believed in the free will of man; he believed the human race possesses a free will to do that which is good. Free Grace theology can also arrive at antinomianism, which says "We are saved by grace and all our sins are forgiven, so why not sin all we want?" It is from Free Grace advocates that we get the teaching of "Once saved, always saved." Free grace advocates teach one can apostatize without forfeiting one's salvation. This is not something Martin Luther or any of the Protestant Reformers taught. Luther believed that the only sin that would cause a man to lose his salvation was the sin of unrepentant unbelief (If someone permanently turned from Christ). Luther said: Faith must of course be sincere. It must be a faith that performs good works through love. If faith lacks love it is not true faith. Paul presents the whole life of a Christian. Inwardly it consists in faith towards God, outwardly in love towards our fellow-men. FGT also doesn’t accurately reflect the Reformation teaching of justification by faith alone, which was often summarized in the formula "We are justified by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone." Even though faith is the only human act God responds to in justification (It’s alone in that sense), faith never exists alone in the believer since it always brings with it certain other graces. We can also agree with W. E. Best's observation, in his book "Free Grace Versus Free Will (1977), " who rightfully understands that absolute freedom of the will can belong only to God. W. E. Best (Now deceased) pastored Baptist churches that were associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, in Missouri and in Texas, but he left this alliance to continue as pastor of Kingwood Assembly of Christ.

Lutherans rightfully confess that good works is a necessary fruit of salvation, but it does not cause nor sustain salvation, because that is the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we trust in. We are saved by faith alone, apart from works, namely, trust in the person and works of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, adoption, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Obedience, then, is a fruit of salvation, not a cause or a sustainer of it. A good summary in the Bible, for how good works and salvation fits together, is found in Ephesians 2: 8-10, where it reads: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We are saved by grace, and salvation is apprehended by faith, we do not merit grace or conjure up faith, but both grace and faith are God's free gift. It's the work of the Holy Spirit through God's Word. For emphasis, we see that God's grace and faith are not a result of our works. We are created in Christ - we do not work to create ourselves in Christ. We are created for the purpose of good works, which God prepares for us. Believers can and do apostatize, and thereby forfeit their salvation. Luther, Calvin, and the other early reformers taught that we can have assurance of salvation, as long as we remain in the faith.

Pelagius believed in the free will of man; he believed the human race possesses a free will to do that which is good. Synergism and semi-pelagianism each teach some collaboration in salvation between God and humans, but Semi-pelagian thought teaches that the beginning half of faith is an act of human will. The Council of Orange (529), Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577), and other local councils each condemned semi-pelagianism as heresy. Synergism is upheld by the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Anabaptist Churches, Anglican Churches, and Methodist Churches. It is an integral part of Arminian theology common in the General Baptist and Methodist traditions. Synergism stands opposed to monergism, because monergism rejects the idea that humans cooperate with the grace of God. Reformed Protestant as well as Lutheranism confesses a monergist salvation that rejects the notion that anyone is predestined to hell. Arminians, on the other hand, assert that the will causes the inclination. That would indicate that the will is both cause and effect. The Arminian concept leads men to believe they must first ascend to God before God descends to them. Ministers and others who follow this notion appeal to men to come to Christ, telling them that if they will come to Christ, Christ will come to them. This contradicts Scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ left heaven and all its glory to come into the world to save those the Father gave Him in the covenant of redemption: "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19: 10)." No law restrains God’s will, because He is His own law. Since God is sovereign, no power can overcome His will. He is omnipotent. A will self-determined to absolute holiness - God’s will - is marked by the highest freedom.

[匕卄モ匕卄丹れKち]

No where in the Bible does it say god gave us freewill, Christian just pretend that god gave us freewill there wouldn’t be original sin if god gave us freewill.

[jewishbride]

I have free will to choose the way to salvation, binding to be unequally yoked with and have any common share with those choosing to be dragged to hell, in accordance with job 22:28, 2 corinthians 6:14-15, matthew 6:24, 1 john 3:10 in the name and blood of Jesus Christ, amen

[madra]

you keep saying we have to we have to. What is to be good and evil if your just 'stated to' be such, versus selecting them through your action. As far as i can see, please debate me if you can show me otherwise that is what it is with no doubt. thankyou

[thy-ine]

The Holy Spirit alone has the prerogative to command people to come to Jesus Christ. He gives them power to come by regeneration. A minister who commands his hearers to leave their seats and come forward, giving the impression that they may come to Jesus Christ by their faith, assumes the prerogative of the Holy Spirit. No person can usurp the official work of the Holy Spirit to effectually call people to salvation. Ministers can only proclaim the Word of God, pointing men to the Lamb of God (John 1: 29). Man has no ability to call others from darkness to light. Since the fall, man's will acts according to his sinful nature. God's will is freedom marked by unchangeable (Immutable) self-determination. Absolute freedom of the will can belong only to God. Adam’s uprightness was righteousness and holiness in a sense, but it was not absolute. Adam’s holiness, righteousness, or uprightness was mutable, because God cannot create God. Whatever God creates must be less than Himself.

Man's will, before the fall, was freedom marked by changeable (Mutable) self-determination. Adam went from an inclination (Understanding) toward God to an inclination toward evil. Adam's will did not cause inclination (Understanding), since will is the last of the three ordered faculties of the soul. It was what appealed to Adam's understanding (Inclination) that his affections (Second faculty of the soul) are influenced, and his will acts accordingly. Man has the power to discern, discriminate, and express himself. The intellect perceives what shall be done; the conscience instructs the mind in what should be done. Therefore, the understanding is the stationary faculty of the soul. It can be perverted through improper instruction, but it cannot be radically changed. Adam retained his intellectual capacities after his fall, and continued making natural choices. Every sinner chooses natural things. Nevertheless, he cannot make spiritual choices because he is depraved, is an enemy of God, hates God, and his will is not inclined toward God. He hates the light and will not come to the light lest his deeds be reproved (John 3: 19-21). Since the fall, man's will acts according to his sinful nature. As Adam’s will acted according to his nature after the fall, so every sinner’s will is free only to act according to his nature.

The apostle Paul dealt with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6: 1-2, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" The most frequent attack on the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is that it encourages sin. People may wonder, "If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?" That thinking is not the result of true conversion because true conversion yields a greater desire to obey, not a lesser one. God’s desire - and our desire when we are regenerated by His Spirit - is that we strive not to sin. A second reason that antinomianism is unbiblical is that there is a moral law God expects us to obey. First John 5: 3 tells us, "This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome." What is this law God expects us to obey? It is the law of Christ - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments
(Matthew 22: 37-40)." No, we are not under the Old Testament Law. Yes, we are under the law of Christ. Salvation is "Easy" in the sense that God does all the work and simply calls on us to receive the salvation He has provided (John 1: 12/ 3: 16/ Acts 16: 31). Believing unto salvation is "Easy" in that there is not a long or complicated series of actions to perform before salvation will be granted. Believing is not easy in that it is not possible unless God does a work in our hearts (John 6: 44). Salvation is not easy in the sense that it has a powerful and progressive impact, utterly transforming the lives of those who receive it.

Adam came into the world inclined toward God. That holy inclination was at once the Creator’s product and the creature’s activity. Adam did not find himself in a position to choose either the Creator or the creature as an ultimate end. He was inclined toward the Creator. His very uprightness was God-given, and did not proceed from his own ability. In fact, Adam’s mutable self-determination led to his fall, and after the fall his will was enslaved to sin. Since the fall, man by nature can do only evil. When a person is born again, however, he has the potential to do good. Although he is strongly inclined to good, he is still tempted and sometimes does evil. In a state of glory, this will no longer be the case; and man will be inclined only toward good. Man did not lose the faculties necessary to make him a responsible person in the fall. He did not lose his reason, conscience, or freedom of choice; but he did lose his moral freedom, the power to make spiritual choices. Conversely, the radical change that occurs in regeneration is self-determination prompted by the Spirit of God. In regeneration, the hardness that prevents the will from acting in the direction of God is removed (Ezekiel 36: 25-27). Therefore, by the power of grace, the will that was once inclined to evil is now inclined to God. God’s operation on the enslaved will is not forced from without. He makes the will tender and pliant from within. The Holy Spirit is the efficient cause, and the human spirit is the recipient of the Spirit’s involvement in the will’s inclination toward God.

Free agency is the power to decide according to one’s character. Free agency belongs to every man, but the power to change one’s character by the exercise of the will does not belong to mankind. Man is not a free moral agent because he cannot choose between good and evil. He chooses only evil.
The Reformers taught that free agency belongs to God, angels, saints in glory, fallen men, and Satan himself. The Puritans affirmed that man does not have the ability to change his moral state by an act of will. The Reformers were correct in their assertion. God is a free agent, but He cannot do evil. He does as He pleases but can do nothing contrary to His nature. Choices can be made only
according to one’s nature. Therefore, man outside of Jesus Christ can make no positive spiritual choices. A person may improve his circumstances and environment, but without a change in nature, he can not improve his spiritual status. In fact, his end will be worse than his beginning
(Matthew 12: 43-45/2 Peter 2: 20-22). Satan cannot recover lost blessing by an act of his own will; neither can man. No provision was made for Satan’s recovery, and no provision is made for the recovery of fallen angels.
Fallen angels are reserved in chains awaiting punishment
(2 Peter 2: 4/Jude 6). When God elected some of the angels, He kept them from falling. He did not, however, prevent all mankind from falling in Adam. Some from among fallen mankind were chosen to be saved. Therefore, there is hope for the elect in Jesus Christ from among mankind, but there is no hope
for the fallen angels. Satan had the power of self-determination. He was not tempted from without as Eve was (Or as Adam was tempted through Eve). There was nothing outside of Lucifer to tempt him. That is the reason his fall left him without hope.

Before the fall, Adam was a free agent. Man is a free agent now, and he will be a free agent in eternity. But he is fallen now and cannot cease from sin: "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin (2 Peter 2: 14)." Man in grace has conflict with sin (Romans 7), but he may confess his sins and thereby be restored to fellowship with the Lord. The general course of man in grace is always up: "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Proverbs 4: 18)." In heaven, man will have the liberty to do good, but he will be unable to do evil. Throughout eternity he will use his free agency to praise and honor the Lord.

[raywinsor]

Wrong. There is a general call of God that sinners resists, but also an effectual call or invincible call which overcomes the resistance of sinners chosen from before the foundation of the world.

[kirkprior]

I still think free will is a byproduct of creating man. God seemed shocked when Adam sinned. And in heaven there is no evil. I know righteous people who have sinned based on the teaching of God. So in heaven he must change people or take away their freewill. You honestly didn't answer the man's questions.

[Josephcka]

Not good teaching. There is no free will. God has declared the end from the beginning.

[texantony]

This guy has no clue about the Scriptures. God has not given him understanding on these basic truths.