Are Humans Mere Puppets?

Today we are looking at comments made by Dr. William Lane Craig in his book, The Only Wise God.

#authority #choice #freedom

[johnmark]

Free will within our nature. Lions won’t bark- birds won’t swim- Sinners can’t please God. Makes sense.

[stephengorman]

God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
I love God and have been called and one of the good things I look forward to is the reconciliation of All things. God is Good.

[peterw]

Thank you James White! God bless you. Keep the faith!!

[CBALLEN]

When God put our consciences and the works of the law in us, He leaves us all without an excuse for our sin .We all know there is a God and we all sin with knowledge and this makes us all accountable for our own sin no matter what God has decreed .

[Izthefaithful]

I honestly think people don’t want to believe in a divine decree because they are scared they are not in control like they think they are (ie “free will”)

[ivysterofficial]

I love the priestly look these days Dr. White.

[Bibliotechno]

Does "creaturely will" mean that we only do what we desire to do? That we think we are free but bound up with following intentions, what we think is our own free will?

[terryambrose]

For those who have experience with it, what is your opinion of the DA Carson book mentioned? Is it worth the read?

[ChumX]

Honest question: From a reformed perspective, are the "desires of your heart" that determine your acts independent from God's will or does God ultimately determine those as well at the moment of creation?

Seems to me that in one case there would exist things in creation that are not under the control of God, but on the other case God would necessarily be the only genuinely free agent.

Seems like the same old contradiction with different words.

[dylanmilks]

I really appreciated the comments about "free moral agents" and the refuting of that claim by looking at what Paul says: anyone who sins is a slave to sin.

[gregmahler]

At 14:25, again, middle knowledge is exhaustive, containing all possibilities. Since it contains all possibilities (i.e. the set of events is infinite), God can truly do whatever HE wants. The only way your argument works is if the subset of middle knowledge is finite, leaving possibilities outside of God's ability to decree.

[JamesPeterCovers]

Speaking of Ephesians 1:11, there's a very interesting point most Calvinists wouldn't want to touch, just 2 verses ahead:

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

The logical sequence is: we hear the gospel and believe. Thereafter, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

I don't understand how you could even begin to explain how irresistible grace comes into action here, if the prerequisite to be sealed by the Holy Spirit is to first believe.

Honestly, after lots of thinking, I don't consider myself in any of the Calvinist, Arminian, Molinist, Provisionist, etc, views because ALL of them have their own unresolved issues and contradictions.

The problem here is that Calvinists think their logic is perfect, when in fact we can't even begin to explain and grasp logic at God's level. I feel like there's still something missing in calvinism, and irresistible grace just doesn't do it for me...

[godwinrebeiro]

Sir, The influence u had on me as an apologist was huge... But when it comes to theology, Even as one from a protestant background, once i was really doubtful of the doctrines of grace proposed by you and others. But Eventually, i became sensitive to those very ideas because of its biblical basis which you helped me grasp to some good extent and eventually embraced reformed theology along with some of the tensions that often heard people from the Non reformed camp raises such as God being the author of sin, Humans devoid of accountability/Moral culpability etc. I know You addressed each of these difficult Questions and provided Answers from biblical perspective. But some impression of incoherence as it appears to me, makes me doubt some of these concepts at least sometimes. One of the basic things i still struggle to understand is, How is Divine decree not causally determining Human actions or events? Correct me at any point if am mistaken.. Because as it seems to me, once god decreed anything, that will come to pass. Here Human decisions may act as means, in some sense secondary cause of what is intended in Gods decree. But when something we indisputably consider as evil takes place, Perhaps an evil which might remain unredeemed to be specific, which we see as apparently executed by sinful humans and when they held accountable for the same, my mind goes like they seem to be accountable as secondary causes of the evil happened. But without the primary cause that is gods decree, They would not even be able to become the means or secondary causes of the evil occured. And as a consistent reformed theologian when you want to say, yes. God decreed it but humans are still culpable for acting out their evil desire, is that a sound position to hold..? It seems to me as When God decrees something, he is causally determining the ends and means. And i think u might also agree, if God causally determined humans to do anything, the praise or blame to be on God himself. I see people misleadingly use the puppet analogy, But i wud like to ask without any sort of trivializing intent, if God is causally determining Humans to act something out i think the puppet impression is undeniable. I believe Christians in general are comfortable speaking about gods decree and him causally determining good things, also in instances of restraining evil. But in the case of evil, to me it becomes an untenable position to defend, how should we understand God decreeing something but not causally determining the same and hence man can be culpable for their actions.?

[rolysantos]

Best example of God's Sovereignty and Human Will is Isaiah 10 (IMHO).
*GOD sends the King of Assyria to Judah to "trample them down like mud in the streets"
*GOD calls the KOA "The rod of MY anger."
*God likens Himself one who wields the 'Ax' and the KOA as the 'Ax'
*AFTER using the KOA for HIS (God's) Purpose, God PUNISHES the KOA for what he did because HIS INTENTIONS were wicked even though He was serving God's purpose!

[OC]

Isn't it possible that "working all things" can mean 'all kinds of things'. Since that is how we treat the same language elsewhere.

[DANIELRODRIGUEZ-yret]

The truth is that the nature and character of GOD is at the core of this argument. He is either all knowing or not. All present or not. He is either Holy, or not. The genesis of all things or not. It is very frustrating to constantly watch people trip over this while defaming the name of GOD.

[fakeyououtdotcom]

Question: If there's no limitation on the word all in Ephesians 1:11 (which I agree with you on), then how can you say there's a limitation on the word all in :10 of Ephesians 1?

[jackjones]

It is a good thing to see Christian leaders, like Dr. White, calling out Christian intellectuals who have said very concerning things that would cast aspersions upon the Word of God as it is written. Those in modern Christian academia often stumble over the inability to explain and quantify the miraculous and thereby discount and even mock It in the attempt to explain It with their own fallible reasoning.

[michaelclark]

Jesus would not be a mere puppet because he is the Creator. However, according to Calvin, all thoughts and movements are inspired by God. That means all thoughts and movements originate from God; as independent from anything. If this is true, then God is the author of all thoughts and movements. If God is the author of my thoughts and movements then how does this not resemble mere puppetry?

[theschrocks]

Ask Leighton flowers how that would work😂I’m curious how answer…