I wrote this post in response to a pretty old article on the Kaleo Church blog.
Without looking into the website much, this article seems to be a summary of Martin Luther’s book, Bondage of the Will. (Okay, so my clauses aren’t coordinated well. So what? At least I said everything in a single sentence.) Therefore, I would probably be better-equipped to address it’s contents if I had a better grasp of the source text. Martin Luther’s arguments are probably stronger and more thorough, but for now, I will have to give him the benefit of the doubt. In fact, I’ll probably read it later; it can’t be much worse than Neitsche’s Beyond Good and Evil or Machiavelli’s The Prince. 
Without further ado, (adieu?) I’ll start right in on my responses to particular sections of the article. It might help you to open it in another window for contextual reference. (If you care. lol)
We’ll start with this quote, which I feel defeats the entire purpose of writing the article. “No one denies that man has a will — that is, a faculty of choosing what he wishes to say, do, and think.” This is a very bad place to start if you want to argue that man’s “will” is not “free.” Anything which is “a faculty of choosing” what I will say, do, and think, must by definition be possessed of the power to do so. Read that sentence again, very carefully, and tell me whether you think I’m right. On this statement hinges my entire argument. (We’ll get to Walter’s linch pin later.)
The sticky part arises here: “Though you have the ability to make a decision, you do not have the power to carry out your purpose.” This may be true; however, WILL is separate from ACTION. If I have no arms, I may WILL to move them– in other words, I may INTEND and even DECIDE to move them, but that is quite separate from ACTING on what I have chosen– an act of the will– to do. In fact, I can even ACT on my desire, my intention, in essence, my WILL. However, it won’t do any good. I HAVE CHOSEN what I will do, and my purpose has been defeated. I am free to make any choice I wish, I am simply not free to determine the success of my efforts. Given, I would be– hypothetically speaking, of course– insane, if I chose to move arms I didn’t have.
The synthesis of “The will is free to do whatever it wishes” and “The will is completely un-free (a gnew word) to do anything it wishes at all,” is, “The will is limited in its freedom. There are some things I can determine (things which relate to what I will try to do think, and say), and there are some things I can’t determine (the success or failure of my intentions).” I think Mr. Chantry will agree.
“By saying that your will is free, we certainly do not mean that it determines the course of your life.” Good, I’m glad that you got that out of the way, so that you could say, “If man’s will is so potent, why not choose to live on and on? But you must die.” This question contradicts the assumption of the first “…we certainly do not mean…” You have completely ignored the fact that you JUST SAID, your opponents DO NOT BELIEVE man’s will is so potent. “I’m big. I’m bad. I’m ugly. I’m in your face. And I am made out of straw. I dare you to light me on fire.” Glaring fallacies often make for the most convincing arguments.
“Any sober reflection on your experience will produce the conclusion… “ So this is your moral high ground– anyone who disagrees with you is inebriated. If I poke fun at your argument from now on, I am avenged of your veiled insult.
And now for the linch pin I mentioned earlier. Mr. Chantry returns, again and again, to this statement for support. It is the Jenga block that would bring down the whole tower.
“Your choices do not shape your character, but your character guides your choices. The will is quite partial to what you know, feel, love, and desire. You ALWAYS choose on the basis of your disposition. according to the condition of your heart.
It is just for this reason that your will is NOT free to do good. Your will is the servant of your heart…”
Well, what a way to alienate your audience! I suppose that, for the calvinist, (no, I will not capitalize it. You can’t make me.), this statement is one of those statements that is supposed to separate the wheat from the tares. One of those “convicting truths.” Hmph. But instead of looking at that last, rather offensive (although, in a certain sense, true) last statement, let’s look at the one I highlighted, itelicized, bolded, and capitalized. That danger of dangers, the Superlative.
So, I always, always choose on the basis of my nature, do I? Who says? The Bible? Where. You? So what. I don’t believe you.
Now that we have that out of the way…
“Your decisions are molded by your understanding, and the Bible says of all men, ‘And their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom 1:21). Man can only be righteous when he desires to have fellowship with God, but, “There is NONE that seeketh after God” (Rom 3:11).”
Here it is again: your unsubstantiated assumption. “Your decisions are molded by your understanding” presupposes that we can’t believe anything we don’t understand. You would be defeated easily by an agnostic. Can God make a rock too big for Himself to throw? Can He dig a pit so deep that He can’t climb out of it? How can 1 God be 3 persons?
Why did God make Hitler? Didn’t He know that He would kill millions of innocent Jewish people? (And if you say, “no one is innocent in the eyes of God,” then I will ask you, “Then do you think the holocaust was justified?”) It all boils down to this argument: “I don’t understand everything about God or the things He does; I can’t even claim a full understanding the simplest Scriptural concepts.” And yet you say that our decisions are molded by our understanding. Praise God, He has given me a choice to believe things I don’t understand!
What most people mean by free will is the idea that man is by nature neutral and therefore [... choose[s] either good or evil. This simply is not true. The human will and the whole of human nature is bent to ONLY evil CONTINUALLY Jeremiah asked, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots’? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (Jer 13:23).”
I wish this is what you had said. Then I could agree with you whole-heartedly. Instead, you said, “… and therefore able to choose either good or evil.” This is simply true. Don’t you believe that man can be free to choose good or evil, and, for one reason or another consistently choose to do evil? After all, why shouldn’t he? This is, as you would agree, consistent with his nature. Being unregenerated absolutely eliminates an incentive for choosing to behave in a way inconsistent with my impulses.* *(God help the Christian man who’s desires are not Godly! And yet, even when he is led away by his own LUSTS, and enticed, the Christian has a much more powerful motive not to conform: love for his Saviour. We love Him because He first loved us. (former:) IF you love Me, (latter:) keep My commandments. The latter is a response to the former. I’ll quote this verse again later. Call me on it if I don’t.)
However, you are right to say that man is not, by nature, neutral. Again, why don’t you ask people who believe in “free will,” what they mean when they say it? No need to twist my beliefs into something refutable, by lying about my assessment of man’s nature. Make no mistake; I do not think that man is neutral.
“Your appetites crave sin, and thus you /cannot/ choose God. [emphasis added]” Don’t try to use my own excuses against me. “I can’t help it.” You know better. And if not, then God demands the impossible when He says, “
choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.” I know… I know. I’m walking right into your open arms by saying this, because you will reply, “You’re right, it IS impossible.”
“But you are free to choose and hence your choice is enslaved to your own evil nature.” Am I? Free to choose? Freud would have a few words to say about the slip you have just made.
Of course I must be free to choose, if the responsibility for my sin is to lie with me and not with God. You are right. But if my choice is enslaved, it is not free. (Duh.) And you say, “hence.” I am free to choose, and hence I am not free to choose? Wait, I’m confused… (Okay, not really. I’m actually just making fun of you again.)
The fact (or rather, the synthesis of the two extremes) is, God does not create perversity. You accuse Him of manufacturing a creature so wretched, so filthy, so putrid, so rebellious and sinful as to be totally incapable of even the desire to wish to intend to choose to follow God. (And I know you agree with this description of your position, except for the “accuse” part. Perhaps you would rather hear me say, ” You attribute.”)
I contend that you are wrong.
You may quote Romans, “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” And I will quote the next verse, “[What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:” I used to be confused by this verse, too (because there were certain teachers which used it to confuse me). But this verse absolutely does not say, “God is the author of confusion, perversity, and evil.” Instead it says, “God endures the rebellious, with much longsuffering.” If there were no “free will”, there could be no rebellion, because even the “evil” would have no choice but to obey God’s will for their lives. And that would mean that God wanted them to sin.
So tell me, does God
want anyone to sin? Is He willing that any should perish, or that many should not come to the knowledge of the truth?
“Ethical choices are not formed by a neutral mind but always dictated by your personality makeup.” There it is again. Are you saying that I am completely unable to choose to do something that is against my nature?
Instead, let me suggest something which differs subtlely and yet in an extremely important way. It is not my make-up, but my predilection which forms my choices. In other words, my volition is controlled by my own personal subjectivity. The difference between personality makeup and subjectivity is very important; I believe that the will is my interior essense. In other words, what causes the will to make the choices it makes? I do. The will is a function, rather than a faculty, of myself.
Unless by will, you mean, my wishes. And I don’t think you do, because you referred to my desires and wishes as separate factors which influence my will. Don’t you know that I can choose to do what I don’t want to do?? Or rather, to choose what I want to do?
“They say that here the will is altogether free to choose eternal life offered in Jesus Christ or to reject it. It is said that God will give a new heart to all who choose by the power of their own free will to receive Jesus Christ.” By they, I hope you are aware that you are referring to me? Folks, don’t believe what this man tells you about what I say. Want to know what I say? Well, you don’t need to ask him, because I’ll tell you myself!
I say, my own free will has no power at all, other than the power to be what it is – my will – and to do what it does – to will. I am the one who “will”’s. I am the one who “choose”es. I don’t choose “by the power of” my will, since my will has no power at all. It is simply that part of me which does the choosing.
You seem to think that, by believing that I can choose whether or not I will accept Christ, I somehow believe that I have the power to save myself. Hmph! The saving power is Christ’s. The choice (and not the power to choose) is mine. The power to choose is also Christ’s, and I ask you, does He, or does He not, make this power available to everyone? This is not a trick question. “And that [He] died for all.” (I Corinthians 2:15).
“There can be no question…” Oh, goody. I love a well-framed false positive. “… that receiving Jesus Christ is an act of the human will.” Wait… what? Well, okay. I’ll buy it. I believe you.
“It is often called “faith.” But how do men come to willingly receive the Lord? It is usually answered, “Out of the power of their own free will.” But how can that be? Jesus is a PROPHET . To receive Him means to believe all that He says. In John 8:41-45 Jesus made it clear that you were born of Satan. This evil father hates the truth and imparted the same bias into your heart by nature. Hence said Jesus, “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” How does the human will jump out of man to choose to believe what the human mind hates and denies?”
Good call. My will is definitely part of me. But since we are begging the question, I could say to you, “Why not?” Instead, I reply that it would take a miracle.
“How can the will escape the influence of human nature which was born with a violent enmity to God?”
Still bent on begging the question, eh
? Would you be convinced if I asked you an equally meaningless question such as, “how can a good God create evil?” Or, “When did you stop beating your wife?” And I ask you, how can the will escape the influence of the human nature, which inherently fears pain and destruction, by
not seeking salvation from the punishment for offending an almighty God! I’ll tell you- he must
willingly subject himself to darkness and confusion.
“It would be insane for the will to choose peace when every bone and drop of blood cries out for rebellion.” Ah yes, the preaching of the cross is as foolishness to them that perish. Blessed is the [insane] man who hath not seen, and yet believed. Just because it would be abnormal, unexpected, and even– for you– unbelievable… that doesn’t mean it is totally impossible for a man to choose to do something which is “contrary to his nature.” In fact, it is the desease of sin which is contrary to the purpose of God’s creation. Sin is an inherited virus, a malignant warping of the beautiful thing God intended for me to be.
… and it would be insane not to find a way to rectify the internal war between my desire for rebellion and my desire to escape from damnation! And even more insane to choose to spend eternity alone, separate from a God who loves me more than He loves His own life.
“Then too, receiving Jesus means to welcome Him as a KING. It means choosing to obey His every command, to confess His right of rule and to worship before His throne.”
This is a false gospel, and you are a false prophet. The Bible contradicts you on this point, not me. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” John 5:24. “And this is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” It says “every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him,” not, “every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, except the ones who disobey My commands, refuse to confess My right of rule, and fail to worship before my throne.”
It also does not say, “He that chooses to obey my every command, confesses My right of rule, and worships before my throne hath everylasting life.” It says, “He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me.” Nothing more, nothing less. And this person “Shall not come into condemnation,” ever, no matter what. If I must obey His every command, worship before His throne, and acknoledge Him as King, then I lose my salvation as soon as I begin to fail in these areas. If there is anything I must do, then the omnipotence of God is diminished, by reckoning salvation as of debt rather than grace. And if by “no free will,” you mean that man is incapable of doing the three things you have listed, even if he should wish (or even will!) to do so, then you are 100% correct.
But you put yourself in serious jeopardy by abusing God’s Word this way. Read Galatians 1:8 and 9- “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Brother, take care for your soul, because you are preaching a works-based salvation!!!!!
I am incapable of making Jesus Christ my KING until after I have been forgiven. IF ye love Me… that’s right. Love is a pre-condition for keeping His commandments. And if I fail Him, even as a Christian, it shows that my love is not yet made perfect. We love Him because He first loved us. As we come to know Him better and better, then we come to understand how much He loves us, and this understanding incites us to love Him more. And this love, in turn, is reason enough for keeping His commandments. I will never love Him perfectly enough to please Him perfectly, until I have been made perfect in love. This is a life-long journey, separate from my receiving Christ. It is not the way to receive eternal life; it is a big part of the eternal life that I receive the moment I choose to put my faith in Him.
“How can such a sinner have faith?”
You need to understand human nature. What I believe is subjective. My beliefs are not a simple, mysterious force that is completely beyond my control. I can choose. (Unsubstantiated, I know; but bear with me.) If I choose to believe what is false, that is my responsibility, and people will call me a fool. If I choose to believe what is true, that isn’t necessarily to my merit. “If thou are wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself.” Just like no one will praise me if I choose to eat or breath. In fact, I would have to make a conscious, willful effort not to do these things, just as men make a conscious, willful effort to ignore the truth.
You see, foolishness is a sin (“… the thought of foolishness, is sin.”) because it is choosing to believe what is not true. This is why self-deception is the most potent form of witchcraft, and why Satan is referred to as the father of lies. Its also why the Lord said that the liars He was talking to, the ones in the passage you quoted, were born of the devil. When I choose to give creedence to a lie, I choose to follow the father of lies. When I choose to set my mind on things above, and not on things that are on the earth, I choose to follow the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This simple principle is behind every decision that you and I make.
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve; but, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
“How can such a sinner have faith?”
… The same way a camel can pass through the eye of a needle. Begging this kind of question comes from a captivation with latent theological literature, rather than with the Bible itself. Saturate yourself in Scripture (pay attention to the truth!), and you won’t have so much time to engage in doubtful disputations. Only then will your eyes not be blinded by what you see, and your ears deafened by what you hear.
“It is not man’s will but God’s GRACE that must be thanked for giving a sinner a new heart.”
I agree. No matter how much I wanted to get saved, it wouldn’t have been possible if God hadn’t accepted me. Fortunately, “He that cometh to me, ” said the Lord. “I will in no wise cast out.” That’s right… I came to Him.
“Unless God changes the heart, creates a new spirit of peace, truthfulness, and submission. man will not choose to receive Jesus Christ and eternal life in Him. A new heart must he given before a man can believe, or else the human will is hopelessly enslaved to evil human nature even in the matter of conversion.”
You will not get far with me by repeating, over and over, your unsubstantiated assumption. This is the claim on which your entire argument hinges, and so far you haven’t provided a single scripture to back it up. “A new heart must he given before a man can believe.” Where does the scripture say that? You may use repetition and reasoning if you wish. I prefer the Word of God.
“Faith is the first act of a will made new by the Holy Spirit.”
… Again, please substantiate.
“Receiving Christ is an act of man just as breathing is, but God must first give life.”
Preposterous!
Let me be honest with you. When I first started reading, I was neutral; I even leaned toward predestination. Now I am convinced that you are 100% wrong; especially if this is what I have to believe to agree with you. If, in order to receive Christ, the source of eternal life, we must first be receive eternal life! I know many intelligent, reasonable people believe this, but it sounds very circular to me.
This is my primary objection: If my will is enslaved to my corrupt personality before salvation (and thus totally incapable of doing or choosing anything at all which is contrary to my own nature– then I am a machine, or a beast, and not a man! God saves men, not animals.)– if my will is thus enslaved, and then my personality gets regenerated “in the image of Christ;” if I become a “partaker of the divine nature” when He saves me– then why do I still sin? Technically, my will is still not free according to you, since “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are ye to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Rom 6:16– and never mind that it is I who yield myself a servant to obey one or the other.) How can my new will, which is enslaved to righteousness and obedience to Christ, and controlled by the new creature, lapse into sin? Old things have passed away, right? All things have become new, right?
How can this be?
1) Is this “mythical” free will of which you speak, acquired when I am saved?
2) Or is it rather that the true Christian cannot sin, since his will is now enslaved to righteousness?
3) Do I need a fresh salvation from hellfire, every time I sin? Should I crucify the Son of God afresh?
4) Or is every sin I commit a clear indication that I was never saved to begin with?
If you wish to keep your beliefs and still have me consider you a reasonable person, please choose one of these 4.
The only way I will ever not be free to make a choice, between what I want and what I do not want to do (Jesus Christ said, “NOT my will, but Thine be done.”), is if I am dead. Otherwise, there is nothing that separates me from the rest of nature. Unless you agree with C.S. Lewis’ belief that man is, indeed, an animal, until he becomes a Christian. But then, God didn’t come to save animals, or to “call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Tell me, how can a sinner repent? According to you, he cannot. (You’re the one who said: “How can such a sinner have faith?”)
“You who extol the free will as a great force are clinging to a root of pride.”
… moral high-ground isn’t quite so high if it’s based on a untruth. How is this mysterious force of free will, to which you have introduced me for the first time in your article, connected with a root of pride? Do you actually think that I extol myself for my own salvation? Let me help clarify something for you:
Praise the Lord, for saving me when I had no power to save myself! Glory be to God, who softened this hardened, unrepenting heart! All blessings and eternal worship to the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, and the God of gods, for His omnipotent, miraculous salvation, when He stretched out His mighty arm and performed the impossible miracle of delivering me from my bondange to sin and rebellion! I thank Him for having mercy on me, for saving sinners, of whom I am the chief!
Is this what you are referring to when you talk about a root of pride?
“The will of man offers no hope. It was the will choosing the forbidden fruit that brought us into misery. The powerful grace of God alone offers deliverance. Cast yourself upon God’s mercy for salvation. Ask for the Spirit of Grace that He may create a new spirit within you.”
I couldn’t agree more. If you accuse me of disagreeing with what you have just said, then the burden of proof lies with you. (Except for the unspoken, “unless you don’t happen to be one of the elect. In that case, I’ll rejoice to see your soul justly tormented in hell.” Go ahead and deny that this isn’t what you believe. Oh yeah- and I disagree with the idea that the “will” somehow had a mind of its own, which enabled it to somehow choose that forbidden fruit, all by itself.)
So if you want to be discouraged and driven away from being saved by the Lord who loves you, just read Walter Chantry’s essay. But if you want to know that there is hope for your soul, then listen to this: Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repent.” And, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth.” And, “He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” And, “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved!” I won’t make any further demands of you than the demand that Lord Jesus Himself made, when He said, “Repent, ye and believe the gospel!” It’s quite a demand, but it’s a far cry from the demand of mankind, which has always been and always will be, to try and redeem ourselves by our own obedience. “Come unto me,” says the Lord Jesus. “All ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” [emphasis added]
