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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Calvinists make pretzels out of free will


It comes as a surprise to many people that there are Christians who do not believe in free will. This, they claim, is a position they reached by studying Scripture. There are, however, several inconsistencies with this, starting with the obvious fact that the Bible quite clearly teaches that we do have free will.


But a second far more obvious inconsistency that does not even require you to read the Scriptures that clearly teach free will is that if we do not have free will, we do not freely arrive at any conclusion. If we do not have free will, then those who know this know it only because they were determined to believe it by external forces.


Similarly, we who do believe in free will were determined to do so. Furthermore, we are not free to change this position. We may, if we are determined to do so, study the Scriptures, argue with Calvinists, and reason within ourselves, but we are not free to change our positions. This makes discussions about free will (or indeed, discussions about anything) utterly futile, yet ironically also inevitable. In other words, the only way it is logical to discuss free will is if we have free will. If we don't have free will, it is about as logical to discuss it as to preach to a pony.


We see, already, that Calvinists have an illogical position. But it actually gets worse for them, because of both arguments they use, and other positions they hold. For example, Calvinists often believe Adam and Eve did have free will. Yet, at the same time, they argue that free will would impede God's sovereignty. If a being has free will, God is allegedly not sovereign because He cannot control it. (This, by the way, is itself an attack on God's sovereignty, as it means He is not free to create a free willed being).


How, then, can Adam and Eve have been the only ones in history who have ever had free will, if free will means God is not sovereign? And if it means God is not sovereign, then how can they have had free will? There are only two possibilities: Either Adam and Eve had free will, or they didn't. There is not a single argument Calvinists use to say we do not have free will that cannot also apply to Adam and Eve, and so they are forced to either admit their arguments against free will do not work, or they must sacrifice their belief that Adam and Eve had free will.


It gets particularly dicey, however, when we get to deep arguments, like where do our desires come from? Some Calvinists argue that since we cannot choose our desires, we therefore cannot have free will. This, however, would actually mean God Himself does not have free will. Being unchanging from everlasting to everlasting, God has always had the same desires. Why does God desire what He does? It cannot be that some external force is making Him desire it, because that would mean something greater than God exists.


God is greater than us, therefore if He made us desire something, that is an external force acting upon us. However, Scripture says that God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13-14). Therefore, evil desires cannot possibly come from Him. Is there some other god out there giving out evil desires? One might say yes, there's Satan, but as a created being, whence commeth his evil desires? This has to stop somewhere. So, you either say that one's desires, and lack of control over them, cannot possibly refute free will, or worse, you push the blame for sin where it ought never go: To God.


We see, then, that Calvinism's position on free will is inconsistent from its arguments to its very core. Of course, if we really don't have free will, Calvinists can't be blamed for this. No one can, except God (but for goodness sake, let's not go there). But if we do, Calvinists have a wrong and inconsistent position for which they absolutely can be blamed. In all scenarios, Calvinists lose, since they are either right in the same way as a well-designed clock, or wrong in the same way as a child who can't figure out his math homework. By contrast, we who believe in free will are either wrong in the same way as a clock deliberately set to be 1 hour slow, or right, and on a very obvious point. Thus, if possible, you should choose to reject Calvinism.

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