Free Will is absolute

Free Will is absolute – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2018

I have so often heard the following expressions by well-meaning Christians:

·    God is in charge and we cannot do what we will.

·    He will only allow us to do what He thinks is right for us, or what He might allow us to do.

·    God is in charge and will never allow anything if it is contrary to His will.

All these are an infringement of our own rights, a negligent omission of our own responsibilities and an opportunity to blame God when something goes wrong or something happens which we do not like.

The fact of the matter is that Free Will is what it says. It is not called Partial Will or Restricted Will. It is totally free. Anyone can at any time do what he or she wants to or likes to do, as far is God is concerned. If Free Will was restricted by God, we would have had a scapegoat to blame God for things which happen in our lives for which He is not responsible. God has never and will never allow our Free Will to be impeded. Salvation and the wonderful opportunity of being His friend rest squarely on us and how we use our Free Will.

There are some people who try to blame God for their lost condition on the false interpretation of Scripture in:

Ephes. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Of course we are saved by Grace, but that is an unbounded and limitless Grace which is a gift of God to anyone who wishes to use their Free Will to accept that gift or not.

Sometimes we think that we really cannot decide what to do or we might feel that our options are very limited, but that is not due to God or to an impediment of our Free Will. It is only because we have compromised our position or options, by our own Free Will, which we sometimes call our circumstances or environment.

What we really and mostly forget in this equation is that God also has a Free Will which He ably, wisely, gracefully, lovingly, but sometimes wrathfully and penitently uses to govern His Creation as He is able, willing and ready to do that without sleeping or slumbering.

There are many examples that can be quoted from scripture, where this happened when humans and angles used their Free Will to do wrongful acts, and I am only quoting two:

·    God instructs Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. They use their Free Will to exercise that option with disastrous consequences. Upon doing that, God visits them in Paradise and exercises His Free Will to rebuke and condemn them for that, with the words (starting with serpent and taking the culprits one by one): Gen 3:14-19 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, …… (Read for yourself).

·    Satan, a cherubim in heaven, using his Free Will, staged a rebellion in Heaven against God:  Isaiah 14:13,14 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

God uses His Free Will and responds with this: Isaiah 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Well, having Free Will does not mean God or we have to use it every time and all the time. We have a Free Will to use it when we like. I give you an example:

When we are tried in court for some indictment, we do not go there unprepared. We take counsel from legal experts and we decide to waive our Free Will in this instance, if we so wish, and let the Will of our legal counsel prevail – and rightly so.

Similarly we might sometimes, I am hoping more often than not, petition God to reveal His Perfect Will in our lives. When God then reveals to us His Perfect Will, by whatever method He chooses, we are free to take it or leave it.

In turn God has also shown that he takes counsel from us sometimes, and sometimes He uses it out of His Free Will – that is why we pray.

I give you the scripture where God counsels Moses:

From Exo 32:9 onwards: And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.