Free will choices: Are we truly free?
Religious young African woman praying. PHOTOSEARCH
What you need to know:
- The First Letter to Timothy says that God “wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
- But he does not force anyone to accept the truth and repent.
- Those who end up in hell are condemned because, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, “they prefer darkness to light.”
- They choose darkness, and Christ will judge them.
Free will. From ancient times, philosophers have argued back and forth. Are you free to make decisions? When you have a choice between telling the truth and telling a lie, are you free to decide? When you have a choice between seeking revenge and forgiving, are you free to do either one or the other? When you have a choice between doing your work and being lazy, can you choose, or is your sense of free will an illusion?
God’s revelation makes sense only if we are free to choose between good and evil. Otherwise, how could Jesus reward the “sheep” with eternal life for giving food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty?
How could he then turn around and condemn the “goats” to eternal fire for failing to give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty?
The First Letter to Timothy says that God “wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” But he does not force anyone to accept the truth and repent.
Those who end up in hell are condemned because, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, “they prefer darkness to light.” They choose darkness, and Christ will judge them. As he said, speaking to people who refused to repent: “On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will rise up against this generation and be its condemnation, because when Jonah preached they repented; and, look, there is something greater than Jonah here.”
NO FREE WILL
Despite this, some Christian writers concluded that we have no free will. According to them, we have a “slave will”. They argued that God decides who will be saved and who will be condemned. If you end up condemned, it happens because God decided, before creating you, that he wanted you to be condemned. If you end up in his kingdom, it’s because God decided, before you were created, that he wanted you to be saved.
That opinion is half right and half wrong. A sinner who refuses to repent is not condemned because God wants him condemned. He is condemned because he rejects God’s grace. And yet, it is only by God’s mercy that we are saved from sin.
If you end up in his kingdom, it is because God decided, before you were created, that he wanted you to be saved. The Letter to the Ephesians says: “Before the foundation of the world, he chose us in Christ ... in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins ... It is in him, that we are claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will.”
