This is part 9 of my Actual Good News series of articles on the topic of biblical soteriology (the study of salvation).
Please note that I’m including many of my scriptural references in the links (which are are the underlined words throughout the article), and they also link to studies with extended details that I couldn’t fit into the article, so please be sure to click all the supporting links in order to get the full picture, as well as all the Scripture references.
As we learned in the last two articles, all is of God. However, as most of us know, the idea that God planned everything makes many people extremely uncomfortable for another reason, which is that they really dislike the idea of predestination in general, since they just don’t like the idea that we humans aren’t ultimately responsible for our own actions. And so, in order to try to deny the biblical concept of predestination, they like to say things along the lines of, “God doesn’t want robots,” and claim that God gave us something called “free will.” These people don’t understand that, aside from being entirely unscriptural, “free will” is a complete impossibility from a purely logical and scientific perspective as well, and that it can’t actually exist in reality at all.
You see, while everyone agrees that we can make voluntary choices, most people who teach the importance of “free will” also believe that the choices we make can’t be predetermined ahead of time in any way. In fact, most people simply assume that the existence of our ability to make choices proves that we must have “free will,” because they conflate that ability to make choices with “free will,” but this isn’t what the term “free will” means at all. The reason so many people make this mistake is because relatively few people have ever taken the time to try to figure out what the term actually means (not to mention why we make the choices we do). But those who have taken the time to determine the meaning of the term have concluded that it has to mean “a choice which is independent of any cause” rather than simply “a choice.” This is because they realize A) that a choice is simply the act of selecting between two or more existing options (regardless of whether the selection that’s made was predetermined or not), which means that the ability to make choices simply can’t be the definition of “free will” in and of itself, and B) that if a choice one makes has any cause at all, it means the choice was predetermined by that cause, since that’s what it means to be subject to causality — and hence determinism — meaning the law of cause and effect. And so, because they don’t like the concepts of either predestination or natural determinism, they insist (without any actual proof) that we must have the ability to make choices which are independent of any cause (and they give this ability the label of “free will”). This assertion of theirs ignores reality entirely, however, because even if our choices weren’t predestined by influences outside the sphere of the physical universe (such as by God Himself), every choice we make would then still have to be predetermined by our nurture and/or nature (meaning our life experiences and/or genetics). You see, while it might even feel to some people like our choices are independent of any cause, if a choice truly was (or even could be) uncaused, it would mean the choice one made was actually completely random (which I doubt any Christian would think is better than being predetermined). The bottom line is that, because an event (even an event such as making a selection between two or more available options) has to either have a cause or not have a cause, there’s no way for any event (and hence no way for any choice we make) to be anything other than caused or uncaused (meaning anything other than predetermined or random), or at least nobody has ever been able to provide a third option that works within the limits of reality and logic (although, if you disagree, please let me know what that third option is), which is why “free will” is actually an entirely meaningless term altogether, in that it’s a word used to refer to something that can’t actually even exist, unless perhaps one is simply using it as a synonym for “random chance” (although I personally don’t even believe in the existence of true “randomness,” because I believe that even when it comes to our lack of ability to predict certain things when it comes to quantum mechanics — such as how long it will take for a single unstable atom placed in a controlled environment to decay, for example, which is something we can’t predict under those circumstances, but can instead only determine the probability of it occurring within a given time — that God is ultimately still behind even those seemingly random events).
And yes, I am aware that the term “freewill offering” is used in many Bible translations, including the KJV, but this “freewill offering” isn’t the same thing as the so-called “free will” choices we’ve been discussing here. “Free will” (with a space between the two words), as we’ve already discussed, refers to a choice supposedly being made without being subject to causality, while the Hebrew term נְדָבָה/“ned-aw-baw’” that “freewill offering” is translated from in the Bible simply refers to a voluntary offering which wasn’t required by God (as opposed to the types of offerings which were required, or commanded to be given, by God), as we can see from the fact that the same word is also translated as “voluntary offering,” among other things, in various other parts of the KJV. Now, we’ve already determined that any choice one voluntarily makes can only be caused or uncaused (meaning either predetermined or random), which means that the term “freewill” in the Bible simply can’t have any connection to a supposed “free will” choice (if such a thing could even exist in the first place) unless you believe the performing of the required sacrifices and offerings actually was predestined by God to be performed by those who chose to do so, meaning they had no ability to choose of their own supposed “free will” to not perform those particular sacrifices and offerings. Basically, it seems that the translators of the KJV just wanted a synonym for “voluntary” so as to not keep using the same word over and over again, and landed on “freewill,” but the term “freewill” should never be conflated with the nonexistent “free will.”
And so, even though these facts prove that the idea of “free will” is not only an unbiblical term (and again, that it should not be confused with what the KJV refers to as “freewill,” which is something else altogether), but that the idea really makes no logical sense to begin with, some people still try to insist that a predetermined choice can’t actually be a real choice at all, based on the fact that it was predetermined. But as I already mentioned, and as everyone I’ve ever discussed this topic with in the past agreed is the case at the time I brought it up, “making a choice” can indeed be simply defined as the act of selecting between two or more existing options, and this completely refutes the idea that a predetermined choice can’t be an actual choice. I mean, let’s break it down logically. If you were walking down a path and came to a fork in the road in front of you, forcing you to select one of two options — in the sense that you have to decide which of those two paths to walk down if you want to continue moving forward — and you selected one of the two paths and walked down it (regardless of which one you selected), based on the definition of “making a choice” that we just covered (which was “selecting between two or more existing options”), you’d have to agree that an option was indeed selected because you’re now walking down one of the two paths, and hence a choice was indeed made. And so, if I could then somehow convince you that the option you selected was predetermined in some manner ahead of time (perhaps by someone else using some form of mind control to cause you to choose a specific path), you’d have to admit that an option was still selected (based on the fact that you’re now partway down the selected path), which means that, by definition, a choice was still made regardless of why it was made. So even without “free will,” and with predestination (or determinism), choices are still choices. Simply put, choice and determinism (or choice and predestination) are not mutually exclusive, and hence the definition of “free will” can’t simply be “the ability to make a choice.” (Some people also go even further by insisting that love would be impossible without “free will,” but that’s just as ridiculous a claim, since the feeling we call “love” would still be something we felt whether or not we were predetermined to experience that feeling, because we still feel it regardless of the cause; and for those who understand that “love” can also be an action or a choice, whatever loving actions one chooses to perform for those we perform them for would still have taken place regardless of the cause of said action as well — and remember, we’ve already determined that the ability to make a choice is not the definition of “free will,” and this would apply to loving choices as well — so yes, love exists even though “free will” doesn’t.)
When Christians talk about “free will,” however, what they’re almost always really getting at is that they believe the fault for not choosing to believe and/or do the same things as them when it comes to matters of salvation lies entirely with the one making the choice, and that the choice couldn’t possibly have been predetermined in any way whatsoever (and this goes for their views on why one sins in the first place as well, of course). There are other reasons too (such as self-righteousness and pride), but one of the big reasons Christians want to insist that “free will” exists is to make sure that God doesn’t receive any of the blame for a person’s refusal to choose to “get saved,” and to make sure it’s clear that the sinner in question is entirely to blame for whatever negative consequences this might result in (to put it simply, it’s largely because they want to make sure that God is absolved of any responsibility for someone who doesn’t choose to “get saved” ending up suffering without end in the unscriptural version of the lake of fire they tend to believe in; although, as you’ll discover in the next article in the series, our salvation ultimately isn’t even based on any choices we make at all — and honestly, we should be extremely thankful for that fact, based on just how bad the decision-making ability of most humans really is — but you’ll have to wait for the next part of the series to learn why I said that).
Since everything has to have a cause, however (because otherwise the thing happening would be uncaused, or random), the questions that really matter when discussing the topic of who deserves the credit or blame for a particular choice are:
1) What is the cause of the choices that people make?
2) Taking into account all the variables that were present at the precise moment a choice was made, could the person making that choice have actually made a choice other than the one they did; and, if so, how, as well as why would they have chosen differently if they could have?
In discussions with Christians on this topic, when asked those very questions, they’ll often deflect by saying things along the lines of, “Nothing causes the choice except for the chooser.” Of course, even if this tautological attempt at a non-answer was in any way meaningful, or was even demonstrably true in and of itself (which it certainly isn’t; it’s really nothing more than a confused and nonsensical assumption with no foundation, but one which they’re forced to believe — pun intended — in order to continue holding on to the idea of “free will”), it tells us absolutely nothing about what really matters, which is why a particular choice is made, and it also ignores the second question altogether (on purpose, I’m fairly certain, even if just on a subconscious level, likely in order to avoid thinking about the topic from this perspective so that they couldn’t possibly end up discovering that they might actually be wrong about it).
But even if we were to ignore all the passages in Scripture that tell us God is ultimately responsible for everything, and put the credit and blame for choices entirely on “the chooser” instead, we’d then have to ask, “What is a chooser?” Well, a “chooser” is simply a person whose brain selects between available options, and one’s brain is made up of (among other things) neural connections which are wired differently in each person by a combination of their life experiences and their genetics (their nurture and nature, in other words). The different layouts of the neural networks in each of our brains results in different choices made by each of us (because it’s the specific neural network in each of our brains that decides which choices we each make), and none of us gets to choose the way our brains are wired, because we didn’t get to choose the life experiences and genetics that caused our brains to be wired the way they are at the time it selects an option or options. This means that at the end of the day, if God didn’t interfere, or isn’t actually the one who decided what our life experiences and our genetics would be in the first place, it would ultimately simply be our life experiences and our genetics that determine what choices we make, which means that our choices would all be predetermined by our nurture and nature, and that we would still have no “free will” anyway. And so the answer to the question of whether, in a hypothetical parallel universe — with every particle and wave being in the exact same state and location in that universe as they existed in when a specific choice was made in our universe, including the particles that the atoms which make up the wiring of the brain of the person making the choice consist of — they could have chosen something different has to be, “No, they couldn’t have.” But if you believe they could have, I’d like to know not only how they possibly could have, but also why they would have (meaning, what would be different in this hypothetical parallel universe, which was 100% identical to ours in every way up until the point they selected the option they did, that would result in them selecting a different option from the one they did in our universe).
Although there’s no scriptural or logical reason to do so, at this point some will try to avoid these facts by claiming that our mind isn’t actually generated by our brain, but instead somehow exists on a deeper, “spiritual” level (some will also get into pseudo-scientific talk about quantum realities as well, although I can guarantee you that few to none of them have any idea how quantum mechanics actually works, and that they’ve almost certainly only brought this concept up based on claims they’ve heard other people make). The problem is, aside from the fact that this is clearly both unscientific and unscriptural (as we already learned from an earlier article in this series, human consciousness, or our “soul,” is generated by an unconscious spirit powering a biological brain, and can’t exist separately from a living human body), even if this idea somehow were true, it couldn’t actually help support their ideas so much as simply push the problem back a level. You see, a supposedly “spiritual mind,” whatever that’s supposed to actually be, would still have to be “made” out of something (out of whatever it is that spirit, or whatever it is they’re claiming a mind comes from, consists of) and would still have to make choices based on what its “neurological structure,” so to speak, would then be made up of, and so the questions of why a particular option was selected over another, and whether another option could have actually been selected instead (and why it wasn’t), are still the relevant questions that need to be answered, even if this could somehow be the case. Basically, to simply stop at “the chooser” without finding out what “the chooser” consists of and why “the chooser” selects the particular options they do is essentially to say that a specific “chooser” is simply either naturally good or naturally bad (or perhaps naturally intelligent and/or wise, or naturally unintelligent and/or foolish).
Some Christians (especially when discussing the topic of “free will” when it comes to salvation) have also said things like, “It isn’t about the ability to choose something else, but about the inner motives of the heart. Some people choose to not get saved because they are lovers of themselves and not of God. They don’t want to let go of their way of life, and so they don’t want to believe and be saved. It’s a choice that reflects the inner motives of the person.” This assertion is actually sort of close to the truth because, yes, most people do prefer to love themselves over God. However, aside from the fact that our salvation (at least the type of salvation Paul taught about) has nothing to do with our actions or our way or life in the first place, this assertion doesn’t help their arguments anyway, because all it does is tell us the nature of “the chooser” while ignoring the question of why the nature of “the chooser” is what it is, meaning why “the chooser’s” biological brain — or even their supposed “spiritual mind,” if you prefer to believe in such things — is “wired” the way it is at the time an option is selected. And since that “wiring” is ultimately responsible for any choices “the chooser” makes (which it has to be, unless you can provide another cause that works within the realm of reality), the ultimate blame (again, presuming God doesn’t interfere) would then be on that particular selfish and/or evil nature (meaning the evil “wiring” of their brain, be it a “spiritual” or physical brain, or even a combination of both) that they weren’t even responsible for having in the first place. And if it really does come down to just that nature, it means they still couldn’t have ever made any other choices than the ones they did since that would go against their nature, which means any choice was ultimately predetermined by that preexisting selfish and/or evil nature which they had no say in being given to them, because said nature (meaning said evil “wiring” of their brain which resulted in said choice) was generated by their life experiences and genetics. So really, this argument actually helps prove that “free will” would be impossible even if God wasn’t predetermining everything.
On a somewhat related note, I’ve also heard some Christians suggest that, while God doesn’t predetermine everything Himself by manipulating every particle in existence in order to control every detail of the universe that way (including the particles that the brains which make our decisions ultimately consist of), He still gets all of His will fulfilled because He’s smart enough to be able to manipulate events within the universe to ensure people do His will. How He’d do this without controlling the very particles that make up the physical universe, I’m not sure (perhaps He only manipulates certain particles, to make sure certain things happen, but stops short of controlling the particles that ultimately make up the human brain), but even if He isn’t directly controlling the particles that ultimately make up the human brain, if He’s controlling enough details in the rest of the universe to ensure His will is done, He’d still technically be manipulating the brain, even if only from the outside, and if His will ends up being done (as the people who suggest this idea believe happens), then He’s still making sure that the brain of the person making the choice does end up making the choice He wants them to make (since otherwise His will wouldn’t end up getting fulfilled). And so the end result of this idea is still predestination by God, because regardless of how the action that God wants completed ends up happening (whether it be via direct control of the brain or via manipulation based on events happening externally to the brain), the action would still end up happening based on God’s control, and hence the action was still predetermined by God.
I’ve also heard some Christians — when that first question about the cause of the choices people make is asked in regards to why some people don’t choose to get saved — simply reply saying, “It’s because they would not,” thinking that mangling Jesus’ statement in Matthew 23:37 somehow answers this question. They don’t seem to realize that they’re giving an answer to an entirely different question there, however, while ignoring the actual question altogether. “They would not” is an answer to the question, “Would they or would they not choose to get saved?”, but it doesn’t answer the question, “Why would they not choose to get saved?” We already know that “they would not,” since we already know they haven’t (which is why we asked the question in the first place), but we still want to know why they would not, and to simply say, “It’s because they would not,” is a circular answer which doesn’t answer the actual question at all. Of course, logic and linguistics aren’t a particular strength of the kind of people who give this sort of answer, so some of them might not even realize just how much of a non-answer this is, but I suspect most of them are aware that they’re simply evading the question because they want to avoid the actual answer.
This all means that there are two options and only two options, which are that either A) our choices are predetermined — by one’s nurture and/or nature, and, perhaps, by outside influences such as God — or B) our choices are random. As I already said, nobody has ever been able to provide me with a third option, and until they do, those remain the only two options available for us to work with (although, as I said, I don’t even believe that the second option is actually possible either, but because I personally can’t scientifically prove that God is the hidden variable behind quantum events, and also because, even if true randomness doesn’t exist, quantum mechanics still provides us with events which are effectively random due to being unable to predict them precisely, so I included it anyway), which means that even though we do all have a will, our wills can’t be said to be free (particularly before we’re saved — can a slave to sin be said to be free?), and so it’s time to recognize that “free will” is not only a completely illogical and unscientific concept, but that it’s entirely unscriptural as well, which means that it’s time to throw the idea away and accept that God really is fully in control. And don’t worry, this doesn’t mean we’re robots. Because, considering the fact that the Bible refers to us as merely clay in God’s hands, well, calling us robots would actually be giving us too much credit.
Please click here for Part 10 of this series.