We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Why You Have Free Will
God’s decision to create a cosmos that was capable of love and that was, therefore, populated with free agents (see previous post) was also a decision to create and govern a world he could not unilaterally control. These are two aspects of the same decision. What it means for God to give agents some degree of morally responsible say-so over what comes to pass is that God’s say-so will not unilaterally determine all that comes to pass.
Of course, many have argued otherwise by saying that God determines the free choices of agents “in such a way” that these agents remain responsible for the evil they choose while God remains all-good in ordaining them to do these evil acts. Where is the coherent meaning in this? Language has meaning only insofar as it connects, at least analogically, with our experience. But I find nothing in my experience-—or any conceivable experience—-that sheds the least bit of light on what this mysterious “in such a way” might mean.
To illustrate, suppose that a scientist secretly implanted a neuron-controlling microchip in a person’s brain without that person knowing it. With this chip, the scientist could coerce this person to feel, think, speak, and behave however he wanted. Let’s say that this chip caused this person to murder someone. Can we conceive of any form of justice that would find the scientist to be innocent of the crime while holding the controlled subject responsible? Whoever or whatever rendered the murder certain to occur is morally responsible, whether by means of a microchip or a mysterious deterministic decree.
God limits the exercise of his power when he creates free agents. This is the view of open theism. To the extent that God gives an agent free will, he cannot meticulously control what that agent does. Yet the “cannot” in this statement is not a matter of insufficient power, for God remains all-powerful. It is simply a matter of definition. As stated in the previous post, just as God cannot create a round triangle or a married bachelor, so too he cannot meticulously control free agents.
If God revoked a person’s capacity to make a certain choice because he disapproved of it, then he clearly did not genuinely give him the capacity to choose between this or that. If he truly gave that person the freedom to go this way or that way, he must, by definition, allow them to go that way, even if he abhors it.
Does this mean that God can do nothing to prevent us from making choices that he abhors? Of course not. God can do a myriad of things to influence us in a different direction or to influence other people to help prevent, or at least minimize the evil someone intends. But the one thing God cannot do, by definition, is meticulously control or unilaterally revoke a free will once given. God has sufficient power to do anything he pleases, but the constraint free agency places on God is not about power; rather, it is about the metaphysical implications of the kind of world God decided to create.
—Adapted from Four Views on Divine Providence, pages 190-192
Category: General
Tags: Choice, Free Will, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future
Related Reading

Molinism and Open Theism – Part I
I’ve been asked for the umpteenth time on Twitter lately about the difference between “Molinism” and “Open Theism,” and for some reason, today seemed like a good day to begin addressing this question. I’ll do this in two parts. Today I’ll outline and critique Molinism, and in a subsequent post I’ll raise yet another critique as…

The Risk of Love
The most basic and yet most profound teaching of the Bible is that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8; 16). He is revealed to be a God who is triune—Father, Son and Holy Spirit (See Mt 3:16; 28:19, Jn 14:26; 15:26)—who’s very essence is an eternal, loving relationship. He created the world out of love…

What is the significance of 1 Samuel 15:10?
In light of Saul’s sin the Lord says, “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me.” Common sense would suggest that one can only regret a decision one makes if the decision results in an outcome other than what was expected or hoped for. If God foreknows all…

Open2013
As I’m sure many of you know, the understanding of the Christian faith and the model of the Christian church is in the process of being transformed. All around the globe, and in a multitude of different ways, we are seeing new wine being poured out and old wine skins bursting apart. Many of us…

Five Brief Philosophical Arguments for the Open View
Introduction I believe that sound philosophical arguments support the open view in which God doesn’t foreknow the future free decisions of humans. My main reasons for holding this view are biblical and theological, but since truth is one we should expect that the truths of Scripture and the truths of reason will arrive at the…

Loving a Twilight Zone God?
David D. Flowers posted this insightful reflection over on his blog about an episode of The Twilight Zone and what it says about some pop views of God. Can we really love a God that exercises this kind of random control just because he can? We can certainly fear a God like this, but can…