Wrandom
ramblings

Friday, February 10, 2006
  Free will(y)...
R. C. Sproul schools us on Pelagianism/Semi-Pelagianism and why it's not good.

Free will is an interesting concept. I don't really believe that we have a free will at all. We don't choose our parents or method of upbringing and that, I think, is as much if not more responsible than genes (and genes play a definite role, no doubt). That's at least one area that I agree with "gay activists" on. I don't think anyone chooses to be a homosexual/heterosexual. I can't say what makes that decision for you, but it isn't your concious mind.

I never choose to like chocolate, I just do. I did choose to like Guiness, some things are an acquired taste and I suppose in that sense one could choose to be straight if one were born homosexual. I imagine though that every time one makes the choice to act like a heterosexual, one would remember that it was a choice just like I know that every time I have a Guiness I remember that my enjoyment of it didn't come naturally.

So, if our sin nature is something that we are born with, does that make God a cruel taskmaster for expecting us to choose Him when by that very nature we can't? I know that has been posited by many folks I've broached this subject with. How can God "punish" us for something that is not our fault?

I guess I think of it this way. Eternal seperation from God is a natuaral consequnce of having a sinful being. So it isn't so much that God is punishing those sinners, but that nature is taking its course. That raises another thorny issue though. Why does God snatch some of us up before our natural demise and adopt us as His own? If it has nothing to do with our will or our nature then what? This is perhaps my biggest struggle when it comes to Reformed theology.

The only answer I seem to find is in Romans. We aren't to question God and He will choose whom he pleases for His purpose. Believe me when I say that this answer doesn't please me any more than it does some of you.

But, if we are to believe in the God of the Bible, one that is infinite, loving, at times cruel, just, at times merciful, then it only makes sense that the above passage is true and perhaps more comforting than on its surface it would appear. If we all lack the will to choose God and if it is then up to Him to choose us then I suppose I should be in the business of trusting Him. It's not an easy road though.
 
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