If you believe in "free will,"
you cannot believe that the Bible
is the Word of God
Christians claim that the Bible is the Word of God. Certainly "Bible-believing Christians" make this claim.
Many of those same Christians also believe in "free will." They claim that if God violates the "free will" of man, then man is just a "robot."
But since the Bible was written by human beings, for the Bible to be the infallible Word of God, God must have overruled the fallible will of man.
The Bible does not teach the "free will" of man, it teaches the sovereignty of God.
Our starting point is the existence of God. Not a silent god, but the God of the Bible, who communicates to man.
God is our Creator. The creature owes deference and obedience to the Creator. This is "Theonomy," and it is offensive to Autonomous Man and the University of Autonomy.
Before the Creator created all that is, the Creator knew the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 21:6, 13). God knows the future because God created it. The future has already been created. This is called "predestination," meaning the the destination of the creation was designed and set in motion before ("pre") it was even created. The path of every molecule and sub-atomic particle in the universe was set in motion, and is carefully and lovingly conducted by God through history to its predestined end. The thoughts I think and the feelings I feel are wave-particles of energy and chemicals that travel across the synapses of my brain and through my heart and "reins." All predestined by God. Some say my belief makes man a "robot." But God did not create man as a robot. You and I both know that we are not "robots." God created man in His Image. That means when I think and plan, when I paint a picture or compose a symphony, when I build a log cabin or a skyscraper that can house 25,000 people, I am engaged in the wonder-filled task of exercising dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28), something animals do not do.
No matter how glorious I think man is (by virtue of his being created in the Image of God), there are those who feel that my conception of God "violates" human "free will."
And they insist that God can never violate the "free will" of man.
If God ever "violates" the "free will" of man, then man is just a "slave" or a "robot."
If you believe in "free will," you do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
If you believe in "free will," or that God cannot "violate" man's "free will," then you cannot logically believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
The words in the Bible were written by the hands of human beings, but I believe the Bible is the Word of God. God speaks through those human words. This says something about the words, something about the human authors of the Bible, as well as something about the God of the Bible.
God wrote the Bible using "human pens." God made their hands move the way He wanted them to move. In the Bible, the will of God is sovereign over the will of man. 1 Peter 1:21 says
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Of course, it was the "will" of Moses and Isaiah and Paul and other authors to write down words. Moses wrote what God told him to write, but perhaps Moses would say he wrote those words "of my own free will." Nobody pointed a gun at Moses' head and forced him to write. But what Peter says is controversial. Even though Moses and other Biblical authors freely wrote the words they intended to write, God was doing something through them, and the words they wrote were the words God wanted to be written. They did not write those words solely by their own "free will." Their hands moved the way God willed them to move. Their voices spoke the words God wanted spoken.
It's true, we can tell the differences between the words Moses wrote, the words Luke wrote, the words John wrote, and the words Paul wrote. They all had their own individual personalities and writing styles. But the men who wrote the words of Scripture had their lives — their parents, training, and life experiences — all orchestrated by God so that — guided by the Holy Spirit — they would write the exact words that God wanted to be written so that God could communicate exactly what He wanted to communicate to the human race. Their words are God's words. God's will trumps their will. Paul told Timothy that God "breathed out" His words through these human authors (2 Timothy 3:16, [theópneustos (Strong's #2315, from 2316 /theós, "God" and 4154 /pnéō, "breathe out"]).
To say that the Bible is the Word of God is to say that God's will is sovereign over the will of man. Some people find this deeply offensive. God made the mouths of Moses, David, and Isaiah speak the words God wanted spoken. God made the hands of Matthew, Paul, and John write the words God wanted written. If God did not overrule the "free" and fallible will of man, how did their will to speak and write beget the infallible Word of God?
Does that mean that the penmen of Scripture were "slaves" or "robots" of God? Did God violate their free will by making the writers of the words of the Bible write the Words of God rather than the words of men?
I don't use the term "free will," because secular philosophers use that term to suggest that if there is a god, such a god doesn't know what's going on, and is constantly being surprised at what the will of man does. So I would never say that I have "free will" and can do something that will catch God off-guard. God knows what I think and what I feel and what I will do because He predestined it all. But I am not a rock, or an insect, or an animal, or a robot. I am a human being created in the Image of God. Amazing.Some will say that since God predestines even sin, and then punishes sinners for the sin God predestined them to commit, it would be better if sinners had never been born. They had no "free will." They had no choice. "That's not fair." And if it's not "fair," it can't be true. But Mark 14:21 says exactly what Autonomous Man does not want to hear: God predestined Jesus to be put to death by sinners, who were held accountable for the sins they were predestined to commit.
"The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”
That's pretty scary. Judas had no choice in whether he would be born. God violated the free will of Judas by creating Judas without asking Judas for permission. Then God violated the free will of Judas by predestinating Judas to commit a terrible sin (John 19:11), "just as it is written of Him."
Does that mean Judas was a "slave" or a "robot?" No, of course not. Judas was created in the Image of God. All sinners are created in the Image of God. And in the end, every knee will bow and every sinner will admit that God's Judgment is fair (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11). All sinners will say "I admit. I sinned." All sinners will admit that God is just. Even though He predestined them to sin (Romans 9; Isaiah 10).
Acts 2:23
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Acts 4:27-28
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.
Christians who oppose the Sovereignty of God and uphold the "free will" of man claim that predestination "makes man a puppet." But as I said, man is clearly not a puppet; we both know that; man is created in the Image of God. But the Bible agrees that God's sovereignty makes man a "puppet" of God's decree. The Bible describes man not as a "puppet," however, but as a bucket of water.
Well, not a bucket, but a river of water.
Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
How is this not like being "a puppet?"
How is this not like being a "slave" or a "robot?"
Is a meandering river created in the Image of God?
How is the opponent of God's Sovereignty not making an accusation against God?
I said I believe the Bible is the Word of God. That means I worship the Bible. That alarms nearly every church I know.
The Bible claims to be the Word of God. It claims that God speaks to human beings. It claims that God used human beings the way I am using a keyboard as I write this.
Let's consider first the claim that God speaks, and the Bible is God speaking to us.
Imagine that a UFO lands on the White House lawn, and an extraterrestrial being hands the President a Peace Treaty. The ET says, "Read this Treaty. It tells you how to cure cancer, end war, obtain free energy, eliminate the threat of global warming, and extend life-spans by hundreds of years. If you agree to abide by its terms, our race will help your race. If you do not agree, we will destroy you. We will wait right here for your answer."
Network television will have their cameras at the White House 24/7. Commentators will be speculating endlessly about what the extraterrestrial Treaty says, and whether or not the President will accept their terms. People will cancel vacations and having children, breathlessly waiting for the decision, knowing their entire future hangs in the balance.
If there are any ET's in the universe, they were created by the God of the Bible. His Word is more important than the word of any ET. But we spend more time watching CNN or FoxNews than we spend listening to the Bible, even though the news channels aren't covering anything as interesting as a UFO on the White House lawn. For some, "news" doesn't get our attention as much as sports, soaps, or celebrities.
All the while, we have a book from the Creator of the universe sitting un-read on a shelf next to the Flat Screen TV.
What the heck is wrong with us?
The Bible is a Peace Treaty that God is willing to enter into with those who have been in rebellion against Him. The Treaty calls for unconditional surrender on our part.
Autonomous Man hates the very existence of the Bible.
Worship Jesus - Worship the Bible.