The nature of divine sovereignty and human freedom has been often debated by both Arminian and Calvinist theologians for centuries. From the birth of the early Church, human freedom and divine sovereignty have often been debated with many guilty of exalting one over the other to the point of denying the other, whether it be hyper-Calvinism and exhaustive sovereignty to Pelegianism and the glorification of free will. Few fail to take the biblical road on either.
When it comes to the issue of free will and sovereignty, the Arminian approach to me is both biblical and practical. Arminius simply saw God, while being sovereign, as choosing to bestow freedom of the will upon humanity as a gift of His love, mercy, and grace. Arminius saw no threat to God’s sovereignty simply because He allows His creatures to interact with Him. If God so choose to save those who repent of their sins (Acts 2:28; 3:19; 17:30) through His Son, then He has not laid aside His sovereignty in doing so (Romans 8:29). If God has chosen through His own revelation to answer prayer, then He has not denied His sovereignty in so doing (Jeremiah 33:3; Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:22-24; 1 John 5:14-15).
The Struggle Within Calvinism
For the Calvinist, the problem of free will and divine sovereignty is usually addressed on two levels. First is the context of soteriology (salvation) and then secondly with theology proper (the doctrine of God). The Calvinist argues first that the freedom of the will has been destroyed through the Fall (Genesis 3), and so the only way that people can be saved is through the gracious act of a sovereign God which is unconditional in nature. God chooses, by His sovereign grace, to bestow salvation on those whom He has chosen through election (Ephesians 1:3-14). Secondly, the Calvinist argues that God’s sovereignty is characteristic of all His dealings with this world. In other words, everything that happens (whether good or bad, righteous or sinful) happens by God’s sovereign decree apart from any force outside of Himself.
Jack Cottrell points out that Calvinists often like to throw out words such as antimony, contradiction, and mystery when dealing with the problem of the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. Cottrell argues that many Calvinists sound almost agnostic in their attempts at divine sovereignty and human responsibility, but nonetheless many Calvinist have taken the time and energy to try to explain this mystery of sovereignty and free will choices.
Calvinism Must Embrace Divine Determinism
The Westminister Confession of Faith (III:1) says that God decrees “whatsoever comes to pass.” Calvinist theologian Boettner argues “the all-embracing decree includes everything in the course of nature and history even down to the minutest details.” Arminians have no problem with these statements until the words “efficacious and unconditional” are added onto the topics.
The Calvinist sees every action in history and the future as being efficacious and unconditional. As R. C. Sproul writes, “What we mean by the sovereign or efficacious will of God is that determination by which God sovereignly wills something to come to pass which, therefore, indeed does come to pass through the sheer efficacy, force, or power of that will.” Simply put, God wills, and so it comes to pass. Further, the decree of God does not include anything in the decree as a response or reaction to something. Jack Cottrell writes, “God initiates all things; what he decrees and does in no way depends upon the creature.”
Therefore, human freedom and responsibility seem to be denied. As Calvinist theologian Dr. Samuel Storms points out, “Human free will is a myth.”
Yet where do Calvinists draw the line on their efficacious and unconditional decree? Many Calvinists, for example, deny that God has caused the Fall and other human sins. Some Calvinist theologians simply avoid using the deterministic language, but in the end, if the Calvinist believes that God’s decree is efficacious and unconditional, then he must embrace the totality of this view meaning that every act in all of human history has been both planned and empowered by a sovereign God. Therefore, from salvation to the sinking of the Titanic, all things come to pass by God’s sovereign will and decree.
Yet how can Calvinist theologians embrace the sovereignty of God with human responsibility and not make God the author of sin? To the Calvinist, God must always act and not react. God cannot be both sovereign and yet place conditions by which He will react. Charles Hodge point blank says, “The decrees of God are in no case conditional.” This rules out free will. But what Calvinists often do is then to redefine free will, meaning that a person is free to do what he wants to do as influenced by his motives and desires, but in the end, even his desires are subject to the decrees of God. Every human decision is exactly as God decreed it would be; it could not be otherwise. But does this not make God responsible for evil? If all my thoughts and actions flow from divine determinism, is that not making God responsible and not myself? Does this not mean that God placed it within Hitler’s heart to destroy the Jews or for Susan Smith to kill her children?
Jack Cottrell points out that when R. C. Sproul was asked about the relationship between secondary and primary causality, he replied “I don’t know. I have not a clue!” Sproul says he asked the same of his college professors John Gerstner and G. C. Berkouwer, and they each replied, “I don’t know.” Within Calvinism there is only room for primary causality. Berkhof says, “In every instance the impulse to action and movement proceeds from God…So God also enables and prompts His rational creatures, as second causes, to function, and that not merely by endowing them with energy in a general way, but by energizing them to certain specific acts.”
Arminianism’s Solution
Since Calvinism must hold to an efficacious and unconditional decree in light of total depravity and their understanding of divine sovereignty, free will is a mirage in the system. Man is not free in a true sense to respond to the grace of God or to do acts of kindness or evil apart from God’s decree. Any attempt at freedom of the will is in vain and often an illusion to reality.
Arminianism simply embraces the biblical concepts of God’s sovereignty and His control of all things. As Dr. Cottrell writes, “In the final analysis what is at stake here is not just man’s freedom but God’s freedom also. A sovereign God is a God who is free to limit himself with regard to his works, a God who is free to decide not to determine if he so chooses, a God who is free to bestow the gift of relative independence on his creatures. Such freedom does not diminish God’s sovereignty; it magnifies it.”
God’s sovereignty does not necessitate that every human or nonhuman action is predetermined, a part of his plan, or even desired. God permits things to come to pass. God allows human beings to produce what they will unless His specific purposes call for something different. God permits men and women to carry out their plans (1 Corinthians 16:7; Hebrews 6:3; James 4:15) or else He intervenes and prevents them. This is true even when such plans go against His perceptive will (Acts 14:16).
So what enables God to monitor humans plans, thoughts, and actions? Foreknowledge. This takes God out of the equation as being the cause of man’s actions. He foreknows all things and thus is able to intervene if necessary. God controls His creation. In Calvinism, control means that God causes or determines, but in Arminianism control means that God foreknows all things and He has chosen to permit things to come to pass through His sovereignty. He controls all things in three specific ways:
First, God controls all things through general providence. This is especially true of nature. God controls, for example, the animal kingdom, but He does so through His nonintervention and allows the “laws of nature” to work themselves out. A lion chases a zebra and catches a zebra. God allows this to take place through His general providence. He did not make the lion chase the zebra but allowed it through the natural laws of nature. In general providence, all creatures are free to make their own choices (even sinful).
Second, God controls all things by special providence. God is free to manipulate circumstances in order to bring about a desired result. God could then bring Israel to suffer droughts, wars, famines, etc. to bring about a desired purpose. For instance, in Amos 4 God said that He was sending a drought to Israel so that they might repent and turn to Him. God often uses special providence in regard to people’s hearing the gospel (Romans 10:14-17). While God does not make someone become a disciple, He can move and manipulate so that someone can have the chance to hear the gospel.
Third, God controls all things through miracles. At times God may choose to intervene in human history and events to perform miracles. He can raise the dead, heal the sick, etc. to bring about His sovereign will. Miracles go against the laws of nature. A healing, for example, defies the laws of nature by voiding the natural laws of healing through the cells being replenished, hair grown, limbs extended or recreated, etc. Jesus’ miracles defied the laws of nature. A blind man seeing defies our natural laws (John 9). In the case of miracles, God is the cause and determines when to act.
Conclusion
Most of what I have written has been adapted from Jack Cottrell’s chapter, The Nature of Divine Sovereignty in the book The Grace of God, The Will of Man edited by Clark Pinnock. I highly recommend the book despite some problems I have with some of the open theism displayed in the book. Cottrell’s What The Bible Says About God the Ruler is probably the best single Arminian book on the sovereignty of God that I have ever read.
The issue of the freedom of the will is not the main issue when it comes to God’s sovereignty. In fact, as Millard Erickson points out, “The main differences between Calvinism and Arminianism lies in the words unconditional and conditional.” Does God places conditions on His sovereignty or not? Does God truly lay aside His sovereign control if He allows free will or must He be the cause and determiner of all things? I believe that consistent Calvinism makes God out to be the cause of all things including evil. In this case God is not good nor loving toward all His creation (Psalm 145:9). In Arminianism, however, God is loving and good and He does control all things, but He permits things to come to pass through the laws of nature and true human responsibility. Through God’s foreknowledge, He allows, permits, and at times intervenes in our world, but nonetheless we are free and we will be held accountable for our actions (Romans 2:7-9).
[Link to original post and comments at Roy Ingle’s website]
