Defining Free Will

So what do we mean by free will?

Free will is defined as the power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies or coercion; the ability to determine one’s own fate or course of action without compulsion, also referred to as self-determination.

Jonathan Edwards defined an act of the will:

“The faculty of the will is that faculty or power, or principle of minds, by which it is capable of choosing: an act of the will is the same as an act of choosing or choice.”

Edward’s major premise is this:

“A man never, in any instance, wills any thing contrary to his desires, or desires any thing contrary to his will.”

What a man desires is determined by his nature. He can do anything he pleases, but what he pleases is always determined by his nature. Edwards considered the notion that man is capable of ‘uncaused’ acts of the will absurd. Edwards concludes, “Thus, this … notion of liberty of the will, consisting in the will’s self-determination, is repugnant to itself, and shouts itself wholly out of the world.”

Bob DeWaay provides this summary:

“Those who assert absolute self-determining freedom of the will have serious problems. Dependent human beings, coming into the world with their own desires and inclinations, will not choose contrary to their own natures. For example, a person who utterly loathes beef liver (for whatever reason) will not choose to eat it. Whatever it is about that person’s nature that makes him hate liver, also causes him to choose not to eat it. The human will does not show up out of nowhere, uncaused, sovereign (to use Finney’s term for it) and fully capable of self-determination. Whatever makes a person the way he is causes him to choose as he does.”

So what’s the bottom line? How ‘free’ is the human will? Human Is it completely free and self-determined, or it is constrained by the ‘nature’ of a man. Contrary to what most people think, free will is not specifically spoken of outside of the context of Jewish law and offerings made after the obligatory offerings requirements were met. Does a command to ‘choose’  necessitate the ability to choose ?

“Free” will is not as easy a topic to discuss as we like to think. We need to be asking, “What is in the nature of a man?” and take it from there. Now that subject the Bible does specifically address!

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