Free Will

5 Commentsby   |  09.20.13  |  Second Blog Post

Along with Mengyuan Tang’s post, I agree that free will falls into the Creation category. As Erasmus defines free will as “the power of human will whereby man can apply to or turn away from that which leads into eternal salvation.” With our free will, we are deciding the path of life we want to live and that would lead us to whether we are going to be granted eternal salvation or end in hell.  As God as our creator, he is the only one that knows how we will live our life. “…human actions are predestined that “it would be dangerous to reveal such a doctrine to the multitude, for morality is dependent on consciousness of freedom.”” I think that if we were to know the paths we were going to take in life from the day we were born, we would change up our mind from either the wrong path to the right path while not living your life freely and the world would be a total different place. I believe God granted us life to of course make our own decisions and live by our own choices. I’m actually kind of back and forth with Erasmus and Luther because I do in ways feel like in this world we live in slavery. As Luther states, “In all things pertaining to salvation or damnation, man has no free will, but is captive, servant and bondslave, either to the will of God, or to the will of Satan.” As we do decide how we want to live our life, we do choose who to worship and that puts us under their control based on our decisions to end good or bad.  I do question though to why God would allow us to make some of those bad decisions and end in hell, instead of being granted the eternal salvation. As Luther states, “in other words, God only knows.”

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5 Comments

  1. Irene Anderson
    12:21 am, 09.23.13

    Interesting blog post Sydney I could have read more! Anyways I agree that we have the choice as to which path we want to walk on, but something tells me that the Lord gives us many opportunities to choose the best way to go. Christianity may sometimes feel like slavery which is an interesting point to bring up, but having a relationship with Christ should not feel like that. In those times they stressed religion not relationship so I imagine that everything felt like a chore.However Jesus tells us and shows us the best way. All we have to do is follow it. Sometimes its that simple. Free will to me can show the fall of man in how they use it, but also redemption. God by giving us free will trust us and I don’t know why, but I love that he trust us.

  2. Nicole Flores
    3:17 pm, 09.23.13

    Interesting post! Its interesting to think deeper about how God created us. I have always just thought “God created us” and I thought nothing more of it. He did not just create us, he created us with the ability to decide. To decide our path, our relationship with him, and to decide to make bad decisions. This is part the his creation. So great to see this view!

  3. Laura Kate Music
    6:43 pm, 09.23.13

    I like the comparison of Luther and Erasmus that you made in your blog post. I think that you could see free will as a part of creation too. I like the option that you talked about, about our right to make decisions in regard to our own faith. Great post!

  4. Levi Ritchie
    11:13 pm, 09.23.13

    Like you say, it’s painful to think about God allowing people to make actions that would damn them to hell. But it’s also painful to think about God effectively FORCING that to happen. The issue of free will is pretty central to the debate about the nature of hell. If free will doesn’t exist, how can those sent to hell arbitrarily be justified? If it does, what about those people who never had a chance to know the right decisions and make them? Do they not suffer an injustice equal to those in a deterministic world?

  5. Kami Earle
    12:00 am, 09.24.13

    Nice post, Sydney! I always kind of struggle with the whole idea of free will, myself. It’s hard to think of our loving Father as someone who would allow people to make choices that would lead to them going to hell. But at the same time, I cannot imagine an almighty God that would force His children to love Him. So I suppose you have to take the bad with the good.

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