Freewill?

Most ministers today have a man-centered view of salvation, redemption, and evangelism. Many a minister stands in his pulpit thinking that it is in his power to persuade individuals into the kingdom of God. Therefore, he depends upon his charisma and style of preaching to win souls, rather than depending upon the Spirit of God to make the words spoken effective.

These mighty lords of preaching believe that man is not all that bad. They confess that man is basically good by nature and all he needs is some encouragement in order to change his life. These ministers believe that the fall of Adam was not all that severe. They liken Adam's fall to a stubbed toe. They profess that Adam fell, yet deny that his fall made any radical difference to his nature and ability to choose.

The Bible, on the other hand, affirms that when Adam fell he died a spiritual death. God declared to Adam that the day you eat of this tree you shall surely die. Adam did not die physically that day. Nevertheless, there are three aspects to the death that came upon Adam. First and foremost Adam was punished by being given a sin nature. In other words, spiritual death and corruption of nature came upon Adam the day he sinned against God. Secondly, Adam began to die physically. It took many years for his body to age, get old and die, but nevertheless he did eventually die. Thirdly, the final dimension of death is eternal separation from God. I want to focus upon the first aspect of Adam's death.

Upon Adam sinning against God, Adam was punished with spiritual death and corruption of nature. This spiritual death broke his fellowship with God. Adam at one time walked with God in the garden. After he sinned, Adam hid himself from God. Adam's corrupt nature now controlled his choices. He could not choose to do God's will anymore. Though he still had the ability to make real choices, his choices were always consistent with what his strongest desire was at any given moment. Since his desires were bent towards what his nature and heart desired, then he would never again, in a natural state, desire to fellowship with God seeing that his nature and heart were corrupt.

After Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden they begat children. Since everything begets after its on kind, then their children were also born with spiritual death and corruption of nature. This means that every person that is brought into this world is spiritually dead concerning the things of God. Every person is also corrupt in their nature. They may not be as bad as they could be, but nevertheless sin has permeated to the very core of their being.

Since we all make choices based upon our strongest inclinations at the time, then we will never choose to come to God because we do not desire God. We are dead, ignorant, blind, and alienated from the things of God Eph. 2:1,12; 4:18. Therefore, we must be set free from this bondage of sin and corruption that is inherent within our nature. We need a deliverer if we are ever going to be pardoned by God and regain fellowship with our Creator. This is not taught by our churches today, who instead appeal to men to make the first move towards God and then God will save them. The Bible is plain that a man must be born again before he will ever move towards God in faith.

This controversy of the will has waged throughout Church history. There have always been those who believe that man is free to accept God with or without God's help. There have been others who have maintained that man's will is in bondage and is bent towards what is in a man's heart, so that he needs a Saviour who can set him free and give him a new heart.

This controversy has been known by such titles as Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Augustinianism, Roman Catholicism, Arminianism, & Calvinism.

I here leave you with a series of lectures that discuss the issues and positions of men, that have held opposing views of the will, up through the history of the church. These lectures were preached by myself. I hope you enjoy.

An additional comment: Here is an entire series of sermons on the controversy of the will up through the history of the church. There are fourteen sermons in all. The primary text book used in these sermons was a book written by R. C. Sproul entitled "Willing to Believe [The Controversy Over Free Will]". No copyright infringements were intended when using this material to preach from. I also used several other pieces of material here and there in order to proclaim the truth of God's word concerning these matters. I especially used Loraine Boettner's "The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination".

The first sermon used in this series draws from a sermon preached by R. C. Sproul entitled "The Problem of Evil,” again no copyright infringement was intended. I used much material from R. C. because a student usually will draw from the teacher that he has learned from. So my special thanks to R. C. Sproul who was the greatest theologian of the twentieth century.

It was because of these sermons that I was asked to leave the church of which I was Assistant Pastor at the time. (It was a Pentecostal Church) To read my article on Today's Charismatic-False-Heretical Teachings click link.

To download these sermons simply right click and save.

The Problem of Evil

God's Sovereignty and Human Freewill

Pelagius and Pelagianism

Augustine and Augustinianism

Cassian & Cassianism or Semi-Pelagianism

Semi-Pelagianism & Roman Catholicism

Martin Luther on the Will

John Calvin on the Will

James Arminius & the Remonstrants

The Synod of Dordt Pt 1 [Total Inability]

The Synod of Dordt Pt 2 [Unconditional Election]

The Synod of Dordt Pt 3 [Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints]

Jonathan Edwards & Charles Finney on the Will

Dispensationalism versus Calvinism & a History of Calvinism in the World