BiblicalPrinciples.org

Human free will is an illusion. Humans choose the thing that they want the most. While I certainly think that humans can make their own decisions and that we are responsible for our own decisions, those decisions are not made out of "free will". In order to understand what I mean, we first need to know what free will is and then look to see if it applies to humans or not.

The Cambridge online dictionary defines free will as the following.
the ability to decide what to do independently of any outside influence

The Merrian Webster online dictionary defines free will in a similar way.
1. voluntary choice or decision
2. freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention

At one time the Merrian Webster online dictionary listed the word "Sovereignty" as a synonym for free will. They have since removed it as such (which I find very interesting) but I think that they were correct in listing it. Here is their definition of sovereignty.

Sovereignty
freedom from external control : AUTONOMY

We believe that we are autonomous creatures. The popular belief is that that no one can make us do anything unless we choose to do so out of our own free will. Look at the second Merrian Webster definition of free will. 2. freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention. That certainly fits with the definition of sovereignty, but sovereignty is a word that we resverve for God (not humans). But are our decisions influenced by (or determined by) our previous experiences or divine intervention? The answer is absolutly yes! Our wants, desires (and therefore descisions) are not free of outside influence. There are a GREAT NUMBER of things that effect our will. Our will is not "free", especially from any outside influence. These influences can be grouped into three main categories.

1. Nature: Many of our prefrences are determined by our genetics or by our birth. In fact, the most influintial parts of your life were decided before you were ever born. Who picked your gender? Who picked your race? Who picked when or where you were born? Did you get to choose your parents or your siblings? Often times I think I was born about 200 years too late, but I had no control over that. How different would my life be (and how different would my descisions have been) if instead of being born a white male in 1976, I was instead born a black female in 1776? So does divine intervention play a role in our desires and our desicions? Absolutly YES! By that definition alone, we do not have free will. Our "nature" does not end at our birth either. As an example, I hate cucumbers. I don't know why, but I do and I always have. For some reason the taste of a cucumber is way too overpowering for me. I wish that wasn't the case. Cucumbers have ruined a number of perfectly good meals for me and they are healthy to eat. But I don't like them and I don't know why. I do however like ice cream. If I'm presented with a choice to either eat a salad with cucumbers, or I could eat a bowl of ice cream I will choose the ice cream every time even though I know I should eat the salad instead. Someting about me that I have no control over makes me despise that salad. This doesn't only apply to food. It applies to our choices in music (what sounds good to me may not sound good to you), art, fashion, hobbies and all kinds of things that greatly influence our descions are outside of our control. Some people are just naturally good at working with wood while other are natrually gifted musicians. These are things that we are just born with, we have no control over the predisposition, but they greatly affect who we are and what descisions we make throughout our entire lives. So our choices are most certainly influence by "divine intervention". Our will is not "free" from God or his plans for us.
2. Nurture Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
   This verse tells us a great truth about our will. It applies to all living creatures. We can even overcome some of the prefrences and predispositions that we were born with, if we are properly tained. My young dog loves to chase and bite cats. It is part of his nature. However, he is learning not to do this. I am training him not to. You can see the struggle on his face. When he sees a cat his eyes light up and his ears stand straight, but then he quickly lowers his head and ears and gives me a quick sideways glance. He knows what he is supposed to do (which is to ignore the cat). His nature and his nurture are fighting within him. The question is often asked, "Are our desicions made by our nature or by our nurture?" The answer is both. Both things weigh in on our desicion making process. We may want two conflicting things at the same time, but we choose the one that we have the strongest desire for. I may want to lose weight, but at the same time I want a bowl of ice cream. Which one do I want more? Which desire is the strongest? Well it depends. If I also happen to be hungry at the time, the strongest desire is going to be to eat the icecream. If however I just tried to put on a pair of pants that are too small, then the stronger desire is probably going to be to lose weight.
3. Circumstance This brings us to the third category, our circumstances. Just like me feeling depressed because I can't fit into my pants, our daily circumstances have a massive effect on our "will". If I have a head ache or my stomach is upset, or my grandmother just died I will be inclined to make different descions than if I was feeling good.

So how does all of this play into our "free will" and God's free will? As you can see from above, our will simply is not free. Whether we acknowlege it or not, a great many things play into our descision making process and most of those are things that we have no control over. Our nature, our upbringing, our past experiences and our circumstances all play into our descions. We weigh all these things out in our minds. This is usually done in a split second without us even thinking about it. We don't even realize or remember why we have certain desires. Then we choose the thing we desire most. This is why I say that human free will is an illusion. This is also why I think that my dog has just as much "free will" as I do. This is also why I think that angels actually have more "free will" than humans. They at least do not have the burden of an aging and dying physical body. We see Paul describe this in action.

Romans 7:15-20 - I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Now someone may argue that while most of our descisions are made by our nature, nurture and circumstances there is alwas that chance that we can or have made descisions that were not effected by those things, and THAT is our free will. My response to this argument is simple. Prove it. You can't. You can not prove that any descion was ever made outside of those three categories. I can however give ample evidence that all desicions are made by one or any combination of those categories. Human free will is an illusion that we desperately hang on to out of our pride. I have even had a pastor tell me that my ideas on human free will are "heresy" or "unGodly". I don't see how that could be. How can saying that God is the only Soverign and truly free being be "unGodly"? It seems to me that humbling ourselves and elevating God above us is much more pleasing to God, than to try and say that we humans are on the same level of being as God is. The pastor said this because he thought that it was his "free will" that made him like God. He thinks that it is human free will that makes us be in the image of God and therefore have more value than the rest of creation. See my page on the Image of God. For this pastor to think that he might not be in control of his own destiny offended him, his value of self worth and offended his pride. I would venture to say that it even scared him. How many time have you seen where the lesson of a popular movie or TV show was that "you get to make your own destiny"? That right there is a red flag. Don't get your theology from a secular show. I do not beleive that we are "puppets". Most people who belive in human free will say that if we don't have free will then we are no more than puppets. I wouldn't say that, but I would say that we are certainly slaves. We are either slaves to sin or slaves to God.

• John 8:34 - Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
• Romans 6:6 - For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin
• Romans 6:16 - Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
• Philippians 2:13 - for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

This is part of the significance of being born again (besides the whole eternal life thing). The Bible says that we are given a new nature. Part of the predisposition that we are born with is a sin nature, but we are a new creation in Christ. The Spirit of God comes to dwell in us and imparts his sovereign will into us. While we still temorarily have the burden of our physical sinful bodies, we now (as born again Christians) also have the Holy Spirit of God helping us by living in us and giving us his nature.

• Ezekiel 11:19 - And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
• Ezekiel 36:26 - And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
• Jeremiah 31:33 - For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
• Hebrews 8:10 - For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
• Ephesians 4:24 - and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
• Colossians 3:10 - and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 - Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
• Ephesians 3:16 - I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
• 2 Corinthians 4:16 - Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
• John 3:6 - Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

But what about God? Is his will free? Well I beleive that he is the only being that truly has a free will. He does what he wants, how he wants and it comes from nothing but himself. God was not created like us or like the angels. God chose our predisposistions for us. No one chose those for God. This is the teaching of the Bible, and it is one reason why we reserve the word "Sovereign" for God alone.

• Psalm 115:3 - Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
• Ephesians 1:4-6 - For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
• Proverbs 19:21 - Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
• Acts 5:39 - But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
• James 4:14-15 - Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
• Revelation 4:11 - “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”