A Study Of God's Sovereignty And Free Will

In this paper I will present an argument against free will and then I will defend a response to that argument. Free will is defined as having the ability to make our own choices. Some will argue that all of our decisions have already been dictated by our desires therefore we never actually truly make our own choices. The purpose of this paper is to defend the argument that we have free will by attacking the premise that states we have no control over what we desire. I will defeat this premise by showing how one does have control over his/her desires through the idea of self-control. I will then defend my argument against likely rebuttals that state that there is still no way to control our desires proving that we do have free will.

For starters, it is inspiring to read how passionate Tozer is about making people think about the origins of the almighty God. To better explain, he expresses the pain he felt knowing that so many people, including Christians, go through their life on this earth without ever once truly taking the time to think about who God really is. [1] That being said who is God? In chapter five of The Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer explains that everything must come from somewhere. To better elaborate, plants come from seeds, and children come from their parents. But God created all things. As a matter of fact, God created man in his image; therefore, His most honored creation, regardless of the fall, must be the human race. [2] Moving on, Tozer explains,

“If God does not exist, then everything is permitted,” in other words, if there turns out to be no God then nothing is morally wrong.

Over the years, both philosophers and average people alike have contemplated the concept of free will. Usually, people would not contemplate free will. The common man usually just makes choices and does not wonder if this choice is truly a free one. Like many principles, the question of free will is not answered in consensus. This leads to the question “what are humans able to do?” Van Iwagen discusses free will in his essay The Powers of Rational Beings. He states that free will and determinism brings about a mystery.

Although free will has been defined in multiple, conflicting ways, the present approach analyzes it as a psychological capacity including self-control, choices, planning, and the ability to assess and initiate things independently. These capabilities are useful for making human social life and culture possible, but they depend on a limited resource and therefore often fall short of optimal levels. Religion may be helpful to individuals and society in part because it supports both the exercise of free will and the belief in it.

In East Of Eden, a main theme that is displayed is the freedom to overcome evil in the world. The hebrew word that Lee uses to convince Cal to overcome sin is timshel, which is the freedom of choice. The word timshel translates to “thou mayest” and is used by God in the Cain and Abel story telling Cain that he has the opportunity to overcome sin. Free will does not just come easily, but it will come if you have the will to fight for it.

The philosophical battle of free will and determinism has been present for centuries, bringing with it a host of moral and ethical implications. However, since scientist’s production of the first recombinant DNA and its hybridization in 1972 (genome.gov) genetic determinism has taken on a new set of circumstances. “Since the 1970s, numerous authors have examined …ethical issues raised by the genetic modification of human beings” (Resnik & Vorhaus, PMC), Octavia Butler being one of them. In her imaginative science-fiction novel, Dawn, she examines the idea of how genetic engineering

As time passes, the expectations that society has on women has changed. Many of these expectations had to be met for the woman to be ‘complete’ with her role in society. In Rowlandson’s time, her expectations were to be a housewife, a mother, and a religious follower. Rowlandson’s, “The sovereignty and Goodness of God” demonstrates the role she had when she was in the colonies and how that role changed as she became captive by the Natives. From her writings, one can infer her place at home and how that changed as she became captive.

This semester in Philosophy of Religion has continued my journey to learn hard truths through class discussions but particularly through the required texts. All of our diverse texts have forced me to calm down my J of the Myers Briggs and helped me to understand the beauty and importance of openness toward God. Mircea Eliade 's The Sacred and The Profane, Martin Buber 's I and Thou, and Søren Kierkegaard 's Practice in Christianity have all forced an encounter with the myriad of ways in which humans experience God. Through this encounter, each author has provided ideas about a new outlet to experience God: Eliade taught us how to experience God in all parts of nature; Buber gave

The book of John can be difficult for some to understand and for others mystifying. Tozer did a number of sermons on the book of John and presented Jesus, His deity, and explained Jesus to his church. In the book And He Dwelt Among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John, although not written by Tozer, is a compilation of the sermons on the book of John. The book is compiled and edited by James L. Snyder, who is the pastor of the Family of God Fellowship in Ocala, Florida and is recognized as an authority on the life and ministry of A.W. Tozer. Snyder`s purpose is twofold, first two honor Tozer`s legacy, and second to address a concern that Tozer had regarding the “spiritual boredom” facing Christians. This book under review is only one of many that Snyder is editor of, as well as a daily devotional with never before published content. Snyder is the pastor of the Family of God Fellowship in Ocala, Florida, a Christian and Missionary Alliance church (1973–present). He is considered an authority on the life and ministry of A. W. Tozer, and has written a number of books and essays about Tozer; Snyder also has a radio ministry, writes for a syndicated newspaper column carried by 35 newspapers and over a dozen monthly magazines, online and print.

Through OBU, I have learned what it means to integrate faith with learning. In each of my classes—whether it is The History of Western Civilization, English Composition, Physical Science, or Old Testament—I have learned more about the character of God. Because I have taken a wide spectrum of classes and been taught to think critically about those classes, I am better prepared to speak to anyone about the gospel.

It has been debated over centuries whether us humans have control over our destiny, and if we are really able to decide on our own. The controversy between free will and determinism has been argued about for years. If we look into a dictionary, free will is define as the power given to human beings to be able to make free choices that is unconstrained by external circumstances or a force such as fate or divine intervention. Determinism is defined as a philosophical doctrine that every event, act, and decision is the inescapable consequence of antecedents that are independent of the human will. Determinism states that humans have no free will to choose what they wish. Due to this fact, contemporary philosophers cannot agree whether free will does exist, let alone it be a divine influence.

Free will represents an impact between two opposite perspectives. From a metaphysics perspective we wonder If we don't have free will then why are we here? What is the point of life if we cannot choose our course of actions. But from a scientific perspective we have questions like is it possible that anything can happen without having it be caused by something else? Some things really can't be described within the science that we all rely on. It makes people have free choices that forms who they are, and are responsible for their consequences. "Majority of philosophers suppose that the concept of free will is very closely connected to the concept of moral responsibility"(Connor 2002). I believe that free will is similar to moral responsibility

The theological problem of evil is a problem that many philosophers have tried to solve. The problem is stated as, "if one believes that god is omnipotent and wholly good, why does evil still exist?" In this writing I will discuss the solutions/propositions of John L. Mackie in his work, "Evil and Omnipotence." I will do this in order to illustrate the concept of free will for understanding or resolving the problem, and to reveal how and why Mackie arrives at his conclusions.

Casual determinism put simply, is the theory that all things happen for a particular reason and everything is predetermined. It is the idea all the events in one’s life can be explained, and each event has a particular reason for being. If everything is predetermined, then this therefore suggests that the future is fixed which further suggests that we can possibly predict the behavior of things. The theory of determinism ultimately suggests that we don’t the capacity to have free will because all future events are destined to occur, and furthermore we do not posses the knowledge to figure out whether it can be proved true or false (Hoefer). There has been three positions that have developed concerning the theory of causal determinism: hard determinist, compatibilist or soft determinist, and compatibilist.