Entry tags:

agency, bible, christianity, determinism, free will, john calvin, martin luther, philosophy, religion, st. augustine, the bible, vexen crabtree

Free Will and Determinism in the Christian Bible
I've added the following to "Free Will - Determinism versus Agency: Free Will in the Christian Bible" by Vexen Crabtree:

“The Bible also says and teaches that there is no free will. Examining Exodus, Ecclesiastes 7, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, Romans 8, Romans 9, 2 Timothy, 2 Thessalonians and Revelations, we see that God's plan overrides our free will; those that do good do the specific good that God predestined them to do, and all others are ruled by Satan because God sends "powerful delusions" to them. The Christian Bible frequently states that God creates our future and decides our fates, no matter what our own will is. It constantly denies that we have free will. Some of the foremost Christians in history have taught that there is no free will, including St. Augustine (one of the four great founders of Western Christianity [Russell 1946, p335]), Martin Luther (founder of Protestantism) and John Calvin.”
"The Bible Affirms Predeterminism and Denies Free Will" by Vexen Crabtree (2005)

I've found that Christian defences of free will, and belief in it, are largely emotional and logical in nature, rather than scriptural or theological. It seems that they trust their instincts more than they trust their religion, so, most Christians believe in free will despite what is codified in their bible. This is fine - nothing is worse than someone who sticks to the book in areas of belief and truth - but it becomes confusing for them when they try to debate the subject using Biblical versus!

I personally know that there is no such thing as free will... so this is one of those rare areas where I agree with the general gist of the Christian Bible, although I believe that the Biblical arguments for determinism are based on false premises (that a being called 'god' controls everything, and always gets its way), the conclusion is true for more complex philosophical reasons (that all things have causes; whether or not God is the cause).