DISPLAYING FREE WILL

 

·        Free will is really self will

·        Self will seeks the will of self, not the will of God

·        Self will is the sin of Satan, the Antichrist and his disciples

·        Satan is lawless, opposed to God, as is his Vicar and seed

·        Self will is lawlessness

·        Therefore, FREE WILL IS LAWLESSNESS

 

"How thou art fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!…For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation……I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most High." (Isaiah 14:12-14).

 

"And the king shall do according to his will: and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods…." (Daniel 11:36).

 

"….and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (II Thess. 2:3-4).

 

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What [will] we eat? Or, What [will] we drink? Or, Wherewithal [will] we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles [will to] seek.)….But [will to] seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness [which is the mind and will of God] …."                                                                                              

                                                                                              (Matt. 6:31-33).

 

"For all seek their own [will], not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

                                                                                         (Phil. 2:21).

 

We now prove free will to be self will. Self will is lawlessness. Therefore, free will is lawlessness. Using Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, let us further define important terms. Lawlessness is most frequently translated iniquity, which literally means unrighteousness. The Bible defines sin as all unrighteousness, (1 John 5:17). Christians have never disagreed that they are called out of sin, not into sin. Lawlessness, iniquity, unrighteousness are all evidence of sin, and thus, not the fruit of a true Christian. Vine continues,

 

"This definition of sin sets forth its essential character as the rejection of the law, or will, of God, and the substitution of the will of self."

 

In contradistinction to the false doctrine of free will, Scripture teaches subservience to the sovereign free will of God as the mark of a true Christian:

 

            "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done……." (Matt. 6:9).

 

            "Love seeketh not her own [will]….(I Cor. 13:5).

 

            "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." (I John 2:17).

 

            "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ." (I Cor. 10:33 ff.)

 

The Arminian clearly substitutes his will for the will of God. He worships a God who cannot and will not violate man's will, otherwise man would be no less than a mere puppet, whose will is not free to pull his own strings. By so doing, Free Willers exalt their wills above the sovereign free will of God. God can do nothing, they allege, but what man wills Him to do. Yet Christ declares the opposite:

 

"Without me [and my will for you] ye can do nothing." (John 15:5).

 

"Except a man be born from above, he cannot see [by the strength of his own will] the kingdom of God." (John 3:3).

 

"A man can receive nothing [even by the strength of his own will], except it be given him from heaven." (John 3:27).

 

One can only conclude that the Papacy, the Mother of all Harlots, and her daughters, those outside the Roman church, (who nevertheless propagate her false doctrines), all teach free will, which is self will. This is nothing less than lawlessness. They are far from the Lord, who cannot fail to teach the truth of salvation to His children, (John 16:13).

 

"If any man will do [God's] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory……" (John 7:17-18).

 

Having reached this inevitable conclusion, these present writers would like to close by quoting Francis Turretin, (whom  this ministry highly recommends to the serious reader), to the end that all lovers of His truth may be encouraged to continue in the good fight.

 

                        “Now more properly the miserable state of man and the most degrading servitude of free will under sin must be considered. I confess it is a sad spectacle, but still more useful and highly necessary, in order that we may fully know the greatness of our misery and the more certainly understand and the more earnestly seek the necessity of medicinal grace. For this reason the argument is the more diligently to be pursued because the weightiest controversies have been set on foot about it by various adversaries almost from the very beginning and are even now in our day urged (in the discussion of which great talents have been and are now employed). And not to mention here the most futile errors of heathen philosophers, who, (ignorant of the corruption of nature), contend that man could be the builder and architect of his own fortune and by making men free made them sacrilegious. [Ed. note: read lawless.]

 

"Who is ignorant of the gigantic attempts of the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians on this subject! They deny either wholly the impurity of nature or extenuate it most astonishingly to extol the strength of free will. Neither the authority of various councils, nor the labor and industry of the brightest lights of the church (Jerome, Augustine, Prosper, Hilary, Fulgentius, and others) broke so much as to prevent their renewing and causing to sprout again the very same things in succeeding ages; so that you would say these enemies had been triumphed over rather than entirely conquered by the fathers. Nor do the Jesuits, the Socinians, and the Remonstrants of our day labor for anything else than on this subject, (as also in various others), to bring back, (either openly or secretly and by burrowing), Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism, and to place the idol of free will in the citadel. This is the Helen whom they so ardently love and for whom they do not hesitate to fight as for their altars and firesides. It is of great importance, therefore, that the disciples of true and genuine grace should oppose themselves strenuously to these deadly errors and so build up the misery of man and the necessity of grace that the entire cause of destruction should be ascribed to man and the whole glory of salvation to God alone. Here belongs the doctrine of free will, concerning which we now dispute.” (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 1, page 659; P & R Publishing.)

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