"God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, 'What doest thou?' Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so." - A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God

Too many here think man's contra-causal freewill somehow violates divine sovereignty, which begs the question by presuming that God could not have chosen in His sovereignty to make mankind contra-causally free. Dare one argue that God's not powerful enough to create contra-causally free individuals? For if He could and did then by the very nature of HIS DOING IT does it not become an act of His Sovereign Will thus making human freedom fully inline with divine sovereignty? Must God control the choices/acts of every creature to be sovereign? Must he play both sides of the chess board to ensure victory? I think not. I believe God is much greater than that view of divine sovereignty. God is not scared of contra-causal freedom, He is more than capable of accomplishing His ultimate purposes in, through and DESPITE the free choices and actions of creation. He doesn't need to be the one determining the acts of Satan and Himself to make sure it all goes as he planned.  That appears to be a smaller view of God, not a greater view.

Does it impress you when a computer programmer creates a world where every action of the avatars are programmed to have certain responses and reflexes?  Sure, it is really cool to see a vitual world that is similar to our own, but does it impress you to think that is how God has created our world?  One determined in the same cause/effect pre-programmed method as the guy in his mom's basement who created SIMS?

I believe God's sovereignty is so much greater than the deterministic worldview proposes.  Could I be wrong?  Sure, but if I am isn't that what God determined?  So, either I'm right or I'm determined by God to be wrong.  Now, ironically you have to determine for yourself which view of God is really the HIGHER view.

To join the discussion visit us at www.soteriology101.com