-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Meditations of the day
- Thread starter FineLinen
- Start date
Free moral agency
Free moral agency, is not a Scriptural one, any more than the phrase "immortal soul" is Scriptural.
Free moral agency is simply a theological expression, man-manufactured for his own convenience, and it may be that it does not express the truth. Let us by all means fit our theology to the Bible; and not try, as many do, to conform the Bible to our theology.
Is man a free moral agent?
Most emphatically, no. Is he a machine then? Again I say no. An agent is an actor, one who is able to act; a free agent is one who can act as he pleases without any restraint; a free moral agent is one who is free to act as he pleases on all moral questions, i.e. all questions involving the qualities of right and wrong.
We do not hesitate to say that man is not a free moral agent. One passage of scripture would confirm this position if we had no other. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; the remainder of wrath shall You restrain." (Psa. 79:10). If man is under restraint then he is not a free agent. Yet man is free; the Bible teaches it and I firmly believe it; but how free? Free as to his will, I answer; but not free as to his acts. He is a free moral chooser, but not a free moral actor. Man's will is free, he may choose what he pleases. His purposes, determinations, volitions, are entirely under his own control and guidance. But his actions are controlled and directed and over-ruled by God.
https://tentmaker.org/books/SpiritOf...oralAgency.htm
Free moral agency, is not a Scriptural one, any more than the phrase "immortal soul" is Scriptural.
Free moral agency is simply a theological expression, man-manufactured for his own convenience, and it may be that it does not express the truth. Let us by all means fit our theology to the Bible; and not try, as many do, to conform the Bible to our theology.
Is man a free moral agent?
Most emphatically, no. Is he a machine then? Again I say no. An agent is an actor, one who is able to act; a free agent is one who can act as he pleases without any restraint; a free moral agent is one who is free to act as he pleases on all moral questions, i.e. all questions involving the qualities of right and wrong.
We do not hesitate to say that man is not a free moral agent. One passage of scripture would confirm this position if we had no other. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; the remainder of wrath shall You restrain." (Psa. 79:10). If man is under restraint then he is not a free agent. Yet man is free; the Bible teaches it and I firmly believe it; but how free? Free as to his will, I answer; but not free as to his acts. He is a free moral chooser, but not a free moral actor. Man's will is free, he may choose what he pleases. His purposes, determinations, volitions, are entirely under his own control and guidance. But his actions are controlled and directed and over-ruled by God.
https://tentmaker.org/books/SpiritOf...oralAgency.htm
"Jesus doesn't give an explanation for the pain and sorrow of the world. He comes where the pain is most acute and takes it upon himself. Jesus doesn't explain why there is suffering, illness, and death in the world. He brings healing and hope. He doesn't allow the problem of evil to be the subject of a seminar. He allows evil to do its worst to him. He exhausts it, drains its power, and emerges with new life." ~N. T. Wright
"The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through, to see that which is beyond; but most people only look at it; and so they see only the dead letter." ~Phillips Brooks
