Jared Wilson exposes the myth so many Christians believe that God has limited himself and his power in order to respect the complete exercise of our freedom (or free will) to choose him or not:
“One of the chief ways we distort the biblical picture of God’s love is when we presuppose, as many Christians do, that love demands freedom. Where we get this notion, I do not know, but it is not in the Bible. In fact, we find in the Bible quite the opposite: the love of God violates human freedoms constantly and consistently. If there’s one thing any biblical figure can count on, besides that God loves him, it is that he is not in control of his own destiny…
“If my daughter is unaware of the Mack truck bearing down on her, or if she is aware that putting her finger in a light socket will electrocute her but she wants to do it anyway, do I love her if I am able to intervene but defer to her freedom? Or am I a loving father to tackle her out of the truck’s way, to slap her hand away from the socket?”- Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus, 26.
As I often say to my students, it all sounds good until you open your Bible.
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See Part 1 here. My comfort in suffering comes from the knowledge that God ordains my suffering for my eternal good and his glory. It is not enough to say that God allows my suffering. After all, why would God allow something if it wasn’t for the best. For God to...
I don’t understand where the modern church gets “love requires freedom” from, either, but I suspect it’s somehow related to our culture’s tendency to worship individuality.
I’d love to read more from you about sovereignty (this appears to be your only post tagged with that word). I’ve been discontentedly pondering sovereignty and free will lately, and frankly keep landing in the “if God was really as kind as we all think, he’d give us a lot less freedom” camp.