Who Controls the Will of Man?

Once again, I feel like the last one in the world to notice how an important debate has shaped the world in which we live. Could understanding this theological and philosophical hairsplitting really have any significance to my life as a farmer and business man? Could this knowledge go as far as to explain how our nation and state arrived at its present moral decay? During my lifetime, I was taught one side of the issue and the idea of questioning the assumptions and implications never even crossed my mind.

The theological debate that I am referring to is about the freeness of man's will. If a person understands the Scriptures to teach that man has a free will, then God is consequentially viewed as responding to man's will. Conversely, if a person views the Scriptures as teaching that God motivates man, then man is consequentially viewed as responding to God’s will.

In brief, here is why this is important. The two sides of this issue represent different worldviews. In other words, they represent different approaches to understanding God, the world, and man’s relations to God and the world. Where man’s will is understood as free, the person places faith in man’s will and his ability to please God through good works. This is a form of humanism which has grown in its influence during the last 400 years. This faith in man’s will can also be expanded to include placing faith in science, faith in church denominations, and faith in the state. Where any form of this faith in man’s will is given preeminence, there is a steady drift toward centralized control over all aspects of life and a diminishing role of God in life and culture. Conversely, where faith is placed in God as the motivator of men, there is an interest in returning the government (individual, family, church, and civil) to Christ’s shoulders, with its limited, decentralized, non-tyrannical, and family-strengthening nature.

Where the Christian understands that God is the motivator of mankind, they also simultaneously fulfill several scriptures by acknowledging God in all their ways, continually placing their trust in God, living by faith and not sight, leaning on His understanding, naturally praying always, tending not to worry, and humbly acknowledging that they can do nothing of themselves.

In church history, the British philosopher John Locke denied original sin in favor of the concept of man as a "clean slate." He promoted the autonomy of reason as the sufficient judge in all things which affected the church by exalting man's ability to control circumstances.

Therefore, this simple act of noticing that it is God working to motivate people is amazing in that it broadens both preaching and believing beyond individual salvation to also include God’s advancing of His Kingdom on earth through His working through His people who are occupying every subject area until He comes.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Phil. 2:13

One book that elaborates on these thoughts is titled, “The Great Christian Revolution,” by Otto Scott, RJ & MR Rushdoony (Ross House Books, 1991).