Misunderstanding Free Will

John Calvin said, "People generally understand a free will to be one which has it in its power to choose good or evil..."

It seems to me most Calvinists aren't really Calvinists and some Arminians are more Calvinistic then they think. While I find this debate amussing, I hardly find it worth spending a lot of time on. That said, I am amazed at the number of extreme Calvinists and Arminians mis-characterizing what Calvin actually believed. Calvin never denied free will, although he would dispute the definition offered above.

The definition above flies in the face of scripture itself (Romans 3), yet this is the sense in which most people understand the term. People on both sides of this debate must admit the fall had an impact on the will of man and his ability to choose that which is good. Certainly there are differences in understanding the extent of that impact, but scripture (along with our own experiences) clearly shows us this influence real and significant.

Again Calvin clarifies his position only one paragraph later when he says, "For we do not say that man is dragged unwillingly into sinning, but that because his will is corrupt he is held captive under the yoke of sin and therefore of necessity wills in an evil way."

The Calvinist can assert along with the Arminian that people are not just a bunch of mind numb robots God toys with. Even Calvin himself would assert that people are perfectly capable of freely choosing. That is to say they choose without coercion. Calvin makes this point again when he says, "If freedom is opposed to coercion, I both acknowledge and consistently maintain that choice is free, and I hold anyone who thinks otherwise to be a heretic. If, I say, it were called free in the sense of not being coerced nor forcibly moved by an external impulse, but moving of its own accord, I have no objection."

As someone who is Calvinistic in my theology, and often sneered at because of it, I find it important to bring clarity to the issue itself. Calvinists do not deny freedom of the will in any way because scripture does not. Anyone who claims to be a Calvinist while holding to a deterministic view of life is not really a Calvinist.


All Quotes are taken from The Bondage And Liberation Of The Will by John Calvin