Do Calvinists and Calvinistic Confessions like the 1689 teach that men have free will? I think you could find many pamphlets and essays by Reformed teachers on this subject that seem to give different answers to this question. As with many other questions, it all depends on what you mean by free will!
As I understand it, the 1689 and its five paragraphs on the subject first affirm and then carefully define free will in its first paragraph. After that it speaks of the fact that free will exists in a fourfold state. Let’s take up its affirmation and definition of free will first. Listen to paragraph 1 of Chapter 9:
“God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.”
In context, this statement is both a clear affirmation of free will and a careful definition.
It affirms that the will of man has natural liberty. “God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty.” This is an affirmation of a kind of free will. It is “power of acting upon choice.” Does the Bible teach free will in this sense? Yes, I think so.
Matthew 17:12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.
James 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
The human will is not “forced” by “any necessity of nature to do good or evil.” This is the Confession’s definition of “free will.”
Cf. Chapter 3:1: “nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.
When Calvinism rejects “free will” defined in other ways, it is not adopting behavioralism or physical or chemical determinism. Otherwise, there could not be human responsibility, and the Bible does teach human responsibility.
Proverbs 1:24-33 Because I called and you refused, … I will mock when your dread comes …. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
John 3:18-19 … he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light
Against some “Calvinists” (both contemporary and in the past), we must affirm the free will of man. But we must, while affirming it, also carefully and biblically define it.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
