Compatibilism (also known as soft determinism), is the belief that God's predetermination and meticulous providence is "compatible" with voluntary choice. In light of Scripture, human choices are believed to be exercised voluntarily but the desires and circumstances that bring about these choices about occur through divine determinism (see Acts 2:23 & 4:27-28). It should be noted that this position is no less deterministic than hard determinism - be clear that neither soft nor hard determinism believes man has a free will. Our choices are only our choices because they are voluntary, not coerced. We do not make choices contrary to our desires or natures. Compatibilism is directly contrary to libertarian free will. Therefore voluntary choice is not the freedom to choose otherwise, that is, without any influence, prior prejudice, inclination, or disposition. Voluntary does mean, however, the ability to choose what we want or desire most. The former view is known as contrary choice, the latter free agency. (Note: compatibilism denies that the will is free to choose otherwise, that is, free from the bondage of the corruption nature,for the unregenerate, and denies that the will is free from God's eternal decreee.)
Christ dwells within us not for the purpose of sinking our being into His being, nor of substituting Himself for us as the agent in our activities; much less of seizing our wills and operating them for us in contradiction to our own immanent mind; but to operate directly upon us, to make us good, that our works, freely done by us, may under His continual leading, be good also.
B.B. Warfield
| Title |
Notes |
Freedom of the Will  |
Jonathan Edwards |
Freedom of the Will  |
Jonathan Edwards (.pdf) |
Are There Two Wills in God?  |
John Piper - Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved |
Determinism, Chance and Freedom  |
John Frame |
Free Will and Moral Responsibility  |
John Frame |
Compatibalism, Incompatibalism, Pessimism, Moral Responsibility, Metaphysics and Moral Psychology, and Challenges to Pessimism  |
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
Concerning the Will: An historical and analytical essay examining Martin Luther's treatise 'The Bondage of the Will'  |
Ken Ristau |
Foreordination & Free Will  |
Greg Bahnsen |
Augustine's Concept of Freedom: The Dynamic of Sin and Grace  |
Gregory S. Neal |
God's Will and Man's Will  |
Charles Spurgeon |
The Power of Free-Will in Preparing us for Conversion unto God  |
John Owen |
13 Things a Lost Person Cannot Do  |
Curtis A. Pugh |
A Display of Arminianism  |
John Owen |
Agent Causation and Free Will  |
John Frame |
Compatibilistic Determinism  |
J.H. Hendryx |
Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility Briefly Harmonized  |
Matt Perman |
Do We Have Free Will?  |
C. M. McMahon |
Do We Have Free Will?  |
Andrew Naselli |
Does God Desire The Salvation Of All Men?  |
Brian Anderson |
Does Man Have a Free Will?  |
Michael Gowens |
Election, Free Will, Fairness, and Evangelism  |
Dave Hatcher |
Evil and Free Will  |
Ra McLaughlin |
For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free  |
John Piper |
Free Grace Verses Free Will  |
W. E. Best |
Free Will  |
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
Free Will -- Polytheistic  |
W. E. Best |
Free Will or Free Grace  |
Don Chandler |
Free Will/Determinism Glossary  |
Bob and Gretchen Passantino |
God's Grace or the Free Will of Man  |
Nick Bibile |
God's Will and Man's Will  |
Horatius Bonar |
Human Freedom Part I  |
G. C. Berhouwer |
Human Freedom Part II  |
G. C. Berhouwer |
If God is Sovereign Can Man Be Free  |
Steve Weaver |
If God is sovereign, Why Do Anything?  |
Matt Perman |
Is God's Grace Suspended Until We Act?  |
B.B. Warfield |
Is Man's Will Free?  |
Thomas R. Thompson |
Man's Inability  |
Thomas Guthrie |
Of Free Will  |
The Westminster Confession of Faith |
Of Free Will An Exposition Of The Westminster Confession Of Faith  |
Robert Shaw |
Open Theism and Libertarian Free Will  |
CARM |
Prayer and Predestination  |
John Piper - "A Conversation BT Prayerful and Prayerless" |
Predestination and Human Freedom  |
Matthew Perman |
Reflections on Jonathan Edwards' View of Free Will  |
W. Tullian Tchividjian |
The Argument of Romans 9:14-16  |
John Piper |
The Bondage Of The Will  |
Steven Houck |
The Consistency of Divine Sovereignty and Human Accountability  |
Matt Perman |
The Sovereignty of God Over Man  |
Jeff Spry (pdf) |
The Two systems Contrasted  |
Loraine Boettner |
Theological Compatibilism - A Case of Faith Seeking Understanding  |
Paul Helm |
Why Does He Still Find Fault?  |
Ra McLaughlin |
Why Salvation Must Be Supernatural  |
Stephen Charnock |