May 3, 2011
Book Review: Geisler’s “Chosen But Free”
The book “Chosen But Free: A Balanced View of God’s Sovereignty and Free Will” delivers exactly what the title promises. Instead of taking sides in the debate, Geisler, presents both positions, and then argues that there is more middle ground than contradiction between the two of them. I tend to agree with him. I liked His point that God would not ask us to believe something that is clearly contradictory because contradictions are contrary to God’s nature and He specifically tells us not to trust them in (1 Timothy 6:20). It showed me that, to a degree, I’ve just been lazy in not searching out the Scriptures and settling for more of a contradiction than I needed to settle for.
In the book, he deals with all the typical arguments in a Calvinism/Armeniasm debate (e.g. “A Forced Act is Not a Free Act,” p.139), also branches out a bit from the things I have previously heard. The most eye-opening part of the book for me was the section on balance when he showed God’s sovereignty and man’s free will working together in Scripture. The Bible obviously doesn’t explain exactly how everything works, but both factors seem to co-exist without trouble. Geisler gave examples from both the old and new testaments and even used the cross itself as an illustration. God’s purpose was being fulfilled through the whole process, yet Jesus laid his life down willingly. No one could force him to do it (John 10:17:18). If you can’t even get away from cross without experiencing multiple “contradictions,” then it seems much more likely to me that, although they appear, at first glance, to be contradictions to us, they fit together naturally with God. I wouldn’t have even thought to search scripture that way.
Another point I liked was that the beliefs of most Christians fall into this middle ground. In conversation, people tend to want to put you into a box or categorize you. This issue simply doesn’t work that way. This view places an emphasis on none of God’s attributes being compromised and is supported by the majority of Christians. Thinking about this issue in terms of an emphasis on God’s attributes helps me to understand much more why this issue is so deep-seated. A person’s belief about who God is affects their life more than, perhaps any other belief.
I feel like I probably believe pretty much the same thing I did before reading this book, but it really helped me to think through my beliefs (especially some of the less obvious ones) and support them more with Scripture. I still believe that God’s sovereignty and free will work together in a way that I cannot explain, but I have good reason to believe that it isn’t a contradiction because the Lord presents them as working together in Scripture. Geisler relies heavily on Scripture and is logical in his approach to discussing God’s sovereignty vs. free will, yet he maintains the humility and appreciation of mystery that must flavor any pursuit of this topic.
Geisler, Norman. Chosen But Free: A Balanced View of God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will, 3rd Edition. Bethany House Publishers, 2010.
