WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

T4 Determinism and free will

Implications of free will on religious belief Background The concept of free will has many important theological implications for religious belief. Free will, as traditionally presented by theologians like Pelagius and Arminius, states that human beings have free will because they were not totally overcome with the consequences brought by ‘the fall’ of Adam and Eve. Pelagius argued ‘the fall’ was Adam’s sin only and is not inherited by all human beings. Pelagius pointed to Deuteronomy 24:16 as evidence to support this claim: ‘Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parent; each will die for their own sins.’ Pelagius went further by arguing that ‘the fall’ can actually be seen as a good thing for human beings. He wrote: ‘If God had simply instructed Adam and Eve to eat from the tree, and they had obeyed, they would have been acting like children. So he forbade them from eating the fruit; this meant that they themselves had to make a free will decision, whether to eat or not to eat. Just as a young person needs to defy his parents in order to grow to maturity, so Adam and Eve needed to defy God in order to grow to maturity in his image.’ Therefore, in Pelagius’ view, Adam and Eve, by eating the forbidden fruit gained maturity by illustrating to God they were ready to receive the gift of free will. This free will meant that Adam and Eve, and thus all their descendants, became responsible to God for their actions. Therefore, human beings had gained free will to choose, for themselves, to follow God’s word or rebel. Pelagius, however, was not arguing that a human being was perfectly able to fulfil the law without divine aid. Pelagius argued that all good works are done only with the grace of God. But Pelagius saw God’s grace as enabling, not forcing, good works. As Pelagius stated: ‘God helps us by His teaching and revelation, whilst He opens the eyes of our heart. Whilst He points out to us the future, that we may not be absorbed in the present; whilst He discovers to us the snares of the devil ….’ Therefore, God is acting as a guide to do good works. As Pelagius states: ‘Free will is in all good works always assisted by divine help.’ Arminius, unlike the free will theology of Pelagius, believed that ‘the fall’ was bad for mankind. This is because all human beings inherit this sin from Adam. As Arminius argues: ‘In this [fallen] state, the free will of man towards the true good is wounded, infirm, bent, and weakened.’ Arminius believed that ‘the fall’ did not completely determine humans to continually sin. This is because of God’s loving grace; God’s grace, for Arminius, was associated with the Holy Spirit. Arminius believed that within all human beings God has placed his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit encourages all human beings to do good works. As Arminius stated the Holy Spirit will: ‘fight against Satan, sin, the world and their own flesh’. Furthermore, the Spirit will be ever present to aid and assist believers through various temptations. But this security provided by the Spirit was conditional on the believer’s own will to follow through on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As Arminius stated: ‘provided they (believers) stand prepared for the battle, implore his help, and be not wanting to themselves, the Spirit preserves them from falling’. Therefore, a human being’s impulse to sin, because of their inherited original sin, is balanced by the work of God’s Holy Spirit. However, Arminius was clear that the Holy Spirit balances the impulse to sin, rather than overrides it, because the Holy Spirit does not force itself on to a human being; it acts only as a God-given moral guide. As Arminius stated: ‘God has limited his control in correspondence with man’s freedom.’ Therefore, all human beings have free will to decide whether to follow the will of God’s Holy Spirit or give in to their natural inclination to sin. Therefore, all human beings have the ability inside of them to be saved, if they freely follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, salvation is accomplished through the combined efforts of God,

Specification content The implications of free will on

religious belief: the link between God and evil, the implications for God’s omnipotence and omnibenevolence, the use of prayer and the existence of miracles.

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