Answering Some Questions on Free Will and Election

 I made a comment on a previous blogpost years ago, "God creates every moral creature with a free will to choose." A comment left asked a series of questions about it. Here they are and then my answers to follow.

What does the Calvinist mean by "a free will to choose?" A "free will" to "choose" to do only what God has determined through secondary causes that he will "freely choose" to do? A "free will" to "choose" to sin at God's decree? 

By "a free will to choose" I mean that nothing is restricting what he wants to do but his nature and desires alone. In other words, there is nothing and no one outside of himself that is forcing him to do contrary to his nature and desires. His own nature limits him and his own desires limit him, and he is influenced by numerous outside forces, but he, when all is said and done, is making a real choice in accordance with who he is.

Has God decreed whatsoever comes to pass, even the sin's of his creatures?

Yes. In fact, whether God actually decrees everything that comes to pass or not, He is ultimately the source of whatever comes to pass in every system, and therefore, had to actualize whatever comes to pass in one way or another. The issue is simply whether what He has actualized was part of a very well thought out plan that was either defensive (Arminian) or offensive (Calvinist), or just dumb luck (in the case of Neotheism).

The sins of his creatures, however, are not caused by God directly, as you note above. Instead, the sin nature of man, if without the restrictions God has decreed over it, would run complete and without restraint, which means that they would sin every second in the worst possible ways that they could. Instead, God restricts their acts through their desires (fear, love, honor/shame, etc.), so that He only takes those restrictions away when He has decreed to use their sin for His good purposes.

Can a person "freely choose" to believe on Christ for salvation? Or does the fact that God is sovereign over salvation mean that one can only "freely choose" to reject the Savior of himself, even when God graciously, but ineffectually "calls" him? 

Yes, absolutely. A person always freely chooses to believe in Christ for salvation. The free will of a person is effectually influenced by God, not commandeered. There is an enlightenment of the will through regeneration so that the desires of a person are changed and he then freely chooses to believe in Christ for salvation. If you're asking whether a man in his fallen state freely chooses to believe in Christ for salvation then I would say, no, but this has nothing to do with the freedom of the will to choose but the freedom of the will from influence. I do not believe the will is free from influence and it is, therefore, in bondage to the deception and fleshly desires of sin and rebellion. 

Does the fact that God is sovereign over salvation mean that one cannot freely choose to come to Christ for salvation unless God has chosen before the foundation of the world to effectually draw him to Christ? 

Right. Since a man will never choose contrary to his desires, it is again not a matter of an inability that the will has but rather the bondage of the will to deception and rebellion. Hence, he needs to be freed from this slavery as the Israelites were freed from Egyptian bondage. Once this occurs, his will is effectually influenced to choose Christ as he was predestined to do. 

Can a person freely choose to come to Christ if he is not one of the elect from before the foundation of the world? 

This may shock you but yes. He just won't ever do it. This question is sort of like asking whether a person who hates the taste of battery acid can choose to have it for dinner. Of course he can. Will he? No.

Can the number of the elect be increased or decreased?

Hypothetically, because man can choose, it can be. Will it be? No. We know this because God has decreed that number already and it is impossible for it to be a different number since it is impossible for God to be wrong. We also know that it will not be different because fallen man will never choose God without being regenerated. Hence, the number God has decreed is the number it will always be, but this is not because man cannot freely choose. It is rather because what he will freely choose is known by God due, not merely to God knowing the future, but to the fact that God has decreed not to grant to him the necessary regeneration in order to free his will from the influence of his own deception and rebellion.