Different Evangelical Views on Free Will

The principle of free will has religious, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will may imply that an all-powerful deity does not
assert its power or control over individual will and choices. In ethics, it may imply that individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In the scientific
realm, it may imply that the actions of the body, including the brain and the mind, are not wholly determined by physical causality. The question of free will has
been a central issue since the beginning of philosophical thought.

Determinism Compatibilism Libertarianism

Humans have no free will. Future events are necessitated or
caused by past and present events. God controls and
determines all that humans will do by decreeing their actions
in advance. All behaviors, beliefs, and desires are already
fixed and pre-determined. It was pre-determined that
everything would happen exactly as it would.
God is sovereign, in control of all and so ultimately the cause
of all. Fallen humanity is totally without freedom of the
affections, what they want will forever be in the control of
their corrupt, sinful heart. God controls actions as God
controls desires and their attendant thoughts and actions.
The future is closed. There is only one possible pre-
determined future and is therefore not compatible with
human free will and moral choices.
Humans are able to act and choose freely even if everything
is entirely determined by God -- all things for which humans
are in no way ultimately responsible. Compatibilists (soft
determinists) claim that we are free to do what we want,
even though our behaviors have already been determined.
They think of freedom as simply the absence of obstacles.
God’s determinism and human free will are compatible after
all. Soft determinists attempt to achieve this reconciliation by
subtly revising the definition of free will. Acting freely is
merely a perceived feeling of unobstructed choosing one’s
own desires (even if those desires are actually already pre-
determined).
The future is closed. There is only one possible pre-
determined future. However, although your desires and
decisions are already pre-determined, it does not mean you
do not have to personally perceive or feel that you are freely
making your own choices.
Humans have free will, and have the freedom to choose what
they want, and their choices are not pre-determined. Free
will allows the existence of the concepts of “good” and “evil”
because people have the capacity to do either of those with
the ability to have chosen the alternative. There are many
possible futures. The future is not pre-determined.
God sovereignly delegated free choice to His creatures. So
human freedom is a God- given power to make moral
choices. The history of the world is the result not only of
God’s will, but also the free will of many other creatures. The
way things are does not rest in one omni-controlling
dictatorial will, but in the myriad of wills of this society of
free creatures.
The future is open, and is full of possibilities. A person’s
moral actions are not pre-determined. It is morally self-
determined, an act freely chosen, without compulsion, in
which one could have done otherwise. Human beings are
morally responsible, and it makes sense to praise human
beings for doing good, and to blame them for doing evil.

Determinism and free will are incompatible. Determinism is Determinism and a limited sense of free will are compatible Determinism and free will are incompatible. Determinism is
true, and there is no free will. Human freedom does not exist with each other. Determinism is true and a self-perception of false and free will exists. The human soul makes free choices.
and moral choice is an illusion. limited free will exists. Human freedom is merely the absence Human freedom and moral responsibility are a reality.
of obstacles in one’s moral actions.