Opus 2026-320: Keeping God in His Box

I continue listening to the debate between Steve Greg and James White.  I think I’m in the third part at this time.  One of the statements that White made that I found on one side amusing and on the other side disappointing was his criticism of a theory that I myself would come up with.  I believe I came up with it on my own.  I am certainly not aware of reading it anywhere else.

The topic under discussion was whether man has free will or whether God decrees everything.  The illustration being given had to do with Jesus confronting the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.  My point here was that the apostle Paul was free to say “no” to God.  He was not compelled in the sense of God taking over his brain and planting a faith chip that programed him how to respond.  His response was genuine and heartfelt.

On the other hand, if Paul was having a bad day and it said no thank you to Jesus, would God have then inserted the faith Chip and proceeded with His plan or would He have gone to Plan B?

I’m not sure how good my memory is, but I think that White even used the phrase “Plan B”.  Now to me, it seems that God in His wisdom and His infinite knowledge, and many ways to manipulate history without violating man’s free will probably had his eye on a couple of other likely candidates.  It would seem to me that God actually gave man free will when He created us in His image and that is the way He would operate.

James White seems to think that giving God this option is us trying to limit God.  He thinks it’s us telling God what He can do and what He can’t do.  I would respond that actually it’s just the other way around.  God, if He is sovereign in the sense that the Calvinist claim, should be free to do anything He wants to do.  The Calvinist, however, claim that God is locked into a box and can in no way allow for free will in man because that would make it possible for man to say no to God.

I’m sure that White has many different cherry picked proof texts that he could have pulled out and applied.  Whether this is a lack of intelligence, careful study, or lack of honesty is a question that only God can answer.  Taking a position like this means that you have to ignore almost the entire history of Israel.  It means that you have to ignore much of the teachings of Jesus.  I imagine I could even say you would have to ignore much of the teachings of Paul.

If God is at the top of the food chain, is capable of imposing His will on anyone at any time, is He free to change His mind, or is He locked into a box that the Calvinists built?

I think you can tell by the way I frame the question which side I land on.

homo unius libri