Apologeet.nl
Chosen, Saved & Free WillAs you can see, I am back from our village on Madagascar. On my Odysee channel, I explained a little bit about what the plans are. You can find that little article here
Briefly, we will soon be bringing several groups of Bible students to our village. These students are eager to learn how to reach their fellow countrymen with the gospel. Again, check out the little article I wrote.
I have very little time to make a new video. This video is actually a response to my Dutch spoken reaction video from 25th of March 2025. In that video, I discuss a debate between two Dutch guys, Chris Verhagen and Bert Put. Following my reaction, I have been asked several times how I myself view the ideas of predestination and free will. In the conclusion of that reaction video, I already said something about these ideas, but I think it’s good to expand on it a bit.
Everyone is Sinful
Let me get straight to the point. I am convinced that, as human beings, we have free will, which allows us to voluntarily choose what we want. But! At the same time, the Bible teaches us that all of us, no one excepted, are evil.
Paul quotes Psalm 14 in
Romans 3:10-12
as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
It seems that the Bible teaches that, although we have free will, our free will is somehow still bound by our own sinful nature.
Romans 8:7-8
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Because the Bible describes us as holistic beings, we know that the will does not function independently of the rest of human nature. So, a free will does not mean that the will has the ability to choose any option, but that it can freely choose what the heart desires. And what does the heart desire? Let’s pull out Genesis 6:5.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
And Jeremiah 17:9 makes it a bit clearer still
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
So our will acts in accordance with the desires of our heart. This means that our will only wants to move away from God—which is totally in harmony with our sinful nature.
The Compatibilist and Libertarian
I think that, what I have just told you, is the crux of the matter when it comes to discussing free will. Actually, there are two views regarding free will. To complicate this video a bit, I will explain these two theological ideas. The terms used for them, you may not have heard before, namely compatibilism and libertarianism.
Well, that all sounds a bit more complicated than it is. In short, a compatibilist is someone who holds the view that a person is only as free as his own sinful nature allows him to be free and that his sinfulness prevents him from freely choosing God. This is actually what we discussed earlier.
We have already briefly mentioned Romans 3. There Paul says that no one seeks God. But compatibilism is also supported by 1 Corinthians 2:14
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
The libertarian believes that an unsaved sinner is still able to choose God freely—without being hindered by his sinful nature. Here, the texts from John 3:16 and 3:36 fit perfectly.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Resistance from Dordrecht
And as I said, this is precisely where one of the big pain points within the churches lies. In Reformed Holland, much is going on around the so-called Canons of Dort, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands. These doctrinal rules came about to combat the more extreme doctrine of the followers of Arminius.
The later followers of Arminius tended strongly towards a false doctrine also known as Pelagianism. Pelagianism teaches that an unconverted man is perfectly capable of pleasing God. Apart from the various un-Biblical propositions, I would like to focus on one point of Pelagianism, namely the fact that it also states that man himself is capable of contributing to Christ’s salvation by independently seeking God. In other words, man can, completely apart from God, come to a good decision through his own independent investigation.
This is where the aforementioned libertarianism comes into play—the idea that someone is able to choose God freely, thus, without being hindered by his sinful nature. You understand that many people will quickly classify this idea as Pelagianism.
My own Conviction
Actually, I don’t really think it matters much how you believe one’s choice comes about—either through his own initiative or through the help of the Holy Spirit. On balance, both persons come to Christ. I will say more about that later.
Actually, I don’t think it matters for the end result how you believe one’s choice comes about. On balance, both persons come to faith. I will say a little more about that later.
Personally, I am not convinced that the unbeliever seeks God entirely by himself. As far as I am concerned, the Bible states clearly enough that people cannot act in a way that is contrary to their sinful nature. Jeremiah 17:9 has already told us that the unregenerate man is deceitful. Mark 7:21-23 says the unbeliever is full of evil, and John 3:19 says the unbeliever prefers darkness over light. Jesus says in John chapter 6 verse 44 that no one can come to God by himself, and as we have already read, Paul says the unbeliever does not seek God (Romans 3:10-12). Both Paul and Jesus teach us that the unbeliever is a slave to sin (Romans 6:20; John 8:34). Then we read in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the unbeliever cannot receive spiritual things, and Ephesians 2:1 teaches us that the unbeliever is dead in his sins. The letter to the Ephesians goes on to say in chapter 2 verses 3 and 15 that the unbeliever is by nature a child of wrath, living in enmity with God.
Reading these words, I would say that an unbeliever never, ever seeks God—let alone say ‘yes’ to the sacrifice of Jesus all by himself, i.e. apart from God.
God is Sovereign
So this is where the sovereignty of God comes in. Sovereign means that God has ultimate control over all things and everything that happens is under His supreme and independent will. Calvinists were, and are, especially afraid that those who followed Arminius’ doctrine would challenge God’s sovereignty. This was also why the Dordrecht Doctrines were drafted at the Synod of Dordrecht, in 1618 and 1619. It was a counter-reaction to the somewhat more extreme version of Arminianism in which seamingly the false doctrine of Pelagianism started to emerge. That doctrine claimed, among other things, that man is capable of seeking God of his own accord and that man would even be capable of pleasing God of his own accord.
I have shown that I believe the Bible teaches us that without God’s Spirit we have absolutely no intention to seek Him—we are in fact stuck with our sinful nature. Our will is as free as our nature allows us.
In itself, this is not a problem as far as our salvation is concerned. Indeed, the Bible also teaches us that even responding positively to God’s offer of salvation is only possible when God Himself works it in us by His Spirit. In this sense, God’s sovereignty remains entirely intact.
So do I, along with the Calvinists, believe in absolute election? This is that doctrine which states that some are chosen to be saved and others are not. No, I believe that God has chosen everyone to become a child of His. But the problem is that no one seems to be sincerely seeking God. So, to draw people to Him, He sends His Holy Spirit.
John 16:8
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment
Irresistible Grace
Now the Calvinists say that God draws people to Him only if He has also predestined them, and that these chosen people can do nothing but say ‘yes’ to that. They call that ‘irresistible grace’—so the chosen person then has no choice but to say ‘yes’. Well, it seems to me that this is yet another attempt to strip unbelieving man of any free will.
No, I believe that when the Holy Spirit does His work among unbelievers, He respects the will of unbelievers at all times. Because I believe that God has predestined every human being to be saved, I also believe that every human being will, sooner or later, be drawn by His Spirit. The only question then is what the unbeliever does when that happens. He becomes convinced of the truth, but that does not mean he will then say ‘yes’ to it.
A very well-known text comes from Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.
Jesus confirms the idea that people can only say ‘yes’ if they have been given it.
John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
The Bible does not specify how often God gives someone the opportunity to repent. In contrast, God’s patience, mercy, and desire for everyone to repent are frequently mentioned throughout the Bible.
So again, I believe the Bible teaches that everyone is destined to be saved, but not everyone responds positively to that salvation. In other words, God’s grace can be repelled by unbelievers. However, if someone says ‘yes’, repents and is saved by Jesus, they could also only make that decision after God’s Spirit gave them that gift.
I once heard an English quote said to have come from the mind of C.S. Lewis. The quote said:
“God is a gentleman, He will not force anybody into heaven”.
Individualistic Theology
Finally, let me say a few words about the world-view in which pure Calvinist thinking was established.
Many of you may know that we have been living and working as missionaries on Madagascar for many years. The Malagasy generally have a very different attitude to life than the average Western European.
In Western Europe, we seem to pride ourselves on being independently minded. “Surely I am entitled to my own decisions?” In contrast, rural Malagasy are much more collectively minded. “Does my decision suit the group?”
Calvinist thinking seems much more in tune with the independent thinking of the Western European. Let me explain a bit. Every time I hear someone explain the doctrine of election or predestination, it strikes me that they refer to that few in the group who come to faith. Out of a whole group of listeners, why does only one or a few come to faith and those others don’t? Well, that would be because those few were chosen, and those others were not. In other words, every time, it’s all about the one and not the other.
In rural Madagascar, we see a different picture. I visited a village where two young Christians were already living. They were the only ones in the whole village, and they where still considered to be outsiders. They had just moved there from somewhere else. I shared the Gospel in that village almost every week for many months. No one came to a living faith in Christ. Why didn’t they? When I asked, I got the answer that they actually really wanted to come to Christ, but it was so difficult, they said. I was surprised because what on earth can be difficult about just saying ‘yes’ to Jesus’ salvation?
As I began to understand the language better, I learnt that people were watching each other in terms of their response to salvation. As individuals, would they turn away from ancestor worship or would they wait and see what the other person was going to do? Turning away from ancestor worship automatically meant that they could no longer participate within the group—after all, everything is interconnected with that same ancestor worship. It took a long time, but eventually someone probably joined the two young Christians. Then the wife of the king of the village followed, and soon the group grew to more than 20 people—20 people is quite a lot in a village of about 50 inhabitants.
So, where in Western Europe we see people coming to faith on an individual basis, in other parts of the world we see people looking at the group. That group conversion is no less genuine. The group which I just mentioned now meets weekly for Bible study, and they are building their own church building in the village. They are learning more and more about how to follow Jesus, which in turn has a great appeal to others. The group is large enough to stand on its own.
It has been so hugely instilled in us that conversion must be personal that we can hardly imagine that group conversions can be real. We almost automatically think that these people only say they are Christians because that is what is expected. “No,” we then say, “conversion is real only if you have asked the Lord personally.” Besides, in Western Europe we hardly know the phenomenon of group conversions, it is almost non-existent. “Well,” says the Calvinist, “that is because some are chosen and others are not.”
Less Adamant
You will understand that after all these years in a different part of the world, I have become a bit less adamant, if I was at all, about some theological ideas. No, I am not compromising! The Gospel is and will remain the same! Jesus is God’s Son, He is God Himself who was born as a human being. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave on the third day! There is no other way to be saved than through Him!
I think it would behoove us to be a little less stubborn on certain points. A lot of our ideas are fine to discuss and debate among ourselves, but when you get your feet dirty (in my case, often literally in the muddy ricefields) those ideas fall away. On the mission field, what counts is the preaching of God’s grace. The unbeliever has no use for the drivel we like to engage in. What does it matter to the unbeliever whether you believe in irresistible grace, that you are a compatibilist or a libertarian, or that you think some are chosen and others are not. The unbeliever needs to hear how he can be saved! And if he says ‘no’ at some point, he also does not need to hear that he is apparently not among the elect.
Again, fine that we discuss these kinds of ideas among ourselves. As far as I am concerned, so now and then it is okay for these discussions to be a bit spicy—especially when people are hindered from coming to Jesus by certain ideas. But let us focus on what our real mission is. Calling people to repentance, teaching them, baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to live as Jesus commanded us.
Romans 10:13-15b, 17
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? […]
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
