Rebecca Writes

transcendental argument for the existence of God
The argument which attempts to prove God’s existence by arguing that logic, morals, and science ultimately presuppose the Christian worldview, and that God’s absolute nature is the source of logic and morals.1

• Scripture that grounds a transcendental argument for the existence of God:

  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17 ESV)

• An example of a trancendental argument:

  When we go to look at the different world views that atheists and theists have, I suggest we can prove the existence of God from the impossibility of the contrary. The transcendental proof for God’s existence is that without Him it is impossible to prove anything. The atheist world view is irrational and cannot consistently provide the preconditions of intelligible experience, science, logic, or morality. The atheist world view cannot allow for laws of logic, the uniformity of nature, the ability for the mind to        understand the world, and moral absolutes. In that sense the atheist world view cannot account for our debate tonight. (A bit of Greg Bahnsen’s argument from Does God Exist? Greg Bahnsen vs. Gordon Stein)

• From Trancendental Arguments by John Frame:

  What, then, does transcendental argument add to the apologist’s arsenal, beyond the traditional arguments? First, it presents a goal for apologetics. The goal of the apologist is not only to show that God exists, but also who he is: that he is the source of all meaning and intelligibility in the universe.

  Further, it suggests apologetic strategies somewhat neglected in the tradition. Traditional apologists have often argued that causality (for example) implies God. A transcendental argument makes a stronger claim: that causality presupposes God. The difference between “implies” and “presupposes,” according to Peter Strawson and Bas Van Fraasen, is that in the latter case God’s existence is implied either by the assertion or the denial of causality. That is, not only does the existence of causality imply the existence of God, but even to deny (intelligibly, if it were possible) the existence of causality would be to invoke a framework of meaning that presupposes God’s existence. Don Collett argues that the Strawson-Van Fraasen kind of presupposition is identical with Van Til’s. So if creation presupposes God, even the denial of creation presupposes him, and the atheist is like the little girl slapping her father while sitting on his lap.

  The Bible does make this kind of radical claim, that creation not only implies, but presupposes God. For God is the creator of all, and therefore the source of all meaning, order, and intelligibility. It is in Christ that all things hold together (Col. 1:17). So without him everything falls apart; nothing makes sense. Thus Scripture teaches that unbelief is foolish (Psm. 14:1, 1 Cor. 1:20). There are many arguments to be made on the way to that conclusion. Not every individual apologetic argument needs to go that far.  But the apologist’s work is not done until he reaches that conclusion, until he persuades the objector that God is everything the Bible says he is. That is to say that a complete argument for Christian theism, however many sub-arguments it contains, will be transcendental in character.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is the trancendental argument for the existence of God?
2. RealApologetics.org Blog: A Concise Outline for the Trancendental Argument for God’s Existence
3. Doug Wilson: The Transcendental Argument for God’s Existence (The opening statement of a debate with Theodore Drange)
4. Greg Bahnsen: Transcript of Does God Exist? Greg Bahnsen vs. Gordon Stein

Related terms:

• presuppositional apologetics
• cosmological argument
• moral argument
• ontological argument
• teleological argument

1What is the transcendental argument for the existence of God? at GotQuestions.org

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

classical apologetics
An approach to apologetics that first uses rational arguments to make the case for the existence of one God, and then uses evidence for the reliability of Scripture, the deity of Christ, etc. to show that Christianity is better than all other forms of theism.

• An example of a classical argument for the existence of God:

  II. Teleological or Design Argument

  A. Explained

  Argues that the presence of order in the universe requires the existence of an orderer.

  A typical formulation of the argument.

  1. The universe manifests evidence of design.
  2. All design demands a designer (which entails x,y,and z characteristics).
  3. Therefore, the universe must have a designer.
  4. This designer is the God of the Bible.

• From Apologetics and the Limits of Reason:

  Classical apologetics has the most positive view of philosophy in general, and even of non-Christian philosophy, of the four approaches to apologetics. The classical apologist views the apologetic task as articulating the Christian position in a way that communicates that position clearly and faithfully in terms that people of non-Christian worldviews and religions can understand. This does not mean that non-Christian philosophies are accepted without qualification, but that the Christian thinker uses the categories and insights of non-Christian systems of thought in order to make Christian thought intelligible to the non-Christian. Classical apologists tend to see a great deal of overlap in subject matter and method between apologetics and philosophy.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is classical apologetics?
2. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministries: Classical Apologetics
3. Bible.org: Classical Apologetics: It Stands to Reason, Classical Apologetics: A Reasonable Faith, The Rationality of the Christian Worldview, Apologetics and the Limits of Reason.

Related terms:

• presuppositional apologetics
• evidential apologetics
• cosmological argument
• moral argument
• ontological argument
• teleological argument

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

presuppositional apologetics
An approach to apologetics that starts with the foundational axioms of the existence of God and his divine revelation to us in Scripture, and seeks to show that the Christian faith built on these presuppositions makes sense of life and reality and that any other belief system built on other foundational axioms does not. Also called presuppositionalism.

• From scripture:

  So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,  25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

  “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; 

  as even some of your own poets have said,

  “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 

  29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31 ESV)

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1:

  Of The Holy Scripture

  IV. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.[9]

• From Defending the Faith: An Introduction to Presuppositional Appologetics by Massimo Lorenzini:

  There are traditionally three approaches to faith and reason:

  • The rationalistic apologetic: Thomas Aquinas, “I believe because I understand.”
  • The irrational, fideistic apologetic: Tertullian, “I believe what is absurd.”
  • The presuppositional apologetic: Augustine, “I believe; therefore, I understand.”

  Contrary to rationalism, human reason is not a religiously neutral or independent realm that is philosophically prior to faith. Contrary to irrationalism, human reason need not be a futile and impossible task that is contrary to true faith. Consistent with presuppositionalism, the realm of true faith encompasses all and is prior to all, including logic and science, and only in the context of faith is a rational and orderly world possible.

Learn more:

1. Wikipedia: Presuppositional Apologetics
2. GotQuestions.org: What Is Presuppositional Apologetics?
3. Dr. Brian M. Abshire: Reason, Evidence, and Presuppositional Apologetics
4. S. Joel Garver: A Primer on Presuppositionalism
5. Dr. Greg Bahnson: Presuppositional Procedure
6. Dr. Greg Bahnson: Van Tillian Apologetics (4 mp3s)
7. Update: Westminster Theological Seminary: Apologetics Course on iTunes.
8. Dr. Scott Oliphant: Apologetics and Doctrine of Scripture, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (YouTube videos)

Related terms:

• evidential apologetics

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Here’s the embarrassing scoop on this post: I put it together, published it, and then noticed that I’d already done this term two years ago. I did find different quotes and more good things to link to this time around, but note how similar the two posts are otherwise. You’d think they’d been done by the same person or something.

I guess one duplicate in 120 terms is not all that bad. Still, I shall try never to make this mistake again.  And I’m not happy to have wasted a few hours on a beautiful summer evening.

theodicy
An answer to “the problem of evil”; a defense of God’s goodness and justice given the existence of evil in creation; an explanation for the existence of evil in a universe created and ruled by an omnipotent and good God.

• From scripture:

  You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
  and cannot look at wrong,
  why do you idly look at traitors
  and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
  the man more righteous than he? (Habakuk 1:13 ESV)

  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee  of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,  to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:6-13 ESV)

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 5:

  Of Providence

  I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

• From A Biblical Theodicy by W. Gary Crampton:

  Solving the problem of evil is a matter of adopting the correct starting point. With the Bible as our axiomatic starting point, the existence of evil is not a significant problem at all. In fact, the existence of evil is far more problematic in the unbeliever’s worldview. Without a coherent standard of right and wrong, evil and good, how can one even define evil? The problem of evil cannot be coherently formulated on non-Christian grounds. And if Christian grounds are assumed in order to pose the problem, Christian grounds, that is, the Scriptures, explain evil’s purpose in the world. “All things work together for good to those who love God and are called….”

• From Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware:

  [I]t is only because God has complete control over all bad things that we can be sure that those bad things work to bring about some good purpose that God has planned. If God is not in control of bad things, then we would be led to deep sadness, thinking that a bad thing that is happening will serve no good purpose. But it is not so! Rather, God does control the bad as well as the good. When bad things happen, we can know, then, that God is using them for good purposes. What comfort and peace this should bring to us, since God always does what is best, and God’s purposes can never fail. 

Learn more:

1. Blue Letter Bible: The Problem of Evil
2. Greg Koukl: A Good Reason for Evil
3. Greg Bahnsen: The Problem of Evil
4. Hampton Keathley IV: Why Is There Evil and Suffering?
5. W. Gary Crampton: A Biblical Theodicy
6. Don Whitney: The Problem of Evil (mp3)
7. Don Carson: How can God allow evil and suffering in the world? (video)

Related terms:

• omnipotence
• goodness
• righteousness (as an attribute of God)
• sovereignty of God

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

idolatry
The worship of false gods; the worship of the one true God by images; the worship of the one true God conceived as less than He is; the giving of honor due to the one true God “to some of His creatures or to some invention of His creatures”1; the valuing of anything or anyone more than the one true God.

• From scripture:

  “You shall have no other gods before me.

   “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands  of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:3-6 ESV)

  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:21-24 ESV)

• From The Heidelberg Catechism, 1563:

  Question 95. What is idolatry?

  Answer: Idolatry is, instead of, or besides that one true God, who has manifested himself in his word, to contrive, or have any other object, in which men place their trust.

• From Impatience and Idolatry by Ligon Duncan

  [T]here are two ways to commit idolatry. You can worship anything or anyone that is not the true God and be an idolater (breaking the first commandment), or you can worship the true God in the wrong way and be an idolater (breaking the second commandment). Israel broke both commands in Exodus 32. Even though, in Egypt, God had demonstrated His superiority over all gods represented by idols, the people called for an image, a representation of deity, to be made. They directly violated God’s will by worshiping a false god or gods in the form of the young bull. Some no doubt were still infected with polytheism, while others made the God of Israel after their own fancy, and thus became worshipers of a god that didn’t exist. In these ways they transgressed the first and second commandments even as they were being explicitly delivered to Moses.

  God’s stricture against idolatry was and is vital for the purity of worship and for spiritual growth. If we worship God according to our own designs and imaginations, instead of in accordance with His Word, we inevitably become idolaters. Furthermore, idolatry undercuts spirituality (though it often claims to enhance it). For, if spiritual growth means being transformed by God’s grace into His moral likeness, then worshiping Him in a likeness that is not in accordance with His Word necessarily derails the process of sanctification. In fact, idolatry always leads to sub-human behavior (Rom. 1:21-32).

  We who live in an age when church leaders host conferences on “re-imaging God,” and when the Bible’s teaching about God is altered to make Him more politically correct and culturally palatable, dare not dismiss these warnings against idolatry. We may feel ourselves far too sophisticated to be capable of idolatry, but A. W. Tozer warned us many years ago, “An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.”

• From Spiritual Idolatry by John Angell James::

  My dear friends, let me admonish you to worship God alone. Give your heart, your whole heart to him. Is it not your sin, and ought it not to be your shame and your sorrow—that you bestow so much of your affection upon other objects, and so little upon him—that you treat him so little as such a God deserves, and claims to be treated? Recollect he is God, God in Christ; God reconciled, your Father, your portion; all glorious and all gracious. Think how you ought to love him, with what entire, ardent, constant, devoted affection. It would seem, when we consider his glory, as if it would be the easiest thing in the world to love and serve him, and the hardest thing in the world to love any other objects; as if it would be impossible so to get out of the sight, and beyond the attraction of his glory, as to have time, inclination, or ability to take an interest in anything else than in his favor, which is life, and his loving-kindness which is better than life; as if with the hope of his favor through Christ as our portion, we should really no more desire any other object or source of delight, than the condemned criminal does besides the royal pardon, or the starving man the supply of food. Amazing baseness, that with an infinite God to love, we should be so taken up with the finite, and many of them the really minute objects of this world; and that with his love to us as our river of pleasure, we should be so dependent for bliss upon the ‘drops of earthly enjoyment’, which ooze and trickle out from created good!

  How offensive this must be to God, who knows, and who alone knows, the ineffable glories of his own nature! How ungrateful must it appear to him when he has opened this fountain of living waters for us, to see us turn away from it, to hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water! How insulting to him to see a relative, a trade, a house, a minister—exalted into a rival claimant for the heart, and receiving that affection, confidence, and devotedness which are due to him alone! Remember he is a jealous God—and as among men jealousy is inflamed to the highest pitch by seeing an unworthy and insignificant object preferred, so God will, and must, resent our preference, to him, of such objects as this world at best can present.

  …Let me, my dear friends, earnestly admonish you to give this subject a deep and due consideration. Examine your hearts. Does not the charge of spiritual idolatry appertain to you? Is there not some object, or class of objects, that have come between God and your souls? Have you no idols? Has your heart departed from the Lord? Search the mind, the house, the shop, the sanctuary, the world—and see where it has gone, and what you have exalted into a competitor with God. Be faithful to yourself. Is there not something for which God has a controversy with you? Ask yourself what it is you trust in, look to, depend upon, for happiness. Do you indeed look through and above all—to God? Is God your center, rest, and dwelling place? Is Christ more to you than everything else? Is it he that is precious? Is he the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely one? Is he the sun that makes the day of your prosperity, the moon that enlivens the night of your adversity? Is he your riches, your friend, your home, your pearl of great price? Say, dear brethren, is God really God to you—loved and treated as God should be?

  Ask yourselves if while you are praying for the downfall of idols in heathen countries—are there are none to be pulled down in your own hearts and houses? If while you are seeking the conversion of the worshipers of the Hindu deities, you have not need to be converted from the worship of self and mammon? Be humbled, deeply humbled—for this your sin!

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is the definition of idolatry?
2. J. C. Ryle: Idolatry
3. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Glory of God and Idolatry
4. John Murray: Pictures of Christ
5. Don Carson: What is sin and how is it different from idolatry? (video)
6. G. K. Beale: The Irony of Idolatry (mp3)
7. Tim Keller: The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry (audio or video)

1From Idolatry by J. C. Ryle

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

forensic
Having to do with legal proceedings or a court of law; used in regards to justification in order to designate it  as a judicial act of God.

• From scripture:

  Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? (Romans 8:33-34 ESV)

  He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
  are both alike an abomination to the Lord. (Proverbs 17:15 ESV)

• From The Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 9:

  Of the True Justification of the Faithful

  WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION? According to the apostle in his treatment of justification, to justify means to remit sins, to absolve from guilt and punishment, to receive into favor, and to pronounce a man just. For in his epistle to the Romans the apostle says: “It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?” (Rom. 8:33). To justify and to condemn are opposed. And in The Acts of the Apostles the apostle states: “Through Christ forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone that believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38 f.). For in the Law and also in the Prophets we read: “If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court…the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty” (Deut. 25:1). And in Isa., ch. 5: “Woe to those…who acquit the guilty for a bribe.”

• From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:

  The idea that justification is a legal declaration is quite evident … when justification is contrasted with condemnation. Paul says, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?” (Rom. 8:33-34). To “condemn” someone is to declare that person guilty. The opposite of condemnation is justification, which, in this context, must mean “to declare someone not guilty.” This is also evident from the fact that God’s act of justifying is given as Paul’s answer to the possibility of someone bringing an accusation or “charge” against God’s people: such a declaration of guilt cannot stand in the face of God’s declaration of righteousness.

• From Sole Fide: The Reformed Doctrine of Justification by J. I. Packer:

  2. The meaning of justification. What justification is, said the Reformers, must be learned from Paul, its great New Testament expositor, who sees it clearly and precisely as a judicial act of God pardoning and forgiving our sins, accepting us as righteous, and instating us as his sons. Following Augustine, who studied the Bible in Latin and was partly misled by the fact that justificare, the Latin for Paul’s dikaiou’n, naturally means “make righteous,” the Mediaevals had defined justification as pardon plus inner renewal, as the Council of Trent was also to do; but the Reformers saw that the Pauline meaning of dikaioun is strictly forensic. So Calvin defines justification as acceptance, whereby God receives us into his favour and regards us as righteous; and we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.” Justification is decisive for eternity, being in effect the judgment of the last day brought forward. Its source is God’s grace, his initiative in free and sovereign love, and its ground is the merit and satisfaction—that is, the obedient sin-bearing death—of Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son.

Learn more:

1. Charles Hodge: Forensic Justification
2. Francis Turretin: Justification: Forensic or Moral?
3. S. Lewis Johnson: Justification (mp3 and more)

Related terms:

• imputation
• justification

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

free agency
The ability to make one’s own decisions as to what one will do, choosing as one pleases in light of one’s own sense of right and wrong and the inclination one feels;1 the ability to make willing choices that have real effects.2 Sometimes called free will.

• From scripture:

  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:14 ESV)

  But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.  (Matthew 17:12 ESV)

• From The Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 9:

  Of Free Will, and Thus of Human Powers

  [N]o one denies that in external things both the regenerate and the unregenerate enjoy free will. For man has in common with other living creatures (to which he is not inferior) this nature to will some things and not to will others. Thus he is able to speak or to keep silent, to go out of his house or to remain at home, etc. However, even here God’s power is always to be observed, for it was the cause that Balaam could not go as far as he wanted (Num., ch. 24), and Zacharias upon returning from the temple could not speak as he wanted (Luke, ch.1).

• From Concise Theology by J. I. Packer:

  Free agency is a mark of human beings as such. All humans are free agents in the sense that they make their own decisions as to what they will do, choosing as they please in the light of their sense of right and wrong and the inclinations they feel. Thus they are moral agents, answerable to God and each other for their voluntary choices. So was Adam, both before and after he sinned; so are we now, and so are the glorified saints who are confirmed in grace in such a sense that they no longer have it in them to sin. Inability to sin will be one of the delights and glories of heaven, but it will not terminate anyone’s humanness; glorified saints will still make choices in accordance with their nature, and those choices will not be any the less the product of human free agency just because they will always be good and right.

Learn more:

1. Ernest Reisenger: Free Will and Free Agency
2. GotQuestions.org: Do human beings truly have free will? (mp3)
3. Walter J. Chantry: Man’s Will - Free Yet Bound

Related terms:

• sovereignty of God

1Paraphrased from Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 85.
2From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, page 1242.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

preceptive will
God’s revealed law or commandments; what God has declared that we should do. Also called revealed will, moral will, or will of command.

• From scripture:

  Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21 ESV)

  Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV)

• From The Westminster Shorter Catechism:

  Q. 39. What is the duty which God requireth of man?
  A. The duty which God requireth of man, is obedience to his revealed will.

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

  [God’s] decretive will includes many things which He forbids in His preceptive will,  and excludes many things which he commands in His preceptive will, cf. Gen 22; Ex. 4:21-23; II kings 20:1-7; Acts 2:23. Yet it is of great importance to maintain both the decretive and the preceptive will, but with the definite understanding that, while they appear to us as distinct, they are yet fundamentally one in God. Though a perfectly satisfactory solution of the difficulty is out of the question for the present, it is possible to make some approaches to a solution. When we speak of the decretive and the preceptive will of God, we use the word “will” in two different senses. By the former God has determined what He will do or what shall come to pass; in the latter He reveals to us what we are in duty bound to do. At the same time, we should remember that the moral law, the rule of our life, is also in a sense the embodiment of the will of God. Is is an expression of His holy nature and of what this naturally requires of all moral creatures. 

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: Examining the Preceptive Will of God
2. Kevin DeYoung: The Whole Duty of Man
3. Curt Daniel: The Will of God (mp3)
   
4. Tim Keller: God’s Secret and Revealed Will (mp3)

Related terms:

• decretive will
  

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decretive will
“[T]hat will of God by which He purposes or decrees whatever shall come to pass, whether He wills to accomplish it effectively (causatively), or to permit it to occur through the unrestrained agency of His rational creatures1; the plan of God which contains everything he has determined to bring to pass. Also called sovereign will or secret will.

• From scripture:

  Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15 ESV)

  [F]or truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:27-28 ESV)

• From The London Baptist Confession, 1689:

  1._____ God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with any therein; nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established; in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness in accomplishing his decree.
  

  2._____ Although God knoweth whatsoever may or can come to pass, upon all supposed conditions, yet hath he not decreed anything, because he foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.

• From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:

  God’s secret will includes his hidden decrees by which he governs the universe and determines everything that will happen. He does not ordinarily reveal these decrees to us (except in prophecies of the future), so these decrees really are God’s “secret” will. We find out what God has decreed when events actually happen. Because this secret will of God has to do with his decreeing of events in the world, this aspect of God’s will is sometimes also called God’s will of decree.
  
  …[M]any passages speak of God’s secret will. When James tells us to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that” (James 4:15), he cannot be talking about God’s revealed will or will of precept, for with regard to many of our actions we know that it is according to God’s command that we do one or another activity that we we have planned. Rather, to trust in the secret will of God overcomes pride and expresses humble dependence on God’s sovereign control over the events of our lives.

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: Comprehending the Decretive Will of God
   
2. Tim Keller: God’s Secret and Revealed Will (mp3)
3. Sam Storms: Are There Two Wills in God?
   
4. James Petigru Boyce: The Will of God
5. S. Lewis Johnson: The Will of God

1From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.