Free Will/Grace Antecedent and Consequent Willing
We need to see that in God's decision there are three logical stages or momenta: First, God wills sincerely and vehemently that all be saved;
Second, He foresees some will gravely resist grace: on account of this resistance and because of it, He reprobates;
Third, He decrees to save the others, not because of merits (which are not yet foreseen logically—only resistance is looked at—merits come after absence of resistance) but because He has always wanted that (salvific will) and these do not block His will.
The merciful God, wanting to deliver men, if they are not enemies to Him and do not resist the mercy of their Creator, sent His only—begotten Son." [written 399].
Comment: Again, Augustine teaches that the distinction between those who are freed and those who are not freed depends on the resistance or lack of it on the part of men.
The Eastern Fathers, absolutely all of them, and Westerners before Augustine, and even after him, saw that there is no reprobation, not even negative, except in consideration of demerits.
Hammer hitting
God uses hit for my good
Man who hit is sinning
Hammer is neutral which God used
He graces all with the option to accept his will for them… (sufficient for all)
My will must be submitted to His will-will you allow me to change your mind and be God and not you? (Repentance)
- If his will is to save elect by effective grace it should be mine too
I should not despair over what contradicts my thoughts
- If his will is to have man make a response of free will sufficient grace
I should not despair over what I can’t understand
New covenant under Jesus anyone can be saved. Before Jesus only the chosen and anyone who yokes themselves to the chosen (Jews)
- He loves some more than others but does love all for the purpose he has chosen. (Jacob/Esau) It’s his world. His prerogative. All people are one race (my brothers and sisters) I am to show the love of God he gave me. This will either melt some or heap burning coals. I am to obey God for love of him not any merit to or from others. The response of someone else is up to God.
- He loves all people and has a plan for them but allows people to refuse and reject him. Even if there was only one person he would have come for them. Yes he allows free will all the way. Even if everyone rejected him.
Catholics believe that
at every point in the process,
such a thing as free will exists.
That free will is not capable of leading them to salvation, nor is it perfectly free (sin enslaves), but it’s still existent. Grace is necessary but offered to all.
Even a drug addict maintains some element of freedom of the will: so does the sin addict.
So Catholics believe that just as a drowning man is wholly incapable of saving himself, but is completely capable of thrashing free from the one who would save him, sinners are free to resist and prevent God from working in them.
This successful prevention is a result of the goodness of God. He called man, with free will perfectly intact in Eden, “very good,” while all His previous creations had been simply “good” (Gen. 1:25, Gen. 1:31).
In other words, because free will is itself a good gift from God, He is unwilling to violate this good gift (free will) to give us another good gift (salvation).
So God offers, through no merit of their own, abundant and sufficient graces, including the graces necessary to accept Him,
but works with our nature — grace builds upon nature.
Our wills, prior to the movement of God’s grace, are free, but not inclined towards God in a manner which will produce our own conversion.
He bestows abundant graces upon us, enabling us to accept Him. But “enabling us” isn’t the same as “forcing us.” The mystery of free will is somewhat at work here.
Acts 7:51 specifically says that the Holy Spirit can, and sometimes is, resisted.
Suffice to say that while we can’t explain precisely how God enables us to choose between good and evil, He does. And that freedom, itself a gift from God, permits us to reject the salvation He offers.
So how can we hold both? An important distinction needs to be made in the will of God. This distinction will also help to make sense of how we can believe in both predestination and free will. St. John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) explains:
Also one must bear in mind that God’s original wish was that all should be saved and come to His Kingdom. [1 Timothy 2:4] For it was not for punishment that He formed us but to share in His goodness, inasmuch as He is a good God. But inasmuch as He is a just God, His will is that sinners should suffer punishment.
The first then is called God’s antecedent will and pleasure, and springs from Himself, while the second is called God’s consequent will and permission, and has its origin in us. And the latter is two-fold; one part dealing with matters of guidance and training, and having in view our salvation, and the other being hopeless and leading to our utter punishment, as we said above. And this is the case with actions that are not left in our hands.
But of actions that are in our hands the good ones depend on His antecedent goodwill and pleasure, while the wicked ones depend neither on His antecedent nor on His consequent will, but are a concession to free-will. For that which is the result of compulsion has neither reason nor virtue in it.
To understand this distinction, imagine that you tell a child “if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding.” Your desire is that the child will obey you, eat the meat, and be rewarded with pudding. So your will, in an antecedent sense, is that he should get pudding. But if the child refuses to obey you, you’re not going to just give him pudding anyway. Now your will is that he shouldn’t get pudding. But notice: you didn’t actually change your mind, and the child didn’t overpower you (as he would have if he had disobeyed and still received pudding against your will). The whole time, your will was “if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding.” And whether he obeys and is rewarded or disobeys and is punished, that remains intact.
The same can be said of God, only instead of “if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding,” it would sound more like Ezekiel 18: “Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
God loves everyone but we can resist him.
How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.”
Christ “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now neither Catholics nor Calvinists believe that this verse means that God saves all men in the sense that everyone goes to Heaven, whether or not they believe. Something different is happening for “those who believe” than those who don’t. But the passage is also pretty clear that salvation extends to everyone, not just those who believe. How do we make sense of that? John 3:16-18 sheds more light on the matter:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
people can enter and leave either group (Ezekiel 18:20-32):
“The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
“But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness which he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does the same abominable things that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, he shall die.
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die for it; for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die. Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
http://shamelesspopery.com/salvation-of-the-damned/
Are you willing to let me change your mind? (Repent)
Paradox is something that seems contradictory we hold in tension.
Grace (are you willing to let me change your mind) ----Free will (yes/no decision)
God gives grace to agree to do his will by freeing our mind out of bondage to sin.
All he needs from us is a decision. All power is Him. We can resist.
God willed, with a genuine will that even after the sin of Adam all should be saved,
But in a way and with means suited to the condition of our nature; that is,
- He willed the salvation of all who would give consent to the graces and favours which He would prepare, offer, and distribute for this purpose.
- Now among those favours, He willed that the call be first, and that it be so tempered to our freedom that we at our good pleasure could accept or reject it.
- And to those whom He foresaw would accept, He willed to give the sacred movements of repentance;
- and to those who would follow those movements, He decreed to give holy love;
- and to those who would have love He planned to give the means needed to persevere;
- and to those who would use these divine helps, He decreed to give final perseverance and the glorious happiness of His eternal love.
God allows us to do evil
This is a test
We always have choices
The test shows your heart
Don’t let trust die
To show you your own self
He wants to have mercy but we must be humble
You must be willing to not despair over sin and humbly cry out for mercy.
Judas despaired Peter humbled himself.
The devil wants you to despair God wants you to be humble.
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.
Did Augustine believe in predestination?
But St Augustine went further than this: some men are predestined to exercise their Will to accept the offer of Grace and others are predestined to reject it. God, being omniscient, foresees, but does not determine who will accept His Grace and who will not.
