This concept of free will is the product of a human thought and not Scripture. Note: a few definitions of the word "free will":
noun
- the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion.
2. the ability to be self determinate.
3. to exercise ones desires without constraint.
Man possesses the ability to exercise his/her desires BUT not without constraint and man cannot be said to be self determinate. Only God is self determinate. He does as He pleases and He is His own counsel. What God desires that He does. If man had a "free will", then man would be as god. We would not be subject to God's authority or constraints. Only God is self determinate.
Man's will is constrained in many ways:
1) By his own nature. The "will" cannot act contrary to ones own nature. Please read
post #254 for more on this.
2) By providential constraints - such as weather, natural calamity, man-made calamity, and diseases. Ex... Your "will" cannot will you out of these types of constraints. You may choose another path of action because of these constraints but your original choice was altered by them. Only God is above these constraints. He would simply alter them to His will. This is why Scripture says: That God is in control of His Providential Government and we are subject too it.
3) By financial constraints - one cannot choose something that is above their means to purchase or obtain it. I may dream of having a Lear Jet but my "will" will not make it happen. I might determine to have this Jet but my lack of finances is the ultimate determiner. Therefore, my "will" is subject to the financial determiner and it would not make commonsense for me to choose this coarse of action knowing it cannot happen.
I hope you understand what I am getting at here. We as a creation are not self determinate. Ultimately, God is the only one "FREE" to carry out His desires and these desires were in the mind of God from the beginning.
Too believe in self determination - free will - is to make oneself as a god. To be equal with God. This is not only heresy of the worst kind but denies every precept of Holy Scripture. For Scripture says: Man's nature, apart from the "Regenerating" work of the Spirit, is "darkness' and his "will" is towards the things of darkness. Darkness does not choose light. (John 1:5 & 3:19; 2 Cor. 6:14; Col. 3:6,7).
Free-willest argue - that God would not force upon a person something he/she did not choose but yet they miss the point. The "will" of the believer WILL, at the appropriate time, CHOOSE Christ and indeed must do so in order to have Salvation. However, there must be a work of Grace in that ones heart in order to bring about this choice. God often and does alter a persons desires. The heart. The seat of man's desires.
Exo_10:20 But
Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
Deu_30:6 And
Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed,
to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Pro 21:1 The king's
heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses: He turns it whithersoever he will.
Isa 45:5 I am Jehovah, and there is none else; besides me there is no God.
I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me;
Isa 45:6 that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides me: I am Jehovah, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create calamity. I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things.
Isa 45:8 Distil, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, that it may bring forth salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up together;
I, Jehovah, have created it.
Isa 45:9
Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth!
Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What are you making? or thy work, He has no hands?
Isa 45:10
Woe unto him that says unto a father, What are you begetting? or to a woman, With what are you travailing?