Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Reformed Theology - Analytic ...

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Paul L. Manata © 2011
to do is consult his plan. In fact, the decree is just another word for plan. If
something, anything, happens, then God decreed and planned that it happen.
Moreover, God ensures that everything he has decreed or planned will come
about by his governing all things to that end. And we note that according to the
decree of God, everything that happens comes to pass immutably. Clearly, then,
if God decrees that something will come to pass, it must come to pass. Given the
decree, things could not be otherwise than they are. As Turretin states,
Although men’s actions may be free (because done spontaneously and by
a previous judgment of reason), they do not cease to be necessary with
respect to the divine decree and foreknowledge. Now the foreknowledge
of God implies indeed the infallibility of futurition and of the event and the
necessity of consequence, and yet does not imply coaction or violence, nor
take away from the will its intrinsic liberty. 32
Thus, the decrees imply a kind of necessity about our actions, and yet we note
that man is not forced or coerced to do what he does, and he is morally
responsible for his actions.
Given these confessional commitments, B. B. Warfield could say, “God foreknows
only because he has pre-­‐determined,” and his foreknowledge “is at bottom a
knowledge of his own will, and his works of providence are merely the execution
of his all-­‐embracing plan,” for his will is “the real ultimate ground of future
events,” so that his decree can be seen as “predetermining every event that
comes to pass.” 33 Likewise, Thomas Boston writes,
Human Freedom (Wipf & Stock, 2000); and Kenneth Keathley, Salvation and
Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach (B&H Academic, 2010).
32 Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology (P&R, 1992), III.12.24, p. 211.
33 Fred Zaspel, The Theology of B. B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary (Crossway,
2010) p. 204.