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

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Paul L. Manata © 2011
• Whatsoever happens in creation happens because God has decreed it.
• If God decrees that something occur, then it will certainly occur; it must occur
given the decree.
• God could have decreed otherwise than he did, in which case we would have
done otherwise (or maybe not even existed).
• God knows all that will happen in creation because God has decreed it to occur.
His knowledge here is based on his decree, and not vice versa.
• Though God decrees whatsoever comes to pass, man is responsible for his
actions.
• The ultimate source of our actions is God’s decree grounded in his will. God is
ultimately responsible for all that occurs (note a distinction: being ultimately
responsible for something does not necessarily imply that you are morally
culpable for that thing).
• Given God’s decree, we cannot do otherwise than he has decreed. Given
identical decrees, identical decreed results will always happen.
• This is a kind of determinism, a kind of necessity to our actions, but it is a
conditional necessity and not an absolute one.
• God executes his decree in history by his providential governing of all things to
their appointed ends. How he does this is not known but may be speculated on.
• Affirming determinism does not entail affirming a specific model of how God
makes sure whatsoever he has decreed comes to pass. Reformed believers are
free to develop and work out models so long as they are consistent with the