“THE DOCTRINE OF FREE AGENCY EXAMINED”
( - Continued)

To present this proposition even more plainly the reader’s careful attention is now invited to the following verses of Scripture from the eighth chapter of the book of Romans: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you,”

Here are two classes of people spoken of, they that are after the flesh, and they that are after the Spirit. The difference between the two, as evidenced by verse nine is, they that are after the Spirit have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, and they that are after the flesh do not. They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh. They do not mind the things of the Spirit because their carnal mind, which means the mind of the flesh, is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

They obviously are not free agents. This is not because there is a written law against them pleasing God, but because they have not the Spirit, they are without Spiritual life and therefore have neither the ability, nor the capacity nor the desire to do so.

FLESH                                            SPIRIT

They that are after the flesh do                   But they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the flesh;                                      the things of the Spirit.                    

            But to be carnally minded is                       But to be Spiritually minded is  

            enmity against God, for it is not                  life and peace.

            subject to the law of God,                         But ye are not in the flesh, but

            neither indeed can be.                                In the Spirit, if so be that the

            So then they that are in the flesh                 Spirit of God dwell in you.

            cannot please God.

            Now if these texts do not mean what they say, what do they mean? I am interested in knowing what a man, living in the condition described on the left side of the line, can do in order to get over into the condition described on the right side. I take the position that there is nothing he can do. Again, this is not because there is a written law against it, but because he has neither the desire nor ability to do it. According to Paul, the man on the left is in the flesh and he minds the things of the flesh. He has only a carnal mind, it is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be. He is spiritually dead. He therefore cannot please God. The man that is after the flesh does not mind things of the Spirit.

            On the right side, it is those who are after the Spirit who mind the things of the Spirit. But they have the Spirit of God dwelling in them and they are alive and at peace with God. So the difference in the two is, they that are after the Spirit have the Spirit dwelling in them. They that are after the flesh do not.

            Again I ask” What can they that are after the flesh do in order to be saved, their carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be and they cannot please God?” I submitted this proposition to a black employee of mine one time and gave him a long period of time in which to prepare an answer. When I finally called on for an answer he said, “Mr. Glen, there just simply isn’t anything he can do to be saved, the Lord can save him and he is the only One that can.” In my opinion, this man, in so saying, told a very basic, yet plain and simple truth. And, if this is the truth the doctrine of free Agency is a nullity.

            I am aware of the fact that, as an objection to this proposition it will be argued by some that to be in the flesh simply means to live after the flesh as mentioned in verse 13 of Romans 8. But this objection does not seem valid. In fact, a careful examination of verse 13, rather than overthrowing my position will only confirm it.

I have already stated that a child of God, with the spirit dwelling in him can exercise in either the realm of nature or spirit, but that the person without the spirit can exercise only in the realm of nature. Verse 13 reads: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Only a person who has the spirit could mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit. This, therefore, does not have reference to those who are in the flesh and have not the Spirit.

In verse 5, the apostle is writing of the condition of man, but in verse 13 he is cautioning the Roman Church as to the perpetuation and enjoyment of their church life. One has but to notice the difference in the two parties under consideration in the two verses to see that they are different people and different subjects under consideration. Verse 5 speaks of “They that are in the flesh” – third person, plural – while verse 13 says, “For if ye live after the flesh” – second person, plural. Two different peoples under consideration. Verse 5 embraces all who have not the spirit, but verse 13 primarily embraces the church at Rome and warns them that if they live after the flesh they will die as a church, but if they live after the spirit they will continue to live as a church. This is in perfect harmony with the doctrine herein set forth.

I have written at length on this point because I consider it absolutely necessary that one dismiss the idea of free Agency before he can understand Predestination. I now copy Articles seven and eight of the Articles of Religion of one of the largest and most prominent Protestant Denominations in the world, as published in 1948 by their Council of Bishops over the signatures of James C. Baker, President; Ivan Lee Holt, Vice-President; and G. Bromley Oxnam, Secretary:

VII

Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually. 

VIII 

The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that will.

Thus, we see that these great Bible Scholars do not believe that men is a Free Moral Agent, but rather they seem to agree with Paul that they that are after the flesh cannot please God.

Even though he embraces what I believe were radical religious errors, Alexander Campbell was one of the greatest scholars I have ever read after. I try to never speak of him except in a complimentary manner. In 1829 Campbell held a debate with Robert Owen, an unbeliever, and from page 489 of that debate I now copy as follows:

“Mr. Campbell rose and said – ‘There is no metaphysical subterfuge in me.  I contend that I have met the position fairly. The clause I object to is this” ‘That belief in no case depends on the will’.”

“Mr. Owen – “Well, Gentlemen, I will bring this matter to a speedy instance wherein his belief depends on his will, I will give up the whole question’.”

(Here Mr. Owen waited some time for Mr. Campbell’s reply. Mr. Campbell could not then make any.)

With this final example we see that Free Will, or, if you prefer, Free Agency, even when pleaded by one of the greatest champions of them all, falls to the ground, and that before an infidel!

With only two or three Scripture citations to prove up our position we shall take leave of these unpleasant thoughts and turn to something better. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” Heb 11:6.  Unless it can be proven that all men have faith, it will have to be admitted again that there are some who CANNOT please God. Now, once more, what kind of a free moral agent is a person who cannot please God? The answer is simple. He is not a free moral agent at all. He is just a natural man, destitute of spiritual life and dead in sin.

Faith is a fruit of the Spirit, and unless and until the Spirit is planted in a person’s heart, that person will not, because he cannot, believe in God. So again, free Agency falls, and as long as Hebrews 11:6 is in the Bible, it will never be resurrected. God and God alone can give him the Spirit and elevate him to a state of Spiritual Life to where he can please God. “Without me you can do nothing,” says the Saviour in John, chapter 15.

He was talking to His disciples about them bearing fruit. Now, if they could not bear fruit without Christ, do you suppose the alien sinner can do any better? Do all men have Christ? Neither Billy Graham nor my young friend will argue that they do. It follows then that there are some who can do nothing in the sense of bearing fruit. What kind of free agents are they? The answer is simple: They are not free agents at all.

It is just this simple. ‘He that hath the Son hath life;” 1 John 5:12. “He that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” That is the reason he cannot bear fruit. Fruit is the evidence of life. On the other hand He that hath the Son of God hath life. What kind of life does he have? Verse 11 says Eternal Life.

We conclude then, that destitute of the Spirit man cannot turn to God, he cannot please God, neither can he bear fruit. But with the Spirit he is a child of God, he has eternal life and the Spirit is witnessing and testifying to that fact. Furthermore, if we do not believe this testimony we make God a liar, verse 10. Apparently, some do not believe it because they do not understand it. They seem to understand that without the Spirit man cannot turn to God, nor please God, but they do not understand that with the Spirit he is a child of God and already has eternal life. God, and He alone, can plant the Spirit in the heart of a person and give him Spiritual life.

The first thing God did to man naturally was to give him natural life. The first thing He does to man spiritually is He gives him Spiritual life. Thus, I believe I have fairly examined the doctrine of Free Moral Agency and if it does not now stand clearly refuted I readily confess that I do not know how to prove or disprove any proposition on earth. If this avalanche of testimony is not sufficient to convince a person, then I doubt that writing more would serve a very worthwhile purpose.

The New Birth Voice of the Lord

The 29th Psalm is all about the voice of the Lord. In verse 4 the psalmist states, "The ‘voice' of the Lord is powerful..." From the very beginning of the bible we see the power in God's voice manifest as he said, "Let there be light: and there was light." By simply speaking, God created the natural universe in which we live! Now that is power!

In contrast, the voice of man can either hurt or soothe the eardrum, but it cannot bring anything into existence. Only God's voice has the power to create.

God's voice gives life to the dead. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it was written that Jesus "cried with a loud ‘voice,' Lazarus come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes..." Jesus with his voice spake the name of Lazarus and he came forth from the dead. In 1 Thes. 4:16 we read about the resurrection of our bodies from the grave, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the ‘voice' of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Similarly this power of Jesus' voice in raising the dead bodies from the grave is written about in John 5:28, 29, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his ‘voice,' and shall come forth..." Thus we must conclude that the efficient cause of the resurrection of the dead bodies in the grave is the "voice" of the Son of God!

Before we are born of the Spirit of God (born again) the bible describes us as being dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). When we were dead in trespasses and sins we had no spiritual life. As God is the creator of all things, it is He who has "created us in Christ Jesus unto good works." This creation is the new birth. Please note, as follows, that it is the ‘voice' of the Son of God and not the voice of man that brings Spiritual life into the dead faculties of our heart and soul:

a. John 5:25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the ‘voice of the Son of God:' and they that hear shall live."
b. John 6:63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that ‘I speak' unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
c. John 10:16, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear ‘my voice;' and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."
d. John 10:27, 28, "My sheep hear ‘my voice' and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

To the above I make the following observations:

a. It is the "voice" of the Son of God that gives life to those who were before spiritually dead.

b. The flesh does not assist in giving spiritual life because "the flesh profiteth nothing." Thus the preacher, teacher, friend, or parent cannot give eternal life nor can my actions as a fleshly being help cause the new birth.

c. All those to whom the "voice" of the Son of God is spoken hear and are given eternal life.

d. All those that the Lord speaks life into are preserved from perishing.

Now we may ask ourselves the question, "Have I heard the voice of the Son of God and what did it sound like?" When Elijah the prophet fled from the wicked queen Jezebel, the Lord told him in 1 Kings 19:11 13, "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a ‘still small voice.' And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle..." A still voice would make no naturally audible sound.

Yet the still voice of the Lord is more powerful that the great wind, earthquake, and fire! God brings forth the new birth with a still small voice that our natural ears cannot hear. Yet we can know we have been born again by the evidences in our lives. This we shall address in another essay.
Finally we read in Is. 55:10, 11 of the certainty of the new birth to those to whom God speaks, "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." When God speaks his word into the dead faculties of the heart and soul, it does not return to God void, but it accomplishes what God pleases (the new birth) and it prospers in the thing whereto he sent it.

Praise God for his powerful still small voice that caused us to be born again.
 

The New Birth Love in the Heart

When God causes us to be born again several things happen to us. One of the things that happened to us is that God wrote his laws in our heart and our mind. Several verses of scripture point to this which we quote as follows:
A. Heb. 8:10, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people."
B. Heb. 10:16, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them."
C. II Cor. 3:3, "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."
D. Rom. 2:15, "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."

From the above scriptures several conclusions can be drawn. First, the laws of God are written into both the heart and the mind. Secondly, it is God who does the writing and not man. Thirdly, these laws written in our heart and mind serve as the basis or foundation for our covenant worship of God. The foundation of the law worship or service was the ten commandments written on two tables of stone. The foundation of our worship under the gospel is the laws of God written in our hearts and mind. Fourthly, these laws written in our heart and mind along with the conscience God gave us serve as the basis for the self examining courtroom of our heart and mind.

We may ask ourselves, "Just what laws did God write in our hearts and minds?" I Thes. 4:9 seems to be the key to answering this question, "But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another." Clearly God has taught us to love one another and not man. Clearly, this was a direct teaching from God to man without any intermediator (preacher). I John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Love for the brethren is a direct evidence of the new birth. Anyone who loves the brethren has been born again! Therefore, we know that God has written love into our hearts and mind in the new birth. Matt. 22:37 40 ties down for us that love toward God is to be manifest in our heart, soul, and mind, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Thus God writes these two great laws in our hearts and mind and as a result we are able to love God and our neighbor. Without these laws written in our hearts and mind we would be unable to love either God or our neighbor. James 2:8 says, "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well." Rom. 13:8 reads, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.  Finally, we read in Rom. 2:14, 15 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts. The basis of our love toward God and toward our neighbor is founded on the laws of love that God wrote in our hearts and mind when he caused us to be born again.

Seven Things God Cannot Do

Among the attributes and characteristics of God, there are seven things that the scriptures teach us that God cannot do. Because of these seven things the purposes, work, and promises of God are sure. Sometimes you will hear people say that God can do anything. Certainly he can do anything that he purposes or set out to do.

The first thing that God cannot do is lie. Tit. 1:2 "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Also, Heb. 6:17 "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." We can rejoice in the fact that God cannot lie. This makes the promises of God sure. God cannot promise to do something and then fail to do that which he promised. It simply is impossible for God to lie. Lying is not one of his attributes.

The second thing that God cannot do is change. Mal. 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Also, James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Because God cannot change, we know that he cannot change his nature. He cannot be something other than what he is. He cannot change his mind. He cannot change what he purposes to do. He cannot change his covenant of redemption.

The third thing that God cannot do is deny himself. By definition the word deny means to contradict, i.e. disavow, reject, abnegate:--deny, refuse. 2 Tim. 2:13 "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." God cannot contradict, disavow, or reject his own character, purpose, or works. God must act based on his sure characteristics and attributes. Also he cannot refute or disavow or reject his stated purposes or works.

The fourth thing that God cannot do is sin. Sin is defined as disobedience to the commandment. Two verses of scripture taken together show us the impossibility of God sinning. First, 1 John 3:9 "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." That seed that remaineth in him is said to be incorruptible as set forth in 1 Peter 1:23 "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Thus God has an incorruptible nature in which he is totally incapable of sinning.

The fifth thing that God cannot do is be tempted with evil. James 1:13 "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." Regardless of the evil that goes on in the world, Jesus Christ could not be tempted to do any of it. Satan tried to tempt him, the Pharisees tried to tempt him, the Sadducees tried to tempt him, the lawyers and scribes tried to tempt him, the Council and local government officials tried to tempt him, but he could not be tempted with evil. It is not in his nature to be tempted with evil.

The sixth and seventh things that God cannot do are stated in Is. 42:4 "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law." God cannot fail. Everything God sets forth to do he will do because he simply cannot fail. It is not in his nature to fail. It is just impossible for him to fail. Furthermore, he cannot be discouraged and give up. No task is so difficult for him that he will become discouraged and give the task up. He will accomplish his will always.

These seven things that God cannot do assure us of the certainty of every promise, purpose and work of God being fulfilled.

Elder Vernon Johnson