Human beings DO have free will and it started with the first 2 human beings. God gave them choice. Even this Calvinistic site (Got Questions?) agrees with me:
God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him or disobey Him. Adam and Eve were free to do anything they wanted, except eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” If God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have essentially been robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make decisions, able to choose between good and evil. In order for Adam and Eve to truly be free, they had to have a choice (
Why did God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden?).
The will of God is that all human beings have free will to make all kinds of choices in this world. I chose to eat ice-cream tonight for supper. I could have chosen not to eat it. I chose to watch TV rugby league today. I chose not to gamble on the horses last Saturday. I chose not to drink alcohol when I went to the tavern for lunch on Wed.
However, when it comes to worship of God and salvation, salvation is from the Lord. But human beings have choices in this regard, exemplified by verses such as:
14 ‘Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the River Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’
16 Then the people answered, ‘Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! (NIV, emphasis added).
- Acts 16:31 (NIV): '‘[You] believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’
God provides salvation that is available to all (Titus 2:11), but people have to choose to serve the Lord. This is not
Pelagianism, it is biblical Christianity.
Oz