The free will of Adamkind has not been free since the first decree that God gave them. "Thou shalt not…" restricted Adam and Eve as to what they could or could not do in the Garden. The significance of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil' was known only to God, so the temptation presented itself to know what God knew. The original sin was believing that they would be as gods and not believing they would die (or lose their immortality) for the trespass. Having trespassed the decree, they realized they were naked as jaybirds for what they did and thus helplessly exposed for their crime. Genesis 3:7 reports that they put fig leaves together as a cover-up or apron. This expression is as figurative as the language in I Peter 1:13, "Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind." In other words, we are being told to gird up or bind, as with a belt (and thus securing) our full mental capacity. This girding is in context to a soldier putting on protective armor. So we can see that from the get-go of our race, that mortal man must equip his mind with the proper protection. However, this symbolic apron does not protect mankind from the judgment of God any more than the aprons of Freemasonry or Mormonism. It is a cover-up or mask that tells us that the action was of our own free will. Thus begins the history of mankind wearing a self righteous mask of protection. Of course, this is just the opposite of putting on "the whole armor of God" that we read about in Ephesians chapter 6.
The masquerade has been the sovereign free will of man in contradistinction to the sovereign will of God. This inevitable conflict begs the question as to who is in charge. God or man? This reverts back to the sin in the Garden. The masquerade of man's free will does not say you will be equal to God, it says you shall be above God, because it is a clash of sovereignties or wills. A self-evident truth is that the Creator is always greater than his creation. Free will puts forth the notion that there is no power outside of ourselves (including God) causing us to choose a course of action. It says that God does not determine a person's choice. The Big Question is: What is it that causes man to make his choices? That is the fundamental issue in understanding free will. It's not whether or not man wills, but rather whether God determines that will. It's whether or not man or God was the ultimate cause of that choice.
If God created Adamkind with a sovereign free will, then He has created something greater than Himself. God would then be without control over His own creation. Do you think free will had anything to do with the race you were born into? Hardly! Do you think your ancestry has any effect on the choices you make? Most assuredly! If free will had anything to do with our own birth, then our ancestry would be meaningless. However, there is a meaning to life in God's Plan for the Ages.
The Word of God can be viewed as a book of cause and effect. The first of the Ten Commandments states, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." And yet we can see from the very beginning of Adamkind, man superimposed his will over God's will and assumed the masquerade of sovereignty. Obviously, we cannot make God null and void as a factor affecting our being born into the world, although many pretend that that is the case. Our wills are constantly being influenced from cradle to grave. The question is: do we acknowledge the influence of God to do His will or do we believe we can be as God with our own will? One can pick and choose Bible verses which would imply man has a free will to act upon a decision. Probably one of the best known passages is Joshua 24:15, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve"; but we shouldn't forget the last phrase, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." In other words, our choice corresponds to the will of God not our own.
But what happens when one chooses something above the will of God? Is God still in control? If we balance scripture implying the free will of man with scripture promulgating God's will on earth, then the answer is certainly yes. God is always in control. We are told that the God of Creation declares, "The end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" Isaiah 46:10. This not only suggests the Word of prophecy, but establishes predestination. All prophecy proves the divine destiny of God's will and control of His Plan for the Ages. We can then make the logical conclusion that free will and predestination are mutually exclusive precepts. One must be right and the other wrong.
If God foreknows all things then how can anyone deny that He also predestinates all things? The truth of the matter is that we do not deny man making choices or having a will. The truth is found in what causes man to make the choices he does. If there was no tree in the Garden, there would have been no choice for Adam to make. It's not whether we choose to do something or not, but whether God determines that choice. Is man or God the ultimate cause of that choice?
Let me pose an example. You are now reading this message. Why are you spending time on it? Why aren't you watching TV or out fishing? Why are you on this page while other people are not? You might respond that you wanted to be here or it was your desire or that you chose to be here of your own free will. And I'd say, "Sure, but who or what caused your will to decide to be here right now?" We can find a precise answer to this question in Philipians 2:12, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." There you have it: God determines our will and actions.
When Billy Graham beckons his followers to his "altar calls" and tells his audience not to pray for those coming forward, because they have to accept Christ of their own free will and at that point in their lives not even God could help them, then Graham is contradicting the cause of one becoming a Christian. He is telling them to put on the mask of free will and to forget John 15:16, "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." The will and desire to follow Christ emanates from the independent mind of man being prompted by the Masonic tempter Graham, rather than the auspices of God.
How can any of us in our carnal minds initiate the will to subject ourselves to God? "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can be" Romans 8:7. You see, sin entered the world and God's Plan for the Ages was for man to acknowledge his fall from grace (immortality) and his need to be free from the illusion of self will. This means surrendering our will to the will of God. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, not the will power of self. When we think we make the initial decision to know God, we, in essence, trespass against God to be as God, because we have meritoriously taken grace upon ourselves without sanction. People try to face God with a vicarious mask of piety, which is nothing more than a shallow attempt at self righteousness. Perhaps, we can see more clearly why the Israelites would not face God at Sinai after their naked shame of building a golden calf. We can only face God with the mask off and humbly repentant.
Jesus clarified the order in which man is saved and it doesn't begin with our will. "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" Mt. 11:27. In other words, it is Christ that reveals God to us, not our own artificial penchants for personal discovery. "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him" John 6:44. How can any man be right about anything if it doesn't correspond to the righteousness of the Lord? Repentance then corresponds to what God has decreed right or wrong. We don't change from carnality to holiness through free will, but rather through the agency of divine righteousness. "Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Romans 2:4. Again, Paul tells us, "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" II Timothy 2:25.
These scriptures prove that salvation does not come by our free will, but rather God's grace (unmerited favor). The only thing we can do about salvation is a response to God's gift of grace, which initiates the desire within and causes us to repent and have faith. This process works through the Holy Spirit, which is to say God's separation of man's motivations from His own motives. The motivation from God will cause you to do what is right. Self motivation will cause you to err.
We must always come back to the question of who is in control, who has the power and real authority? Are we to believe Billy Graham, who thinks your free will can overrule God? This is the gall of pride waxing the mystery of iniquity to a shine. Man may claim free will, but their ignorance of history reflects the invisible stream of Providence according to God's Plan for the Ages. And what pray tell is that Plan to the man who places free will on the throne of our hearts and minds instead of God? "What? Know ye not that your body [heart and mind] is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Cor. 6:20. Who sits on your throne in your temple? If you think you have free will, then you do and you've just dethroned God.
Apostasy is part of God's Plan. "Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed… who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God… so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" II Thes. 2:3-4. Don't be deceived into thinking that the "man of sin" is not a plurality of mankind that violates the first commandment and is just a singular individual. And don't think that God can't deceive or incorporate "strong delusion" (II Thes. 2:11) for those who reject the truth and believe a lie, because it is within God's power to do so. The incredible irony is that the masquerade of free will is necessary for the Plan of God to be revealed. You may be wondering why God would keep people in ignorance of His Divine Plan. It's so they can fulfill their predestinated roles, thinking they have free will while carrying out their part of the Plan.
The illusion of man's government was a mystery until it was revealed in the Word. Had certain men known that they really didn't have free will, they then would have ruined God's Plan of salvation. "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained [predestined] before the world unto our glory. Which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord in glory" I Cor. 2:7-8.
This message may be incomprehensible to the usual suspects as, "The natural [carnal] man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" I Cor. 2:14. And here's the kicker, "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" I Cor. 2:10. Some people won't have a clue about this message: some people just don't get it. As a matter of biblical fact, the spiritually immature (even neophyte Christians) will struggle to understand the illusion of free will. It may come as a surprise to some, but God foreordains our thoughts and our choices. "The preparations [plans] of the heart of man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord" Prov. 16:1. That means that the aprons of fig leaves and the whole armor of God are both under His control.
If God is unable to foreknow what course of action men may take, then God must be without knowledge of the future. He would be limited to knowledge incrementally as it happened… so you can forget about His "omniscience". Fortunately, that is not the case, because the "testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10) i.e. the motive of predestination. Jesus was our example to pray and witness to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (the White/Adamic race of Creation). We are an instrument of God's methodology, as no other people, to bring forth the fruits of His Kingdom. We are being used in a mighty way to accomplish His Plan and purposes upon the earth.
But, we must learn the difference between God's will and free will or self will in order to advance His Kingdom. The motive behind free will is the impediment which we must overcome and conquer. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" Eph. 2:10.
Now that God has put salvation out of my control through self will and put it rightly under the control of His, I can rest in His Spirit before His throne all the days of my life. And the Lord's Prayer will not be spoken in vain: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
