God Controls and Occasionally Violates Human Free Will

Many people hold as non-negotiable truth that God can never violate human free will. Where this doctrine comes from, I’m not sure. Not the Bible, anyway. Where in the Bible does it teach that Man’s free will is sovereign? That it is the one thing in the universe over which God has no control? Show me that verse. This is a logical and philosophical assumption that does not arise from actual exegesis of specific passages of Scripture.

Let me point out a couple passages (out of many) that contradict this idea that God doesn’t control or violate human free will.

First, consider 1 Samuel 2:25.  Eli is High Priest of Israel.  Hophni and Phinehas, his sons, are also priests of the LORD — in name only.  In reality, they blatantly violate God’s sacrificial laws, thus polluting the worship of God, and they even commit immorality with women in the tabernacle.  Eli warns his sons, telling them that there can be no intercession for those who sin against the LORD.  The text then states, “But they would not listen to the voice of their father” and gives the reason for their refusal to heed his warning and repent.  What reason is given for their obstinate refusal to repent?  Interestingly, it has nothing to do with their own desires and decisions.  Here’s what the text says: “But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.”  God wanted to kill them, therefore they refused to repent.  Does this mean they were forced to sin against their wills?  No.  As far as they were concerned, they sinned because they wanted to sin — because they liked sinning.  They were not conscious of any external control over their desires and decisions.  Yet the inspired text makes it clear that God was in control of their desires and decisions.  Not just that he foresaw what they would do, but that his desire to kill them was the cause of their own desire to keep sinning.  I don’t see how anyone can read this text honestly without concluding that God is in control of the human will.  If they had repented, God would have forgiven them.  But God did not want to forgive them.  He wanted to kill them.  Therefore, they didn’t listen to their father’s warning.

A text like 1 Samuel 2 shows that God is in control of human desires and decisions, but it does not show that God violates human will.  In the above text, God is working in and through the evil priests’ natural desires and inclinations.  He controlled their will, but he didn’t force them to do anything against their will.  They sinned because they wanted to sin, yet God was directing their desires.  In general, this is how it is.  Whatever you or I do, we do because we want to do it.  We are not aware of being controlled by anyone.  We freely choose whatever we think will give us the greatest pleasure or avoid the greatest pain.  In that sense, we do have free will.  We do what we want to do.  I’m not a helpless victim stuck in a body that is being manipulated by someone else.  I am making real choices and following my own desires.  Yet, as the above passage shows, God is in ultimate control, even of my own desires and choices.

If that’s how it always works, then we could still say that God never violates man’s free will, he just works with or in or through man’s natural desires.  And this is how God normally works.  But does that mean that God is not allowed to violate man’s will?  Is man’s will out of bounds to God?

Consider 1 Samuel 19:18-24.  Saul hates David.  He’s full of jealousy and wants to capture and kill David.  So he sends a group of “messengers” to go get David and bring him back.  David is staying with the prophet Samuel in Naioth.  When the group of thugs come to where Samuel is, the text says that “the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.”  Apparently they don’t go back to Saul, so he sends a second group of thugs to capture David.  The same thing happens.  And a third group.  Same result.  Finally, Saul says, “If you want a job done right, you’ve got to do it yourself” (not actually in the text), and goes to Naioth himself to get David.  Here’s what happens: “And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.  And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night.”  David escapes while Saul is prophesying naked on the ground all night.  Now do you honestly think that Saul wanted to prophesy naked on the ground all night?  That’s not what he intended to do when he came to Naioth, and neither did any of the groups of thugs he sent.  Their desire was to capture David, but when the Spirit of God came upon them, they stripped naked and started prophesying instead.  Nakedness was a very shameful thing in their culture.  I think it’s a good bet they didn’t want to do what they did.  I think the Spirit of God made them do it totally against their wills.  I think they were embarrassed, ashamed, and angry when they came to themselves again.

So while God usually controls events by working in and through man’s natural desires, that does not mean he isn’t allowed to violate man’s will when he chooses to.  I think it’s very rare that he does this, but he can and will do it when he wants to.  Man’s will is not sovereign.  God is sovereign.  He does whatever he pleases, and no one can say to him, “What do you think you’re doing?”  He can create and destroy as he sees fit.  He can save and kill according to his desire.  He can leave men to follow their natural inclinations or make them do things they don’t want to do, according to his plan.  He does whatever he wants.  He’s God.