The Silent Holocron

Welcome to the latest installment of Beliefbusters! In this feature, we will examine popular beliefs, traditions, and “Christian myths” to see if there is any Scriptural warrant for us to believe them. Many of us have grown up with such beliefs, traditions, and myths that we held unquestioningly, never checking to see if the Bible actually taught these things. As a result, much of what the average Christian believes is actually un-Scriptural, and therefore un-Christian.

In this installment, we will take on the sacred cow of evangelicalism; namely, the myth of human “free will.”

What is “free will?”

Basically put, “free will” is the idea that our choices are freely made. That is, we are free to choose whatever we want to choose. The argument goes something like this: given two (or more) options, we are free to choose either (or any) of those options. This is called “libertarian free will,” or the power of contrary choice. I am free to choose an apple. In the same instance, I am also free to choose an orange instead. Bruce Ware, a professor at SBTS, states it this way: “In the same circumstances, I could choose otherwise than I did.”

Now, the more learned among my readers will no doubt want to nitpick this extremely rough and basic description of free will. Let me remind you this description is what is popularly heard in both the pews and in the populace, so let us use it as our starting point. In fact, let me take it a little bit further and get into the church part of the issue.

Often you will hear people and preachers say things like, “We all have free will. It is your decision to accept or reject Christ. You can decide to let Jesus save you, or to reject Him.”

Now, I’m going to stop short of saying this is a “lie from the pit of hell” — as astute readers will understand the first part of that last sentence truly is — so that we can focus on the second sentence, which is the core of the myth. The core issue is that fallen humanity has the ability to freely accept or freely reject the free gift of salvation in Christ. Where does this belief come from?

A General Origin of “Free Will”

It stems, primarily, from the Fall. As it is said, Adam and Eve had the power of free choice, and used that power unwisely. Even though they and their descendants were forever tainted by sin, they retained this power, as evidenced by texts such as Joshua 24:15 (“Choose this day whom you will serve…As for me and my house…etc.”), Proverbs 1:29 (“they…did not choose the fear of the Lord”), and Isaiah 7:15-16 (a young child learning to reject evil and choose good). The most compelling text is the text where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem (pay attention to the underlined part):

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matthew 23:37)

So, the proponents of this myth say, we have the ability (that is, of our own power and mind) to accept or reject Christ. But is such a view biblical? Let us look at what Scripture actually has to say about our status as moral agents.

The Biblical View

First of all, Adam and Eve were not free to do as they wanted. To say otherwise is at best naive and at worst a falsehood. Adam and Eve were, if you’ll remember, under a command from God not to eat from the forbidden tree. In no way does this make them “free” in the sense most people mean by “free will.” If you are under the authority of another, the only freedom you have is that which is given to you. In fact, this is blatantly stated as such in Genesis 2:16-17 and 3:2-3. Adam and Eve were free only to the degree that God allowed, and as such were not free to do as they pleased. In transgressing that boundary, severe consequences resulted.

Let’s try this from a different angle. Do children have the freedom to do whatever they want? Of course not! Children are only free to the degree their parents allow them to be. Crossing parental boundaries are (or ought to be, anyway) met with retribution.

Second, the Fall did something to us that we cannot undo. In my post on original sin, I looked at exactly what happened to humanity when Adam and Eve sinned. When they fell, everyone since has been born with a tendency to sin. The New Testament makes very clear that this tendency is nothing more than enslavement. Indeed, in John 8:34 Jesus himself said it clearly: “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”

Paul picks up on Christ’s line of thought and expands on it:

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (Romans 6:15-22)

And again in 1 Corinthians 7:21-23:

Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.

Each of these three passages illustrate our fundamental state after the Fall – we are slaves to sin. If there ever was a time when humanity was “free to choose” (and I argue there never was such a time), that freedom has been forever lost. Remember, we are fallen. As such, we are most certainly not free to choose. Think for a moment about slaves. Do slaves have the ability to do otherwise than their bonds dictate? Certainly not! They must operate within the confines of their bondage, or face severe consequences.

A slave is not free to disobey his master, nor is a slave free to change masters whenever he wants. The popular view of free will (and even the more sophisticated one of “libertarian free will”) would have us believe that a slave can freely change masters! This is an absurdity. Instead, a slave is only free insofar as the choices made are consistent with his bondage, and insofar as the choices made do not require the slave to step outside of that bondage.

Sin will not allow us to choose righteousness. This is why Scripture says our works are as filthy rags before God – any works of righteousness done apart from Christ are, quite simply, self-serving; and self-serving actions are sinful! This is why we can never choose Christ on our own – it would be tantamount to becoming a runaway slave. We would still belong to to sin, which means we are still damned to hell! Instead, as slaves we must live in obedience to our master, be set free by our master, or bought by a new master.

As you can see in this brief look, on the “lost” side of salvation there is no Scriptural possibility of us having the freedom in and of ourselves to accept or reject Christ. In and of itself, this basic evidence alone should be enough to bust the myth of human free will, but we need to look at this from all angles before it can be declared busted.

Let’s stop here for the evening so that we can digest what we’ve read. Next time we’ll finish our examination of this myth by looking at the other angle, slavery to Christ.

Welcome to the first ever Beliefbusters! In this feature, we will examine popular beliefs, traditions, and “Christian myths” to see if there is any Scriptural warrant for us to believe them. Many of us have grown up with such beliefs, traditions, and myths that we held unquestioningly, never checking to see if the Bible actually taught these things. As a result, much of what the average Christian believes is actually un-Scriptural, and therefore un-Christian.

Today we will look at a very popular and unquestioned belief, namely:

Lucifer is Satan

What is this belief? Well, quite simply, it is the belief that the Lucifer of the Bible is a name for the devil, Satan. Some say that it is even “his original name before he fell from heaven.” As the story goes, Lucifer was the chief of the archangels in heaven, until in his pride he tried to dethrone God. Lucifer got a third of the angels to side with him against God Almighty, and he and his ilk were cast out of heaven to the earthly realms, where he roams to this day until the judgment. But is such a belief biblical? Let’s examine the Scripture.

The only instance of the word (not merely the name) “lucifer” occurs in Isaiah 14:12 in the King James Version:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Interestingly, the KJV is the only translation in which it occurs. It also occurs in the New King James. Why is that? Because the KJV translators did not translate the Old Testament exclusively from the Hebrew, but adjusted their translations to fit the Greek Septuagint (LXX, or the Hebrew Scriptures in Greek) or the Latin Vulgate. This was usually done to conform to Christian tradition or when the then-more familiar Vulgate was deemed appropriate. Most modern translations do not contain these Latinized forms of Scripture, translating the actual meaning of the Hebrew words.

This is not to disparage the KJV, for “lucifer” actually is a Latin translation of the Hebrew here. Here’s the verse as it appears in the New American Standard Bible (NASB):

How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!

This literal translation shows us what the Hebrew actually says. “Lucifer” in Latin means light-bearer. In Roman poetry, “lucifer” was used often to signify “morning star” (or “star of the morning,” above), and it often was the name given to the planet Venus. So “Lucifer” is an appropriate Latin translation.

Now, we must ask the question, who is the “morning star” of this verse? Context is king here, so let’s expand the context to the 14th chapter of Isaiah, beginning with verse 4:

You will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution. The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’ Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities,who did not let his prisoners go home?’ All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named! Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.”

Whew, that was a long quote.

We can see from the context of this passage that the name “Lucifer” does not in fact refer to Satan, but to the king of Babylon. What is interesting is that most Jewish theologians do not attribute this name to Satan, but correctly attribute it to the king of Babylon as a play on an honorific title. So where do we get the idea that Lucifer is equated with Satan?

Read more…

Most of my readers likely have seen the fantastic Discovery Channel show Mythbusters. The premise of the show is the Mythbusters team takes on popular beliefs, urban legends, and myths and attempts to show whether or not the myths are true. This has made for one of the most informative and fun-filled television shows around. For several months I have been toying with the idea of doing a similar feature here at The Silent Holocron that I will call Beliefbusters.

Beliefbusters was inspired in part by learning, for the first time, that a belief I had held unquestionably was nowhere to be found in Scripture. This experience led to a critical examination of many of the things I had “grown up” (in 16 years as a Christian) believing, and finding the vast majority of them to be without Biblical warrant. Purging many of these popular beliefs, traditions, and outright “Christian myths” left me with only Scripture and my seminary education to fall back on. You see, for most of my seven years at SBTS I had simply cruised in an “absorb the knowledge” mode, rather than applying all I had learned. Then about one or two years into being an associate pastor at my church I began to see the links between what I believed and what I practiced. Slowly I began to learn to apply the training in hermeneutics and interpretation I had received. I began to merge together the information I had learned from my classes with the Christianity I had carried into seminary. The results have in some cases been jaw-dropping for me. All of the results have resulted in a much greater appreciation for what it means to “stick to Scripture.” And I hope every result has been glorifying to God.

This feature is not an “if-you-don’t-believe-this-you’re-going-to-hell” type of series. Nor is it intended to be argumentative and contrarian. If something that I write about in this feature offends you, I encourage you to let me know privately at the e-mail address referenced in my About page. If you’d like to dialogue on something I’ve written, or simply think I’m wrong, then I greatly encourage you to leave a comment so we can continue the discussion and let “iron sharpen iron” (Proverbs 27:17). If you attempt to use what I’ve written to attack me personally, you will quite simply be ignored. This is a place for brothers and sisters to come together to improve each other in the faith, not to tear down the body!

I would like to encourage my readers to let me know of “Christian myths” they would like to see examined in this feature. Any and all submissions will be considered. Again, you may send your submissions to the email address on the “About” page.

Now, tomorrow we will take a look at the first belief in this feature: Lucifer is Satan.