12.06.2004
Wilson's comments on Free Will and WCF
So many of our theological fallacies come about because we place ourselves on the same level as God. But hopefully we have learned by now that, alas, we are not divine (Thank God).
By virtue of creation, mankind was given given a true and natural liberty with regard to all issues of good and evil. Adam, when he fell, was not coerced or dragged into that sin. The decree which God had given concerning the fall of man did not "force" Adam to sin, and neither had God implanted within Adam any program of internal coercion. Now how can a non-coercive decree be a sovereign decree? The answer to the question resides in the fact that the "causal agent" in the sovereign decrees does not inhabit the same "universe" as the thing caused. If it did, then the causation on the one hand displaces responsibility on the other. In other words, God is to the universe what Shakespeare is to Macbeth, and not what Lady Macbeth is to Macbeth. Put another way, God's relation to the universe is unlike every causal situation in the world that we know. Consequently, it is a category mistake of the first order to try to compare the two different kinds of causation.
So many of our theological fallacies come about because we place ourselves on the same level as God. But hopefully we have learned by now that, alas, we are not divine (Thank God).
