FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 3, January 17, 2008

. . .Thou hast worked wonders, plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness, Isaiah 25:1.

Einstein, Edwards, And The Freedom Of The Will

In his book entitled Einstein: His Life and Universe, author Walter Isaacson has an interesting chapter on Einstein’s view of God. Among Albert Einstein’s most remarkable traits were his imagination (at age 16 he imagined what it would be like to ride alongside a beam of light, which eventually led him 10 years later to his theory of relativity) and his profound humility. Humility came from what he observed in the cosmos, a remarkable order and vastness which screamed out the existence of God. Isaacson is quick to point out, however, that Einstein, though believing in the historical Jesus as the gospels portray Him, was a Deist, following in the line of Spinoza. He believed in an impersonal god who simply created all things and left them to fall out by natural causes. In this sense Einstein was following the lead of Sir Isaac Newton who noted the mechanical nature of the universe. Einstein took the mechanized order of creation a step further. In an interview with George Sylvester Viereck he said, “I am a determinist. I do not believe in free will.” His opponents challenged him by arguing that determinism, if true, would mean man has no reason to pursue morality, to be kind or gracious to anyone. Einstein would not back down from determinism, but he did say that man ought to act as if morality mattered because this would make the world a more tolerable place to be.

Jonathan Edwards, on the other hand, by the early 1740’s in New England had become very concerned with the modern idea of freedom of the will. He called it “almost inconceivably pernicious.” The 17th century mathematician and philosopher, Rene Descartes, spoke of man as a philosophical entity, an individual; and John Locke developed rules by which man could evaluate his conduct, developing the notion of man’s self-responsible independence.* What really concerned Edwards was the prevailing nation that man is free or sovereign, apart from God, to make his own decisions. This means that man is not responsible to a higher being. He is only responsible to himself.

So, in response to this growing modern thought, Jonathan Edwards took up his pen at Stockbridge, MA in August, 1752 (the desk on which he wrote the treatise is still in the basement of the public library in Stockbridge) and wrote A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of That Freedom of the Will, Which Is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame. Contrary to what many have thought, Edwards is not denying freedom of the will. In fact he lays down unequivocably the notion that man is a free, moral agent, that he is totally responsible for all his actions, that he makes decisions every day. He is not addressing man’s total inability to believe the gospel without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. He fully embraces that theological truth. What Edwards is against is the modern notion that man’s free will is sovereign, that man makes decisions wholly without influence of anyone or anything. Edwards believed that such thinking, if it gained control of the western mind, would lead to what we certainly now have- a society ruled by self-worship, self-image, self-actualization. Edwards, in true Calvinistic fashion, believed that God is personal, sovereign, eternal; and this means absolutely nothing happens apart from His predetermined plan. He taught that God sets the natural world in motion according to natural laws and sometimes intervenes through miracles, but God governs people through moral necessity, giving them real freedom to make real choices. At the end of the day, however, our real choices are under the control of a sovereign God who directs all things according to His predetermined plan.

So both Albert Einstein and Jonathan Edwards were determinists, denying aspects of the freedom of the will, but doing so in vastly different ways. For Einstein, who could not deny the order of the universe, a mechanized universe must mean a mechanized humanity- no freedom of the will at all. Morality was only a good idea, but not necessary. Thus man is not accountable to this impersonal god. Edwards, on the other hand, said that behind the sovereign, foreordained plan of an eternal God is love, grace, and mercy. God permits evil, according to His foreordained plan, ultimately to manifest His love. God permits a man to decide to drink and drive. A man who loses his wife and four children in an automobile accident perpetrated by a drunk driver, cannot see God’s love in this predetermined plan. That’s because man is limited by time and space, and cannot see all things at once as God does. Man must wait until eternity to see the big picture of God’s loving, gracious plan.

So what does this mean for us? The tendency is for people to err in one of two ways concerning God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. On the one hand they become determinists, fatalists and say, “I am not responsible for my sin. I am predetermined to sin. I am foreordained to hell. There is nothing I can do so I might as well live as I want.” Some say, “The notion of a sovereign God who foreordains all things while holding man accountable for his sin which he cannot help but do, is ludicrous and criminal. I will have nothing to do with this god.” On the other hand some tend toward becoming de facto licentious atheists. They live as though there is no God, that they are not accountable to Him, that they are completely free to do as they wish, that there is no One directing or guiding their lives, that they are completely alone in the universe, that they must “make it happen.” The first view leads to fatalism which brings despair and depression; and the second leads to self-actualization which brings pride and arrogance.

Admittedly the duel doctrines of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are an antinomy (an apparent contradiction) and we are unable to fathom the depths of this mystery. However a healthy embrace and submission to these doctrines will make sense of living in this fallen and suffering world. God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, but this is not determinism or fatalism. Man is free to make his own decisions but this is a freedom under the loving, gracious wisdom of God who allows evil so that He can make known His love in due time. The determinism of Einstein leads to Deism and an impersonal god who takes no interest in us. The Calvinism of Edwards yields a healthy balance of human responsibility tempered by the truth of a sovereign, personal, loving God who directs and disposes all things for His glory, who brings good from every situation man chooses, according to His power which works within His people.

* George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards was helpful here.

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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