Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will
Can a person choose to have faith? What does an individual contribute to his or her own salvation? Does God wait on the doorsteps of our hearts, quietly hoping to be let in when we decide to open the door? Or does he call us and pursue us in a way we can't resist? The debate between the irresistible call of God and a human being's free will has raged for centuries. So what is the answer? And why does it matter? In Willing to Believe, R. C. Sproul uncovers issues that provoked the Reformation and revived the controversy between Pelagius and Augustine. He carefully explores the relationship between original sin and human free will, clarifies misconceptions about the work of God in a believer's liberation from sin, illuminates the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, and offers compelling reasons to believe the work of salvation is in God's hands.
Publisher: Baker
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780801064128
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R. C. Sproul (1939-2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, an international Christian discipleship organization located near Orlando, Florida. He was also founding pastor of Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. His radio program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. Dr. Sproul contributed dozens of articles to national evangelical publications, spoke at conferences, churches, colleges, and seminaries around the world, and wrote more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone's a Theologian. He also served as general editor of the Reformation Study Bible.
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In "Willing to Believe", R.C. Sproul has done the church a service by tracing out in plain language and accessible format the historic debate over human free will and the sovereignty of God, particularly in salvation. What makes this book of particular value is that it is easily accessible to folks who would not normally pick up a tome of church history or historical theology, much less read the various works of theology and the biographies of each of the men covered by this book. Sproul has done the heavy lifting for us and has sifted and synthesized each view into an overall package that really holds the reader's interest. Rather than an in-depth systematic treatment of each perspective, Sproul hits the highlights and major points of each person's views, including just enough theological detail and direct quotes to get a decent feel for each man's stance on whether or not people are capable of participating in and cooperating with God in their own salvation. There is enough biographical detail on each of the men discussed to give insight into some of the influences on their thinking and we also see some of the practical implications of how their various positions worked themselves out in their lives and ministries. This is a great introduction to the debate over free will and the sovereignty of God in salvation. It will demonstrate for some that this historic and often heated debate is not a mere matter of semantics that can be dismissed as the unimportant argument of a few stuffy shirted theologians - this is important stuff that affects the way we worship, work and think. For others, it will encourage further study into the lives and works of those covered in this book. While some will wish for more detail at times, the book is meant as a brief overview of this running debate centered around some of its most well known participants. Caleb Bass