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Chosen But Free: A Balanced View of God's Sovereignty and Free Will
1 pages, Audio CD
Published December 31, 2024
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February 7, 2026
"God knowingly predetermined, and pre-determinately knows from all eternity"
"False doctrine leads to false deeds"
"Extreme views of any kind have extreme consequences"
As a young man and believer looking to the faith of my mother, I recall the first time studying the puritans and it including the study of prominent hyper-calvinist doctrines held my Ames, Edwards, and others. The perspective that we are dependently bound to the will of God and must be regenerated first in order to believe or respond to Him, and yet He willingly does not save all people, who cannot respond without Him, yet still sends them to hell, filled me with disgust. Especially considering His election of grace on those who He chooses is "irresistible". I simply passed it off as foolishness.
For most of my life, calvinism has been one in the same with heresy and pure evil. When I studied Islam in my university years after receiving my own faith in the God of Scripture, I found it to be the same god-rationale as hyper-calvinists. Geisler indeed came to a similar conclusion with his stating surah 32:13:
"Had we {allah} so willed we'd have certainly brought every soul its true guidance. But the word from me will come to pass: I will fill hell with jinn and men all together."
Following that time, I came to the conclusion that if I was not a calvinist, then I was an arminian. However, further surveys of Scripture led me to doubts about what I was reading (at the time, hyper-arminian philosophies). If these things are true, then is God actually sovereign? Is He somehow dependent on our decisions? Will His Word actually be fulfilled? Is He really in control and on the throne over all things? I soon found a middle ground and realised both could be true when we consider places where both are wrong.
Dr. Geisler presents a thorough, honest, direct, and yet concise survey through the topic in this book. While I will continue to wrestle with the realities of God's Word and how he argued certain passages, I deeply appreciate this well articulated and thoroughly argued approach to the topic of sovereignty and free will that Geisler labels the Balanced View.
Additionally, I appreciated the extra information found in the appendixes (especially the first and last appendix regarding the historical theology on this topic of early church fathers and a specific addressing of the "once saved always saved?" question). I would definitely encourage you to read through and consider these as parts of Geisler's work rather than simply add ons for extra readings.
My only two critiques on the book itself (not the arguments since people have been doing that intentionally for 500+ years) are this:
1. While I know this topic is very philosophical and theological, there were times where I felt Geisler moved away from his typical approachable language to more of a professional theologian's language. This meant there were a few times I had to read major parts 4-5 times over to actually understand the full argument.
2. I wished in the portions where he had discussed the balance between free will and sovereignty, he had touched more on the subject of God's intervention in a world where our free will and God's sovereign will go along in accordance. That seems to be a pretty major point of contention I didn't really hear discussed here. Perhaps it's too big for just a section in a book primarily on, precisely what the title suggests, our being chosen, but free.
Many thanks to our brother Dr. Geisler for this work.
"False doctrine leads to false deeds"
"Extreme views of any kind have extreme consequences"
As a young man and believer looking to the faith of my mother, I recall the first time studying the puritans and it including the study of prominent hyper-calvinist doctrines held my Ames, Edwards, and others. The perspective that we are dependently bound to the will of God and must be regenerated first in order to believe or respond to Him, and yet He willingly does not save all people, who cannot respond without Him, yet still sends them to hell, filled me with disgust. Especially considering His election of grace on those who He chooses is "irresistible". I simply passed it off as foolishness.
For most of my life, calvinism has been one in the same with heresy and pure evil. When I studied Islam in my university years after receiving my own faith in the God of Scripture, I found it to be the same god-rationale as hyper-calvinists. Geisler indeed came to a similar conclusion with his stating surah 32:13:
"Had we {allah} so willed we'd have certainly brought every soul its true guidance. But the word from me will come to pass: I will fill hell with jinn and men all together."
Following that time, I came to the conclusion that if I was not a calvinist, then I was an arminian. However, further surveys of Scripture led me to doubts about what I was reading (at the time, hyper-arminian philosophies). If these things are true, then is God actually sovereign? Is He somehow dependent on our decisions? Will His Word actually be fulfilled? Is He really in control and on the throne over all things? I soon found a middle ground and realised both could be true when we consider places where both are wrong.
Dr. Geisler presents a thorough, honest, direct, and yet concise survey through the topic in this book. While I will continue to wrestle with the realities of God's Word and how he argued certain passages, I deeply appreciate this well articulated and thoroughly argued approach to the topic of sovereignty and free will that Geisler labels the Balanced View.
Additionally, I appreciated the extra information found in the appendixes (especially the first and last appendix regarding the historical theology on this topic of early church fathers and a specific addressing of the "once saved always saved?" question). I would definitely encourage you to read through and consider these as parts of Geisler's work rather than simply add ons for extra readings.
My only two critiques on the book itself (not the arguments since people have been doing that intentionally for 500+ years) are this:
1. While I know this topic is very philosophical and theological, there were times where I felt Geisler moved away from his typical approachable language to more of a professional theologian's language. This meant there were a few times I had to read major parts 4-5 times over to actually understand the full argument.
2. I wished in the portions where he had discussed the balance between free will and sovereignty, he had touched more on the subject of God's intervention in a world where our free will and God's sovereign will go along in accordance. That seems to be a pretty major point of contention I didn't really hear discussed here. Perhaps it's too big for just a section in a book primarily on, precisely what the title suggests, our being chosen, but free.
Many thanks to our brother Dr. Geisler for this work.
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