Required reading
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (Vol 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude Chapter 9 (Free agency).
My summary
Today we finish Hodge's thoughts on free agency.
The main point of today's reading is that certainty is consistent with liberty.
Although Hodge didn't show precisely how certainty and liberty can be perfectly consistent, he nevertheless demonstrated that they must be. This may be seen by the argument:
(i) that certainty suits all free agents;
(ii) from Scripture;
(iii) from consciousness;
(iv) from the moral character of volitions;
(v) from the rational nature of man;
(vi) of a sufficient cause.
What grabbed me
I always like the reminder that God's freedom is not absolute either: 'It is certainly a strong argument in favour of that view of free agency, which makes it consistent with certainty, or which supposes that an agent may be determined with inevitable certainty as to his acts, and yet those acts remain free, that it suits all classes or conditions of free agents. To deny free agency to God, would be to deny Him personality, and to reduce Him to a mere power or principle. And yet, in all the universe, is there anything so certain as that God will do right ?'
God must do right, yet he is free in doing right.
Next week's reading
Commence Part III by beginning Chapter 1 (The plan of salvation) and reading up to the heading '8. The Augustinian Scheme'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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