Theological Term of the Week: Compatibilism
Friday, February 28, 2025 at 2:30AM 
The belief that God’s exhaustive sovereignty, or his meticulous providence, is compatible with human free agency.
- As seen in scripture:
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;
the staff in their hands is my fury!
Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
But he does not so intend,
and his heart does not so think;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few… (Isaiah 10:5-7 ESV).
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes (Isaiah 10:12 ESV).
Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,
or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! (Isaiah 10:15 ESV)
- In the The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 10:
All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, a by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds, spiritually and savingly, to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.
Learn more:
- Got Questions: What is compatibilism?
- Matt Perman: The Consistency of Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
- Shawn D. Wright: A Plea for Calvinistic Compatibilism
- Monergism: What Is the Difference Between Hard Determinism and Soft Determinism?
- James N. Anderson: Calvinism and Determinism
- The Analytic Christian: Compatibilism and Christian Freedom with Guillaume Bignon (video)
- John C. Winegard Jr.: Why I Am a Compatibilist about Determinism and Moral Responsibility
Related terms:
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