Christians Say God Respects Free Will … But Does He?

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Welcome to another Friday short take.

[00:00:02]I'm HG Roberts, author of On Monsters and Phantoms. Christians often say that God values free will so much. It's supposedly the highest expression of God's love that he refuses to intervene too directly in human affairs and decisions to generate outcomes. That's certainly not what the Bible demonstrates, but that's their claim.

[00:00:22]And they need that claim to work the way they think it works. Why? Because God doesn't want robots. He wants you to have free choice. He wants you to love authentically through genuine faith. And what good is faith if God's too obvious?

[00:00:37]He's not going to force or program you to love him. HG, how ridiculous. Do you want your wife programmed to love you?

[00:00:45]Well, maybe not. But I also wouldn't want to coersse my wife to love me through the threat of eternal conscious torment. But that aside for a minute, Christians also say that God won't reveal himself too obviously to you because that would infringe on your free will to choose to love him. Yet, they'll also say that God is undeniably obvious.

[00:01:05]I mean, look at the trees. Creation plainly reveals him. What more do you need? But for some skeptics, if creation itself doesn't somehow lead you to the Christian God, if God can't cross that line and make himself too obvious to you, that would be unfair. But the Bible says the only way you can choose God is if he draws you. That's another problem Christians can't reconcile. He also hardened your heart so that you can't choose him. So there's that, too.

[00:01:34]Anyhow, Christians will cite personal experience or revelation as one of their strongest arguments for believing in God. I hear that all the time. That personal testimony of a real God encounter is the best evidence for God.

[00:01:48]But didn't y'all just say God won't personally intervene to make himself obvious? He's got to keep a bit of that divine distance to make room for free choice. So, how do we trust those personal testimonies? Yet, how many testimonies are from Christians who beg for God to show up and prove himself and miraculously he does in some way they will say 100% convince them. Was faith the driver here or was it actual miraculous intervention and demonstrable proof? Christians can't make up their minds. Here's the irony Christians don't want to hear. When I was going through the worst of my religious trauma, God did show up in response to my prayers for help and real intervention. Because remember, at the time I believed he was real. He directed me to the scriptures that proved I was cursed, rejected, abandoned, never chosen, evil, and the antichrist. He built a pretty strong case, I suppose, which all leads me to want to talk about once again this incomprehensible, erratic idea of free will and how the Christian attempts to define it, which they can't. Because the moment you start thinking carefully about it, the whole thing begins to unravel. According to the Bible, God is constantly intervening in human minds and human affairs. God hardens Pharaoh's heart. God sends lying spirits. God blinds people. God opens Lydia's heart.

[00:03:12]God grants repentance. God draws people to himself. God sends delusions so some will believe what is false. God influences kings. God changes hearts.

[00:03:21]God speaks through visions, dreams, miracles, angels, fear, judgment, signs, wonders, and the Holy Spirit. God behaves like a being deeply involved in human psychology and human decisionmaking. And yet, modern Christians often pivot into this incredibly fragile philosophy where suddenly God becomes almost passive when eternal salvation is on the line. Well, God just can't reveal himself too clearly. God can't overwhelm people. God can't interfere too much. God has to preserve free will. God wants you to choose to love him without coercion.

[00:03:59]Why? I've said this before, but apparently human autonomy has become more sacred than preventing eternal conscious torment. Yet, human autonomy appears to be precisely what we will lose in heaven as we will do nothing but worship God for eternity. The Bible really presents no evidence of anything else happening for eternity than that.

[00:04:20]And think about this. Christians pray constantly for God to influence people.

[00:04:25]Lord, soften their heart. Open their eyes. Reveal yourself to them. Draw them to you. Convict them. Help them believe.

[00:04:33]But wait a second. I thought strong divine influence threatened free will.

[00:04:38]If God changing someone's heart would turn them into a robot, then what exactly are Christians praying for every Sunday? What they actually seem to believe is something much more inconsistent and selective. God can influence people somewhat, but not too much. And no one knows where that line is. He can intervene partially, but not decisively. He can help people towards salvation, but apparently not enough to reliably prevent damnation. Well, maybe in some cases, but not all. And God has his reasons. His ways are higher. Can you see the serious moral problem this creates? This doesn't lead to trust and faith, but madness. If God can strongly influence people without destroying free will, then why doesn't he do more of that? Why not reveal himself clearly to every person in the way he knows would convince them? And here's the other clause I don't hear talked about often enough and not lead them into religious trauma. Why allow confusion, religious trauma, manipulation, psychological blindness, contradictory religions, and eternal consequences attached to finite human uncertainty. But if God cannot influence people more strongly without violating free will, then parts of the Bible stop making sense because scripture repeatedly describes God doing exactly that. This is why I think many Christians functionally drift toward a kind of practical deism when talking about salvation. Not classical deism. I mean, they still believe in miracles and providence and prayer. They won't give that stuff up. But specifically, when discussing why people ended up damned, suddenly God becomes weirdly restrained, weirdly uninvolved, weirdly hesitant to act decisively in the lives of the very people he supposedly wants to save. And apparently he's jealous for us and it breaks his heart when he has to act this way. But we get all of the blame because we reject the modern Christian commitment to libertarian free will often ends up overriding the Bible's own portrayal of divine involvement. The result is a god who desperately wants certain outcomes but refuses meaningful intervention because preserving autonomous human choice becomes the highest good in the system even higher than preventing eternal suffering. We're going to explore this a bit deeper in our Sunday video where we'll compare the actions of Yahweh and Jesus to that of a psychotic abuser and see what traits they share. I'll see you guys then.