LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER, (1871-1952) – dispensationalist leader and founder of Dallas Theological Seminary
L. S. Chafer on the subject of the Will
When exercising his will, man is conscious only of his freedom of action. He determines his course by circumstances, but God is the author of circumstances. Man is impelled by emotions, but God is able to originate and to control every human emotion. Man prides himself that he is governed by experienced judgment, but God is able to foster each and every thought or determination of the human mind. God will mold and direct in all secondary causes until His own eternal purpose is realized.
Systematic Theology, Vol. I, p. 241
Men choose their course by what seems to them a free will and they glory in the fact that they are wise enough to adjust themselves to circumstances, but God is the Author of circumstances.
Ibid., Vol. III, p. 169
It is reasonable to conclude that as man by an act of his will renounced God at the beginning, in like manner he, by the act of his own will, must return to God. It matters nothing at this point that man cannot of himself turn to God and that he must be enabled to do so. In the end, though enabled, he acts by his own will and this truth is emphasized in every passage wherein the salvation of man is addressed to his will. “Whosoever will may come.”
Ibid., Vol. III, p. 210
It is thus demonstrated that the erroneous exaltation of the human ability in the beginning becomes man’s effectual undoing in the end. Over against this, the man who is totally incompetent, falling into the hands of God, who acts in sovereign grace, is saved and safe forever.
Ibid., Vol. III, p. 276
Again it will be seen that the Arminian exaltation of the human will in the matter of personal salvation encourages those same Arminians to contend, as they do, that the same free will by which the individual accepts Christ is itself able to depart from God after he is saved. To such rationalistic conclusions, the Word of God, which asserts the inability of man to turn to God, lends no support. It is rather revealed that, after one is saved, “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13); nor does this continuous inclination by the Spirit of the Christian’s volition partake in any respect of a coercion of the human will.
Ibid., Vol. III, p. 278
The two systems—Arminianism and Calvinism—are each consistent at this point within themselves. The Arminian contends that man is supreme and that God is compelled to adjust Himself to that scheme of things. The Calvinist contends that God is supreme and that man is called upon to be conformed to that revelation. The Arminian is deprived of the exalted blessing which is the portion of those who believe the sublime facts of predestination, election, and the sovereignty of God, because he hesitates to embrace them in their full-orbed reality. Having incorporated into his scheme the finite human element, all certainty about the future is for the Arminian overclouded with doubts. Having made the purpose of God contingent, the execution of that purpose must be contingent. By so much the glorious, divine arrangement by which the ungodly may go to heaven, is replaced by the mere moral program in which only good people may have a hope.
Ibid., Vol. III, p. 282
Much has been written earlier regarding the divine call, which call not only invites with a gospel appeal, but inclines the mind and heart of the one called to accept divine grace. Here the human will–a secondary cause–is recognized. The will of man is guided by what he knows and what he desires. The divine method of reaching the will is by increasing man’s knowledge and by stimulating his desires, while on the divine side of this method there remains not the shadow of possible failure. The end is as certain as any eternal reality in God. On the human side, man is conscious of doing only what he actually does: he chooses as an act of his own volition to receive the grace God offers in Christ Jesus. It is a problem to the mind of man how God can predetermine and realize the eternal salvation of a precise number which no human being has ever counted, and guarantee that not one will fail, and yet each one of that company is allowed the free exercise of his own will, and could, if he so determined, reject every offer of divine grace. By persuasion and enlightenment God realizes His purpose to the point of infinite completeness; yet no human will has been coerced, nor will one ever be. God’s call is efficacious, for all who are called are justified and glorified.
Ibid., Vol. III, p. 350
“There is a justification for the fact that the two great doctrines–sin and redemption–go hand in hand. It is sin that has drawn out redemption from the heart of God, and redemption is the only cure for sin. These two realities, in turn, become measurements of each other. Where sin is minimized, redemption is automatically impoverished since its necessity is by so much decreased. The worthy approach to the doctrine of sin is to discover all that is revealed about the sinfulness of sin and then to recognize that God’s provided Savior is equal to every demand which sin imposes. It is one of Satan’s most effective methods of attack upon the saving work of Christ to soften the voice which is set to proclaim the evil character and effect of sin. Apparently not all who are known as teachers of God’s truth are awake to this satanic strategy. It is too often assumed that it is wiser to leave this loathsome monster called sin to lurk in the dark, and to dwell on the more attractive virtues of human life. Sin is what God says it is, and here human opinion and philosophy must bend to the testimony of the Word of God in which He declares the true nature of sin. Opinions of self-flattering men are of little value in a matter which can be determined only by revelation.”
Ibid., Vol. II, p. 224
“In the first instance, it is well to observe that God did not create the human will as an instrument to defeat Himself; it was created rather as a means by which He might realize His own worthy purposes. Through as Sovereign He could do so, God does not coerce the human will; He rather works within the individual both to will and to do of His good pleasure (cf. Phil. 2:13). An efficacious call to salvation, then, is a call which none ever finally resists (cf. Rom. 8:30). Everyone whom God predestinates He calls, and everyone whom He calls He justifies and glorifies. There could not be failure in one instance among the millions who are called. The vision which He creates in the heart and the limitless persuasion He exercises induce a favorable reaction on the part of all thus called, which reaction is rendered infinitely certain. The important truth to be observed in all of this is that, though divine persuasion be limitless, it still remains persuasion, and so when a decision is secured for Christ in the individual he exercises his own will apart from even a shadow of constraint. The divine invitation still is true that “whoever will may come.” However, it also is true that none will ever come apart from this divine call, and that the call is extended only to His elect. What God’s righteous relation is to those whom He does not call is another doctrine quite removed from the teaching of election.”
