What is it about?
Are the choices we make the only ones possible? Does an eternal decree of God and a providence over all things make spontaneity and alternativity impossible? The concept of synchronous contingency makes clear that God's free choices actually make spontaneity and alternativity possible for people. In response to Paul Helm's criticism of this concept, it is shown that it is a useful and necessary concept to be able to hold, in addition to free choice, the well meant gospel offer, exhortations, threats, man's responsibility, and the sufficiency of the atonement alongside God's eternal and precisely executable decree.
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Why is it important?
Many Christians think that an eternal decree of God takes away human freedom and responsibility, as such a decree would be the cause of all things. This article shows that these ideas are misconceptions. In classic Reformed theology, God's decree is not causal in nature and does not take away responsibility and freedom. The article is in part a response to Paul Helm's book "Reforming Free Will".
Perspectives
It is important to see that a God who is in charge of everything does not make marionettes of human beings. Our freedom and responsibility are no contradictions to God's omnipotence and omniscience, since God's knowledge and decree do not cause anything in itself.
Pieter Rouwendal
Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Synchronic Contingency, Journal of Reformed Theology, December 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15697312-bja10058.
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