📖 Biblical Definition
Scripture teaches that human beings make real choices for which they are genuinely accountable. However, the Bible does not teach that the human will operates in a vacuum, undetermined by anything. Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44). Paul wrote that the natural man "does not accept the things of the Spirit of God" and indeed "is not able to" (1 Corinthians 2:14). The will is real but not autonomous -- it is shaped by one's nature. The unregenerate will freely chooses sin because that is its nature; the regenerate will freely chooses God because God has given it a new nature. This is neither determinism nor libertarian freedom but the biblical doctrine of moral agency under God's sovereignty.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Not found as a philosophical term in Webster 1828.
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The philosophical sense of "libertarianism" as a theory of free will was not in common use in 1828. Webster defined LIBERTY broadly as freedom from restraint. The theological debates about free will, however, were vigorous in Webster's era -- the Calvinist-Arminian controversy directly engaged the question of whether the will is self-determining or shaped by the nature. Jonathan Edwards' Freedom of the Will (1754) had already argued persuasively that the will always acts according to the strongest inclination -- a view incompatible with libertarian free will.
📖 Key Scripture
• John 6:44 — "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him."
• John 8:34 — "Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin."
• Romans 8:7-8 — "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God... Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
• 1 Corinthians 2:14 — "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God... and He is not able to understand them."
• Ezekiel 36:26 — "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Libertarian free will makes man sovereign over his own salvation.
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Libertarian free will, when applied to soteriology, produces the view that God has done everything He can do to save people, and now the final decision rests entirely with the autonomous human will. This effectively makes man the decisive factor in His own salvation -- which is a form of humanism in theological dress. It contradicts Jesus' direct statement that "you did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). It also struggles to account for the biblical teaching on total depravity -- if the will is enslaved to sin (John 8:34), it is not "free" in the libertarian sense. The pastoral danger is that it produces either pride ("I chose God") or despair ("I can't make myself believe"). The biblical truth is that God makes dead hearts alive -- and the living heart freely trusts Him.
Usage
• "Libertarian free will says the will is undetermined by anything -- Jesus says 'No one can come to me unless the Father draws Him.'"
• "The Bible teaches real human choice under God's sovereign purpose -- not autonomy, not fatalism, but genuine agency within divine governance."
• "If the will is a slave to sin (John 8:34), it is not 'free' in the libertarian sense -- it needs liberation, not just options."