📖 Biblical Definition
Theological voluntarism affirms that God's will is sovereign and ultimate. "Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases" (Psalm 115:3). God's commands are righteous because they flow from His perfectly good nature, not from an external standard above Him. In its ecclesiological sense, voluntarism holds that membership in a church should be by personal faith and free choice, not by state compulsion. The New Testament pattern is voluntary association: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship" (Acts 2:42). No one is forced into the body of Christ; entrance is by repentance and faith.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Not listed as a distinct term in the 1828 dictionary.
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VOL'UNTARY, a. [L. voluntarius.] Acting by choice; done of one's own free will. WILL, n. That faculty of the mind by which we determine either to do or forbear an action. Webster understood both divine and human will as real faculties of choice — though the Reformed tradition insists that fallen human will is bound by sin until freed by grace.
📖 Key Scripture
• Psalm 115:3 — "Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases."
• Ephesians 1:11 — "He works all things according to the counsel of his will."
• Acts 2:42 — "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Voluntarism becomes dangerous when it severs God's will from His nature or reduces faith to mere preference.
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Extreme divine voluntarism (associated with Ockham) suggests that God could have made murder good if He had willed it — detaching morality from God's nature. Orthodox theology rejects this: God's will is always consistent with His nature. He cannot deny Himself. On the human side, ecclesiological voluntarism — the idea that church membership is purely by individual choice — has been distorted into radical individualism where everyone creates their own custom religion. Consumer Christianity picks and chooses doctrines like items on a menu. Biblical voluntarism means freely choosing to submit to God's Word and His church — not freely constructing your own theology.
Usage
• "Biblical voluntarism affirms that God's will is supreme — but never arbitrary, because His will always expresses His perfectly good nature."
• "Voluntary church membership is a Baptist distinctive rooted in the conviction that genuine faith cannot be coerced."