Jonathan Edwards against R.C. Sproul on Predestination

In the past few videos, we compared R.C. Sproul’s claim that men have free will and the power of self-determination with the teaching of the Bible, the teaching of Augustine (I selected a work of Augustine published toward the end of his life—specifically The Enchiridion), the teaching of Martin Luther, specifically Luther’s remarks found in his 1525 work titled The Bondage of the Will), and the teaching of John Calvin (here I made use of several editions of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (specifically the 1541 edition, as well as his final 1559 edition). In each case, we found Sproul’s claim that men have the so-called free will power of self-determination to be false—contradicting the Scripture, as well as Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Of course, Sproul made this heretical claim in chapter 3 of his book Chosen By God.

In this article, we will compare R.C. Sproul’s teaching that men have the free will power of self-determination to the teaching of Jonathan Edwards. Sproul points to Edwards’ book The Freedom of the Will, suggesting that Edwards agrees with him.

But does Jonathan Edwards teach Sproul’s unBiblical claim? Let’s find out.