Question: How does God choose leaders without affecting their free will? | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

Question: Is it correct to say that God doesn’t choose our leaders but that He can raise up and bring down leaders using circumstances, without affecting their free will, in order to carry out His purposes? 

Response: It is certainly true that in Psalm:75:6-7 we are told that “Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” In the process of “putting down” and “setting up,” He will use circumstances to accomplish His will without stifling the free will of the individual. To say that God “does not choose our leaders” is a point that certainly will be debated, in view of the fact that His use of circumstances reveals His will concerning the leaders who are set up or put down. That choice, however, is not the same as the Calvinist idea of sovereignty would allege.

The Bible teaches (Acts:10:34-35) that God elected to save every soul who “fears God and works righteousness.” Before man’s creation, God elected that men would be saved “in Christ” (Eph:1:3-4, 7-12).God gave His plan for the redemption of man (Eph:3:10-11). He also granted that man would have free will, which is simply the ability to choose to obey or disobey Him (Gn 3:1-6; Josh:24:15; Mt 11:28). Again, without at least that measure of “free will,” as Dave Hunt has noted, Joshua:24:15 becomes meaningless.

So your statement is accurate, although the idea of God “choosing” someone is certainly reflected in His use of circumstances to accomplish His will.