Evidence · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
The book of Deuteronomy, the choice set before Israel
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Sources
Deuteronomy 30:19, NASB
Objections & responses
- “Choose life” is addressed to a nation about covenant obedience, not the metaphysics of free will. A compatibilist can read it happily. Does it support the philosophical claim being made?
The verse does not settle the free will debate, and it is not claimed to. Its use is narrower: it shows that Scripture addresses people as agents whose choices matter and for which they are accountable, which is the minimal premise a free will defense needs. Whether that agency is libertarian or compatibilist is a philosophical question the text does not answer, and the exhibit on God’s sovereignty later in this claim concedes exactly that.
- Christians believe heaven is a place where people are free and never sin. If free creatures who never do evil are possible in heaven, couldn’t God have made that world from the start?
This is the standard philosophical reply to Plantinga’s free will defense, and it is a good one. The usual responses are that heaven’s sinlessness is the result of a completed process of freely chosen love rather than an initial condition, so it presupposes the earlier history rather than replacing it; or that the redeemed retain freedom but have had their desires perfected through the very choices this life makes possible. The critic can press further, and the debate is live. What is claimed here is modest: that Scripture treats love as chosen, which fits the free will picture, while the philosophical defense of that picture faces this well-known challenge.