Free Will?

Many years ago I was exposed to the work of McGregor Wright, No Place for Sovereignty:What’s Wrong with Freewill Theism (Downers Grove,IL: IVP, 1996). When I first read it it challenged me as I had recently made a transition to “Calvinist” thinking. However, this book led me down a more consistent road. It was McGregor Wright that introduced me to the idea that there are “no Arminian verses” in the Bible. I have never turned back. In the past 20 plus years, I have striven for a firm and consistent Calvinism, and due to that passion for taking God’s Word as a whole consistent message, I will keep, by God’s grace, a fight to the end to show false teaching for what it is. I take no prisoners in this theological battle. The first casualties, sadly to say, will be inconsistent “Calvinists!”

Here is a snippet:
“Arminians are so controlled by the presupposition of free will that every time a verse appears using the word will, they assume it must mean free will in the Arminian sense, so that they read their theory into the verse. For example, in regard to Revelation 22:17, many Arminians will argue that “whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (KJV) must mean “anyone without distinction (any indeterminate someone) who autonomously chooses to do so, or wishes to do so by free will, is invited to take of the water of Me.” But the verse says nothing remotely like this in the Greek. It is simply saying “the one wishing, let him take.” It does not touch the question of how some come to wish this while others do not. Furthermore, “freely” has no reference to free will, since it is the Greek word dorean, which means “without cost” or “as a gift.” Its use in the verse above refers to the fact that Christ has already paid for the blessings of the gospel, “the water of life.” It’s the gospel that is free, not the will! “

R. K. McGregor Wright
No Place for Sovereignty, 158-160

Except for his nod to Evangelical feminism, this is a superb book.