Is Homosexual Desire Determined by God?

Calvinists (compatibilists) deny that the Bible teaches that man has a free will. They believe, rather, that God ordains all things that come to pass, including man's choices, yet man is still culpable for his choices.

Compatibilism, held to by most Calvinistic scholars, is a form of determinism and it should be noted that this position is no less deterministic than hard determinism (according to John Hendryx of monergism.com, Phil Johnson, and James White, to name a few).

This simply means that God's predetermination and meticulous providence is "compatible" with voluntary choice. They do not believe man's choices are coerced ...i.e. man does not choose against what they want or desire, yet no man ever makes choices contrary to God's sovereign decree. What God determines will always come to pass according to this system, which would include the homosexual's same sex desire and choice to act upon that desire.

In light of Scripture, (according to compatibilism), a gay man's choices are exercised voluntarily but the homosexaul desires, temptations and circumstances that bring about these sexual choices about occur through divine determinism.

So, according to Calvinism (compatibilism) God determined and ordained that every homosexual activity will take place. Yet, homosexuals act voluntarily making the evil choice that brings it to pass, which means the sin is imputed to homosexuals for their wicked activites, and God remains blameless. In both of these cases, it could be said that God ordains sin, sinlessly. No homosexual activity occurs apart from His sovereign good pleasure, according to the claims of this system.

Please understand that NEITHER compatibilism nor hard determinism affirms that any homosexual has a free will. Those who believe gay men have a free will are not compatibilists, but should, rather, be called "inconsistent". The gay man's choices are their choices because they are voluntary, not coerced. Homosexuals do not choose sodomy contrary to their desires or natures, nor seperately from God's meticulous providence.

Furthermore, compatibilism is directly contrary to contra-causal free will. Therefore, a voluntary choice does not mean the homosexaul had the ability to choose otherwise. Voluntary does mean, however, the ability of the gay man to choose what he most wants or desires according to his inborn disposition or inclination.

According to compatibilism, the homosexual's will is never free, in any sense, from God's eternal decree.  When compatibilists use such phrases as "compatibilistic freedom", they are, more often than not, using it to mean 'voluntary' choice, but are not referring to freedom FROM God's decree or absolute sovereignty.

(Attention Calvinists: before making accusations of misrepresentation please read the article that this report is directly modeled after: http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/qna/sovereignfree.html)

James White claims to be compatibilistic, yet in this exchange he affirms contra-causal (libertarian) choice.  Thus, he fails to reply to Dr. Steven Gaines argument in consistent manner.  

To join the discussion with Professor Leighton Flowers please visit www.soteriology101.com