Am I Mainly the Product of My Background?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Each of our lives are shaped by multiple forces, by the friends that we choose, by the parents
00:00:09.600 | we didn't choose, and by the socioeconomic class background that we had little or no
00:00:15.200 | control over.
00:00:16.860 | So can we say that we are mainly the product of our background?
00:00:21.320 | It's a question to us from an anonymous young man, a college student, who writes this.
00:00:26.760 | "Hello Pastor John, I'm majoring in psychology right now and one of my professors is a 'radical
00:00:33.280 | behaviorist' and I have recently taken a course in learning and behavior.
00:00:38.560 | In this course, my instructor teaches that according to B.F. Skinner's ideas, man is
00:00:43.620 | basically a product of his environment and his reinforcements.
00:00:47.440 | In other words, Skinner argued that we are mechanical and do not have free will because
00:00:53.440 | we only act according to our reinforcements."
00:00:57.260 | Is there objective information that refutes Skinner's ideas from a biblical perspective
00:01:01.800 | and is there evidence outside of the Bible that suggests that we do have free will?
00:01:08.180 | We have to start with the definition of free will in terms of the behaviorists like Skinner
00:01:16.880 | because the behaviorists, he's saying, are the ones denying that we have it.
00:01:24.220 | So we have to ask what are they denying?
00:01:26.040 | Just dump our definition in there and expect their statement to make any sense.
00:01:31.320 | We have to know what they mean.
00:01:32.920 | So what do they mean?
00:01:35.080 | What does Skinner mean or the behaviorists mean when they deny that we have free will?
00:01:43.280 | Well, he means human beings are unable in their natural capacities to choose contrary
00:01:55.640 | to the strongest natural influences on them.
00:01:59.640 | That's what they mean, namely the environment that he referred to and the particular kinds
00:02:05.760 | of reinforcements that the environment gives up in the natural world.
00:02:11.400 | In other words, since behaviorists are naturalists, this is so important to grasp, they're naturalists,
00:02:18.760 | that is, they don't believe in the supernatural.
00:02:22.520 | They define free will without reference to the supernatural, without any reference to
00:02:28.720 | God or the human soul or the work of the Holy Spirit or the blinding effects of sin and
00:02:36.760 | Satan, so they operate totally within a box called the natural world.
00:02:43.120 | And when they deny the existence of free will inside that box, they have to define it in
00:02:53.640 | those natural terms.
00:02:57.460 | So the free will that they are defining doesn't have anything to do in their minds with the
00:03:02.400 | supernatural.
00:03:04.120 | It's simply naturalistic, mechanistic, that kind of description.
00:03:09.000 | And what the term free will then affirms in this naturalistic world is that human choices
00:03:16.160 | always have natural causes, not supernatural ones, and the strongest natural cause in the
00:03:23.880 | environment will decisively control our choices.
00:03:29.080 | So human beings do not have this kind of free will, that is, they are not able in their
00:03:35.260 | natural capacities to choose contrary to the strongest natural influence.
00:03:41.720 | Now, if the person who wrote us this question is asking me to give evidence from inside
00:03:49.880 | the Bible or outside the Bible that such a free will does exist, I can't do it because
00:03:59.200 | it doesn't.
00:04:00.200 | I agree with the behaviorist that human beings are not able in their natural capacities to
00:04:09.000 | choose contrary to their strongest natural influences.
00:04:13.260 | Of course, the behaviorist and I agree about the non-existence of this kind of naturalistic
00:04:23.220 | free will, or we do believe in this kind of naturalistic bondage for very different reasons.
00:04:31.260 | He believes in it because he rejects the supernatural.
00:04:33.900 | I believe in it because the supernatural tells me that it exists, that is, human beings apart
00:04:39.600 | from the supernatural are in fact in bondage to their strongest natural impulses.
00:04:45.540 | The Bible teaches that human beings are not able in their natural capacities to choose
00:04:53.960 | contrary to their strongest natural influences, not because there's no supernatural, but because
00:05:01.140 | sin and Satan work together to imprison man inside his love for this world in very naturalistic
00:05:10.180 | terms.
00:05:11.180 | That's why Paul calls the unbeliever a natural man.
00:05:17.060 | First Corinthians 2.14, he's dead to spiritual perceptions that could set him free to be
00:05:23.620 | influenced by God's truth and beauty.
00:05:27.140 | So if there's no supernatural reality, no God, no divine truth, no divine beauty, no
00:05:34.380 | divine saving action in this world, then the behaviorists are right.
00:05:39.420 | Man is a slave of the strongest natural influence in his environment.
00:05:45.820 | That's what the Bible teaches the natural man is bondage to.
00:05:51.340 | So if the behaviorist is to be shown wrong, he has to be shown wrong not just about the
00:05:59.860 | human will, but about God and about the deeper reality of human nature when that nature is
00:06:06.340 | born again by the Spirit of God.
00:06:08.260 | So I'm taking the question now in that direction.
00:06:11.900 | Is there evidence outside the Bible that God exists and that human beings have a residue
00:06:20.940 | in their very souls of God's imprint on them?
00:06:24.860 | And the answer is yes, yes, yes.
00:06:27.700 | And the answer is given in Romans 1.18-21 and verse 32.
00:06:33.420 | So Paul says, "What can be known about God is plain to them," that is, to all humans,
00:06:39.820 | "because God has shown it to them."
00:06:42.960 | And here's what he means.
00:06:43.960 | He doesn't mean in the Bible, he means in nature.
00:06:46.220 | "For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been
00:06:51.100 | clearly perceived in the things that have been made.
00:06:57.420 | So they are without excuse, for although they knew God"—wow, what a powerful statement.
00:07:04.420 | All human beings know God.
00:07:06.180 | "Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give Him thanks, but they became
00:07:11.460 | futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened."
00:07:15.580 | That's Romans 1.18 following.
00:07:17.700 | So Paul believes God is not dependent on the Bible to show that He exists or that He is
00:07:26.900 | powerful and is worthy of thanks and honor.
00:07:31.020 | Behaviorists are responsible to know these things.
00:07:34.900 | The fact that they rule them out is because they are, as Paul says in verse 18, "suppressing
00:07:41.380 | the truth."
00:07:42.540 | They are guilty for this.
00:07:45.340 | And then in verse 32, Paul completes a long list of sins and says this, "They"—that
00:07:53.700 | is, all humans who do these kinds of sins—"they know God's righteous decree that those who
00:08:02.180 | practice such things deserve to die."
00:08:05.940 | Wow.
00:08:07.500 | Everybody knows.
00:08:08.500 | In other words, not only are the truth and beauty of God written in the natural world
00:08:15.900 | for all to see and be responsible to, but the truth and beauty of God's will, His moral
00:08:23.980 | will, is written on the human heart, and people really know that many immoral acts are wrong,
00:08:33.380 | but they suppress that knowledge in order to justify their own behavior.
00:08:40.300 | So the answer to the question is that if there is only a natural world, the behaviorists
00:08:48.540 | are right about the non-existence of free will understood as the natural capacity to
00:08:56.260 | choose contrary to the strongest natural influence.
00:09:00.500 | So to prove them wrong, one needs to show them that they are already wrong about God
00:09:07.780 | and man.
00:09:09.340 | There's more than the natural world.
00:09:12.380 | Then—this should take us to a new APJ, maybe, because I'm done here—then they would have
00:09:19.580 | to pose the question of free will in a different way.
00:09:23.900 | They would have to ask what human freedom means if God ultimately governs all things,
00:09:33.980 | including the human will.
00:09:36.380 | But that we will have to wait for for another APJ.
00:09:40.780 | I will only leave a tantalizing clue.
00:09:44.700 | My definition of the highest, most lasting human freedom, namely Christian freedom, is
00:09:53.580 | the capacity of the human will to be swayed by truth so that choices are made which glorify
00:10:05.540 | God and leave no regret in a thousand years.
00:10:11.620 | And that capacity is only granted when we are set free by the Holy Spirit in new birth.
00:10:19.580 | Amen, and this episode ends where other episodes take up.
00:10:24.420 | And I'm thinking of APJ 774, "Is God Sovereign Over My Free Will?"
00:10:30.140 | That one comes to mind.
00:10:31.500 | Episode 774, "Is God Sovereign Over My Free Will?"
00:10:36.020 | You can find it online.
00:10:38.300 | Whether you listen in the car, at the gym, doing chores, or walking to psych class, thank
00:10:42.860 | you for inviting us into your busy day.
00:10:45.580 | And if you have not done so, you can subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast
00:10:49.700 | app, YouTube, or in Spotify.
00:10:52.740 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question of your own to us,
00:10:56.580 | go online to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:02.580 | We are back on Wednesday.
00:11:04.940 | I'm your host, Tony Reike.
00:11:06.460 | We'll see you then.
00:11:07.060 | [End of Audio]
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