IMPLICATIONS OF FREE WILL
A Person implies Free Will. Personality is usually defined in terms of
consciousness, intelligence and will.
Free Will involves the ability
to choose, which implies a certain amount of
uncertainty. This uncertainty of the
person gives a multidimensional freedom of movement with respect to God. Even the material realm reflects God. That is why Paul speaks
Rom 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's
invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly
seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
The difference between creatures
in this respect is in the order and magnitude of the image.
While all the sons of God are expected to be like God (as god’s image) their
domains of existence are vastly different.
Hence their movement space are also different. In the moral space the responsibilities can vary widely.
While sharing the same or similar
characteristics, the very fact they are distinct personalities outside
of the God-head implies their freedom to move away from God which is what we
define as evil. I would like to define
a being in an n- dimensional space with freedom of movement which are
constrained in m dimensions. Thus while
the constrain is restricted within (m- dimensions) because of heredity, family, community, material and physical
culture etc., there are(n-m) dimensions of unrestricted freedom. There is ultimately at least one dimension
where every individual creature has absolute freedom. This is what makes him unique. Without free will it becomes
totally nonsensical to speak of redemption. If creatures have no choice (all
being predestined) then ontologically nobody is able to make a choice for the
good. Sin is primarily the action of an individual person that can either be
carried out or avoided.
In the rabbinic scalar model of
personalities in order to allow for this choice, have defined the existence of two other personalities within the
person. Every being therefore has split
personalities: consisting of three
personalities which are termed. Yetser Hara (Evil Inclinations), Yetser Hatov
(Good inclination) and the Ego ( Self Will)
Very often these models were much more complicated. Normally we term man as a combination of
Body, Mind and Spirit. Just as the term
Body is composed of varying parts and Mind is a complicated matter – thought
intricacy, the Spirit is also considered as composing of many parts. Seven Spirits are often spoken of. Thus the concept of many dimensions of
existence and freedom were inherently present in the Judeo-Christian concept of
Spirit beings.
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Rebbe Naphtali of Ropshitz scolded his son
(who later became Rebbe Eliezer of Dzhikov)
one day, for wasting precious time in play, time he could have put to
better use to study Torah. "It's not my fault," said the little boy
"It is the fault of the yetser-hara, the evil spirit. It is he who led
me into sin."--"Well answered son," said the father. "But
you should follow the example the yetser- hara; even he, by inducing you to
sin, obeys God's will. Why don't you do likewise?" "For
him it is easy," said the little boy. "the yetser-hara has no
yetser-hara to influence him against obeying God's will!" |
Fig. 4 Rabbinic Model of Man