SD 9.2
Savoy Declaration
9.2. Of Free Will
Man in his state of innocency had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God; but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it.
Proof texts
- Eccles. 7:29
- Gen. 1:26 — [26] Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
- Gen. 2:16, 17 — [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
- Gen. 3:6 — [6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
For discussion
- The Assembly cited Eccles. 7:29 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
- 4 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
- WCF 9.1 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
- WCF 9.2 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?