Is free will the same as autonomy?
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Whosoever Will, Knowing Isn't Writing: When someone says I am smuggling in autonomy, I want the word defined. Autonomy is self-law, answerable to no one. The freedom I hold is a creature’s. God set the man in a garden and said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Genesis 2:16-17). That is a free man under a command, with a penalty, sustained every moment by the one who spoke. Moses set the same shape before Israel: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). If you want the Reformed tradition’s own words, Westminster has them. God “hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined to good, or evil” (IX.1). Not forced. Not determined by nature. That is not Sartre. It is a will that can answer or refuse, and is judged for which. Scripture, King James Version: Genesis 2:16-17, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."; Deuteronomy 30:19, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:".
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Verified. Every scripture quotation on this page has been checked word-for-word against the King James text. Last reviewed 2026-10-18.
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Is free will the same as autonomy? → wsb.bible/answers/is-free-will-the-same-as-autonomy
This answer is the short form. The argument is made at length in Knowing Isn't Writing: Free is not autonomous.