"A Primer on Free Will" by John H. Gerstner

ISBN #0-87552-272-6

This little booklet (only 28 pages) was a fun read and I highly recommend it to everyone. In it, John Gerstner addresses the issue of predestination in a warm and captivating manner, using a method that brought to mind C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity." If you have never read that book I suggest you do so, although Lewis and Gerstner stand on opposite sides of the "Free Will" debate, Lewis having been a heathen Arminian (ha ha!) :)

Seriouly though, even if Gerstner's argument fails to convert you to the Reformed view of the will, it will benefit everyone to read this treatise and his arguments are sure to take you back to the Scriptures themselves. The first 12 pages of the book are made up of an interesting and humorous discussion between the author and the reader, in which Gerstner discusses the events that have led to the reader picking up his booklet.

The following is found on page one:
"Dear reader, you have in your hands a booklet entitled A Primer on Free Will. I don't know you, but I know a good deal about you. One thing I know is that you did not pick up this book of your own free will. You have picked it up and have started to read it, and now continue read it, because you must do so. There is abosolutely no possibility, you being the kind of person you are, that you would not be reading this book at this time."

Doesn't that sound like something (theological implications aside) that Lewis might have penned? The rest of the book after page 12 consists of a fictional dialogue between Gerstner and a reader in which they discuss free will.

So again, whatever your own doctrinal leanings, I urge you to read the book...you won't regret it! By the way, if Gerstner sounds familiar, he is also the author of another wonderful book entitled "Repent or Perish."