“The problem the world has with preachers is that they not only give strange and culturally local ideas like an after-dinner speaker might, but they proceed to elect sinners, which is to say they remove the free will. The do this categorically, that means, not hypothetically and completely without any condition. Giving Christ sucks the air out for anything else, especially the free will. But is not the free will what religion is supposed to uphold? No. Free will is a synonym for death, since whatever it is, it is demonstrably not the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is life, and what is not life is death. Preachers destroy the myth of the free will, which has become the ultimate hope, and this surgical removal is precisely why no one can hear them.”

-Steven D. Paulson, Categorical Preaching in Justification is for Preaching, ed. Virgil Thompson, pg. 128.

Question:

Why do you think people hold so tightly to the idea that religion is supposed to promote the free will? What does it look like to have a preacher elect sinners and destroy free will? What dangers result from preaching to engage the free will as opposed to delivering Christ?