For a long time the church has been divided on the issue of free will. The Calvinist churches teach man does not have the free will to accept the gift of salvation. And God must send an irresistible saving grace to force a conversion. While on the other hand the Armenian churches teach that God grants man the ability to understand and freely choose to accept or reject his gift of salvation. I have to say this is really a small issue, and to argue the point seems a waist of time, but we should look at what the early church taught on this subject. 

Here are some of the teachings on free will by the early church fathers:

• Justin Martyr 165 AD
• Second Apology 7 - Man acts by his own free will and not by fate.
• Dialogue 88 - Men and angels have free will. The human race, which from Adam had fallen under the power of death and the guile of the serpent, so that each one of us has committed personal transgression. 
• Dialogue 102 - He created both angels and men free to do that which is righteous, and He appointed periods of time during which He knew it would be good for them to have the exercise of free-will; and because He likewise knew it would be good, He made general and particular judgments; each one's freedom of will, however, being guarded.
• Dialogue 141 - God created men and angels free to do righteousness; possessing reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not existing formerly, do now exist; and with a law that they should be judged by Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason: and of ourselves we, men and angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent beforehand. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably wicked, but not because God had created them so.
   
• Tatian 165 AD
• Greeks 7 -  Jesus created men and angels with free will. Jesus had foreknowledge of what free agents would do. There is no such thing as fate.
• Greeks 9 - Demons invented the concept of fate with astrology to enslave man into worshiping them.
• Greeks 11 - Our free will enslaved us to sin. (Rom 7) but we can choose to follow righteousness now.
   
• Irenaeus 177 AD
• Against Heresies 4.29 - God only blinds the minds of those who chose not to believe and have already rejected him.. In Romans 1, those who would not retain God in there knowledge he gave them over to a reprobate mind. In 2 Thessalonians 2, strong delusion is sent to believe the lie. God, knows the number of those who will not believe, since He foreknows all things, has given them over to unbelief. God has foreknowledge of all things.
• Against Heresies 4.37 - God made man a free agent from the beginning this is the ancient law of human liberty, for there is no coercion with God, in man, as well as in angels, He has placed the power of choice. The Gnostic teaching that some men are born good others are born bad is wrong. Everyone has the power to reject the gospel. God has free will and we do to because we are made in his image. God preserved the will of man free and under his own control, we will be brought to perfection in the resurrection. Romans 8, refers to the church being predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
• Against Heresies 4.39 - Man has the ability to distinguish good from evil. He has the power by his own free will to perform god's commandments. This is taught in Romans 2. God does not compel people to salvation, so those who have apostatized have done so through their own fault. God allows them to blind themselves.
   
• Clement of Alexandria 192 AD
• Stromata 2.3 - Christians teach saving faith is a gift that starts with God and is accepted by free choice.
• Stromata 2.4 - The ability to freely choose salvation is a gift (started by) God. True faith produces repentance. 
• Stromata 5.3 - Faith is the rational assent of the soul exercising free will.
   
• Tertullian 190-210 AD
• Marcion 2.5 - Man has free will.
   
• Minucius Felix
• 36 - The Mind of man is free from birth and reminds free through out his life.
   
• Origen 230 AD
• Against Celsus 4:70 - Man has free will