Predestination: A Response

That's a very fine definition Joe, and a great argument, or rather explanation, of predestination as laid out in Scripture. I must begin by admitting that my shots are in the dark, and that I, realizing my iniquity, long for nothing more than 1 Cor. 13:12: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."

Taking into account Scripture-those verses which Joe has presented as well as others-and studying the history of God's interaction with man, I don't think there can be disagreement about the fact that God selects specific people for His purpose, and that He chooses to raise up certain people above others. Indeed, Scripture is laid out as stories of men and women who were directly commanded, supported, and praised by the LORD. The real question is whether these people, specially chosen, are selected and yet retain the ability to accept or deny the call, or whether God is forcing people to answer His call with the same Power He is using to call the person. I must agree with the first situation, I'm not sure Reason will allow the second.

Firstly, if God is the Power forcing humans to act, then He may as well not have created Man in the first place. In essence, unless Man is a completely separate, albeit less powerful, entity from God, then Man does not exist at all. You may as well read the Bible where all names, all references to people, are replaced with the word "God." If only God is involved in all that occurs, then reductio ad absurdum He kissed His own cheek in the garden of Gethsemane. Indeed, Jesus is unnecessary if God forcibly brings people to Himself. What's the use in presenting Himself to people He controls? God would be the necessary Power and the acceptance of Him by Man would not be an option.

Let's look at Israel, the classic case of God's divine selection. God has clearly chosen the children of Israel to be His people; He is their God, the God of their fathers, and it is for Israel to follow Him. Yet, how many times did they turn away from Him? If God predestines a person, or a nation, to be His and that is unquestionable and to be carried out without challenge by His authority, how then does His nation leave Him? Is God not powerful enough? Did He not choose Israel? Neither. Instead, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me;...Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward'" (Isaiah 1:2,4). Israel turned away, Israel forgot God.

If judgment lies on those who choose to abandon God, how can the alternative not also be a choice? If there is no choice in following God, then it would be impossible to turn away, and yet the chosen people did. Salvation comes, yes, but always (to my knowledge) through a third party. The people of Israel don't suddenly feel released of their transgressions and follow God again. God calls to them, sends them prophets, judges, kings, leaders, priests. C.S. Lewis wrote on the idea that if God spoke directly to us, to the Soul, in that He placed ideas into us without the use of a 'third party' or source outside of Himself and outside of us, then we would have no idea whether the idea orginated from God or ourselves. It would be impossible to tell, the idea would simply appear, 'come to us', as it were. Salvation is the same. If God worked explicitly in the soul, and made us His children by His power alone, and without our choice, we would have no idea of Him, or His love, or His sacrifice. Only through providing the option of Jesus Christ is humanity allowed to hear the Good News, and fully experience the love of God.

Many Christians, I think, fear the idea of a globalized view of salvation. Often any notion of all people being accepted by God is rejected outright. I agree that not all will be saved, but there is a difference between what will happen, and what is capable of happening. In my view, to use "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4) to mean that before God created anything, He already planned man to fall so that He could specifically call out certain men, is a dangerous claim. The stance of God's planning and forcibly carrying out a plan of sin and repentance inarguably leads to the claim that Adam and Eve had no choice but to sin, that Israel had no choice but to turn away, that those in Hell had no other option. But then guilt is not an appropriate feeling for sin. We can't help it, it's God's plan. And then we must question why God punishes those who follow His plan; I have never read Paul's writings on suffering to be in reference to the sin God forced me to carry out. But what other option have we if we leave ourselves thinking that God planned, before Adam's first breath, that Man would fall and require God's forcible salvation?

Rather, I think the Scriptures better support, as a whole, the idea that God predestined Man, before He created him, to be in relationship with God. That man's purpose was to worship and love the LORD our God. But at the same time,"So God created man in His own image" (Gen. 1:27), and that image is not a physical one; anthropomorphism borders with idolatry. God's image is one of spirituality, being made in similar nature to God. What is God's most defining, most ultimately necessary attribute? Freedom. Ultimate ability and power to do all things because He is holy. The freedom to create, to plan, to act. Man also imagines, remembers, reasons; he is above the beasts who act (seemingly) solely through instinct - slaves of Nature's cause and effect. Man is able to interact with and effect change on the world around Him, just as God is able, though the amount of power is largely different. What is prayer if man is not free to speak to God as an individual being? What is love if man is not able to freely submit to God? What is man's obedience if it's carried out by God?

This is a large concept, with many more examples available, but perhaps should be spread out and influenced by honest discussion. To try and summarize, I believe that God created man with the destiny, or goal, of being in relation with Him, but knowing in His divine wisdom that true relationship happens through free sacrifice, what we call 'love.' However, Adam, in his freedom, chose to pursue his own glory above that of God's, and thus became sinful. God then sent His son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world, and to call to us that He is the way to Love and Salvation, that the work is done and that we have only to follow after Him. Once we do, I submit that the Holy Spirit comes along side us and is the Power that drives us in sanctification. The Father is the goal, the Son is the path, and the Spirit is the mode of transportation, but we still need to start the engine. Love can only push us into the car, it cannot make us begin the journey.

Jason