Within the Christian Church that recognizes the Bible as the very words of God to His human creatures, there is an ofttimes vitriolic argument. The argument hangs on whether people are ultimately predestined (mistakenly read as predetermined) to salvation or condemnation, or whether God gives them the freedom (“free” will) to choose their destiny. Various passages in the Bible seem to support one or the other position. That is, the Bible seems to attest to both points of view, a position which time-shackled people find contradictory and unacceptable. Hence the debate.
The dogmatic positions are derived from human sources, two men with apparently opposed interpretations of the pertinent scriptures–John Calvin (1509-1564) and Jacob Arminius (1560-1609). The debate came to a head at the Dutch Reformed Church Synod of Dort in 1618-19, in which the Calvinist camp “won” the argument and therefore determined the official dogma of the Reformed Church. Arminian dissenters were disabused of their heresies and sometimes of their heads. But the dogmatic divide continues to rage down to the present day and is often ugly, so much so that present day Calvinists advocate concealing this debate from those outside the church, because it is embarrassing for those who claim to serve a gracious God Who gave His own Son to redeem them. This misleads many Christians to despair over the goodness of God or the truth of the Bible. Many gentler souls avoid this issue altogether, while the more argumentative relish expounding one position or another. Brotherly love is often sacrificed to dogmatic warfare and disorder. But there may be a glimmer of hope, if we turn from human authorities and interpretations to God’s Word and remember the attributes of God as given in Holy Scripture, which have previously discussed in “The Truth About God.”
A Healing Proposal – Predestination vs. Freedom to Choose
The question we need to ask is this–Does Divine Predestination Cancel Human Free Will Ability To Choose? The following posts in this series will address this question. Because, if divine predestination is not incompatible with human free will, that is, human ability to choose, which the Bible itself encourages people to do (Joshua 24:15; 2 Samuel 17:1; Proverbs 1:29, 3:21; John 3:16-21 for example), then the argument is moot, and the dogmatic divide is bridged in reconciliation. Let us press on and see if what seems contradictory to our fallen time bound sense may not be a truth beyond time and human sense.
Let me begin with a proposal. We have seen in previous posts that insight into the temporal and eternal perspectives helps to resolve Biblical paradoxes into parables of transforming truth. Therefore, let us focus this insight on the hotly contested and divisive issue of predestination versus freedom to choose. This issue is the paradox which arises from Biblical passages that attest to God’s sovereign knowledge and will (i.e.“predestination”) in apparent opposition to God’s exhortations for us to make and persevere in righteous choices in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
This paradox may be illustrated simply as a two-part question, “Does divine predestination cancel human free will?” and “Does human free will limit God’s sovereignty?” The omnipotent God obviously cannot be limited by any human agency. But man made in the image of God is surely given the ability to choose, as Adam was given in the God’s initial Garden of Eden. But Calvinist extremists cite Bible statements that man is dead in his sin (Ephesians 2:1), in which they interpret spiritual deadness (absence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person) with deadness of physical senses and reason, so that man cannot choose to obey God unless God first “regenerates” the human mind and spirit. This particularly pernicious dogma makes man unable to do what God commands him to do unless God first bestows the ability to obey on individuals He arbitrarily selects. Such a process contradicts the Biblical assertion of the apostle Peter, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9), and to the impartial observer it makes God out to be the worst sort of tyrant Who commands His subjects what they cannot possibly do. Such dogmatic divide disrupts loving fellowship in the church. But I think this paradox is a false dialectic that may be biblically resolved when the light of both temporal and eternal perspectives is shone upon it. The questions are the wrong questions when examined in the full light of Biblical revelation from time and eternity.
In other words, what seems to be an insoluble debate may become a moot point, or a “non-debate,” when supposedly contradictory scriptures are examined with both the temporal and eternal perspectives in mind. Seemingly contradictory Bible verses concerning God’s sovereign knowledge and human freedom to choose are transformed into a unity which permits a wider and higher appreciation of God’s sovereign and mighty love for us! In regard to His sovereign love, unity with God is what Jesus prayed for those who believe on Him through the words of His disciples.
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:20-26)
The dogmatic divide between Calvinist and Arminian human centered interpretations of Scripture clearly flies in the face of Jesus’ deepest heartfelt desires expressed in His prayer. Therefore, let us examine representative passages from His word, the Bible, to see whether the division that derives from a temporal perspective on seemingly contradictory passages resolves into unity when the eternal perspective is considered. It is important to recognize that both sides of the false conflict between God’s sovereign knowledge (predestination) and human freedom to choose will base their positions on statements in the Bible. But the interpretation of those passages requires understanding that they are given by God from His eternal reference point to human beings in their temporal point of reference. If both points of view are acknowledged, it is possible to resolve the apparent contradiction and dislodge obstructions to fellowship in the church. Let me proceed to do this by examining some specific Bible passages that form the basis for disagreement when interpreted only from the temporal perspective, and put them into an eternal perspective to see whether resolution of this paradox may be achieved.
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