The fact that people are “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4) is not a statement of divine determinism or fatalism. This principle is not a rigid and arbitrary designation by God of some for salvation and others for condemnation, without reference to human trust and choice. But for many Christians this is what it seems to be when interpreted from a purely temporal perspective. Rather, the fact that God chooses people from “before the foundation of the world” reveals His eternal perspective in which both the beginning and the end of the human historic time are continuously present and fully comprehended in His divine mind. Further, the choice, as spelled out in Ephesians 1 & 2 is always “in Christ.” This election always considers Christ first and foremost as Savior and firstborn from the dead. It is not referring to a personal individual lottery by which every person on earth is arbitrarily assigned to Heaven or Hell before their conception and without considering the relationship that God desires to have with them.
Can anything in Biblical God’s perfect mind be arbitrary, or unjust, or unloving? Not according to the Bible, which is His revealing word about Himself. Shall we imagine that God blots out part of His omniscience (His complete knowledge of each and every one of us from beginning to end through all of time), so that He can choose arbitrarily and without knowing? Such a suggestion is preposterous and inconsistent with the loving nature of the Great I Am.
God’s eternal perspective is simply His omniscience and omnipresence that knows what is in human hearts (John 2:24-25) and knows the end of all things in the same manner that that He knows the beginning.
God, Who in His omniscience predestines, is the same God Whose omniscience and omnipresence knows all the motives, choices and actions of people throughout time. He knows all of this all at once in His perfect Mind of Love. There is no progression of God’s divine omniscience over time, for if there were, then He could not be omniscient; and He would be as uncertain and anxious about potential outcomes as we humans are.
Simply stated, in all His acts, whether saving or condemning, God knows all there is to know about everyone and everything. This is the staggering reality of Omniscience and Omnipresence which, as it knows all things, also knows all times. Divine Omnipresence is continually Everywhere and Everywhen, just as Divine Omniscience is continually familiar with Everything and Everywhen. Acceptance of this reality, which is beyond our “common sense” temporal intuition and comprehension, fully recognizes the sovereignty of God in accordance with His eternal perspective outside of historic time! Truly His ways are not our ways! (Isaiah 55:8-9)
If God’s eternal perspective is admitted, the conflict between passages utilized by Calvinists and Arminians for their extreme positions disappears. The argument is no longer arguable because it is rendered pointless once the eternal perspective of God, Who is Sovereign over the entire cosmic timescape, is recognized. The difficulty for humans burdened with the present moment temporal perspective is that they naturally assume that God is caught up in time as they are. Therefore His decisions with regard to salvation are arbitrary and without fairness since they are rendered “before the foundation” and apparently have no reference to human responses to God’s promises and commands, which the Bible exhorts.
But such naturalistic assumption denies the sovereign omniscience and omnipresence of God Who takes all things into account in His wisdom, including all things from the beginning to end of time, just as Job observed.
“Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? “God understands its way, And He knows its place. “For He looks to the ends of the earth And sees everything under the heavens.” (Job 28:20, 23, 24)
“God understands its way.” The Hebrew word translated “way” in this passage literally means “journey.” Journey implies a course or path in time. God’s wisdom incorporates everything under the heavens in this “journey,” from the beginning to the end of time! This incorporation is the very essence of His omniscience and omnipresence. Without this essential incorporation, God could not be omniscient or omnipresent. If trapped in time theologians persist in fanning the flames of argument over predestination and human ability to choose, they may well find themselves in Job’s predicament:
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; (6) Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6)
Once God’s sovereign eternal perspective is accepted, it is possible to receive passages like Romans 8:28-30, written in temporally defined grammar, as perfectly compatible with human freedom to choose to trust Him or to choose to reject Him. If this is admitted, then other passages where God urges people to choose Him and His will and to persevere in order to obtain their heavenly reward, can also be received without contradiction. For example, the word of Jesus to the churches,
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7)
Clearly, Jesus says there is human participation in God’s plan of salvation. Human volition and energy are not voided by Christ but exhorted by Him. And this exhortation is no longer inconsistent with God’s comforting assurance that His elect are chosen “before the foundations of the world,” (in Christ) because God’s omniscience and omnipresence incorporate both the “before” and the “after” in a unified eternal now. We may not understand “how” this “now” works, but it is, I think, more consistent with all of Scripture than the perplexing human polarities of Calvinism and Arminianism.
Therefore, reading the Bible according to its own terms as a text written from the eternal reality into temporal reality invalidates the argument which presumes that there is a contradiction between God’s sovereign will and human freedom to choose. Such reading allows God’s Holy Word its internal consistency and frees it of humanly and temporally imposed theological inconsistency. The choice that Joshua offered Israel is a real and valid choice that every one of us must confront.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15a)
Finally, the contrast between the temporal perspective and the eternal perspective may be illustrated via a familiar picture. It is the picture of a person walking through a door, which is the door of death.
Approaching the door, the walker sees written above it, “Whosoever believes (trusts, relies upon) God’s love and saving grace in Christ has eternal life.” This is the temporal perspective, from which God calls people to faithful perseverance in His Truth and Love.
After passing through the door the walker turns and looks back to find written above the door, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” That is the eternal perspective from which God calls people to union with Himself (John 17:20-24).
I am convinced that God communicates this eternal reality in order to comfort, not confuse, His children. The reality of the eternal perspective is that the beginning and the end of time are constantly present and unified in the Mind of the Eternal I AM.
To sum my position up, I can restate my two questions at the beginning of this series of posts (#15) as follows. Does God choose or do men choose? The Bible says both, so I believe both! Appreciation of both the temporal and eternal perspectives in the Bible, which is the dependable and true word of God, allows me to hold this position with integrity and without anxiety.
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