Free Will vs. Predestination

First of all, thank you for taking the time to visit and read my babblings and rantings. I am NOT a theologian by any stretch of the imagination, but I love God and love writing about my beliefs. I´m confident that not everybody will agree with what I believe, but that´s cool - just as long as you keep in mind that these are the convictions of just one man - ME.

So...... I thought I´d tackle a particular difficult topic in my debut blog.

I should start with my disclaimer - that being that, decoding the mysteries of our Lord is not exactly my area of expertise. I mean, how could it be? I´m only human, right? However, I do tend to mull over some of life's most perplexing questions from time to time when the mood hits me. Concurrently, I usually wind up with at least one possible answer to the question in my head. The answer never satiates me, but it does satisfy me to the point where I can wait patiently for the true answers to be revealed.

Lately, I've been thinking about FREE WILL.

Some time ago, I was speaking with a non-Christian about free will and he asked me something along the lines of, "If every single person has a predetermined fate, then where's the free will in that?" Well, I gotta admit - it's an excellent question to ask. No doubt, it's already been asked millions of times throughout the ages, but hey..... why not take a stab at it myself and see if I can come up with something feasible?

If you have a Bible and happen to be reading through the book of Romans, you'll see words like "predestined," "chose" and "elect," even though that same book also holds people accountable for their own choices (…or failure to choose). Elsewhere, we read and learn that each individual is expected to choose whether or not to believe in the Son of God. John 3:16 is probably the most well-known example of this basic truth.

In Matthew 7:26, we learn that people can choose whether to be foolish or wise and, in areas such as John 20:30-31 and 2 Timothy 3:15, we read various instructions on the way to salvation. From there, we're left with our own choices to make. Reject His words…. or choose to obey them. Our love for Him manifests itself through our obedience to His word.

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
John 14:21 (NIV)

So, if it's God's will that nobody should perish (2 Peter 3:9), then it must be someone else's choice that separates us from God, right? After all, how could God hold us accountable for our choices if we never had to free will to choose our path to begin with? Simply put, a fair God would not impose His ordinances and expectations on those who are not free to make their own choices.

Now, if what I've just written is true, then how can Scripture be so clear to say that God already KNOWS who's going to be saved?

"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
Romans 8:29 (KJV)

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."
1 Peter 1:2 (KJV)

Personally, I try to wrap my head around passages such as the one in Ephesians 1:4 and always wind up with a headache. I mean, could our good LORD really have chosen us "…before the foundation of the world"? It makes me wonder if the mysteries of predestination and free will can ever be fully understood by our finite minds. Well, if Romans 11:33-36 is any indication of what we can expect with regards to full comprehension, the answer is a resounding NO.

As I tend to do with many of life's greatest mysteries, I have oversimplified the answer with an analogy that suits me. It doesn't do the mystery justice, but like I said, it'll hold me off until God reveals the truth to me. So, I see free will and predestination this way:

Have you ever watched a home movie, either your own or someone else's? Perhaps if you're handy enough with a camera, you've even filmed a home movie, like a family reunion or a barbecue or something. Anyway, you film your family doing all of the things that families do and when you're done, you've got a tape to watch, right? Someone pops your tape in the VCR and the first images appear.

You now have your family on film and you can watch their crazy antics as many times as you want. You say to your friend, "Oh, here's where Uncle Al spills his fruit punch all over Aunt Alice's dress. Watch this." You knew he was gonna spill his fruit punch because you've already seen it. You saw everything that your family did, heard everything that they said.... yet nobody on that film was controlled to the point where they weren't allowed to make any choices. Everybody moved and talked and acted in their own way. Their words were their own. Their actions were their own. Their blunders were their own. You caused nobody to do what you wanted them to do, yet you can watch that tape, knowing how it'll end.

So, how can you know all of this? Well, that's an easy one, isn't it? It's because you don't exist inside the tape. You live OUTSIDE of the tape. You MADE the tape and you can see what happens, but you're not living INSIDE the video itself. Now, imagine as you're reading this explanation right now, God is on His favorite easy chair and He's watching a video of you reading what I've written. You decide to log off and go to bed. God knew you were going to do that. As freaky as this thought might be, imagine that we're all on tape right now! We're on God's tape. Now, we really ARE inside of a video -- His video!

Now, if our timeline is like a reel of film, then we must conclude that God is timeless, which is to say that He exists outside of the fabric of time. He had no beginning and He will have no end, yet we can't say the same for that tape… or our existence, can we? God is an infinite Being, watching finite humans living their lives.... the way THEY choose. You can't fiddle with that VHS tape to prevent Uncle Al from spilling his fruit punch. And if you could prevent mistakes…. or sad happenings or tragedies, you could affect free will. With that power, you could even take free will away altogether. The difference is that God doesn't take that away from us. He lets us be free to make our own mistakes.

Have you ever heard people ask questions like, "Where was God on 9/11?"

I wonder what these people expected to get for a response?

For certain, God allows tragedies to occur. He allows us to experience the good and the bad. Yet, anybody who wants God's help in their lives can have it. He left us an instruction manual. It's as if God said, "I won't interfere with your free will. However, if you ever DO want Me to point you in the right direction, read this. It's a basic user's manual to happier living."

That's our Bible.

The answers are laid out. The choice to read or disregard it is still ours to make.

That's our free will.

In the end, I believe our role is pretty basic. We must choose to be obedient to the LORD and, in all likelihood, leave issues such as predestination, foreknowledge and free will up to God to explain to us when He feels the time is right.

Feel free to comment if you´d like to lend your input.... and I hope you enjoy the musings of the Guileless Vituperator.