Blogging Ottinger (tim)

A friend asked me to discuss this theological issue of predestination. Whooo, what a question. People very well-skilled in theology can’t describe this well in a blog post, and neither will I. I am not qualified to give a final answer, but what I can do is give some links and some ideas. But be careful, because the water gets rather deep.

Remember that nobody is saved by the study of theology. I think there is benefit to theology, but it is an intellectual pursuit of systematic studies, and useful to the extent it instructs us in simplicity and fascination with the Creator and our salvation. A fascination with controversies may not be useful, and may not be resolvable.

Can anyone believe the bible and not believe in predestination? No, I don’t think so. I cannot hold to a doctrine of a sovereign man. God is not unable to assert His will upon the stream of history, or our bible could not exist and be true. The bible clearly declares instances of foreknowledge and planning and selection of individuals for ministry before their birth. I don’t see how we can ignore that.

But yet there is also evidence of free will and free moral agency as well. This is why the issue becomes difficult. If it were all one, or all the other, then one would not need to think about it. It could be taken for granted. But as it is, we are subject to consider the evidences both ways and also apply some human reasoning. We are in deep waters, indeed, and almost certainly at risk of great theological error.

You may believe in predestination, and still be at odds with many who also believe it because ofwhat you believe about predestination may be different. Even how one phrases different beliefs about predestination may be different, and precise theological words can confuse the initiate. So be careful. You may need a theological dictionary to be certain about some links and descriptions.

Typically questions about predestination are really questions about whether God is the author of evil and whether it is his choice that all unsaved people are damned eternally against their will. This leads to a side issue, whether Jesus and the church are all wasting their time trying to rescue the perishing. One may go so far as to ask whether a human life has any significance at all or is rather trapped in a predetermined, preordained, irresistably-scripted pseudo-life.

I can give my denomination’s beliefs, with which I concur (hence my denomination):

VII. FREE AGENCY
We believe that man’s creation in Godlikeness included ability to choose between right and wrong, and that thus he was made morally responsible; that through the fall of Adam he became depraved so that he cannot now turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God. But we also believe that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all men, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness, believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight. We believe that man, though in the possession of the experience of regeneration and entire sanctification, may fall from grace and apostatize and, unless he repent of his sin, be hopelessly and eternally lost. Godlikeness and moral responsibility: Ge 1:26,27; 2:16,17; De 28:1,2; 30:19; Jos 24:15; Ps 8:3-5; Isa 1:8-10; Jer 31:29,30; Eze 18:1-4; Mic 6:8; Ro 1:19,20; 2:1-16; 14:7-12; Gal 6:7,8 Natural inability: Job 14:4; 15:14; Ps 14:1-4; 51:5; Joh 3:6 Ro 3:10-12; 5:12-14,20; 7:14-25 Free grace and works of faith: Eze 18:25,26; Joh 1:12,13; 3:6; Ac 5:31; Ro 5:6-8,18; 6:15-16,23; 10:6-8; 11:22; 1Co 2:9-14; 10:1-12; 2Co 5:18,19; Gal 5:6; Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12,13; Col 1:21-23; 2Ti 4:10; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 2:1-3; 3:12-15; 6:4-6; 10:26-31; Jas 2:18-22; 2Pe 1:10,11; 2:20-22

Now, speaking more personally with my position stated to avoid misleading , I can cover some ground.

Absolute Predeterminism

There is a theory of absolute determinism, which includes you having a paper cut on a particular finger on a particular day — a kind of fatalism, in which God has to have absolute control or else He is no sovereign, and is not in control. In a Calvinist theology, God chooses who to save and who to damn, and there’s not a thing we can do. We can neither refuse or accept. I like Calvin, and recommend his Institutes for reading by any committed Christian as a challenge and a means to appreciation. However, this is not the view I accept. I disagree not because I think God to be incapable of running the universe in full sovereign predeterminism, but because I read scripture to say that he did not.

If we don’t follow absolute predeterminism, there remains special and general predestination. Some may excuse these as attempts to rationalize opposites but I think that it’s the more scriptural understanding.

General Predestination

Most simply put, whatever God decrees will happen is going to happen, one way or another. I do not deny it. Whether by absolute plan or perfect improvisation, when it is is willed to occur, it will occur. This explains the end of day, the rapture of the church, signs of end times, as well as all the prophesies fulfilled in the birth and death of Christ.

Special Predestination

God specifically chooses individuals and plans their roles. I do not deny this. We have rather clear examples of this in our bible.

However, saying that both of these things is true does not say that every event and every life is subject to hard determinism. Both of these may be true, and it may also be true that there are other individuals and acts which are not predetermined in a hard way.

Free Will

I believe that we are given grace by our Lord and freedom to exercise it. I believe that evil is in the world primarily because people act wrongly with (or sometimes without) evil intent. My beliefs are approximated in an article written by Dennis Bratcher. I believe that free will is constrained, that there may be choices not left to us (for instance, no man could have chosen to be the Christ of his own will). This is further developed and described by Dabney among many others more qualified than your blogging friend.

Outside of Time

I think that we have to consider that God exists outside of time, and created time for us to inhabit. As a result, ideas about pre-, post-, past- and future are not entirely reasonable. To one living outside of the time/space continuum, a supernatural being (as one would have to be to create nature), time looks different. It works differently. Causality and phenomenology are different. I can’t pretend to understand it beyond that. But I think there is more than simple free agency (”God has no control over us”) and simple predeterminism (”everything is mandated by God”) would have us believe.

It May Not matter

Whether God is the ultimate planner, or the ultimate improviser, or both is impossible to tell. If he is either, he will appear to be the other in the eyes of humans. We can’t tell. We know from Ephesians 2:10 that we are living lives of divine appointment, and from the warning to Esther that if we do not take our place and do our part then others will and we will miss out. So maybe either. Maybe both. Maybe there is a spectrum from A to B (predeterminism to free will) and the answer is along the line somewhere. Maybe there is an answer C that we can’t or have faild as-yet to conceive. If our species does not yet know all there is to know about mathematics and physics, then why should we assume that we know all about our God? In both, we are only exploring and describing the reality that pre-existed our race.

My recommendation is to choose to do right whether because you believe you cannot do other wise, our because you must not do otherwise. Good is good. Seek to increase your piety either because it is inevitable, or because it is not. Love because loving is brave and deep whether or not it is painful or avoidable. Live as if you are doing it courageously, whether you really believe that you are or not. Then when your time ends, you will have done all that was required (or ordained) and will be a good and faithful servant.