A Pondering Paradox's Palace

This is a very big, and undecided issue in Christianty and one that I, and my family, has a very decided opinion on.

First, I’d like to say that there is “evidence” for both free will and predesination in the Bible.

Free Will: “Let him come freely and drink of the water of life” rev.

Predestination: “Morever whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

With this mind, let me point out that although Free Will can be encompassed in my definition of Predesination, Predestination cannot be encompassed in Free Will.

to better understand this, let me define my terms:

Free will – the idea that becoming a Christian is determined only on your own personal choice as a human

Predesination – the idea that God has pre-determined who will be Christians and who will not

I am not trying to present a hypo-calvinist point of view, I don’t believe we’re puppets on a string, instead I think we have free will limited by our nature.

Let me try to illustrate my belief with an example:

Take the following information and baised on just that (no other variables) come to a conclusion:

1) Alison likes to try new foods

2) Mom does not like to try new foods

3) Neither Mom nor Alison has eaten Sushi.

If you were to offer Mom and Alison sushi who do you think would take it? Mom? Alison? Both? Neither?

. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

If you were playing along with my completely hypothetically illustration you would have said Alison.

Now consider this: by coming to that conclusion did you interfer with Alison’s or Mom’s freedom of choice?

Of course not! But from what you knew from them, you were able to predict the outcome quite well.

God, I think most Christians would agree, knows everything. He had a plan from the beginning of time. (To send his Son, this is predicted in Genesis and all throughout the Old Testament) and we’d all agree that God knows us through and through so why is it so strange to think that God wouldn’t be able to know and predict which of us will become Christians and which won’t?

I think the main reason people disagree with Predestination is because they automatically assume that Predestination means we’re being forced against our will to do something. Many also don’t like the idea that Jesus didn’t come to save everyone. Plainly, he didn’t, but that’s a discussion for another time . . .