What about predestination and free will?
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Notes
Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14
Can God make free beings who always end up doing what he wants? Can we somehow reconcile this apparently logical impossibility? This is probably the most acute issue in theology. It has taxed the minds of famous theologians over the years. We try to keep to Scripture. Yet what do we find there?
On the one hand the Bible is full of stories of people making, to all intents and purposes, real choices for good or ill, for or against God, and indeed being invited or challenged to make choices which determine the future both of themselves and others: Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, Joseph’s brothers, Israel in the wilderness, Joshua and Elijah challenging the people to choose God, Saul’s disobedience.
In the New Testament, the invitations of Jesus to follow him and obey him – “how often I wanted to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks, and you refused!” - the choice Judas made, the early preaching of the Gospel confronting listeners in the book of Acts to repent and believe, the moral choices in Paul’s letters.
On the other hand we read that God chose us before the foundation of the world, that God chose Jeremiah before he was born. See Psalms 139:16. Jesus said, “you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you”. We read that God works all things after the counsel of His own will, and, even more starkly, that God, the potter, can do what he likes with us, the clay, and predestines some vessels for noble use, some for ordinary use, and some are fitted for destruction. (Romans 9:19-23)
God’s sovereignty, and our responsibility
Most of us would feel that however difficult it may be, however seemingly illogical, we must keep a balance. That would appear to be very important If we overemphasize God’s part, we end up being fatalists, forgetting that we have to be obedient and serve others; if we overemphasize our part, we end up being over-burdened with a sense that everything depends on us, with no appreciation of the way God works in our lives. And at the back of our minds there is still this sense of the illogical, either God is in charge or he is not, either we are free or we are not. How can we combine half and half, as it were.
Over the centuries Christian theologians have come up with two or three recognised positions:
Calvinism
This is the classical reformed Protestant position, drawing its name from the French reformed theologian John Calvin (1509-64). The great strength, indeed attraction of this view is that God is recognized as sovereign, in charge of all that happens.
Isaiah is full of it “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. The Lord Almighty has purposed, who can thwart Him?” Proverbs: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” God determines who is saved, and consequently who is not. As we read, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world”.
Sin is so serious that we are unable even to give consent for God to save us, unless God works in us. All our resources come from Christ. He is the source of our strength not only in coming to Christ but also continuing in his grace throughout life. Being put right with God is a permanent thing. If God has foreknown and predestined us for his glory, He will bring it to pass. (Romans 8)
A quick well-known summary of this position, although somewhat over-simplified, is contained in the mnemonic TULIP:
Total depravity: our fallen nature affects alt our being, and especially our will, which is in bondage to our fallen nature: we can do absolutely nothing to help ourselves.
Unconditional election: God chooses those he wilt save, with no conditions to be fulfilled on our part
Limited atonement: the death of Christ is effective only for the elect
Irresistible grace: if God has set his heart on a person, that person will indeed be saved, God will work in that person’s life enabling him or her to respond to the gospel of Christ
Perseverance of the saints: those who are truly God’s elect cannot fall, God will ensure that they will persevere to the end (cf. Rom.8)
I think it is true to say that the majority of Christians today have problems with this position:
What becomes of human responsibility?
If God decides who to save, does that not also mean that he decides, apparently quite arbitrarily, who is to be condemned?
Does that come close to making God the author of sin?
If we cannot resist his will and his grace, why does he find fault with us?
And does not scripture say anyway that he wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth?
Arminianism
This teaching is named after Jacob Arminius (1560-1609) who questioned some of the doctrines of Calvin. I think it is true to say that most modem Protestants, and also Roman Catholics, incline towards Arminianism. It was promoted especially by John Wesley.
What is the main difference from Calvinism?
They believe that God seriously calls everyone, not just those he has chosen. Christ’s death is potentially effective for everyone, not just the elect
We may refuse God’s grace. Yes, our will is in bondage because of sin, but what God does is to work in us by his Spirit, freeing up our will so that we can make a genuine personal response to Christ.
So there is cooperation, a working together, known also as synergism. But, in the last analysis, although God knows in advance what we will do, it is not God who determines who is saved, but we ourselves.
Arminians still talk about predestination, but would express it thus: God predestines all who would have faith in Christ to be saved. It is also possible in this leaching to lose one’s salvation, for here again the ball is ultimately in our court, not God’s.
So you can see there are some considerable differences here from what Calvin taught. What becomes here of God’s sovereignty? Does this mean there are area of life where God has no control? Is he at the mercy of our whims and choices? And are they right in saying that in the Bible foreknowledge means nothing more than God knowing in advance?
Karl Barth (1886-1968)
Barth seems to be saying that Jesus is the only elect or chosen one. He is also the only reprobate or rejected one. We are all related to him, included in him, both as the rejected one who took all our sin on him and paid the penalty, and also as the elect one, the beloved one. We are all condemned in Him, we are all elected in Him. We simply need to realise that we are already saved, and in the light of that knowledge, turn from sin to salvation.
If Barth is right, then it has all been accomplished, whether we realise it or not. (Does that mean universalism, all will be saved? The jury concerning Barth is still out on that.)
Are there some ways of helping us to resolve the tension of God’s predestination and our free will?
The two realms
It can be helpful to consider that on the human temporal level that we all live on, we are fully aware of making choices. As we have seen, the Bible is full of people making choices. By contrast God operates in his realm on an eternal level, sees all, plans all. And we must allow some mystery here.
There are things going on we simply do not know, cannot grasp, cf. Paul caught up to third heaven, heard things no mortal man is permitted to repeat. (cf. end of Romans 11, lsaiah 40:12-26, the conclusion of the book of Job).
We have a very limited grasp of the eternal standpoint we see through a glass darkly.
The tapestry analogy
All the muddled threads of our many choices get woven by God into his grand picture. We only see the reverse side with all the tangle of threads. One day we will see the front, all woven into the plan, even our mistakes. “God meant it for good”, Joseph Story, “God writes straight with crooked lines”.
He works through people a bit like an author with his characters. The characters act in the way that is true to them. We are not responsible for the parental genes and the upbringing that leads us to make our choices. God is in charge of these things.
It is quite humbling to realise that we are not as free as we like to think we are. We like to congratulate ourselves on the good things we do, and blame nature or nurture or others or something else for the bad things. It can be liberating to submit to God and realise that even our coming to him is the work of his Spirit in us.
The archway
The archway is a very simple way of looking at this whole issue. Before you become a Christian you see one side of the archway, above which we read “Come unto me, you that are carrying your heavy loads”. When you go through, you see above the arch on the other side, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”.
What you must never do is worry about whether or not you are one of those whom God has chosen, or whether or not somebody else is or is not. That is in the mystery of God. in our experience it would appear that some believe and then fall away. Only God knows how real their faith was in the first place.
For the same reasons it would be wrong to give up witnessing to others with the attitude, if God has chosen them, they will become Christians anyway. Prayer is also part of this mystery. We believe God works through our prayers as part of his overall plan.
And what becomes of assurance? Can you ever be sure that God has predestined you? I think Jesus and Paul would say “yes”, if you are showing the fruit in your life, “yes”, if your life shows that you are gradually becoming more like Jesus, “yes”, if you are doing what Peter says in 2 Peter 1:5-11 to make your calling and election sure. But it’s a process and is somewhat elusive. It’s all to do with an ongoing relationship with God in Jesus.
We must never forget what God has chosen us for, to be holy and do good, to become more like Jesus.
Derek Cheeseman
July 2004
See also
The Bible is full of inaccuracies and inconsistencies
