by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #118 posted September 2, 2020, edited March 10, 2021.
Can divine ordination and individual free will be reconciled?
The Holy Scriptures indicate that God the Father designed Universe and wrote its script before God-the-Son spoke it into existence and God-the-Holy Spirit energized it and gave life to its flora and fauna. That means that God preordained every aspect of and every happening in Universe before he created it.
Yet we humans believe that we have free will – that is, that we are free to choose what to think, say, or do.
The apparent contradiction between the two observations above disappears with the realization that the human story is a drama which has been authored by God-the-Father and is being produced and directed by God-the-Son with the help of God-the-Holy Spirit.
Let’s compare God’s drama of Creation and Shakespeare’s drama of Othello, which share a number of features.
In God’s drama, God-the-Son, Israel’s Messiah, is the protagonist, Satan is the antagonist, and Messiah’s Bride is the point of contention between them. Satan is evil and trying to drive a wedge between the future husband and wife and thereby spoil or even prevent their planned marriage. Within this story, everyone possesses free will. Yet the drama is unfolding exactly according to God-the-Father’s script.
In Shakespeare’s drama, Othello is the protagonist, Iago is the antagonist, and Othello’s bride Desdemona is the point of contention between them. Iago is trying to drive a wedge between husband and wife and spoil their existing marriage. Within this story, everyone possesses free will. Yet the drama is unfolding exactly according to Shakespeare’s script.
There are two major reasons why so many Christians have trouble with predestination.
First, they read Biblical passages like “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall be saved” (John 3:16) and “…God is love” (KJV 1 John 4:7), and they believe that God loves everybody. In doing so, they ignore the depth of God’s anger over and hatred toward sin and sinners, which is expressed in Biblical passages such as the following: “…you [God] hate all sinners” (KJV Psalms 5:5), “…God is angry with the wicked every day” (KJV Psalms 7:11) “…the wicked and him that loveth violence, his [God’s] soul hateth” (KJV Psalms 11:5), and “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth” (KJV Psalms 34:16). God is both perfect love and perfect judgment, which requires perfect justice – something that only he can provide. Thus God himself became a man, Jesus of Nazareth, lived a sinless life, and died on the cross at Golgotha to satisfy for all time the intersection between these two divine attributes – perfect love and perfect judgment.
Second, in reading 2 Peter 3:9, they ignore its context and thus misunderstand what it is all about. It says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (KJV). Here Peter is writing to steadfast believers who have been complaining that the Lord had promised to return soon, but had not yet done so. Peter is pointing out to them that many people whose name are written in the Father’s Book of Life have not yet come into the Kingdom (that was over 1,900 years ago). Jesus will not return until all persons whom the Father has predestined to repent of their sins and accept Israel’s Messiah as their Lord and Savior have done so, for God is not willing that any of them perish. According to the drama’s script, none of them will perish.[1]
The lesson here is that we Christians must keep a nuanced view of the world in accordance with everything that the Bible actually says about it.
© 2020 John Holbrook Jr.
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[1] See article by Moreno Dal Bello – http://godsonlygospel.com/booklets/not_willing_that_any_should_perish.htm