“Predestination” or “Free Will”?
Regarding “predestination” versus “free will”:
I am 81 years old, and have been studying both the Scriptures and Church history rather intensely for a bit over 60 years now. One of the less attractive features of our human nature that I have observed is that we humans tend to want simple answers that do not demand too much of our naturally lazy instincts.
Both Augustinian’s/Calvinists (or the original Luther) as well as the more numerous Arminians are guilty of that natural laziness!
I grew up an Arminian Methodist, and could easily undertand those Scriptural passages that held me responsible for making the right decisions about God – those passages felt “natural” to me. Over the decades I have gotten to know a number of people who have grown up Calvinist from childhood – they were fed on Romans 7-9 (and similar passages) day after day and year after year. For them the idea came to feel “natural” that people who are “DEAD” in sin and “BLINDED” by the power of the God of this world, simply CANNOT abandon the overpowering strength of “the world, the flesh and the devil” in order to even draw NEAR to God, let alone surrender their trust and obedience to Him – not unless HE reverses the natural course of their lives and makes it possible.
Both positions are relatively simple and easy to understand – as long as you feel free to select which group of God-revealed passages you are going to admit into your thinking.
LAAAZY!!!
In inspiring His apostolic writings, God did not reveal a theological MENU: pick one from “column a” OR one from “column b”. Yet both historical Augustinians/Calvinists and the currently far more numerous Arminians are treating the revelation of God as if it IS a menu. They both find one set of passages to be clear and definitive while those “other” passages have to be “tweaked” out of their natural sense before being allowed into their thinking. Both are guilty of ignoring Paul’s warning in 2 Timothy 2: ” 14 Remind [them] of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.”
“Rightly dividing” God’s passages does not mean dividing them AGAINST one another!
Some truths are rather simple to understand. For example, the answer to “Can I beat my wife?” is a “no brainer,” and a simple “no” will suffice.
But some of God’s truths are NOT simple to undertand, and require gathering many relevant passages together before you can draw a proper conclusion. Both the lazy Arminians and the lazy Calvinists are practicing what Peter warned us against in 2 Peter 3: “.. our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things HARD TO UNDERSTAND, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. “
You Arminians accept Peter’s warning as if it is the CALVINISTS who are doing the twisting. You Calvinists accept Peter’s warning as if it is the ARMINIANS who are doing the twisting. But you are BOTH doing it!
In a recent catechism of Biblical Christianity that was published last year, I have presented an understanding that (I believe) honors ALL of what God has revealed.** There may well be other ways of presenting the issue that are not guilty of that “twisting.” But we must honor ALL of God’s revelation with the same simplicity and passion, with no “tweaking” allowed! The heart of the problem lies in the ignorance of what our God means by our “being saved.”
[** Blueprint for a Revolution: Building Upon ALL of the New Testament, WestbowPress.com; two volumes]
