Predestination and Free Will: Taking the Bible Literally

Predestination and Free Will: taking the Bible literally

When it comes to the classic question of predestination and free will, the Bible presents us with a strange situation. It teaches us a set of truths that don’t seem capable of all being true at the same time. In fact, the Bible does this with other questions. So what are the Biblical truths I am speaking of?

Truth 1:

God wants everyone to be saved.

Truth 2:

God chooses people to be saved.

Truth 3:

Only some people are saved.

Each of these are truths taught by the Bible. But it doesn’t seem that each of them can be at the same time. What people do to resolve this is pretend that the Bible doesn’t actually teach one of them. They simply take the passages that teach the one they want to reject and pull out every trick in the book. This way they can make the passage say something other than what it clearly says. So let’s take a look at how this basic idea works.

Let’s say that you ignore 1 and accept 2 and 3. That leads to the conclusion that God chooses people to be saved, but the people who aren’t saved are the ones that God didn’t choose. God would choose some to be saved and others aren’t saved because God didn’t choose them. The problem with this view is that the Bible very plainly and clearly teaches 1.

So let’s say that you ignore 3 and accept 1 and 2. That leads to the conclusion that everyone is saved because God wants everyone to be saved. And the problem with this view is that the Bible very plainly and clearly teaches 3.

So is there a way to take all three of them literally? Well there is a simple way. It’s not that difficult really. You can think of salvation like a marriage. The husband chooses the wife. But the wife also chooses the husband. They aren’t married just because one of them makes the choice. Both of them have to make the choice.

So is the issue resolved? Not quite. There is another set of Biblical truths to consider.

Truth 4

God chooses people according to His foreknowledge.

Here the problem is that God chooses people before they choose Him. So the question is, if God already knows that we will choose Him, then did we really choose Him? A person’s future choice is already set in stone according to God’s foreknowledge and God’s prior choice of that person. So the person could not possibly choose anything other than to be saved. It doesn’t really seem like the person has a choice in the matter. Therefore the concept of a marriage wouldn’t apply.

But this too isn’t really a problem. There is another truth.

Truth 5

Time works differently for God.

This one is usually less familiar. So let’s take a look at a few specific passages. The first are written by Moses.

Psalm 90: 4 A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.

So we could read this and think that God is just really old and really patient. Perhaps God doesn’t think of a thousand years as a long time. But the passage could mean that the difference in time doesn’t matter to God. It could mean that a thousand years and a day are the same thing to God. Let’s look earlier in the same passage.

Psalm 90: 2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

There are some logical issues to think about here. If God has been God from an infinite past, then how long did God wait to create the world? If God waited an infinite amount of time to create the world, then God waited forever. If God waited forever, then God never created the world? Or what if God counted one number each morning. But in the afternoon God counted two numbers. So on the first day, the morning count was one. But the afternoon count was two. So by the seventh day, the morning number was seven. But the afternoon number was fourteen. In other words, the afternoon number is always double the morning number. After an infinite number of days has passed, then what is the morning number and what is the afternoon number? Both of them must be infinity. But how can they be the same?

The only logical solution is to say that an infinite number of days has not passed. But hasn’t God existed forever? Isn’t that what everlasting means? Again, what if a day literally is a thousand years for God? For that to be the case there would be no difference in the amount of time between the two. In other words, it would have to take the same amount of time for God if a thousand years passed by or if a day passed by. But how can a day or a thousand years both be the same amount of time? If we look at Psalm 90, it’s clear that time moves slowly for us, but quickly for God. The passage describes an entire human lifetime as a very brief amount of time to God.

Imagine if time moved very quickly. If time moved quickly, then a thousand years would pass by very quickly. But then a day would pass by even faster than that. So a day wouldn’t be the same as a thousand years. The only way for a day to be the same as a thousand years is if you move through time with infinite speed. In this way, it would take no time to move through any amount of time. In fact, God would be at the beginning of the day and the end of the day at the same time. In this way, God would be present at all moments of time at the same time. In other words, God would be omnipresent in time.

It appears that Peter takes the same view.

2 Peter 3: Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

Notice that Peter doesn’t simply say that a day is like a thousand years as Psalm 90 did. Peter goes further to say that a thousand years are like one day. This passage makes the same point even more plainly. So this passage says that a thousand years passes by very quickly for God. But it also says that a day passes by very slowly for God. This text explicitly tells us that time works very differently for God. Again, if God is at all times at the same time, then all moments are eternally present for God. And so Peter’s point makes perfect sense.

Paul even comments on the matter.

2 Timothy 1 9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

So God gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time? Let’s pretend that time began a hundred years ago. So how long ago was the time before that when God would have given us grace? We could say that it was something like 105 years ago. But if that’s the case, then time was already passing before the beginning of time. In other words, the beginning of time cannot have an earlier moment. There is no time before there is the beginning of time itself. Paul is also telling us plainly that God exists somehow outside of how time works for us.

Jesus even says something about this in one of His debates with the Jews.

John 8: 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say “Before Abraham was born, I was.” Rather, Jesus claims to literally be present at the time before Abraham was born. So Jesus claims time works differently for Him. The Jews recognize this as a blasphemous claim. Here it’s important to understand that the name for God given to Moses is literally translated as, “I am.” So the very name for God is interpreted here as explaining that God is present at all times at the same time. God would be existing in an eternal “now.”

If this is the case, then God chooses us at the same time that we choose Him. God would be choosing us before we are even born. But God would also be choosing us at the same time that we choose God because both times are the same time for God. They might be different times for us. But God would foreknow that we would choose Him later. This is because for God we are presently choosing Him. Therefore God could choose us and we could choose Him.

Now we may prefer to stop at this point. But there is a further Biblical truth to consider.

Truth 6

God is all powerful.

This truth is very familiar to most people. In fact Psalm 90 makes this point as well as numerous passages. No one can defy the authority of God. But if we do a bit of theological reasoning, this actually raises a conundrum for us. Does God control what we do? God is all powerful right? But then God would control everything, including what every we choose to do. This question is touching on a couple bigger ones.

Truth 7

Evil exists.

Truth 8

God is perfectly good.

So how can a good God control everything if evil thing happens? God is not the author of evil. But this isn’t the biggest problem though. We could be responsible for evil. Human choices could be where evil comes from. But God could be allowing us to make good or evil choices. Thus since we are only able to do what we are allowed to do, then God is still in control. As much as you might want this question to be done and dealt with here. There is a bit more to do. We have to do a bit more theological reasoning.

What about God’s knowledge? Does God control what God knows? Does God find out about our future choices through God’s foreknowledge? But then God would be learning what we choose from us and we would be able to have some control over God’s knowledge. And God wouldn’t be allowing it.

But then, maybe God would be allowing it? Would God allow us to make future choices after He finds out about them through His foreknowledge? Or would God allow us to make future choices because He allowed it before He finds out about it through His foreknowledge? Hopefully the issue here is clear at this point. God would be allowing it at the exact same moment that we make the choice. So God could prevent us from making the choice, but would be allowing us to make the choice at exactly the same moment that we make the choice.

Let’s draw a rather straightforward conclusion here. Predestination and Free Will are a basic Biblical issue. We can take all of the great truths taught by the Bible literally. We don’t have to water down some passage and pick a one of the foundational doctrines of Christianity to reject. Rather, we can accept them all.

Appendix A:

You may find that Mormons raise an objection to Christianity that can be solved with this issue of time. Sometimes they object to the idea that God doesn’t change. Their view is that God was once a man and achieved His Godhood. So they object to a God who doesn’t change. They prove their view by saying that God became incarnated as Jesus Christ. So God changed right? Before that God wasn’t Jesus. After the incarnation, God was in human form as Jesus Christ. Hopefully now you understand that this isn’t a problem. From God’s perspective, the moment of incarnation as well as all other moments are eternal. All moments would be eternal from God’s perspective.

Appendix B:

Original Sin

A totally separate question is the issue of original sin. Let’s examine this question using our system of focusing in on a few specific unshakable truths.

1)God is perfectly good.

2)Humans are in need of help from God to obey God.

3)Humans commit sins.

Hopefully all of these truths are uncontroversial enough that we can dispense with proving them Biblically or Theologically.

If you accept 1 and 2 and ignore 3, then you would conclude that God simply makes all humans follow Him. If you accept 2 and 3 but ignore 1, then you would accept that God simply leaves some humans in Sin and helps others. If you accept 1 and 3 but ignore 2, then you would have a salvation by trying hard to be a good person. This is the justification by works that Paul attacked so much.

Fortunately, the resolution to taking all three of these truths literally in the strongest possible sense of each isn’t super difficult. God would not merely be perfectly good. God would be the anchor and foundation of goodness itself. As 1 John says, God is love. We could add that God is righteousness, forgiveness, honesty, justice, etc. Therefore, we can draw a conclusion.

To be perfectly good you must do everything God does.

Doing everything God does means thinking everything God thinks.

Humans cannot know all that God knows.

Therefore it is impossible for humans to be perfectly good.

To say this another way, God is identical with perfect goodness. You must be exactly like God to be perfectly good. You must respond to each and every situation exactly in the way that God does. But we cannot even know of all situations. There are moral questions that we cannot comprehend. For example, if a certain molecule bashes another in the early universe, then this will cause some effect on something. That something will cause some other effect and so on. Eventually this might cause the Plague to wipe out half of humanity in the middle ages. But this led to the move from feudal serfdom to free peasantry as the labor shortage increased the demand for workers. This was a key step in the modern development of concepts of freedom. So was it a good thing or a bad thing? In the large picture, only God can know such things.

But being perfectly good means being exactly like God. Therefore there must always be depths of morality which elude us. There are good choices God makes which we cannot begin to comprehend. For example, a toddler may have the moral virtue of obeying her father and not eating a chocolate chip cookie without permission. But she cannot fathom the moral virtue of raising a daughter with care and denying that daughter the joy of the cookie for the sake of training in obedience. To be perfectly good is to do all the good things which God does. Since virtuousness must be connected to knowledge, then humans can never be morally perfect.

All of this doesn’t apply to situations where humans knew the morals. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge. They were also naked, which was wrong. But they cannot be judged as immoral for wearing for no clothes. They had no idea it was wrong until they ate from the tree. While they did know not to eat from the tree, they didn’t know they needed clothes. But can we really say that they were morally perfect when they were doing the wrong things unintentionally? The fundamental thing to understand here is that there is a difference between moral perfection and innocence. Adam and Eve were innocent before they fell, not perfect.

A fun question to ask Calvinists is where evil comes from. If they say that humans are responsible, then that means humans have the choice to choose good or evil. Usually they just say humans are responsible but they don’t have a choice, which is a meaningless word salad. Sometimes people run like the wind to avoid admitting their views are wrong. On some occasions, they will say that Adam’s sin in the garden causes them to sin. This of course raises a simple follow up question. If Adam can have free will and choose to sin or not, then why can’t I? They are forced to say that it could have been that way but just so happens not to be that way.

This still leaves more questions. How is it that we have no freedom to choose good or evil purely based on one simple choice? Billions of humans have lived and have made a wide variety of evil choices? How does one evil choice really cause such a huge and differing group of choices? How are some people murderers and others only guilty of credit card fraud?

A larger moral question is why God would punish all humanity for something they had no control over. Why not punish Adam? But when you think about it, wouldn’t we all really be Adam? For if his one choice directly causes all later human choices, then we may as well be parts of his body. Are you and I like Adam’s fingers simply animated by the choices of his mind! In that case Adam is really you and you don’t really exist. Thus only one person exists, Adam. Thus all humans, which is only Adam with many fingers, have free choice and are responsible for original sin. An alternative to this is to simply say that all humans are born with free will and each person just so happens to choose to sin. Either way, it isn’t a problem for the factual reality of free will. Either one free willed man exists and freely chose to be evil, or else billions of men and women have done exactly the same thing.

But what about now? Doesn’t God has to help us obey Him? So are we really free to choose between good and evil?

Adam and Eve ate from a tree of knowledge. By being their children, we all would have this knowledge. As Paul says in Romans 2, all humans are born conscious of good and evil. Paul also adds that Jews who have scriptures from God know more than the average person. But every person knows something. Nonetheless, having this knowledge means that humans are aware of the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do. Paul’s point is that everyone is therefore aware of their own failure to be good.

Of course the Bible does say that sin is in some way controlling and that we need God’s help to obey God. The funny thing here is that the problem is that old concept of time. When it comes to God’s predestination, we saw that we tend to think in terms of time when we should really think beyond it. But when it comes to human sinful nature, we tend to neglect time when we should include it. This problem can really be solved if we think of the sinful nature as a thing that grows with time.

It’s finally time to state this simply and move to weightier subjects. Humans are born innocent, but not morally perfect. We are aware of some parts of God’s moral law. God’s word reveals more, but never all of it. All humans sin, which Paul also says in Romans. And all humans freely choose to sin.

Now let’s make it heavier. This choice to sin is like an infection that will take over our wills. We will eventually choose more and more sin over time. While we may also make good choices, the problem is that we have used our human freedom to both hate God and love God. If God intends for us to have any freedom at all, then we must have control over something or else we control nothing. The love of God can never be a recognition of all that God is but only how much we know at that time. The hatred of God is based in denial of who God is and is really ignorance in a sense. Thus the conflicting choices will always result in us growing further and further from God. This is because the good choices were only made with a limited degree of knowledge of God. But willful ignorance is simply done against knowledge. If you love the simple things, then you may reject the deeper things. But if you reject the simple things, then you won’t like that which is build upon them. Thus the hatred of goodness itself (God) will grow over time. This is because we have the freedom to control our own thoughts and wishes. Eventually our earlier choices will pile up and form a character and nature that cannot be overcome. The inner desires have to be changed for us to even want to be good.

Therefore anyone who sins is in a sort of death spiral that must have help if it is to be resolved. Therefore we do all need God’s help to get out of this impending doom. But it doesn’t mean that we have no freedom to make good choices here and there. And we can really want to do the right thing at those times. The key issue to understand there is that moral perfection requires full knowledge of all that God knows. Because of this, the only answer is that we cannot be totally sinful or righteous at first. We only make these choices based on what we know at the time. And at any given later time, there is still more for us to learn. Therefore, all choices to be good or bad must be choices for what we want to love and follow. And given that we have some control because we have free will, then earlier choices must dictate later choices. Eventually, we would go beyond some point of any possibility of change and become eternally further and further away from God.

Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden and thereby from the presence of God. In fact the broken relationship with God was actually apparent before they were exiled. Like Adam, it is us who have run from God. God enters the Garden of our lives and finds us hiding from Him. It is only through accepting what He offers which can restore the broken condition and death spiral that is present in our souls.