Predestination vs. Free Will...

For those of you who don’t know, Hover is my favorite Atheist…..and I do say that respectfully. He has utmost respect for our beliefs and a knack of sharing his without making me feel defensive or slamming God, so this blog is in response to his answer yesterday. That being said, trying to explain the mind of God is impossible. I have read many commentaries on this topic in my own search for answers, and some things are just accepted by Christians because He says so…..similar to when a child wants to argue either for lack of understanding or because they don’t want to do something and we resort to “Because I said so”…..so for what it’s worth here are my opinions on predestination vs. free will….

First of all, I like a quote I found, although there was no name attached:

“The difference between predestination and free will is: “Predestination is the hand you were dealt; free will is what you do with that hand.”

I’ve seen debate on this being an either or situation, and can’t help but consider how it applied to Jesus Himself. His fate according to Isaiah 53:5 was predetermined, God knew what would happen and gave that information to the prophets, such as Isaiah, centuries in advance---still Jesus had the free will to sacrifice himself on the cross according to John 10:18.


I don’t agree that man can choose God. Since it is His will that none should perish, I believe that man can only choose to reject God. His heart is for all to come to know Him, so the predestination part is that He died (willingly) to pave the way for all to know Him.

This is what I know:

1) The work has already been done at the Cross
2) God left us His helper when He ascended, the Spirit
3) He is already among men, the choice is whether or not you are going to deny Him


God will not force man to repent and believe because man can resist and suppress the grace and salvation that has been offered.

That being said Hov, there are scripture that refer to Judas and the condition of his heart. Could it be possible that an all-knowing God knows that one will choose to not to choose Christ and give Him the liberty of using evil for His glory as well? I say yes.

Again, with Adam & Eve, I’m sure God knew their choice, therefore also paved the way to make a bridge between Him and humanity because His desire to save humanity is stronger than His grief over their poor choices. In perfect love there has to be free will…

As far as the 911 bombers are concerned, the god they chose to serve led them down that path. I don’t want to get off topic by going into how they would be able to choose Christ because of their geographical location…..another time, another blog……but I do believe every man hears the truth, every man is given the choice.

I’m going to end with a quote from Thomas Oden, who wrote The Living God:


“Human reasoning begins with a fundamental trust in it’s own power of reasoning. Although at times the senses may deceive, the only way we can grasp those deceptions is on the basis of the larger assumption of the intelligibility of things and the trustworthiness of the inquiring mind in seeing deception. Descartes rightly reasoned that the one thing he could not possibly doubt was that he had the capacity to doubt. If I can doubt my own thoughts, I must be able to think, to inquire, to examine, to criticize…..and these functions could not work without both an intelligible world and a perceiving intelligence.”

Rational people have the sense of right and wrong, which to me is an indication that the Holy Spirit is among them. Even when you look and barbarians and nomads you see signs of morality come into play when they leave previous uncivilized customs for more peaceful means…..When that happens, I believe the Holy Spirit is at work and has gained a victory over sin in His mission to draw all men to Himself.