All this happened so they would follow his decrees and obey his instructions. Psalm 105:45
Doctrine
(what you believe about what you value) can be tricky, and it runs a wide path
through culture; as wide as the different opinions in a church meeting on what
color the new carpet in the foyer ought to be.
From this
one text in Psalms it is easy to see why some people imagine the doctrine of
predestination to mean God moves people around in despotic manner – they have
little or no choice about the outcome of their lives; God’s plan is final, and
that’s it! While that is a supra-fatalistic
view of God’s intervention in human existence, the polar-opposite doctrine has
God in a hands-off mode. That was a
doctrine quite popular a few generations ago.
The picture is of God, the Creator, once having made the universe and
all it holds, somewhat like a master clock-maker assembles a grandfather clock,
the final move being to gently push the pendulum to get things started, now
takes His hands off the masterpiece and lets it run as it will, for good, bad,
or indifferent.
This is
essentially the debate which has been carried on since Job sat in ashes and
grief over the misery in his life, while his three friends tried to force their
theology on the sufferer. The question
hasn’t been settled throughout the formation of Jewish understanding, nor the
last two thousand years of Christian discipleship. It’s a wide space between the fringes of God
totally ignoring us as opposed to God holding us so tight that we have no say
in the matter. Is it free will, or
frozen-stiff in God’s will? Here is the
Apostle Paul’s signature verse on the topic:
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. Romans 8:28-30
My
theological understanding, after puzzling the jumble of thoughts on this issue
the last 50+ years, is somewhere near the middle of the fringes. It would be hard to keep a straight face and
say there’s no such thing as free will; there are too many if’s, but’s, and
perhaps passages in Holy Scripture to deny human will is autonomous, a
free-agent, so-to-speak. It would be
equally naïve (or a downright assault on truth) to declare that our human autonomous
will is not influenced, and ultimately accountable-to God’s will. He is, after all, the Sovereign God, Who
created us!
So, do we
have free will? Or are our lives
predestined? Well, in a word, YES!
Now, before
you start planning my execution for taking the 5th,
and bailing on this little question, I really do mean “yes” – both are
real. We do have free will, and God, in
His sovereign will, has some wonderful plans for our lives He will bring about.
And that works the way I heard Dr. Herschel Hobbs describe it as he led us in a small group Bible study in 1979. He said[1]:
Predestination works like an election. God and the devil are having a dispute over
your soul. The devil casts his vote to
destroy every part of who you are. The
Lord casts His vote to redeem you and give you eternal life with Him in
glory. It’s one-fer, one-ag’n; the
election’s a tie. And the only way to
settle it is YOU get to cast the tie-breaking vote!
Not bad
theology for a country boy with a PhD!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today. Have a blessed day!
Title image Pixabay.com ∞ Unless
noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another posts on Psalm 145 see: Telling the Story
[1]
Dr. Hobbs (1907-1995) was a Baptist scholar, and speaker on the Baptist Hour
radio program. The quote is as close to
verbatim as my memory allows, but the gist and understanding are still clear as
a fire bell ringing
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