The Will to Choose

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates?  Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live?  But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15

Albert Einstein gave an interview in 1929 in which he shared some of his personal philosophy, including a human being’s will:

"I am a determinist.  As such, I do not believe in free will.  The Jews believe in free will.  They believe that man shapes his own life.  I reject that doctrine philosophically.  In that respect I am not a Jew… I believe with Schopenhauer:  We can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must.  Practically, I am, nevertheless, compelled to act is if freedom of the will existed.  If I wish to live in a civilized community, I must act as if man is a responsible being.  I claim credit for nothing.  Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control.  It is determined for the insect as well as for the star.  Human being, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to an invisible tune, intoned in the distance by a mysterious player.”[1]

I am certainly no match for the likes of Albert Einstein; I have trouble enough keeping up with my grandchildren.  On the other hand, being an individual, I strongly believe I possess the choice to agree (or not) with his philosophy.

Einstein’s deterministic view of human free will borders closely on a religiously hyper-Calvinistic version of irresistable grace, where God has pre-ordained who will be saved, and we have no choice in that matter…or anything else.  On this point I have to take issue, as I believe Scripture already does:

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  2 Corinthians 3:17

Einstein was born a Jew, yet held the full expression of that heritage at arm’s length, choosing a rather sad and hollow deterministic view of life’s meaning and purpose.  Yet, as Christians belive, the image of God, stamped upon his soul, cannot utterly deny the mysterious player of the invisible tune to which he gives place in that interview.  It’s my belief that crack in Einstein’s systematic theology of an imposed will by the hidden tune-player (God) demonstrates something of a humility to admit he doesn’t know everything.

If, as Scripture indicates[2], there is a beginning and an ending which God has pre-determined, and, behind the scenes is orchestrating, there is certainly room for human free will to exist.  What Scripture tells us is God’s sovereign will is determinative…the beginning of things created in 6 days, and the ending of things a re-creation of Paradise.  That does leave the meantime, the middle of things, in which we live, move, and have our being.  If we are to hold Scripture objectively, without prejudice, God gives us this moment to “determine” by our volitional choice where we will be when the cosmic dust settles.

For You Today 

The bottom line is the coming judgment of God.  If all were set-in-stone, determined without room for choice, where would be the grace of God?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Following the Truth  and  Listening Carefully  

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] In an article Albert Einstein by Lotte Jacobi

[2] In Revelation 22:13 Jesus says: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

Parable Promises

[i]

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God?  What story should I use to illustrate it?  It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground.  It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.”  Jesus used many similar stories and illustrations to teach the people as much as they could understand.  In fact, in his public ministry he never taught without using parables; but afterward, when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them.  Mark 4:30-34^(NLT)

Even the universe was tiny at one time.  The big bang theory suggests[ii] that part of the universe we know, with all the planets, stars and other heavenly bodies, was merely the size of an atom before God said to it:  Get a move-on!  Then the explosion began and, scientists tell us, the cosmos has been expanding ever since at the rate of about 41 miles per second.  So the universe gets bigger by the length of about 700 football fields laid end to end every time you draw a breath.

Scientific string theory was not yet common knowledge when Jesus taught his disciples about the Kingdom; I’m glad…I think I can understand a mustard seed growing into a shade tree with bird’s nests…I think! 

If you noticed the (almost) throwaway line at the end of Mark’s text, you see that Jesus explained everything to the disciples at the end of the day when they were alone.  I’m glad the disciples were like me, with Jesus having to draw pictures so they’d understand.  To tell you the truth, my mind hurts when I go deeper into theories and systems.  Elizabeth and I watched a mini-series on the life of Albert Einstein this spring; even that TV show badgered my sensibilities with the complicated dialogue of physicists throwing technical terms and concepts back and forth at each other like intelligence missiles. 

So…keeping it simple (like Jesus did)…the mustard seed is also very small.  It also grows really fast, and really big – big enough for a bird to build a nest.

If the Kingdom of God is like that, we can begin to understand why, from a small gathering of Jesus-followers in an upper room there blossomed a church of 3,000+ on the Day of Pentecost, and it spread all over the East and West, until the Gospel is now being preached in every corner of the world.

That’s the promise of the parable. 

For You Today

If the soil receives a mustard seed, it will turn into a tree; a really big tree. 

If a human being embraces the Kingdom of God within the soil of his own life, think what growth can take place like an atom exploding to become a universe!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title Image: By Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Cosmoquest Forum