So the matter of Predestination and free will is something that I have been thinking about a lot as of late and I figured I would share some of my thoughts with whatever readers I may have. The issue of not that either one of them is necessarily true, I think most Christians will agree on the fact that we have free will, but the issue of how does that coincide, if at all, with the doctrine of Predestination.
Predestination is the theological idea of God having chosen his people ahead of time. In other words, there are certain people who have been predestined to go to Heaven. Some people have defined it as God controlling every little detail that ever happens. In a sense, this is true because God is in control, however, the way that it has often been interpreted is not exactly correct. For instance, we look at natural disasters. It is not that God CAUSED it to happen, God did not send a natural disaster to happen, but he is still in control. Its a difficult to really grasp, but there is a difference. He is in control so he is able to fix situations, but he does not cause bad things to happen. Sidenote: scripture does tell us he works out all for good though and we should keep that in mind. We may not always see the good in the situation or even see the good come later, but we know that God is keeping that promise.
ANYWAY, I have been struggling lately with how if God has predestined certain people to go to Heaven and others to go somewhere else, how does free will play into that? And you may say, well why do they have to fit in with each other? Well, I will answer that by saying that I definitely believe that predestination and free will both exist and are true at least to an extent. My reasoning for this is simple: scripture says so. Multiple places for both actually. If you want to know anything about predestination, check out any book in the new testament, especially something written by Paul. Genesis will tell you all about the free will stuff. I will give you a couple verses at the end too.
The problem that I have encountered is mostly with our eternal life, or our life after our flesh passes away. If some of our predestined to go to Heaven, then our choosing to follow Jesus is not really our choice at all. Or is it? I don't really understand that, and I am not afraid to admit that I have no idea how that works, but maybe talking this out will help at least me understand more even if you think I am an idiot. Also, I have been presented with a theological view of something called prevenient grace. This kind of grace, to the best of my understanding is the idea that God's grace is so big that no matter what we choose in life, no matter how we live our lives or what religion we follow, that grace and love is strong enough to let everyone into Heaven still. That is something I struggle with. That is hard for me because Jesus preached that to get to the Father, he is the way, the truth and the life, no one gets to the Father except through him. So how then if people don't go through Jesus, would they still spend eternity in Heaven. I do believe that God is that loving, but in being so loving, I also believe that he is just and keeps ALL of his promises, even the promises of us being rewarded for doing what he has asked. He promises eternal life to those who follow him, not to EVERYONE. He does want everyone to end up in Heaven, but in that, he wants everyone to get to Heaven the way that he intended, by following Jesus and giving our lives to him.
Another thing with this seemingly conflicting set of theologies is this: if we are predestined to go to one or the other, then choosing Jesus isn't really our choice at all, we were destined to choose Christ. The same goes for the opposite. If we have free will, we should be able to choose to NOT have Christ in our lives and therefore choose to not spend eternity in Heaven. Why anyone would choose that, I have no idea, but by definition, free will allows that. Free will by pure definition gives us the choice to choose the alternative apart from God. If prevenient grace is true, then we again don't really have free will. God is forcing us into Heaven. That would not be a bad thing, but again to stress that if prevenient grace is true, then to my understanding, either it or free will are not true. The more likely case is that like most theological things, we can not ever fully understand these things about God. He never will fully make sense. That's ok though, he is still good and we know that he loves us and that if we follow Christ and accept Christ into our hearts, we will be redeemed and given eternal life in Heaven with him.
This is creating quite a conflict within my mind/heart and I am sure that you probably are either frustrated, annoyed, or confused with me now. When it comes down to it though, I think that a preacher I heard this week described it very well. He said that the only sure way to Heaven given to us in scripture is through Christ, but that doesn't mean that God CAN'T allow others in. Maybe there are Buddists or Muslims or Jews in Heaven, but the Bible does not give us any assurance on that. The only thing we know FOR SURE is that people who are in Christ and have Christ in their hearts are definitely going to spend eternity in paradise. As for the rest, that is up to God. We will find out how that works when we get there.
I hope that at least one sentence out of all this made sense to you and that God spoke to you through me in at least one word. Keep in mind that this is only my opinion and my process that I am going through of working out theological issues that don't make sense to me and most other people. Me writing about it is me trying to explain it to myself and also to present to you something that may be a way for God to help you understand it as well. That doesn't necessarily mean I am right, or even that I am dead set in believing that I am right. I could very well be wrong, but this subject is something I struggle with and both sides make sense to me and don't at the same time all the while I believe that both doctrines are true and supplement each other and work together to make God the awesome God that he is as well as making his creation (us) the most beautiful thing in history. I pray that you all find this inspired by God and that he speaks to you in it rather than seeing my brokenness and idiocy in it. Stay safe and keep praying. I love you all.
