A Methodist's take on predestination and free will

October 21, 12:48 AMMethodist ExaminerJames-Michael Smith

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Predestination or Free Will...how does Scripture handle the topic?

A question about predestination  [This question once posed by a friend in a discussion on theology]:

I don't mean to get too abstract too quickly, but this is a question that seems to come up a lot, and I am not very confident in my thought process. Basically, it's concerning predestination.

For those who are not familiar with the terminology, my understanding of predestination is as follows:

God ultimately has a plan for humanity and the world. In order for His plan to be carried out perfectly, certain people must do certain things so that necessary events may take place.

I'm sorry if that is faulty or unbiblical. That is simply my best understanding based on various teaching and reading i've absorbed. But back to the question:

If God has a perfect plan for humanity, in which certain events and actions are an integral part, how do we reconcile these predetermined phenomena with our free will to act?

Or in simpler terms, "If God has decided what happens already, when do we get to decide?"  Hope my question is clear enough.

Peace,

J

Great question, indeed!  And before I even begin, let me say to my many Calvinist/Reformed friends that I have much respect for Reformed theology (especially after studying under some excellent Reformed professors in seminary and reading Calvin's "Institutes" myself)...However, I do believe that much classical Reformed soteriology is built upon some unnecessary presuppositions which lead to faulty hermeneutics (If you don't know what any of what I just said means, then don't worry about it...this is just a little disclaimer for my fellow Bible nerds!)

So, first of all, let me give two quick definitions to key terms that are involved in this discussion:

Predestination: "The sovereign determination and foreknowledge of God. Some theologians connect divine predestination with the central events of salvation history, especially the death of Jesus as foreordained by God. In Calvinist theology the doctrine of predestination more specifically holds that God has from all eternity chosen specific people to bring into eternal communion with himself. Some Calvinists add that God has also predestined (or ordained) the rest of humankind for damnation."

Sovereignty: "The biblical concept of God's kingly, supreme rule and legal authority over the entire universe. God's sovereignty is expressed, exercised and displayed in the divine plan for and outworking of salvation history. Divine sovereignty is emphasized especially in the Augustinian-Calvinist tradition, where it is paradoxically contrasted with human responsibility."

[From: Grenz, Stanley, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999.]

Keeping those definitions in mind, the question can be rephrased as follows:

"How can God be sovereign over everything, including who comes to faith in Him, and yet human beings truly have free will?"

First of all, there are Christians who simply believe that "Free Will" is an illusion and that everything, including our thoughts, desires, and actions, are pre-determined by God to occur exactly as they occur in history. This view is called Determinism and is more in line with traditional Islamic theology rather than Biblical theology.

I believe, however, that any type of Christian Determinism is based not so much on the Biblical texts, but rather on philosophical assumptions.  Scripture plainly teaches that humans have the ability to genuinely choose many of their thoughts, actions, or behavior patterns. Simply look at all the times in Scripture where the command to choose is given [the following passages can be quickly found online in a number of translations, such as here]:

Exod 12:5; 17:9; 34:16;

Num 14:4; 17:5;

Deut 1:13; 16:6; 30:19;

Josh 3:12; 4:2; 1 Sam 17:8;

2 Sam 17:1;

1 Kgs 18:23, 25;

2 Kgs 10:3;

Ps 65:4; 75:2; 78:67;

Prov 3:31; 8:10; 16:16;

Isa 7:15f; 66:4;

Jer 33:26;

Ezek 33:2;

Hos 8:4;

John 15:16;

Acts 6:3; 15:22, 25;

2 Cor 12:6;

Phil 1:22

These are just a few of the passages in Scripture that strongly imply that humans can (and do!) freely choose things.

So how does this fit with the fact that God is Sovereign and controls everything (something also taught clearly throughout Scripture)? I believe that the answer lies in a more robust view of what exactly "sovereignty" is.

From what I see in Scripture, God has created the universe in such a way that His ultimate will for creation has been, is being, and will be accomplished--yet it will be accomplished not by overriding humanity's free will (thereby reducing them to puppets or mice in a maze), but rather it will be accomplished THROUGH the genuine Free Will that God gifted humanity with from the beginning. In other words, God has "front-loaded" genuine free will into His eternal sovereign plan--even to the point where it cannot be thwarted by the Fall or it's effects on sinful humanity.

The perfect example is Jesus' betrayal by Judas. Judas freely chose to betray Jesus, and suffered the consequences of it both physically and spiritually! However, we learn by reading the whole of Scripture that God had not only known from all eternity that Judas would freely choose to do this, but He had sovereignly ordered the world so that His true desire--Jesus dying on the cross as a seemingly-failed Messiah and common criminal (which ironically is exactly what led to His glorification and salvation for any and all who would enter into a covenant relationship with Him!)--would come to pass.

This view of sovereignty (God working in, through, and even in spite of human free will) is not a "lower" view of sovereignty as some Reformed/Calvinists often charge. In fact, I would argue it is a much higher view of sovereignty because it acknowledges that God doesn't need to stifle human freedom in order to accomplish His Divine will.

This view (that God acts along with human free will rather than overriding it) has many different nuances and there are a number of theological schools of thought which hold to it. I would encourage you to look up one such school of thought, "Molinism" (named after Luis de Molina, a Jesuit theologian in the late 1500's), in order to get a feel for what those who reject the traditional Augustinian/Calvinist view of God's sovereignty have suggested in its place. A strong proponent of this position is the Evangelical Christian Philosopher and Apologist William Lane Craig. His Articles found here are an excellent (but sometimes technical) presentation of the debate in Biblical and philosophical terms.

However, rather than jumping completely on the Molinist bandwagon, I think that it is wise to simply let Scripture interpret Scripture and be able to live with the results without having to systematically answer every question we pose...because many times, the questions we have brought to the Scriptures are questions that the Scriptures themselves say nothing about (such as us asking what Romans 9-10 teaches about individual salvation, election, and predestination, when in fact that section is entirely about corporate and national election and calling).

So...my answer might have raised more questions than answers. If so, great!  Feel free to respond/, disagree, affirm, critique, share, or challenge any of it.  Iron sharpens iron, right?  

I'm not claiming to give the authoritative truth on this subject, but I do think that the view I have come to adopt makes more sense of the total teachings of Scripture than other views of sovereignty, particularly those of the Calvinist/Reformed tradition. I admit though, that I owe much of my thought process and a bit of a theological bias on this issue (due to being a Methodist all of my life!) to the sermons and writings of John Wesley, John Fletcher and Adam Clarke...as well as to the exegetical work of scholars from various denominations and traditions such as Ben Witherington (Methodist), Doug Stuart (Baptist), Gordon Fee (Assemblies of God), Stan Grenz (Baptist) and N.T. Wright (Anglican).