Predestinasjon vs. fri vilje.

På skolen er vi nå inne i en periode med kirkehistorie. I forrige time gikk vi gjennom litt av hva kirkefaderen Augustin stod for, som også Luther tok opp i sin teologi. Temaet vi diskuterte mest var deres syn på predestinasjon, altså det syn at Gud har selv utvalgt mennesker til frelse. Dermed kan ikke mennesker "falle fra", fordi Gud har utvalgt dem til frelse.
Luther gikk faktisk så langt at han stod for en såkalt "dobbel predestinasjon", som går ut på at Gud har utvalgt både mennesker til frelse og til fortapelse. Spørsmålet som naturlig nok dukker opp i en slik sammenheng er "hva med menneskers frie vilje?!". Er individuell stillingstagen til evangeliets budskap irrelevant i forhold frelsespørsmålet? Luther ville svare ja på dette. Han satt Guds allmektighet over menneskers frie vilje. Frelsesspørsmålet ble avgjort i møtet mellom dåpen og Guds allmakt. Nå skal det jo sies at tradisjonell luthersk teologi, som vi kjenner den i den lutherske kirke, ikke går så langt. Men hovedpoenget er at Luther mente at mennesker ikke kan legge noe til sin egen frelse. Alt er opp til Gud. Alt av nåde.
Predestinasjon har utgjort en helt grunnleggende del av den kristne kirkes teologiske historie, og viktige teologer som Luther, Calvin, etc har med gode bibelske argumenter kjempet for denne tesen.

Jeg er enig. Alt av nåde. Gud er uten tvil allmektig. Frelsen er en gave fra Gud og ikke menneskers verk. Dersom Gud bestemmer seg for noe er det ingen som kan stoppe det.
Jeg er samtidig uenig. Menneskers frie valg har konsekvenser. Frelse betinger at man tar imot frelsesgaven. Evangelisering nytter. Misjon er ikke bare en god ide. Guds allmakt krever ikke kontroll over menneskers frihet.

Det hele grunner jo i et spørsmål det er ufattelig vanskelig å gi et konsist svar på... hva er sammenhengen mellom Guds allmakt og menneskers frie vilje? Hvor aktivt deltar Gud i utformingen av våre "selvstendige liv"?
Hvis dette er et spørsmål som forvirrer deg og "tar motet fra deg", stopp her. Ikke les videre.
Hvis dette derimot er noe som interesserer deg og virker trosstyrkende i den forstand at du blir nysgjerrig på å lære mer om Gud, les videre.

På bibelskolen i Montana i fjor skrev jeg en liten tekst om akkurat dette, som jeg nå har funnet frem igjen. Jeg har ingen flere konklusjoner, men målet er å få deg til å tenke litt...

Providence of God
God’s sovereignty vs. man’s free will


This must be one of the greatest paradoxes in the Christian faith; the co-existence of God’s sovereign providence and man’s free will.
How can a sovereign God, who has everything and everyone under His control and power lead the steps of human beings who themselves have free will..?
How can people claim to have free will and liberty to do what they please if there is indeed a deity that knows what choices they will make, and in addition has an agenda to accomplish and fulfill?! What significance do our choices have in the face of a God who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient?!!

Ultimately, the concept of providence is simply a refute of the common view that things happen by random chance. The view portrayed in the Bible is that few things happen by “chance”… The Jews believed everything happened for a purpose and God was ultimately behind this purpose. Even the evil that took place in the world was ultimately part of God’s divine plan in the sense that He allowed it to happen, meaning that He was in control and He knew that this particular event would not interfere with His long term plan and agenda. Being an all-powerful God He would not have to be the root and source of the evil taking place in order to be involved in the way of allowing it to happen. Being an all-knowing God he would not have to be the root and source of the evil in order to know what was going to happen in advance…
I don’t believe there is anything that happens by “random chance”. Ultimately, there is nothing that happens at all, even to the most insignificant event, that happens without God being the one to ordain it or permit it. Claiming anything else would be to oppose the sovereignty of God, which in turn would question the entire concept of providence… If God is not all-powerful, providence is nothing but a joke.

So if God is all-powerful and He is leading and guiding people’s steps, knowing ahead of time what choices they will make, how can the presence of evil be justified in such a reality?
Is God responsible for the evil that people do? Do human beings even have any sense of what we would call “free will”?

"We are responsible human beings, not blind automatons; persons, not puppets. By endowing us with freedom, God relinquished a measure of his own sovereignty and imposed certain limitations upon himself."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

As Christians I don’t even know if we have the right to claim ownership of anything like “free will”. The New Testament seems to be pretty clear that true independency is ultimately unattainable. We will always be slaves to something. We were slaves to sin and evil, but have now become slaves of Christ and righteousness. There is not much in between… The limited liberty that human beings then have in their choice of actions will ultimately be restricted to what allegiance they are loyal to… Christians can choose to do evil, but are then simply operating under the old yoke of slavery. Non-believers can likewise choose to do good, and are then operating under the “freedom of Christ”, a freedom that is ultimately restricted by the faithfulness to the cross.
This in turn brings up the question, “Do human choices even matter?” If there truly is not independent freedom, and God is in control over everything that happens, what significance can human choices possibly have?! Hard question.
Initially I would answer that, truly, human choices, in light of the above-mentioned points, cannot have any eternal significance whatsoever.
The problem we run into is the contradiction to this claim which is taught all throughout the Bible. The Biblical authors seem to be very clear on the fact that human choices matter and that there is hope because of it. We are not merely puppets on a string, but our effort has much greater potential than simple the “here and now”.

“The longer I live, the more faith I have in Providence, and the less faith in my interpretation of Providence”
- Jeremiah Day

Somehow our choices are important. We do have power to make decisions that impact more than simply ourselves and this moment.
God knows what we’ll choose and he has prepared the future for us.
But still our choices matter.

I realize that I am ultimately spinning in circles. I will have to come to grips with the fact that according to my understanding of predestination and free will, I have to agree with Winston Churchill:

“Which brings me to my conclusion upon Free Will and Predestination, namely – let the reader mark it – that they are identical.”
- Winston Churchill

Yeah.
They are identical. Somehow. I have no idea how that works.
Literally. I have absolutely no idea.
“How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Rom. 11:33)
Somehow they’re both true: I have free will. God is in control of everything.
I think I can live with that.
God, in His sovereignty, controls man’s choices and actions. God’s actions, however, do not violate the reality of human choice or cancel out man’s responsibility as a moral being.

God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.
However, this is also true:
Man’s free will is foundational to Christian faith, as the choice of following God is still up to the individual, despite the concept of being “chosen by God”.