Saturday, May 15, 2010

Predestination and Freewill

There is a lot of division due to people's differing views on predestination and freewill.  Both ideas are in the Bible, so taking one to the exclusion of the other is denying something in the Word of God.

I found this diagram a few years back, and it seems to make about as much sense as we're going to get of these two subjects and how they are both true, even though they seem contradictory to us right now.    

What do you think?

4 comments:

Mordecai said...

I LOVE that there is a line of man's limits of thought!!

Unknown said...

RIGHT ON!!! Al I pray that others get to read this and truly understand that God knows my choices.(Eph 2:10) Your diagram certainly helped me understand the scope of GOd's love and plan for me. No I'm not a robot. My Creator started the human race and in my DNA gave me Free Will. In my case, God being all knowing, on April 3rd 1994, in my 50th year, He opened my eyes and showed me that I wasn't the good person I thought I was. (Eph 2:8-9)
I was an enemy of God, a continual Law breaker and He showed me that only by turning away from my sinful life style, humble myslef and admit what I had done, REPENT, and place my undconditional trust in Jesus Christ alone...then I could be forgiven amd therby adopted into the His Kingdom.

J.R. Morales said...

I think God doesn't hide knowledge from us and lets us know or, at least, have an idea of what He means.

In this case, I believe people are mistaken by taking one concept over the other. The Bible gives clear examples of both, predeterminism and Free Will.

So, which is right? Both.

I believe God has predestined History, but doesn't micro-manage it. Predestination is necessary for things like prophesies. I believe God chose some to carry out specific orders of His will (The 12 Apostles, for example, or the Apostles Paul), but I also believe the rest choose for themselves.

So, I think that it's not that we won't know until we get to Heaven. I think that we can have an idea without compromising the Truth of the Message.

AL said...

Thanks for the comment. I just realized that the picture of the diagram was missing, so I added it back in.

Deut 29:29 tells us that He does keep some things from us, but you’re definitely right about the mistake of taking one idea over the other. This has caused a lot of contention and division within the body, and that should not be.

The Bible does indeed teach both and thus, both are correct. This concept is simply beyond our comprehension to fully understand. To deny one or the other is to deny something in God’s Word.

I agree that we can have an idea of it and need to believe that they both work together within God’s plan, whether we understand exactly how or not.