Making (non)sense of predestination.

Predestination is an issue that divides some Christians. It is probably fair to say that the majority ignore the issue, and who can blame them? However, others get extremely uptight about the matter. There are three main camps: Calvinism, Arminianism, and Molinism (or middle knowledge). I am not a theologian nor philosopher (and no doubt that will show), so if you want real in-depth insight on these matters you need to go elsewhere, but I will seek to offer a few thoughts that some might find helpful.

The crux of the matter is the apparent conflict between the sovereignty of God and human freewill. Calvinism stresses the sovereignty of God and Arminianism stresses human freewill. Molinism seeks to do justice to both, and William Lane Craig is perhaps the most well-known proponent of Molinism.

The problem arises when we see things through only one lens. God is sovereign, it is His will that will prevail. The Bible is abundantly clear on this point, from beginning to end. The issue arises when we view things through that lens alone, for then it seems to negate freewill. It can also be accused of making God the author of evil, and turning us into little more than automatons. (By the way, the freewill problem is not confined to theology, it is a general philosophical problem.) If there is no human freewill then that goes against the glory of God. For the Bible teaches us that we were made in His image, and the whole goal of the Bible is a people who freely choose to love the Lord ("I will be their God, and they will be my people"). So Calvinism can easily slip into taking away the glory of God that it seeks to proclaim.

While the Bible is clear on the sovereignty of God it is equally clear that our attitudes and our actions matter. There are also numerous examples where God's actions are influenced by our actions, and even cases where the Bible presents God as having changed His mind. So we do have freewill and how we live our lives really does matter. The danger arises when if make this the overriding lens through which we view things, for then it can easily end up negating the sovereignty of God, making God subject to us.

Molinism seeks to do justice to both, respecting freewill while fully honouring the sovereignty of God. So that is something very much in its favour. However, it does seem to fall into philosophical and theological traps. Reasons to Believe had a couple of very good programmes on it recently, and James White makes frequent valid criticisms.

So where does that leave us? My approach is this. Take the Bible as your guide. Believe everything it proclaims. So we should believe we were chosen before the creation of the world, we should believe that our decisions matter. 

What about seeking to understand it. Well we need to recognise that we cannot fully understand it, but that does not mean we cannot understand anything. Nor does it mean that we should not seek to understand anything. What it does mean is that we learn to recognise when we are coming up against the limits of our understanding. The problems arise when we seek to push beyond these limits.

Is this a cop-out? No, it is actually philosophically and mathematically reasonable. Godel has a famous incompleteness theorem that states that in any logically consistent system there will be some things that are true but that cannot be proven to be true. Now that most definitely does not mean that we throw logic out of the window. It does mean that we recognise the limits of logic. In fact, logic is very useful for atheists and evolutionists can sometimes be the most illogical people on earth.

The whole Christian world view (more generally theistic world view) is that the universe was created by someone or something outside of the universe. So we should not actually expect to be able to understand everything (Deut 29:29). 

Resources - Reasons to Believe

Reasons to Believe is an American organisation, as they state on their website, the purpose is:

RTB's mission is to spread the Christian Gospel by demonstrating that sound reason and scientific research—including the very latest discoveries—consistently support, rather than erode, confidence in the truth of the Bible and faith in the personal, transcendent God revealed in both Scripture and nature.

They have a very useful website, though  mainly access them through a couple of their podcasts. Straight Thinking deals with all sorts of issues, theological, scientific, cultural. Sometimes it is a discussion between the main team members, at other times they have special guests on. The other podcast series I listen to regularly is Science News Flash, which deals with the various topical scientific issues.

RTB take an old earth creationist stance, theologically they tend towards the Calvinist end of things. There are some very interesting discussions, and the science items are very good.

Resources - Unbelievable

Unbelievable  is a radio programme featured on Premier Christian Radio, based in London. The show goes out at 14.30 on Saturdays. You can listen online or on digital radio. The show is also released as a podcast, sometimes a little before the actual broadcast. Just put Unbelievable in iTunes or whatever software you use for podcasts.

The most common format of the show is a debate between Christians and non-Christians. Often there are just two debaters, though occasionally three or even more. A wide variety of topics are covered, including social issues, scientific topics, historical, moral, philosophical. There are also debates including members of cults (eg mormonism).

In addition to the Christian v non-Christian the show sometimes has debates between Christians on particular topics, and also interviews or discussions with an individual. Finally, there are “grill-a-Christian” shows every now and then in which a Christian apologist fields questions from non-Christian callers.

All the shows are hosted by the inimitable Justin Brierley. He does a great job in attracting all sorts of people on to the show. These include “famous” Christians such as N T Wright, John Lennox, well-known atheists, most recently including Richard Dawkins. But there are also shows with much less well known Christians and atheists. Justin is an excellent presenter. All the guests are treated with respect and he does a great job of keeping people on track.

Naturally the quality of debates varies. Sometimes people are just talking past each other and little is achieved, but other times the participants genuinely engage with each others points of view. Occasionally the debates become really heated, but not too often.

Resources - Jame White

I am going to start with James White of Alpha and Omega ministries. There is lots of material on the website itself and he produces one or two podcasts each week under the title “The Dividing Line”, there are also numerous youtube videos of debates and presentations that he has given.

Dr White is excellent in many areas, these include:

• Reliability of the New Testament
• Biblical teaching on homosexuality
• Islam

He has several lectures and videos presenting the case for the reliability of the New Testament, and there are some debates on this as well. One of the talks can be found here.
The Bible and homosexuality and the laws that governments throughout the West are passing are a hot issue today. A little over ten years ago he co-wrote a book called The Same Sex Controversy. This is excellent and counters the arguments given by some that claim the Bible is ambiguous on same sex relationships. There are also various podcasts, one lasting five hours, on the matter, as well as periodic items on The Dividing Line.
Dr White recently published a book called What Every Christian Should Know about the Koran. This is another excellent book and well worth reading. He has done numerous debates with Muslim scholars. You will find reading the book and listening to the debates very illuminating.
Other issues that crop up fairly frequently are:

• King James onlyism, Dr White shows what a load of rubbish King James onlyism is.
• Roman Catholicism. He takes a very strong line against Catholic teaching.
• Mormonism

Dr White is also an ardent Calvinist. Now I am fairly Calvinist (which some would say means I am definitely not a Calvinist), and I don’t agree with all that he says on this. In fact in some later posts I might look at some of these issues. However, I would heartily recommend listening to him, and to his sermons on SermonAudio.com. There is an awful lot to be learnt, and he will counter any loose interpretation of the Bible, and encourage you to think much more carefully  about things.