You know, it’s amazing when you see God at work in lives, when you see His hand in your life, guiding you and showing you His plans. Some people find it scary that God has a plan and some get angry because they believe that God is one who meddles and has His fingers in our lives, not allowing us true free will. People cannot reconcile the idea of predestination and free will. Many ask, “If we are supposed to have free will, why does God predestine our lives? It’s not very loving, is it?”
I say, the Bible does not preach predestination. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God is a God who is authoritarian and a power-hungry dictator. Nowhere does the Bible say that we should be fatalists and blame everything on God or be absolved of all blame for what pain we cause ourselves and others because of our careless and thoughtless actions.
Look at Psalm 139. It doesn’t speak of God saying, “Muahaha. These little people are mere pawns, I can move them wherever I want and I’m going to sit here in all my splendour and majesty and laugh at their sorry plight”.
True, God has a plan for us. But He is also omniscient, and thus knows everything, yes, absolutely everything. He knows what choices we make, even before we make them. And it pains Him when He sees us stumble and sin against Him. But we do have free will, so He knows yet has to sit in the sidelines. No, He’s not powerless. He who had the power to call for armies of angels, didn’t when He hung on the cross. No, He’s not a sadist. What sadist would die for people who spat on Him and cursed Him?
If you ask me, that’s true love. Ask any parent what is hardest for them. It’s sitting by watching their child fall when they are learning to walk. You can’t always carry them and pick them up, you have to let them learn to get up on their own. It’s watching your teenager lock themselves up in their room and ignore you. You can’t knock on their doors and beg them to talk to you, because it’ll only make it worse.
Yes, God has plans for each one of us, if only we took the time and plucked up enough courage to ask Him about them. And honestly, how scary can it be to have a God who loves us and works for the good of all those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, in charge of our lives? To be honest, it scared me once, now I see God working, I realise that I do feel secure and I know that I can trust Him, with everything.
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Oh, I’m better now. The voice has returned, as evidenced by my dad telling me that “Doe a deer” should be sung innocently not cabaret style this morning while we were doing the washing up after breakfast. Haha!
Well, back to the evile (spelling error fully intentional, before Dil, David or Mel start trying to correct it! Try saying it out loud spelt like that, it does sound more e-vile. HAHA) English essay on truth which seems more like a ToK essay (Oh no! Take that evil thing away!) Bye!
5 comments
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May 5, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Kia Hua
I must admit I’m very confused over the idea of omniscience and predestination myself. It seems to me that with omniscience, predestination must exist. But yet the Bible tells us that God can change His mind, which doesn’t seem to follow the idea of predestination (or even omniscience?) Maybe autolycus, Becca, or one of you intellectual people can explain it to me?
May 6, 2007 at 12:21 am
sinisterdexterity
Omniscience means ’seeing all’; predestination means ‘determining destiny’. On a crude scale, consider a chess game. You know all the rules. You see all the pieces. But you have a rule, and you hold yourself to it, not to move the other player’s pieces. You are not unable to do so; you are self-restrained from doing so. You cannot therefore predestine the outcome, although you are omniscient in three dimensions.
Should you be omniscient in four dimensions, you can see the entire game. But you still have bound yourself not to interfere.
It’s all very evil to think about such things from a finite being’s point of view. *grin*
May 6, 2007 at 12:24 am
sinisterdexterity
Oh yes, I’m glad the Binder is back in working order! The universe settles down again in proper array. Take care!
May 7, 2007 at 5:33 am
becktan
Kia Hua, God changes His mind? If He already knows what’s happened, is happening and will happen, isn’t that because His mind already made up? I don’t get what you’re asking.
Thanks, Auto. :)
May 12, 2007 at 11:00 am
Kia Hua
Well, doesn’t Scripture say that if a city turns from its wicked ways, God will avert the disaster He had planned for it? Isn’t that an example of God changing His mind? So if He knew all along that it would repent, then He must always have intended for it to do so. if God is omniscient in four dimensions, we are just like chess pieces that are either going to get saved or to die, and we can’t really escape from our destiny.