Predestination

Many Christians would grant that God is all knowing (omniscient) or knowing all there is to know—having total knowledge—and then somehow attribute to God the human characteristic of not knowing.

On the one hand we read Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Then we read Genesis 6:6-7 proving his lack of “total” knowledge. Why would God go through the creation process to create something that is only evil continually? “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Genesis 6:6-7)

In other words, we add the element of time (past, present, and future) and we go from the creation where “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) to Genesis 6:7, “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Perhaps God had a plan from the beginning?

And so, we have to ask the question of God: God, if you are all knowing, didn’t you see the future time of Genesis 6:7 coming? God created because it was good and then he destroyed because it was very bad. We see only time added to creation. Did God change his mind because he couldn’t see the future?

Most of us find the subject of “time” to be very interesting and I suspect that we would call the time of Genesis “Ancient Times” and we would call today “Modern Times.” Admittedly, things have changed over time but we are not ignorant of time. “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” We understand the concept of death and that with the passage of time we will experience the death of our physical body (our spirit is eternal). Possessing that knowledge are we seeing into the future? What scientist or atheist would deny their coming physical death even though they haven’t experienced it or know the hour of its coming in the future?

God has a worldview that is not remotely our worldview [The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.] and is not in the realm of the physical. For example in Psalm 16:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Do you hold that view too? God does not always view good and evil like we do. Of course, I’m talking about our real versus stated beliefs because they may not be the same. I have a favorite passage of scripture for those that feel they know God and his ways. God asked Job a question: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” (Job 38:4) The understanding of God is outside the realm of our scientific reasoning because God is light and God is a Spirit. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3) Perhaps figuratively (perhaps he just thought it?), God spoke and their was light but do you understand why or how? Do you believe that God used a literal voice to create or did he just “think it?” Could God just think it instead of say it? Were you there?

If you came back from the horse and buggy era of time would you be amazed by airplanes, automobiles, and cell phones? I think you might be amazed at the creation of mankind with just a very short passage of time. “Declare, if thou hast understanding.”

And so, why would we couple our free will with God’s knowing because they may not be connected at all? Just because we have free will doesn’t mean that God doesn’t understand the outcome of our being. We assume that “our time” started with our birth but we don’t really know that. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) Was that your spirit God was talking about? Why do we couple our spirit with the dust of creation?

When did God put your spirit into your body? Was it when you were leaving the birth canal during your birth? Was it when your heart started beating in the womb? Why don’t you remember your time during the womb? Perhaps we don’t know everything about our eternal spirit and some conclusions may be unsupported or even wrong? Why don’t we just give a lesson to others as if we really know? “Declare, if thou hast understanding.”

The Lord explained to Jeremiah in chapter one verse 5, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) Did God have knowledge of Jeremiah before his birth? John the Baptist said this in Matthew 3:9, “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” We are not defined by stones and dust are we?

“As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Does God create evil? Does God work in the affairs of mankind? Perhaps God has a different worldview about evil than we may have? “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:20-24)

Paul expressed this to Timothy, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” (2 Timothy 2:3-5)

Did Christ have a different worldview than many of us? “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (John 18:36) There was a reason that Christ went to the cross instead of calling on his angels from heaven. “If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.”

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:3-6)

This is only a question: Are there some things about life that you don’t really understand and could be described as “chains under darkness?” (This is a question for those walking in their own light instead of walking in Christ Jesus as our light. Declare if thou hast understanding.) We don’t have to be in a physical prison to be in prison that’s why we believe 2nd Corinthians 5:7: (“For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” (Hebrews 11:7-8)