Choice or No Choice? That is the Question
When a person believes in Christ and trusts Him for their salvation, Christ becomes their life for them. Literally, in some way which is hardly possible to explain, we put on Christ and he becomes our life for us ( Colossians 3:3 , Ephesians 2:1-7 ). God then no longer sees a sinner banned from the presence of God, but a saint washed in the blood of Christ's sacrifice. All of that is fine and dandy, but I struggle. I struggle to great ends, in fact. I cannot seem to figure out which of the following is the most biblical answer.1.) Did God choose me long ago to be a follower of Christ?
or
2.) Does God offer everyone the gift of grace, that is, salvation, and I responded in faith to him, trusting Christ as my savior?
This debate is the age old "Calvinism/Arminianism debate." It bores many, scares many more, and angers some others. At the seminary, this is an ongoing topic of discussion. Many believe God alone chose the specific individuals whom He would save. Others believe He offers salvation to all and those who respond with faith in Jesus Christ are saved in the end.
For a long while I believed quite comforably that I chose to respond to God's gracious gift of salvation by placing my faith in Christ. Lately though, actually for a long while, I have deeply questioned this understanding of God's interaction with mankind. I don't know, maybe my Reformed (Calvinist) homies have something going for themselves . . . I don't know.
Oh boy, many of my non-Reformed compadres just might hit me up something good for this post . . . Ragamuffin, anything to say?
posted by Bryan Laramore @ 7:42 PM
3 Addendums:
A lot of people (to be honest, a lot of Southern Baptists) seem to have less of a problem with the Biblical description of election than with its implications. I'm sure you've heard the "But God just isn't being FAIR if He does that!" line of argumentation.
But really, God chooses every day to deprive billions of people across the globe of the Gospel. Billions of people have no access to the Gospel and will die without ever having heard the precious words that could save them, and we should work hard to change that. However, only a weak God could allow this to happen without His consent. So God is exercising His sovereign will with regard to access to the Gospel in the very least.
If God chooses who will and who won't hear the Gospel, and He does this for His reasons (not ours), then it seems like a small leap (and quite a Biblical one) to say God ordains particular sinners to respond or not to respond in saving faith to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In other words, I pick #1. :)
Ah, the predestination hoo-ha. God gives us a choice, yet already knows because He is all- knowing. He knew each one before we were created, so it would stand to reason, that He knows whether or not we are going to follow Him. So, in some ways, it makes sense that I believe in BOTH. I can do that, right?
The issue with God knowing and my having a choice at the same time is problematic. If God knew in eternity past that I would choose to accept His gift today, then it stands to reason that the only way I could actually have that choice today is if I had the ability to make God wrong. If I have the ability today to make a "known" fact wrong, then it really isn't a fact. It's at best an educated guess and at worst a presumed power that can't be proven or refuted. So then its impossible for God to know and for me to have a choice. Right?
Not really... at least not in my understanding. The argument has one major flaw.... That is that God is under the restraint of time. It doesn't matter what God knew at the turn of the century about what I would choose or not choose, or what groups would or would not have a missionary... because he, unlike us, is not constrained by the passage of time. His definition of Himself is the Great I Am. The perfect present. So if this is the case, then the argument of when God knew something becomes moot. For Him it is simply now.
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