Our experience is based on Free Will. Our faith/trust is based on Predestination. Our eyes of faith see the certainty of Predestination despite our personal experience of uncertainty in Free Will.
The Bible had recorded events as both Free Will and Predestination simultaneously. Critics consider this as an example of contradiction in the Bible.
An example is the hardening of the Pharaoh’s heart by God. The Bible said that God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart ten times (Exodus 4:21-23; 7:1-6; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17). The Bible also said that the Pharaoh harden his own heart five times (Exodus 5:2; 8:15, 32; 9:34; 1 Samuel 6:6). So did God harden the Pharaoh’s heart or did the Pharaoh harden his own heart? Apparently, it is both.
Why is it that God, who, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)", yet allow many people can resist God's will and choose to go to hell by exercising their free will to reject Christ? Or are they predestinated to hell by God, since nobody can resist God's will?
The answer is Free Will and Predestination operates simultaneously in our context. How does eternity and time interfaces in our world is a mystery which the Bible did not answer. Christians who insist in choosing one over the other, are treading on dangerous grounds.
You, who are reading this post now, can be very sure that you are doing it out of your own free will. You are not in a trance and controlled or led by some mysterious force to this page. However, I can also say to you that your reading of this post is "foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20)".
No comments:
Post a Comment