Free Will "vs" Predestination

I believe there is a big controversy and argument amoung Christian denominations. Most denominations have their own "signature belief" that makes them stand out as unique. Pentecostal, Calvinists, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic. All have their own unique beliefs. The problem with this is that if "Christian" denominations are different in their beliefs, someone has to be wrong. There is only one truth (not relative) and if that is the case, only one belief can be true. One who might be examining them all may struggle to find which has the most sound doctrine.

In all honesty, I don't think there is a "perfect denomination". I am Baptist because I believe Baptist takes the Bible as it is and does not answer to a higher church authority. The only authority to answer to, as a church, is God himself. However, I do not think anyone should hold too tightly to their denomination. When someone clings to their denomination, they start to worship their denomination rather than God. Rituals, sacraments, policies, traditions. These can actually oftentimes stand in the way of worshipping and following God.

We could talk about all sorts of beliefs that change from denomination to denomination, but I want to talk about a very specific topic that I believe, with exception of assurance of salvation, has the most diversity, and that is predestination. There are many different beliefs as to what predestination is and I want to clear at least some of it up. I also believe that the topic of free will ought to be explained with predestination since those two often go hand in hand.

A common belief is that some people are predestined to be saved and some people not. This would lead into "do we really have free will". If we are chosen into Heaven rather than others, can we do whatever we want? Moreover, if we are predestined to take a certain path in life, do we really have free will and the freedom to make our own choices? Or are all of our choices made because we were "predestined" to make them? If I am predestined to not enter Heaven, but I decide to accept Christ, are all those verses on assurance of salvation a lie? Would that make God a liar when he says "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?" This is a tough argument and I want to clear some of this up by showing you what I have learned in my studies. 

Let's start with looking at some common verses on predestination. Romans 8:28-30 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." I will explain this in a minute, but let's first look at some other verses.  Ephesians 1:4-5 says, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will". And 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

These 3 verses would be easy to mistake as being predestination into salvation, but let's take a closer look. There are 3 important methods I follow when examining a verse: What is the context? Are there other verses that explain this verse? And does my interpretation contradict what God says in other parts of the Bible? I would like to examine these verses in that manner. 

I want to first look at Romans 8:28-30 since this one is easiest to explain. Yes, Romans has MANY verses that explain salvation, but it also has explanations on what it means to be a Christian and who we are in Christ. This is the passage where Paul is talking about Christians, not lost people. Verse 28 is strictly talking about those who have been saved (and I will explain that word "called" in a bit). As we go into verse 29, we see the opening phrase "whom he did foreknow". This is very important! God already knows who will accept him. This does not mean that God only selects certain people, but rather that he already knows who will accept him. 

In this passage, we even see what the predestination is: "to be conformed to the image of his Son". Only Christians can be conformed to Christ's image. When we are saved, we bear Christ's name, but conforming to His image must be a conscious decision as explained in Romans 12:1-2. What God has predestined is the path in which we are to walk as Christians. Does this mean we don't have free will? I will get to that in a bit. 

Verse 30, then, says that those of us (Christians) who have been predestined to become like Christ (all of us), are also called into a specific ministry. That ministry may be as simple as witnessing to your neighbor, or as big as becoming a missionary to a foreign country. Every calling is as important and sovereign as the next. From there, he justifies us into that calling and as we conform to the image of Christ and follow Gods calling, we become glorified through him. That is what this passage is talking about. I find this passage easier to explain  because it is straight forward. You don't need to search for the explanation of it in other parts of the Bible; it explains itself.

Let's move over to Ephesians 1:4-5 "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." And 2 Peter 3:9 is similar in saying "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

These verses, and especially in Ephesians, it can look initially that God predestinates people into salvation. I guess that is why so many people believe it. But that belief would contradict the rest of the New Testament which clearly states that "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16, emphasis added) The whole New Testament is clear that if ANYONE chooses to accepts God's gift, he "will in no wise, cast out."

That being said, let's examine these verses. The key word in both verses is "will". Yes the verse in Ephesians states that our adoption is predestined, but the second half is according to his will. However, this is where things change. God wills that we all enter into his presence as seen at the end of 2 Peter 3:9. That is how we were initially created: pure. God designed us to dwell with him forever. But in the garden, when Adam sinned (free will), that cut ties. God cannot allow sin into his presence and that is why salvation is needed. God's created us to be with him forever, but with sin, we now need salvation. God still wills that we enter into his presence and presents the opportunity over and over. This is stated in 2 Peter when it says God is longsuffering and willing that we not perish.

God's will is different from predestination. It is God's will that we all accept him and follow him. Does that happen?  Obviously not. God's will is what he wants from us, but predestination is what God has laid out for us and chosen for each of us. We saw in Ephesians 1:4 that God has chosen us to be holy and blameless. That is God's will. Does that make sense? God wills us to accept him, but predestinates the path for those who he already knows will accept him. He does not predestinate us to be saved, but does predestinate the calling of them who he already knows will accept him. This can be something that is hard to comprehend, but that is the point. God does not reveal all of himself to us. We do not have divine understanding as God does and that is why he is God and we are not. There are some things that God reveals enough to us to know it, but not enough to understand it 100%. Some things we may simply not know until we meet Christ face to face. Just because we may not understand it fully, does not mean we can put our own twist or interpretation to it. This is warned against in Revelation 22:19-21.

So if we are predestined to a certain calling, does that mean we do not have free will? I mentioned Adam sinning in the garden. That is the perfect example of free will. God created humans differently than the rest of creation. We are the only ones that he "formed" and breathed life into. We are the only ones created in his image. When God made Adam, he put him in a perfect environment and made him to be the perfect creation, but he also gave him a choice. He gave him certain commands, one being to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God gave him the choice.

This oftentimes gets me to thinking. God created the perfect beings in his own image (by the way, angels were not created in his image, only us), but since sin is completely contradictory to God's nature, why did he allow Adam to have the choice to sin and go against God's nature? I believe one reason is because God wants us to have free will. Think about it, if God created Adam (and all humans) preprogrammed to love God and follow his commandments no matter what, is that really love? If you force someone to love you, is it true love? I think God gives us free will and choice because he wants us to choose to love him, not because we have to.

Proverbs 16:9 says "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps." God has planned our entire lives from the beginning and predestined those he knows will accept him, into a calling that he has laid out for us. We see this is Ephesians 1:4. But we still have a choice to follow that. This verse tells us that we choose which path we take and if we choose to take the way God has for us, he directs us. But we still have the choice whether or not to follow him. Predestination does not mean we don't have free will! This does bring up the question, "If God knows who will accept him and knows what path he will take, is that path what God laid out or does God use that to his glory?" This can send us in circles and thinking all day, but the truth is: God is sovereign. He has ultimate control. Our only job is to follow God's calling and live for him as he tells us in his Word.

You may disagree with all of this, but I encourage you to forget what your denomination claims. I want you to actually examine God's word. We cannot rely on what a pastor or priest tells us, if he does not support it with scripture, and the whole scripture. Oftentimes, a verse is used to support a point, but is taken out of context or twisted to mean what a man wants it to mean. It is too often that we make the Bible support our ideas rather than believing what the Bible has spelled out for us. Again, I encourage you to really read through the scriptures and find for yourself, the truth.

Walking on Water

What does it mean to walk on water, figuratively? I wrote this lesson a while back and as I scrolled through all of my past lessons, this one recaptured my eye. The past four months has really brought me trust God more and more, and when I came across this lesson, it brought to light what it means to trust God. Our passage is not only about trusting God, but Keeping our lives on track with what God has laid out for us.


"And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased." (Matthew 14:22-32)


There are so many messages that we could extract from this one brief passage, but I want to focus on one area. The highlight of this story is the miracle of Peter walking on water. This is something I grew up hearing and learning in Sunday school, but what it really meant never really got through to me until this last year. My questions is, "Why was Peter able to walk on water?" It is an interesting question and the answer can be found within the passage.


In this passage, we see different sides of Peter, just as we oftentimes have different sides: faith followed by doubt. We first see Peter acting on getting out of the boat. Yes, he saw Jesus walking on water, but for him to walk on water must have seemed impossible. Have you ever tried walking on water? Imagine trying to walk on water for the first time, not to mention in a storm. For Peter to have stepped out of the boat, he would have had a tremendous faith in Christ. Verse 29 of the passage says, "And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus." This was Peter's act of faith, trusting that God would allow him to walk on the water.


Peter had faith, but the reason he was able to walk on water, I believe, was two-fold. He had faith, but he also kept his eyes on Jesus. In verse 30, we see that he, for a moment, took his eyes off Jesus. That would immediately imply that to walk on water, he would have had to keep his eyes on Jesus. That ties very closely to faith. When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we have faith that He will do amazing things, even though they may seem impossible to us.


As we look at Peter in this situation, we see that he had faith. But he also went the other direction. As I mentioned, in verse 30, Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. Doesn't that happen to all of us from time to time? Peter took his eyes off Jesus which implies Peter lost his faith. In fact, we see this in verse 31 when Jesus says, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Somewhere in this circumstance, Peter began to have doubt and lose faith in Jesus, causing him to sink. Is this not a parallel to our lives?


You see, your life is the sea. My life is the sea. And as we sail our seas, we will run into storms. The questions is ,what we will do when we run into those storms? Just as Peter did, we have two options. We can trust God, keep the faith, and not doubt that God will carry us through. Through our storms, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. Or just like Peter, if we take our eyes off Jesus, we will sink into the problems of our sea. It really is that simple! It's not easy, but simple. When we face our storms, our trials, our problems, our adversity, we have the choice to trust that Jesus will see us through it.


I can't always say I chose to trust God in my storms. When I was young, my parents were divorced which set up many problems for me and my siblings. We had many issues to face and the divorce, I believe, affected us more than we realized. From there, as problems arose, I chose to trust myself, just like Peter, but I continued to sink. I took my eyes off of Jesus and as a result, I sank. I tried my best by any means I knew how to try to swim, but under my own power, I was unable to stay afloat. Turning to drinking, smoking, and an array of other addictions to "fix" my problems. But all those addictions just added weight and caused me to sink faster.


The good news is shown in verse 31: "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him..." Jesus won't let His children drown. He is loving and wants to help us. He wants us to keep our eyes on Him and trust him. But as natural sinners, we are bound to take our eyes off Jesus from time to time. However, Jesus is right there to take our hands and pull us back up. As Peter was sinking in his own attempts to walk on water, he realized he needed Christ and in verse 30, cried "save me!" When we realize that we have tried to face the storm on our own, under our own power, and begin to sink, Christ will raise us up if we call on him and trust Him. That is what Jesus wants from us: our complete trust. He will forgive us and help us if we simply ask. Verse 31 says that Jesus IMMEDIATELY reached down to catch Peter and raise him back up. What love is that? Jesus has the same love for us, to pull us back up when we start sinking. All we have to do is trust Him, turn our eyes upon Him, and ask for His help.


The awesome thing in all of this is that we don't have to sink! Peter sank because he lost faith, he doubted, and he took his eyes off Jesus. But when we face problems and storms, or even in good times, we can continue to keep our eyes on Jesus. We are told that God will direct our paths if we look to him and trust him. When we continue to follow God and trust in him, the storms will come, but we will be able to hold fast because we have a solid rock to stand on: Jesus Christ.


2 Timothy 4:7 "I have a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."