Do we have Free Will?

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

So, I've thought over this idea time and time again. Do humans have free will?

Now, I'm not going to right out say yes and no. Mainly because if I do, then people are going to go nuts OR they'll even perhaps stop doing things like witnessing and such as the Great Commission commands us.

Now, before I get into my explanation, let's look at some scripture real quick.

"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

~Joshua 24:15 NASB

"Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Acts 2:38 NASB

Now, let's break it down for a second.

The first scripture even specifically says "choose for yourselves today whom you will serve." So, we have the ability to decide our salvation, right? The second verse, as with many other verses, say that if we just simply repent, then we'll be saved. So, if we do XYZ, then ABC will happen. We have the ability to choose then, right?

Now, let's look at two scriptures from the other side of the fence.

"Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love."

~Ephesians 1:4 NASB

"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."

~Ephesians 8:29-31 NASB

So, the first scripture is saying that before the Earth was created, God had chosen the ones that would be seen as perfect. The second explains that those He chose were justified, sanctified, and so on.

So, we've got two sides. One says that we are the ones who claim we make our own decisions also including our salvation. The other claims that we don't have a choice and God is the one who decides who will follow Him and who will turn away from Him.

Now, here's the way I see it. The Bible can't contradict itself. So, one of these sides must explain both of them.

First, if we're the ones that repent and choose to become saved, then why did Christ die on the cross? He was the one that unlocked the ability for us to be saved because Christ was the atoning work. If we didn't need to have something to cover our sins, then Christ was an action that was unnecessary.

Secondly, we can't see past every decision we make. We don't know if tomorrow we'll get in our cars and we'll have a serious accident, save someone's life, or nothing happen at all. From our perspective, we have the ability to choose whatever we want. We may have an idea of the long term either by having goals for ourselves or other various reasons, but that doesn't mean we're mindless robots.

One last thing I wanted to point out. The defense I've heard from everything being predestined is "We'd be mindless robots because we wouldn't have the ability to choose to love God. So, we wouldn't really love him in the first place." My response is simple. When I met my girlfriend, Heather, she already had strong feelings for me. When I told her I loved her for the first time, she knew I was serious about it and honest. However, I also do things and get things for her as another way to express how much I love her. Not because I have to, but because I want to. Through my actions, words, and lifestyle, I show her how much I love her and she falls in love with me more and more. So, am I "making" her love me? Yes. Does that make her a mindless robot with no choice? Nope.

What do you think?

Predestination, A Closer Look

~Brandon James Scott Scholl & Royalynne Rose Miller

The following article is dedicated to Robert Wilson.

So, there has been a lot of debate and talk on this particular subject. Predestination is one of those things that you either really like and feel comfortable with or you really don’t like the thought and idea and do everything you can to fight it. However, what does the bible say about predestination?

For those of you who have not heard of Predestination or don’t completely understand here’s what it is. Predestination is the decree of God by which certain souls are preordained to salvation or to damnation. Basically, what this means is before everything was created God decided who was going to end up where in the afterlife for eternity.

Now, this may make a lot of you uncomfortable or think that this is not fair. However, this does not destroy or elliminate your free will. I promise we will be getting to that.

There are two basic sides to this topic. There are the ones who believe that this is completely accurate and that ultimately God knows before we were even created that specific people were going to heaven or hell for eternity. Let’s look at the two and what they have to say.

The first group is Calvinism. Now, Calvinsim believes basically all that predestination stands for. Along those lines. The word predestined is in the bible four times so it is in there. However, there is a warning to this particular type of thinking called Hyper-Calvinism. These are the extremists that believe this to the point of saying that what is the point of doing anything or even witnessing because God will take care of getting His elect or predestined people into heaven. This is not a valid belief. In fact, this belief denies the great commission in Matthew 28: 18-20.

The opposing view of this is Armininism. The extreme of this belief says that God doesn’t know everything and whether you are going to heaven or hell depends on the amount of faith you have and what you have done. God doesn’t have a set path for your life and it’s all up to you. There’s no predestination involved. So in a round about way hyper-Armenians believe that you are saved by works
Now, let’s see what the bible says about predestination.

The word predestined is used four times in the NIV. Twice in Romans and twice in Ephesians. Let’s quote all four of them:

Rom 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Rom 8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Eph 1:5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Eph 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Now, what these scriptures are saying. God has set everything in motion according to what He wants to have happen. A good example is the battle in the end between God and Satan in Revelation. He knows that for the ultimate goal of that to happen certain things must be set in motion. So, he uses people, places, and events to get to that goal.

2Pe 3:9 The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

In other words, God wants everyone to be saved and go to heaven. However, here’s the answer to that. A child wants something and the parents is aware of this. The parents loves to see their child happy and would love to do anything to keep make their child happy. However, just because they know it would make their child happy doesn’t mean that they will do it. It may not be in the best interest of the child’s future, well-being, whatever. See, it’s the same thing with God. He would love to see everyone go to heaven and nobody perish. But, God knows everything as well. God is able to predestine people to heaven or hell because of his foreknowledge of whether they will accept or reject Christ in their lives. You have to take in to account that God knows EVERYTHING.

Here’s another thing to take into consideration. We know that God is omniscient. (Job 37:16, Psa 147:5) Now, if God knows all things then by saying predestination is false you’re saying that God doesn’t know all things because He wouldn’t know where you’re going. So, basically, you’re saying that God isn’t God.

Now, we’ll leave you with this. The bible not only explains predestination but is supported and mentioned four times in the bible. As far as Calvinism and Arminianism we aren’t saying that one is necessarily better than the other. We will, however, that Arminian’s view is from our perspective within time.

Calvinism’s view is from God’s point of view outside of time. One problem with Arminian’s view though is it sounds like we’re saved basically by our actions or something we must gain on our own. Ephesian 2:8 and 9 it says that we are saved by grace not of works.
What do you think?