One of the great and silly problems dragging down the work of the church in America today is the family splitting argument over those who ascribe to free will or predestination. That is, that mankind has the choice to choose whether they will serve God through faith in Jesus His Son, or whether that decision was pre-determined by the Lord before we were born. Deep stuff this is, to be sure.
One of my favorite teachers described himself in regards to this topic as do many Christians today. He said if it was a scale, he would fall slightly leaning toward predestination. He presumed the idea that has spilt much of the family of God. That presumption is that you must choose one side or the other. Therein lies the fatal flaw.
There is ample scriptural ammunition for both sides. The classic verse for predestination is Romans 8:30, where Paul states that, "Moreover them He did predestinate, them He did call;...". The word in the Greek here for predestinate is proorizo, which means...predetermine or predestinate. Those arguing free will use the all time favorite, John 3:16, where "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might have everlasting life". The "whosoever" means whoever might choose. We read in another passage that "(The Lord) will have all men to be saved..."(1 Timothy 2:4), which would logically preclude the idea that "all men" were predestinated in their choice.
Without writing a hundred chapters on the topic, let me sidestep the Devil's argument right now and get to the heart of the matter. Both arguments are true, because the Lord has given us both truths in the scriptures. There is no reason to choose one over the other. How can this be you say?
When I was studying for my Bachelors in Theology, one of the discussions in church history was the controversy over the nature, literally the physical/spiritual makeup, of Jesus Christ. This is known as the Nestorian Controversy, named for Nestorius, a Bishop of Constantinople in the 5th century.
Nestorius had a good reason for his controversy. He was against the practice of calling Mary the "Mother of God", implying divinity to her, thus leading to her worship. For those who do worship Mary as divine, do you really think such divinity was imparted to her out of the blue? In that situation, you would have to conclude divinity was present in her mother, and so on all the way back to Eve. To stop the practice of Mary worship, Nestorius argued that Jesus was composed of two natures, one human, one divine. However his error was that these natures had to be separate. This error plays into general Gnostic (and Antichristian) ideals that see all human flesh as evil and unredeemable.
Well, the Holy Spirit led the church to the truth in this matter, which was this conclusion by the Council of Chalcedon in 433 A.D. The assembled bishops declared Christ was two natures in one person. "We all with one voice confess our Lord Jesus Christ one and the same Son, at once complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, of one substance with us as regards his manhood, like us in all things, apart from sin...". The key words there are "fully God and fully man".
This leads us back to resolution for the argument (which should not logically exist according to the scriptures) regarding free will and predestination. That is, both are fully true. Mankind has free will, yet predestination of "the chosen" is also fully true. If you don't completely grasp this, you are very near a most happy conclusion. You are not supposed to fully grasp this. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts". (Isaiah 55:9) If we could fully comprehend the Mind of God, we would be His equals, and we are not His equals. Nor are we to endlessly argue our own ideas when the Lord has stated the truths we need in His word.
Now, I could write many words explaining each viewpoint, the meanings of the words used, all of the scriptures to support each view. It is foolishness. I delight in the fact that I cannot understand all of the Lord's ways. I believe. I believe what He has given us in His word. It is enough. So let the church unite, and be the church. For what is coming, we desperately need each other. We need to be united in God's sinple truths.
