One of the most common stumbling blocks I have heard people cite, when they explain why they have difficulty understanding (or accepting) the God of the Bible, is the concept that God knows the future. The difficulty they find lies in claiming that if God knows the future, then that future is fixed, and therefore none of us has free will.

However, I would claim that that if-then proposition is a non-sequitur. Just because God knows the future does not mean that He forced it to happen. After all, the real subject of that proposition – the reason it bothers us – is that I am the subject, not God. Look at it: I am complaining that I have no free will because of what God knows. How does that follow?

From the outset I am ignoring the possibility that the future God knows, is the future I chose.

Did you see that? We are actually, implicitly, a priori, assuming we have no free will (by ignoring our possible role in that future), therefore it is no surprise that we conclude we have no free will.

The fact that God knows the future does not tell us who chose that future;

it does not tell us who made that future happen.

The two propositions are not interdependent in that way because knowing something happened is a different kind of thing from taking actions to make it happen.

Really, this is not difficult at all. It is common sense. So, how come this objection arises so often? I think it is because we allow our thinking to become sloppy when we are uncomfortable with the subject.

 But the fault today is not all ours. We need to admit – or at least I will – that the way believers speak about the Bible and interpret scriptures is often also plagued by sloppy thinking. The worst kind of sloppy thinking occurs when we do not think it, at all, but instead take the word of some “authority” who tells us what the exact interpretation of a verse or a word is… and then we repeat it as if we believe it, or worse as if we understood it.

Whose interpretation do I accept?

Jesus’ interpretation.

Hey, I am a Gentile. More than that, I am Gentile from one of those “islands of the sea” that get mentioned by the prophets every so often. So, the Old Testament Law, with all its “legal” requirements is not something ingrained in my history or my genes. What is ingrained in my genes is the need for a Savior. And that is why Jesus came to this world.

Luke 19:10 …for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

Today’s subject: the concept of election

Take the concept of “the elect”. It is the Hebrew word bachir, it means chosen one.

There is a tendency in religious parlance to take this term to mean that whoever is the subject being talked about, is irrevocably chosen. Not only that but even chosen ahead of time and set to be chosen forever. All those conclusions are based, not on a “deeper”, “theological” meaning of the word but rather on the attempted logical application of God’s character to the situation… since, after all, it is God who is making the choosing in the relevant passages of Scripture.

The word by itself simply means chosen, whether as a choice made by someone or, for instance, when it is said that Pharaoh’s chariots are “choice” chariots; namely, high quality.

But the thinking apparently goes that, when God is making the choice, given that He is perfect and cannot make mistakes, is all knowing, and knows the future; and given that His will is irresistible; we conclude that any choice made by God must be cast in stone – or actually, in neutronium. (Star Trek fans know what that is.)

The result is that the word elect becomes a synonym for selected, and more than that: it becomes irrevocably pre-selected. In other words, human logic concludes that God chooses before-hand who will be saved and who will perish.

Which means: Human free will is either immaterial (no matter what you choose, you cannot change your destiny) or it becomes an illusion (whatever you think you chose, you really didn’t; God made you choose it, to justify His choice to save you or destroy you.)

I hope that you consider both of those alternatives monstruous, as I do.

Because there can be no personhood without free will,

and there can be no free will if free will is meaningless.

Now, some may say, “Well you feel that way because you are finite and you can’t think like God.” But let me point out that the people who say that, are usually the people that have convinced themselves that they are among the elect… and they have all the “authority” to prove it to you.

But the root of the problem here is not that of my human logic against God’s unfathomable mind.

The problem here is my human logic against yours.

Did God ever say there is no free will?

God has never come out and said in Scripture that free will is either an illusion or immaterial.

Now, it is true that the term “free will” does not appear in the Bible. So, some people argue based on that that maybe it does not exist, that philosophers invented it. However, a more logical reason for it not being explicitly stated is that the concept of “free will” is self-evident.

Free will is simply our human ability to choose what we do, uncoerced. It is evidently implied in the Bible from the beginning, in the Garden of Eden: when God tells Adam and Eve what trees in the Garden they can eat from and what tree they cannot eat from. That is clearly implying that they have a choice in the matter. (And anyone who states otherwise is simply choosing to cast God in the role of a cruel and evil Demiurgos who enjoys seeing the misery of his creation.)

Consider humanity after the Garden, as they spread through the world and shaped the world according to their choices, do you think this thought ever occurred to one of them:

“Hmmm, why am I making these choices? How do I know I am not a puppet or a doll like those my children play with, which are simply doing what their hands make them do? Maybe invisible hands are making me do these things…

“Hmmm, let me put it to a scientific test: I will stop willing things, I will stop wanting things, and then I’ll observe whether or not my body and mind continue acting as if I were making choices; and then I will say Aha! Gotcha! to those invisible hands.”

That is a silly thought, isn’t it? If for no other reason that when you start performing your experiment, your competition in this dog-eat-dog world will notice it and start stealing from you everything you worked so hard to get.

Look: The word integer does not appear in the Bible. Integer means any whole number as opposed to the real numbers or the rational numbers, etc. Do you think integers do not exist because they are not mentioned in the Bible? Yet, it is obvious that those people knew what integers were because they used them to count, they used them to add… they even knew how to count fractions!

In the same way we know free will exists in the Bible because we see people using it in their lives the same way we use it today.

How did we get here?

Well, if you look at Church history plenty of the early “Church Fathers” acknowledged the reality of free will and worked to explain its interplay with God’s Justice, God’s Grace, and the whole concept of moral responsibility.

The extreme case of disavowal of free will that we know today is rooted in the 16th century doctrine of John Calvin, propagated forward to our day in the Reformed Christian tradition. But it hails back to the 5^th century with Saint Augustine of Hippo, in his defense of God’s sovereignty against Pelagius: who not only claimed free will existed but also insisted that humanity could save itself. So, in order to fight a heresy, Augustine reached conclusions that are not fully defensible.

What does the Bible say?

God makes plenty of choices in the Bible. Do we ever get a hint that He makes these choices just to flex His sovereign muscles? (That is, that He selects people arbitrarily for good or for evil?)

God chose Abraham. He chose to reveal Himself to Him, and He chose to give Him the Promise that would eventually save all of humanity:

Genesis 22:16-18 (NASB ) By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

I have underlined the because there… because it proves that God’s election of Abraham was based on Abraham’s choices.

This is likewise true in a previous instance

Genesis 18:18-19 …Abraham shall indeed become a great and mighty nation; and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice, in order that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham what he hath spoken of him.

Here is one of those cases where God knows ahead of time what will happen. He knows what Abraham will choose to do, namely, he will teach his children to revere and follow God. Therefore, based on that choice Abraham will make, God elected him.

There is no hint of unconditional election in these passages.

The case of the whole nation of Israel shows us another instance of God’ s divine election. But this one is different from Abraham’s. They were elected not arbitrarily and not based on any special merit or strength of character but on the condition that they would fulfil their purpose on Earth.

Moses tells them that, when they enter the promised land and start winning their battles thanks to God’s intervention, they’d better not get fat heads…

Deuteronomy 9:4-6 Thou shalt not say in thy heart… for my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land; but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah dispossess them from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou enter in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah thy God dispossess them from before thee, and that he may perform the word which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

 Know therefore that Jehovah thy God doth not give thee this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people.

This is indeed very different from Abraham. God is making this choice knowing that the people are going to be a problem. Nevertheless, He makes the choice because He made the promise to Abraham. AND because He has an important job for them:

Deuteronomy 4:5-6 See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Jehovah my God commanded me, that ye may do so in the land into which ye enter to possess it. And ye shall keep and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding before the eyes of the peoples that shall hear all these statutes, and say, Verily this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

Israel’s purpose was to be an example to all nations around them that humanity could worship the true God. And also, they were to serve as the human conduit for the promised seed of Abraham to come into this world and bless all humanity. That is why they were elected.

Clearly, Israel was chosen by God…

But Israel’s election was conditional; based on choices they would have to make.

Did that election force them to do everything right? No, they messed up royally throughout their history, eventually reaping what they sowed until they got cast away into exile. However, after all that, at the appointed time, the promised seed of Abraham was born of the line of David.

And let me end with the case of King Saul: At the time of the last judge (Samuel) the people insisted on having a human king over them, to be like all the other nations; in so doing, they were rejecting God as their only King. But God decided to let them have a king.

The problem was that no one among them knew how to be king. So, God chose a man with potential… but this man was not the sharpest knife in the set.

We get introduced to Saul as he and his servant are going through the hills and towns looking for some donkeys of his father’s that went missing. At one point as they are about to give up, it is the servant that says, “Why don’t we ask the prophet that is near here?” And Saul’s reaction is essentially: “There is a prophet near here? Ok… What do we have to give him so he tells us what we want?” And again it is the servant that knows the right answer.

 But indeed, this is the man that God has chosen. And God, the creator of the universe, has a plan. Whatever Saul is missing He will give it to him:

1 Samuel 10:6 And the Spirit of Jehovah will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.

1 Samuel 10:9 And it was [so] that when he turned his back to go away from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day.

This is exactly in line with Moses’ promise to the Israelites:

Deuteronomy 30:5-6 …and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land that thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

So, God has not only elected Saul, He has stacked the odds in his favor by giving him a new heart, making him into a new man, so that he could carry out his purpose.

Do you think Saul succeeded unconditionally? His first battle against the Philistines was a complete success. But by chapter 13 we start having problems. Even after Samuel explicitly told Saul when and where he would meet him, so that Samuel could offer a sacrifice to the Lord, Saul finds himself facing a huge Philistine army and decides he’d better offer the sacrifice himself because Samuel won’t get there. Of course, Samuel gets there as Saul is finishing. And when Samuel confronts him, Saul just has excuses:

1 Samuel 13:12 I said, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to Jehovah; and I forced myself, and offered up the burnt-offering.

No admission of failing on his part. Did you notice? He had to force himself to do this…

Well, God sees the heart and He sees what is really going on. Even after He gave Saul a new heart, the man cannot bring himself to trust and obey God unconditionally. He fears men more than he fears God.

1 Samuel 13:13-14 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah thy God which he commanded thee; for now would Jehovah have established thy kingdom over Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: Jehovah has sought him a man after his own heart, and Jehovah has appointed him ruler over his people; for thou hast not kept what Jehovah commanded thee.

So here is a clear case of divine election, a case that is almost extreme because God sovereignly intervenes in this man’s life to enable him to carry out his role. But the man’s choices derailed God’s plan.

King Saul’s election was sovereignly carried out by God,

and yet King Saul made a mess of it, all on his own.

Does it sound like God’s election trumps human free will? Not really. And if that is so in these few examples why would we think it would be so when the subject is eternal life?

For the role of free will on that subject, we should turn to Jesus.

What does the Gospel say?

John 1:9-13 The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man. He was in the world, and the world had [its] being through him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he [the] right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God.

Who was given the right to be children of God? Those who received Him, those who believed in His name. that certainly sounds like the exercising of our free will. Especially in the contrast to those in the world and even in Israel who chose not to recognize Him or receive Him. God’s will then comes into play by transforming us into His children.

There is no hint in this introduction by John that that saving choice of receiving Him and believing in Him was somehow forced on us by God rather than being our choice. (You could try to force it to say that but then John ought to have started with the last phrase first and told us that those God made His children by His will were the ones who chose to believe and recieve. I think that does violence to the text. (And renders the word “choice” meaningless.))

Jesus implies the same kind of free choice:

John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may [not perish, but] have life eternal.

The event Jesus is alluding to is one where the Israelites were being attacked by poisonous snakes because of their stubbornness against God. And God gave Moses a cure: quickly fashion a serpent out of brass (like the false gods that the Israelites kept falling for), put it on a long pole and raise it up. Anyone who wants to survive the serpent’s poisonous bite, all they have to do is choose to look up at that serpent on the pole. But, hey, it’s up to you… If you want to suffer and die in stubbornness, don’t look up.

John 13:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal. For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him.

He that believes on him is not judged: but he that believes not has been already judged, because he has not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

I love this passage because it has it all: If I choose to believe in Him, I will not perish. Why? Not because He forced me to choose but because He came to make that salvation, that eternal life available to all who would so choose.

But if I choose to reject Him, then I condemn myself. He doesn’t have to condemn me. I have already been judged. Because God, who knows everything from minus infinity to plus infinity, has already decreed the price required by Justice.

Two paths before me; I choose which path to take.

Ok that is enough for today. The subject is not exhausted yet; but I hope I have made the point that the plain reading of Scripture does not force us into any conundra evoked by God’s infinite, all knowing, all powerful character. God has been giving us choices to make from the very beginning and He certainly seems to act like we are responsible for those choices.