The Pendulum: Predestination and Free Will

This is one issue where I sit squarely in the middle.

If I'm correct, it's Calvinism which states that God predestines and saves (ie. he chose those who would be his people before the beginning of time and graciously enables them to respond to the gospel). Therefore, following Jesus is entirely his work. He chose you, you didn't choose him. God chooses whom he has mercy and compassion on and following him depends not on human effort, but on God's mercy. Passages such as Ephesians 1:4-12, Romans 8:28-30, Romans 9:14-18 and Acts 13:48 support this.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. - Ephesians 1:4-12

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. - Romans 8:28-30

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. - Romans 9:14-18

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. - Acts 13:48

Arminianism on the other hand believe that man has free will and can choose whether to follow God or not. Yes, God 'draws' a person to himself, but they can still choose to turn their backs on him. God takes the initiative, but man must respond. There are many verses which are clear that man has free will. We are not puppets. We can resist God if we want to. The Bible is full of warnings for believers not to fall away. We can choose to disobey and stop trusting Jesus for salvation.

And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. - Revelation 22:19

Also, Jesus himself commands mankind to respond to him, showing we can either accept or reject Christ.

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

..."Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household." - Acts 16:31

There are heaps of other verses along these lines. I'm happy for someone to offer better definitions by the way.

I believe predestination and free will go hand in hand and although it seems like they contradict each other, the Bible affirms both truths. The problems lies where the pendulum swings to far to either side.

The problem with only believing in predestination:

• The 'once saved, always saved' stance where some believers treat Jesus as a kind of heavenly insurance policy and that how they live right now doesn't matter.
• A refusal to take responsibility for one's actions, believing God destined it to happen so it must be ok.
• A lack of desire to do evangelism because they believe that all God has appointed for eternal life will come to faith eventually because he has predestined it so we don't have to do anything.
• Believing that God cannot hold anyone to account for he only predestined some people for eternal life. Therefore, those he didn't predestine cannot be held responsible for rebelling against God because they were powerless against not sinning.
  

The problem with only believing in free will:

• We can forget that God enabled us to respond to him by his grace and start thinking we chose him by our own intelligence or wisdom. Therefore, we start thinking we're superior than people who are not followers of Christ.
• We can stop trusting in a sovereign God who has everything under his control and is according to his good purpose and start believing we have more power than we do.

I know it's confusing about how the two go together. It's like prayer. God knows what's going to happen yet somehow prayer changes things. God knows who is going to turn to him yet we are responsible for telling the good news to all who will listen because we don't know who God has predestined. God did not make us to be robots who blindly follow his will; he wants us to willingly live his way, yet we are powerless under the bondage of sin and we need his Spirit dwelling within us. I remember the two years prior to when I became a Christian, and I could feel God 'drawing' me to himself. Yet I kept resisting his call. I fought against it. He knew I would eventually turn to him, but I did feel the tension. I chose to ignore him, yet he knew I wouldn't trust Jesus until October 2001. We are chosen yet we can choose to walk away from Jesus. No-one can come before God and claim to be innocent because God didn't predestine them. We are powerless against sin's bondage yet we willfully choose to sin. We have the choice, yet we cannot choose God unless he chooses us.

There is a t-shirt you can buy which on one side says I chose this t-shirt and other side it says This t-shirt chose me. If I were to buy a shirt, I would buy one that says I chose this t-shirt AND this t-shirt chose me on the front. In my opinion, those who argue either entirely for predestination or entirely free will are foolish. It's both.