I’m probably about to get myself in trouble.  I was listening to a book on apologetics this morning when a thought occurred to me.  I’m just fool enough to write it down.  Now just why did I do that?  Was it divinely predestined?  Did my genes make me do it?  Or did I make a choice, perhaps a bad one?

For centuries, a battle has raged among theologians concerning the rolls of predestination, and free will in the fate of man.  I do not claim to have made a deep study of these matters, so I’ll give you the layman’s version.  Is the state of your eternal soul predetermined by God regardless of your actions, or can you do anything to change the outcome?

I say the answer is “yes,” and I’ve explained why in other posts.  The thought I had this morning is based on that understanding.  An omniscient creator knew the course of your life before it began, so in that sense you are predestined, but that does not absolve you of responsibility for the choices you will make.

So here’s the thought.  The one who believes in predestination to the exclusion of any free will, is not so different from the atheist materialist as he might like to believe.  One believes the force divine.  The other believes we are controlled by wholly natural processes.  The end result is the same.  We simply do that which we are programmed to do and any control we imagine ourselves to have is an illusion.  The Christian may at least hope to be one of the chosen and may conduct his life accordingly.  I would rather that than the hopeless end posited by the materialist.  Nevertheless, both extremes deny the one thing that gives meaning to life and substance to the idea of a relational creator.  We can and must make a choice.