Do You Believe That God Has a Blueprint for Your Life rev 10042022

Contents I. Introduction 2 II. Salvation 7 III. God Has Chosen Our Final Destinations and The Means of God's Interaction 7 A. God's Foreknowledge and the Incorrect Application of Logic 8 B. God's Omniscience: God is Sovereign Over All Types of Knowledge 12 1. Are There Two Types or Categories of Divine Knowledge or Three Types or Categories of Divine Knowledge? 13 IV. God's Timelessness: God is Sovereign Over Time and Space 17 V. Human Freewill and VI. God's Pre-determined Responses and Their Connection to God's Pre-determined Outcomes. 20 VII. Knowing and Experiencing God Directly: Being in a Direct and Explicit Relationship with God 23 VI. How Our Positive and Negative Choices Work in Conjunction with God's Pre-Determined Responses and Outcomes 26 A. God Has Predetermined the Final Two Destinations 26 B. God Has Predetermined the Means or Vehicles for Reaching These Final Two Destinations 26 C. God's Pre-Determined Reality and the Theodicy Question 29 VII. Final Word Regarding God's Blueprints 30 I. Introduction I will rephrase this question since most people will interpret "blueprint" as being what is commonly referred as a "final blueprint." Finalized blueprints are considered unchangeable. They list the final agreed upon specifications or directions upon which the projected structure or building must be built. I believe that God is: 1. Omniscient (all knowing) [1 Samuel 2:3; Psalms 33:13-15; 44:20-21, 139:1-4; Job 24:23, 31:4, 34:21-23; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Isaiah 44:6-8, 46:8-11; Jeremiah 17:10, 23:24; Ezekiel 11:5; Matthews 6:8, 31-32, 13:34-35, 25:34; Romans 8:28-30, 16:25-26; Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 1:25-27; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; Titus 1:1-3; Hebrews 4:12-13; 1 Peter 1:1-2, 14-21; Revelations 13:5-9, 17:8], 2. Omnipresent (present in and through time and space as well as beyond, above, and outside of time and space simultaneously) [1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 2:6, 16:9; Psalms 113:4-6, 139:7-12; Jeremiah 23:23-24], 3. Omnipotent (that is, God is infinite in power whereas all created things only have finite power consequently God has power over every finite thing individually and over all finite things collectively) [Genesis 18:14, 28:3, 35:11, 43:14; Exodus 6:3; Job 11:7, 31:2; Psalms 93:1; Job 9:12, 42:2; Isaiah 14:27; Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27, 14:36; Luke 1:37; 2 Corinthians 4:7; Ephesians 1:19-23], and 4. Completely Sovereign (Absolutely Free, Independent, Autonomous, and Supreme) [Psalms 115:3; Isaiah 45:5-7, 46:8-11; Romans 9:11, 15; Ephesians 1:11].1 Scriptures proclaimed that God knew--before he created the universe--whom we, as individuals, would eventual become and where we would spend eternity, that is, our final destinations.2 God predetermined that there were two--and only two-final destinations that each individual would reach: either the Lake of Fire or the New Jerusalem.3 God also knew and predetermined--before he created the universe- Where we our individually journeys would end--our final destination options; What means, paths, or tools that we would have at our disposal to use and chose-our freewill via Grace, What moral, ethical, mental, psychological, social, relational, physical, and economic tools that we would have and employ by Grace and through Grace-our choice of social and relational instruments, and When we would encounter, need, and use such things (that is, the "who, what, where, and how") would happen. The more appropriate metaphor, therefore, is that of a map or a maze rather than a "blueprint" or "final blueprint." The journey or sojourner metaphor is more appropriate than the "final blueprint" metaphor because it takes in a God's eyes view (i.e. a bird's eye view) of God's desire and plan.4 Unlike the blueprint metaphor, the sojourner metaphor allows us to see how the Creator's foreknowledge and fore planning appears to creatures that are caught in time, space, and matter. This sojourner or journey metaphor allows us to see from a time-centered view (1) how God has chosen for each of us two--and only two--final destination endpoints and (2) how God has prepared and pre-planned finite choices for us to make at various junctures or crossroads in our journey of life. The journey metaphor also allows us to see how God's foreknowledge of future outcomes works in conjunction with our choices. Using the journey metaphor is the appropriate vehicle for expressing the Biblical understanding of God's sovereignty, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and God's interaction with the world and humanity based on love. I will, therefore, change the question and metaphor and reframe it into its two basic propositions. The first deals with God's sovereignty and foreknowledge while the second deals with our level of autonomy and freedom. (1) What are the infinite choices, options, and possibilities that the absolute, all-powerful, all sovereign and all-knowing God has reserved for God alone in relationship to God's own purposes for creation and God's own designs for humanity? (2) What are the finite choices and options that the absolute, all-powerful, all sovereign and all-knowing God has chosen for humanity to exercise, and what are the limits and purposes of these God-ordained human freedoms and autonomy? What we are seeking to understand is God's character, attributes, and purposes in relation to the doctrine of "pre-destination" (e.g., Ro. 8.20-30; Ep. 1.11-14; and 2 Timothy 1:8-12) [as opposed to pre-determinism and fate] and how they also relate to the doctrine of human freewill (e.g., Dt. 30.11-20, Ps. Jn. 3.17-20, Ro. 3.21-24, 10.8-13, 1 Jn. 1.5-10). By rephrasing the original question into a two-part question, we can achieve better conceptual clarity. Consequently, we are not speaking in binaries as in an "either/or" proposition or answer, but in more realistic, complex, abductive modes of cognition (that is in a "both/and" thinking process) that correspond to how our complex reality or world actually functions.5 On the one hand, God is an absolute ruler (absolute sovereign), is absolute in His foreknowledge of all things (omniscient) and is absolute in His power (omnipotence) to bring to completion all of His previously planned designs for this universe. We hold with all orthodox Christians that no force, no creature, no circumstances can prevent, thwart, change, deflect, or affect God's plan and purpose centered in love. What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won't he freely give us everything else? If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God's right side, speaking to him for us. Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? It is exactly as the Scriptures say, "For you we face death all day long. We are like sheep on their way to be butchered." In everything, we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God's love-not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:31-39 CEV) On the other hand, it is equally true that the immortal and the infinite God has given to mortal humanity a finite or limited ability to change, adapt, transform and act upon God's finite universe that is encapsulated in space, time, and matter. God has granted us finite authority and has given us a finite set of freedoms to choose how to live and act in His finite universe (e.g., Genesis 1:26-28). We are free to choose options that range from the perfect will of God to those options that are displeasing to God and harmful to ourselves and to others in varying degrees. In the following pages, I will attempt to share what those sets of finite choices or actions are that God has ordained for humanity to exercise. I will attempt to share what is within the realm and capacity of human freedom, responsibility, and choice. As will be described in greater detail later, two of those choices are (1) to accept or reject the gift of "Salvation" and (2) (after making a positive response to this gift of salvation and after having been granted citizenship and a passport into God's eternal kingdom) to faithfully fulfill our divine obligations and duties to secure future divine rewards and wages when Christ returns. (See for examples 1 Corinthians 3:5-15; Philippians 3:12-14; Hebrews 10:32-36, 11:6, 24-26; 2 John 1:8.)6 II. Salvation The Plan of Salvation--Sidebar If you have never recognized your need to be forgiven and have never asked God for the gift of His forgiveness which Christians call salvation or entry into the Kingdom of God, now is the time for you to do so. God invites everyone to receive this gift because God loves everyone and wants to save everyone from their sins and self-destructive ways; God wants everyone of us to live forever with Him in His Kingdom as citizens and as sons and daughters. God wants everyone to have an eternal, one-on-one, relationship with Him based on Love rather than on judgment. This type of relationship is possible because Jesus Christ died on the Cross to pay the penalties for your sins and mine. Christ took on the punishment that was to be our punishment so that we could obtain the rewards that Christ's own perfect obedience to God has secured: Christ Righteousness and Holiness. When we ask God to forgive us and lead us, God will forgive us and lead us and will credit to us the rewards that Christ's holiness and righteousness have secured. We can receive forgiveness, life everlasting, and the Holy Spirit to live within us. We can receive Christ's gift and reward when we ask Christ to forgive us for all of our past wrongs (our sinful thoughts and actions) and accept Christ as the Savior, Ruler, Lord, and Leader of our lives. At the very moment that we do this, we are instantly forgiven. We also instantly receive the gift of eternal life and eternal fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit. For more information on this process, please call 1-800-Need-Him and talk to one of the counselors. You can call anytime day or night and on any day of the week. You may also want to read Richard Blackaby and Claude King's book, Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. This will help you to deepen your new relationship with God. III. God Has Chosen Our Final Destinations and The Means of God's Interaction There are at least five major concepts that have a direct bearing on the Biblical and Orthodox view of "Predestination," "Calling," and "Election". I will turn our attention to discussing the first two: (A) God's Foreknowledge or Omniscience and (B) God's Timelessness. I will turn our attention to three other concepts and discuss how they relate to the first two: (C) Human Freewill, (D) God's Pre-determined Responses to Our Choices, and (E) How Our Positive Choices and Negative Reactions Work in Conjunction with God's Pre-Determined Plan, Responses, and Outcomes. A. God's Foreknowledge and the Incorrect Application of Logic The concept of the excluded middle (that is, the use of exclusive disjunctive [Either A or B, but not both]) is one of the first hurdles that one must overcome if one wants to comprehend the Biblical understanding of predestination. If one starts with this human and logical premise (that is, the exclusive disjunctive), then one will limit the Biblical testimony to fit that limited human premise. My purpose in this section is to show you that the application of the exclusive disjunctive is only one of many other alternative logical premises or procedures from which you may choose. This does not mean that the exclusive disjunctive is to be rejected or abandoned all together; this simply means that its employment must be contextually ordered and properly applied. One must first start with the Biblical information and seek to understand the meaning of the passage in its literary, rhetorical, social, and historical context. You must not impose a structure upon the Scriptures; this is adding to the Scriptures what is not in the Scriptures. You must, instead, let Scripture reveal its structure and meaning to you, that is, you must let the human writer and the Divine Inspirer reveal the structure they intended you to see.7 I will start at the concrete level first; afterward, I will proceed to apply this principle at a more abstract level. or If someone told you that a particular flag was either white or it wasn't white, how would you react? What are the possibilities? What are the options? If we invoke the exclusive disjunctive at the start, the logical operation will lead you to say that the flag had to be white or not white? It cannot be both. Truth demands one or the other. These statements or propositions (1. The Flag is White and 2. The Flag is not White) cannot both be true at the same time. This seems reasonable and logical--at first glance. What if the flag in question was the American Flag--red, white and blue? You would have to question the appropriateness of the use of the exclusive disjunctive. The "either white or not white, but not both" approach would be considered too restrictive when faced with all the facts and variables. Why? We know that it is indeed possible for a flag to be white and not white at the same time; or more conventionally put, we all know that a flag can be red, white, and blue at the same time. Consequently, the more appropriate premise or logical operator to use would have been the inclusive disjunctive: it is either white or not white, or both white and not white at the same time. When we have limited knowledge-that is, when we aren't sure that we know all the variables and factors that apply, the use of the inclusive disjunctive should be our first choice. The inclusive disjunctive gives us a logical operator that can account for more possibilities than the limited binary option evoked when using the exclusive disjunctive operator. When one adds other modes of possibilities like a flag that blinks red and then blinks white in an alternating fashion or a flag on a credit card hologram that appears white when viewed one way and appears red when viewed at another angle, the limitations in using the exclusive disjunctive operator increase exponentially. In fact, there are several more logical options and procedures available. Some of the more obvious options are listed below. Logical Proofs and Logical Solutions 1. Exclusive Disjunctive: Either A or B, but not both (The flag was White or Red, but not both.) 2. Conjunctive: Both A and B. (The flag was White and Red. E.g., It had thin, Red and White stripes or it was pink.) 3. Inclusive Disjunctive: Either A or B, or Both A and B (The flag was White or Red, but (i) not both at the same time or (ii) both at the same time, that is,: a. The flag was White only. b. The flag was Red only. c. The flag was Red and White at the same time. (It had red and white stripes, had red and white dots, or was pink, etc.) 4. Exclusive Disjunctive (with Multiple Sets or an Open Set): Either A or B, but not both, plus C, D, E, etc. (The flag was either Red or White, but not both, with blue, purple and green polka dots, etc.) 5. Conjunctive (with Multiple Sets or an Open Set): Both A and B, plus C, D, E, etc. (The dress had thin alternating black and white pin stripes--that made it look gray--with delicate, but bright, floral patterns.) 6. Inclusive Disjunctive (with Multiple Sets or an Open Set): Either A or B, or both and/or also C, D, E, etc. (The flag was either Red or White, or both red and white, and/or Purple, Blue, or Silver, etc.) 7. Negative Statement of #1-6: a. Neither A nor B, but not both b. Neither A and Neither B c. Neither A nor B, or both d. etc. 8. No Solution Possible: Insufficient data My point is that one should not prejudge what logical operator one should use. If one must start with an operator, one should start with the most inclusive and then look at the restrictions that arise out of the literary-social-historical considerations. The social-communicative and discourse contexts, genres used, and the rhetorical and pragmatic purposes and intentions of the writers or authors all matter and effect the meaning and interpretation. Having decided to start a study or inquiry initially in an inductive or abductive fashion and with inclusive disjunctives, we should secondly work progressively in two different directions: (1) from a bottom-up and (2) from a top-down approach. One should make a comparative analysis of the findings from each approach. In the bottom-up approach, one would first look at (a) the smallest context (the lexeme, the phrase, the sentence, the passage, and then the pericope being read)-their structures, genres or types, rhetorical and semantic purposes, then (b) the section or chapter being read-their structures, genres or types, rhetorical and semantic purposes, (c) the book being read, (d) the Biblical author being read (e.g., Lukan, Pauline or Johannine), (e) the type of literature (e.g., letter (epistles) or gospel, metaphor or prose, etc.) and the extralinguistic context in culture, and (f) the canon (New Testament or Old Testament) or the whole context of Scripture and their editorial, redactional, canonical relationship and purpose and the extralinguistic context of the theological, philosophical, rhetorical world and worldviews of the individuals and communities responsible for this level of editing and redacting. Afterwards, one should start work progressively in the reverse order, (1) starting first with the extralinguistic and worldview context of the Biblical and non-Biblical community, (2) second with the editorial, redactional, and authorial agents and their readers, (3) third with the metalinguistic context for each sections of the Bible and then individual book of the Bible, (4) fourth with the linguistic, rhetorical, and structural context of each section and book of the Bible, and then (5) fifth with working systematically with smaller and smaller units. Finally, a comparative analysis should be made. One would contrast and compare the similarities and differences between various books, their relationship to other books of the same genre from the same historical period synchronically, their relationship to other books of the same genre from different periods diachronically, and finally their relationship with the whole cannon of Scripture. One should not prejudice oneself into choosing a particular work progression or method (that is whether one should always do a top-down or a bottom-up approach). Again, the key is flexible. One should not employ a particular logical proof or solution until the above exegetical studies have been made from a bottom-up, from a top-down, and from a comparative analysis of these types of studies. After one has made the appropriate studies of the Scriptural books (and always with prayer and deliberate open mindedness), the Bible student can then compare and contrast which of the logical operators he or she needs to employ as the most appropriate solution for the passages and subject matter in question. Just like in my flag illustration above, if you impose a logical operation, principle or concept that doesn't fit the context, factors, and variables, you will ask the wrong questions (Is it white or is it not white?) and get the wrong answers (it's white; or it's not white) versus getting the right answer (it is red, white and blue). B. God's Omniscience: God is Sovereign Over All Types of Knowledge 1 Chronicles 28:9; Isaiah 46:9-10; Job 37:16; Psalms 139:1-4; Psalm 147:4-5; Proverbs 5:21; Matthew 10:29; Hebrews 4:13; 1 John 3:20; 1 Peter 1:1-2, and 20 There is confusion within Christian circles regarding God's foreknowledge or omniscience. Some Christians believe that God's foreknowledge or omniscience means (a) that we are fated not just to a choice of a particular end, but also (b) that we have no choice at all because God has already chosen, predefined or predestined each individual's particular end and each individual's particular steps in their journeys to that particular end. While the term or concept of "predestination" is a Biblical term and Orthodox, the meaning that is poured into this concept is not. 1. Are There Two Types or Categories of Divine Knowledge or Three Types or Categories of Divine Knowledge? List 1: Two Categories or Types of Divine Knowledge First Knowledge [God's perfect and absolute foreknowledge or visioning] a) Absolute Knowledge of All Things That Existed in the Past b) Absolute Knowledge of All Things That Exist in the Present c) Absolute Knowledge of All Things That Will Exist in the Future Second Knowledge [God's perfect and absolute knowledge of all potential or all possible things.] d) Absolute Knowledge of All Things Possible in the Past But Did Not Exist. e) Absolute Knowledge of All Things Possible in the Present But Do Not Exist. f) Absolute Knowledge of All Things Possible in the Future But Will Never Exist. Since the 13th century and up to the time of the Reformation, both Catholic and Protestant churches followed the teachings of the 13th-century theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas believed that divine knowledge (absolute and pure knowledge) could be categorized into just two types or categories. The first involved God's perfect and absolute foreknowledge or visioning of (a) all things past (causes, processes, elements, and entities) that have ever existed in the universe, (b) all things present that now exist in the universe, and (c) all things future that will ever exist in reality. The second knowledge that God is said to possess is that of potentiality. God knows absolutely (d) all of the potential or possible past things (causes, processes, elements, and entities) that could have existed in the universe, but did not; (e) all of the potential or possible present things that could exist now, but do not; and (f) all of the potential or possible future things that might or could exist in the future, but will not. This categorizing of God's knowledge into absolute knowledge of reality (past, present, and future) and absolute knowledge of possible alternative realities (past, present, and future) led both Catholic and Protestant theologians and pastors to argue for (1a) a divinely predetermined outcome and (1b) a divinely predetermined process regarding who would be saved and who would not be saved and (2) the need for God's direct and absolute control and manipulation of all of reality. God peered into the future and looked at all of the infinite possible realities or worlds and choose one and only one of those infinite possible realities in which to make or create so that God's own fore plan could mechanistically and slavishly come to fruition. Given the limitation of just two types of knowledge and the use of the excluded middle (that is, the operation of the exclusive disjunctive), God had to be an absolute sovereign who predetermined and controlled everything to ensure that God's plan and will were above or beyond the resistance, manipulation, and sabotage of God's own creation: whether nature, natural laws and human intervention. (Either God's Will and Knowledge was Infinite and Absolute, or God's Will and Knowledge was not Infinite and Absolute: i.e. either A v -A). God's plan and will could not be overcome or overturned by any creature or any circumstances. This view of God and the two types of divine knowledge meant that some men and women would be given grace and salvation and that they would be unable to refuse (i.e. resist) grace and salvation and eventual perfection, that is, sanctification. This also meant that the majority would not be the recipients of God's grace, salvation, and perfection. List 2: Three Types or Categories of Divine Knowledge First Knowledge [God's perfect and absolute foreknowledge or visioning] a) Absolute Knowledge of All Things That Existed in the Past b) Absolute Knowledge of All Things That Exist in the Present c) Absolute Knowledge of All Things That Will Exist in the Future Middle or Third Knowledge [Molina: God's perfect and absolute knowledge of all conditional future events] g) Absolute Knowledge of All Past Conditional Things and Events That Existed h) Absolute Knowledge of All Present Conditional Things and Events That Exist i) Absolute Knowledge of All Future Conditional Things and Events That Will Exist Second Knowledge [God's perfect and absolute knowledge of all potential or all possible things.] d) Absolute Knowledge of All Things Possible in the Past But Did Not Exist. e) Absolute Knowledge of All Things Possible in the Present But Do Not Exist. f) Absolute Knowledge of All Things Possible in the Future But Will Never Exist. In the 16th century, this notion was challenged first by a Spanish, Roman Catholic theologian named Luis De Molina and then popularized by Joseph Arminius among the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches. Molina argued that there was a third category of divine knowledge: God's absolute knowledge of conditional future events. Molina's "middle knowledge," which falls between these two [other] kinds of knowledge, is the knowledge that God has of conditional future events. God knows what an individual will do in certain circumstances if grace is offered, and so he decrees the circumstances and the grace necessary to effect the cooperative action of the individual. In the conditional order then, God's grace is efficacious [that is, it has power to accomplish what God's desires] entirely from man's free futurable consent.8 This was the middle way or knowledge that would allow for both God's absolute sovereignty and humanity's finite free will. This middle way demands (1) the rejection of the excluded middle logic and (2) the replacement of the exclusive disjunctive operator for the inclusive disjunctive operator [[A v B] v [A & B]]. Biblical Christianity holds that God pre-knew [had foreknowledge of] the choices and decisions that we would make even before the foundation of the world. God created and knew the final two destinations and various paths or routes we would take (predestination). Biblical writers proclaimed that God is Omniscience (e.g., Hebrews 4:13 and 1 John 3:20). God, therefore, knows the choices we would make because God is all-knowing. God's omniscience is part and parcel of God's omnipresence (God is in every place at the same time and present everywhere at the same time--past, present, and future) and yet not confined by space and time, but beyond, above, and outside of space and time. This middle knowledge allows us to state that God absolutely knew (1) what individual humans would do in the past, present, and future, (2) what responses they would make in various circumstances and in selecting various options (real and potential) in the past, present and future, and (3) what proactive and preordered responses God would need to take through Grace in space and time in order to secure or bring about--in the past, in the present, and in the future--God's own sovereign, perfect, and absolute will. Consequently, God is not a divine "Puppet Master" directing human marionettes without free wills of their own and without free choices to make on their own on a finite level The more appropriate metaphor is God as a master boundary maker, game maker, programmer, or designer.9 On the level of human existence, God has placed into our material, spatial, and temporal paths grace-objects, grace-relationships (divine and human), and grace-filled experiences and circumstances so that we can make "finite" choices that will cause or force us to (a) choose and accept or (b) reject10 or ignore11 God's own will, purpose, and plan. IV. God's Timelessness: God is Sovereign Over Time and Space Deuteronomy 33:27; Job 36:26; Psalm 41:13; 90:2; Isaiah 43:13; 57:15; Romans 1:20; and others12 To believe that humans are fated to a particular end requires one to accept (1) that we live trapped within a linear and sequential existence that is time conditioned and (2) that God must also be constrained by this same linear, sequential, time conditioned existence. In this faulty view of God as constrained by time, both God and humanity are locked within a singular framework or system that is close and finite. (The other possibility is that we can be trapped within a time conditioned world while God can be free of the same.) In order to understand what the Orthodox and Biblical position really is, we must look at predestination13 through the additional lenses or perspectives of God as being beyond, outside, before, after, and in time. By adding this additional perspective, we will gain a deeper and broader knowledge of the Biblical Truth regarding "Predestination." Biblical-oriented Christians hold that God is both present in and through the past, present, and future simultaneously while also being outside and beyond time. It is a both/and or inclusive disjunctive view of God's relationship to time. God created time, but is not encapsulated, controlled, or confined by time. The same can be said regarding God's relationship to space and matter. God is omnipresent, yet God is beyond and outside of space. God's omnipresence and omnipotence sustain all matter, while God is at the same time beyond, unconfined, and undefined by matter. God is infinite, not finite. God cannot, by definition, be constrained by anything God has created; God cannot, by definition, be constrained by any closed and finite system since God is infinite and uncreated. In other words, unlike human beings who are caught or confined to live an existence in time, matter, space, etc., God is free from-not bound by-that which God has created. God is outside of time, matter, and space. Time like space and matter is something God created; it is not an uncreated and preexistent substance. God is the only substance, essence, person, or thing that is uncreated and preexistent. God is not limited or confined by the things God has created. God cannot be boxed in by space, matter, forces, elements, or time. God stands outside and around those boxes as well as in and through those boxes, laws, constraints, etc. Even the standard cosmology theory (Big Bang) postulates that "our universe emerged from a singularity-a point of infinite density and gravity-and that before this event, space and time did not exist (which means the Big Bang took place at no place and no time)" (Pultarova).14 Time in Christian theology and in the Standard Theory are depicted like a ray (🡪) or line segment (⸱⸻⸱) rather than as a line (↔). The universe had a beginning and may or may not have an ending. What does this mean? First, since God is the Creator of time and space, God must be considered as "beyond" the limits and "outside" the control or confines of time and space. Consequently, God can be said to not experience time and space in the same way that we do: that is, sequentially only. (Again, we are using inductive/abductive reasoning using inclusive disjunctions.) For us yesterday has passed, today is now present, and tomorrow is still in the future. Since God is omnipresent (that is, God can occupy every space or can be everywhere simultaneously), God's omnipresent nature works the same way in time (that is, God can "occupy" the past, present, and future-that is, every time dimension-simultaneously as well as no time dimension simultaneously). Yesterday, today, and tomorrow" are to God more like an "Eternal Now" or "Infinite Timelessness." There is no past, present, or future internally to and intrinsically within God; and there is no past, present, or future knowledge or power internally to and intrinsically within God. This doesn't mean that God doesn't know or have knowledge of how we experience time, space, or matter sequentially. (We, therefore, aren't denying the practical aspects and implications of theophanies, Christophanies, and the Incarnation.) Here as in the above, we must employ the logical operator of the inclusive disjunctives again. God is outside and beyond the limits of finite time, but God can also know and experience and "move within and between" the finite progression and sequence of time without being trapped or confined by it. In the same way that we speak of the immanent and economic Trinity, we must also speak of God's relationship to time, matter, and space. Intrinsically, God is outside of and beyond time, matter and space. Time, matter, and space are metaphorically "external" to God; they are created things. Time, matter, and space are neither infinite, essential nor eternal things. They were non-existent before the immanent Trinity spoke the universe into creation (that included time, space, and matter). Although God "travels" through his created order and knows how we ourselves experience and are confined by space, time, and matter, God does not have to be likewise confined and limited by His creation. Just as the Godhead wasn't limited by space, time, and matter as the immanent Trinity when space, time, and matter did not exist, so too the Godhead as the economic Trinity after creation isn't limited by space, time, and matter after they were created. Second, since God is omniscient, God's knowledge is not limited by time and space. To say that God doesn't know what will happen in the future because the future has not happened for us is to say that God is not omniscient. This is to make God's knowledge limited and finite and augmentable. Biblical and Orthodox Christianity holds that God's knowledge and power are not developmental, sequential, learned or particular. God's knowledge is not shaped, transformed, or modified by events outside of God's intrinsic self. God's knowledge is total, complete, perfect, and has been and always will be fully (in)formed. God's knowledge is beyond the effects of time, space, and matter. God's knowledge and thoughts are not sequential or linear and God's mind is not contained or particularized to undergo the same cognitive sequences we undergo from sensation to perception to conception and back again. Such explicit or implicit conceptualization of God would make God subject to space, time, and matter. To accept anything less regarding God's timelessness and, therefore, God's omnipresence, is to see time in one of two unbiblical ways. First, time must then be seen as being the one thing God did not create in this universe: that is, "time" itself is, therefore, somehow or in some way divine and/or uncreated. This is something that Biblical Christianity rejects. Second, to see time as a divine creation that once created, nevertheless, bounds, restricts, or limits God is also an error. Time would be the one exception to God's sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. This one exception would mean nothing less than God being a non-sovereign being limited in knowledge, power, and ability to be present everywhere at the same time and out of time. God would be relatively the most sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresence being in the universe, but not absolutely so since God would be said to be time-bound or time-limited. In this scenario, God must obey or be bound by one of the physical laws that God created, that is, the law of the space-time continuum. God is not voluntarily limiting His divine prerogatives and power in this scenario; God is instead forced to comply and is bound to do so by an external power or law. This is also something that Biblical Christianity rejects.15 In short, while humans live life from moment to moment and occupy one space and then another, God is free from such constraints. God does not live a sequential existence only like you and I live. God is in, and through, and beyond space, and is inside, and outside of, and beyond time. To God, everything is metaphorically more like a "now" or "timelessness itself." God knows simultaneously the yesterday we have experienced, the tomorrow we will experience, the today we are experiencing, and an existence without and beyond time. Writing from inside of time and space, Biblical writers have tried to capture these truths (God's Foreknowledge and God's Timelessness) by saying that "in and through God we have our beings" and that "God is the same yesterday, today and forever." This is what Orthodoxy means by God's omniscience, omnipresence and timelessness.16 V. Human Freewill and VI. God's Pre-determined Responses and Their Connection to God's Pre-determined Outcomes. Rather than violate what God, himself, has given to humanity by his own sovereign choice-that is, human finite freewill, God has chosen to operate in conjunction with His gift of human finite freewill and to empower that gift with God's gift of divine Grace. Yes, God has predetermined his plan of salvation in general and the plan of salvation and sanctification for you and I in particular. This is like the ways in which IBM's Big Blue Supercomputer was preprogrammed to respond to any move made by a human chess opponent. However, unlike the famous IBM computer which defeated the famous world chess champion, Garry Kasparnov, in 1997, God always wins the divine-human moral and spiritual chess matches because God has absolute foreknowledge of all circumstances, all processes, and all conditionals in the past, present and future as well as all of His proactive and predetermined responses to yours and my choices and actions in the past, present and future. Since God created the universe and the rules of existences, God programmed into his creation rules which binds that creation. God can never lose and can never be relegated to a tie or draw. God can only win whether a person sees this (1) as the outcome of God's infinite nature and (2) as the outcome of our finite existence, knowledge, and choices or (3) as the outcome of the infinite God creating a finite universe with finite rules and predetermine outcomes. In either of these three cases, there can be no losses or draws accrued to God in God's economy or in God's cosmic programming; God is always the winner. But here again, we must employ the inclusive disjunctive operator and change the metaphor. God can be a winner and we can too. There is a win-win possibility for God and humanity. God's Win-Win and Win-Lose Options Salvation is about God creating two scenarios: (1) a "Win-Win" scenario as well as (2) a "Win-Lose" scenario. We can participate in God's gracious offer and realize a win-win situation, or we can reject and resist God's gracious offer and realize a win-lose situation. God wins in either scenario. We win in only one. God is loving and just in both scenarios; we are loving and just in only one scenario: the win-win. God's predetermined will (i.e. God's will before creation) had chosen to respond proactively and graciously in a way that would optimize the options and means that would lead you and I to freely chose God's gift of salvation (e.g., Jn. 3.17-21, Ro. 3.9-20, 1 Cor. 1.18-31) and to move us to a spiritual win-win (e.g., Eph. 1.4, 3.10-11; 2 Tim. 1.9; 1 Pt. 1.2, 20; and Rev. 13.8). God is the "reader" of every individual's mind and has knowledge of how one thinks, feels, and responds. To change the metaphor from playing chess to playing cards, God knew and saw your mind and thoughts before the universe was created. God, therefore, knows and sees your mind and thoughts before you can think with or recognize the same. God knows your moves and habits better than you yourself. Playing cards with God is like playing with someone who can read your mind, who knows your "tells," and who can influence your thoughts, see your cards, and influence and change what cards you will be dealt. Although you can freely play your cards and freely make decisions on what cards to play that are in your hands, God has taken control of every facet of the game and has a loving advantage over you and every other player. God advantage and your disadvantage doesn't negate your freewill. If your disadvantage had happened by chance, your freewill wouldn't be affected. The same can be said, technically, if your disadvantage was to happen because of premeditated controls-trick and marked cards, hidden cameras, and secret body and mind monitoring and reading devices. You may claim that the game is rigged, but you cannot claim that your ability to make choices have been rigged or impaired. You may claim that your choices have been limited and were finite, but your ability to choose those limited, finite options had not been impaired. Your ability to win may have been limited also, but that is different than your ability to choose. You and I have been given finite minds, finite wills, and finite sets of choices. Within those finite parameters and conditions, you are free to choose what, when, where, how, and why to respond, including making no response and rejecting those finite parameters and conditions. Your life, however, isn't a card game. Your life isn't a game of chance nor a game on how to manage your chances. Your life is more precious than a game of chance to God; your life is priceless-the cost of His One and Only Son. God has, therefore, rigged life so that you will have more than just a chance or a fighting chance to gain salvation and citizenship in the Kingdom of God as a beloved daughter or son. God has positively rigged life in your favor in order to give you "infinity to one" odds for securing a win-win solution. The choices and the decisions, however, still remain yours to make. You can make a play for a win-win outcome or you can make a play for a win-lose outcome where you lose and God wins. The choice is still yours despite God's rigging the game in your favor (a win-win programming) because of God's love for you. Each move you make and each choice you are presented are chosen individually for you by God via Grace and empowered by Grace (actual or prevenient Grace) to lead you to the most advantageous win-win decision. God knows your frame, your thoughts, your heart, and your will; God will use all of the best means and processes to bring you to a decision to accept or reject Him, His Cleansing, His Forgiveness, His Love, His Restoration (i.e. and your sanctification), and His Kingdom status for you. However, you must freely choose to accept or reject these using your free will aided by divine grace. VII. Knowing and Experiencing God Directly: Being in a Direct and Explicit Relationship with God Once we have given God permission to enter our bodies and to direct our souls (mind, heart and body), God will do just that. However, God does this with our explicit permission (e.g., Ps 32:8, 37:23-24, 138:8). God is in a real sense our ultimate and extreme Spiritual Director who guides, suggests, direct and instructs. Out of love, God self-limits His power to force or compel us to behave and to heed His commands and instructions. (Perfect Love is never forced or coerced, but freely offered and communicated; it must also be freely received and accepted.) Nevertheless, God does directly communicate with us what his instructions are and what His will is in both particular and general circumstances. Some argue that God does not speak to God's children directly anymore as God did in the Bible. This is a false distinction or taxonomy and represents faulty exegesis. What God doesn't usually do is communicate with us in direct and explicit ways involving the use of our five physical senses. We haven't heard along with the whole community of believers the audible voice of God; we haven't seen the physical suspensions of the laws of nature done by God through God's prophets and apostles; and we haven't been on mission trips with, ate and conversed with, and physically touched Jesus or looked into his eyes, held his hand, or felt his embrace. These are all explicit and physical manifestation of God's direct guidance, but they are not the only manifestations of God's direct guidance. The distinction isn't between the explicit versus the implicit guidance of God, but between (1) the direct guidance of God that are physically explicit that come through the five senses and (2) the direct guidance of God that are not physically mediated through the five senses. In both cases, God's guidance is direct, but direct in different ways. God normally leads us explicitly and directly in ways that are usually not physically detectable or audible by others or by our physical senses. Nevertheless, if we are children of God, when we follow the principles found within the Bible, God, the Holy Spirit, is illuminating God's will and purposes directly to our souls-directly to our hearts and minds; they, therefore, by-pass the perceptual apparatuses of our bodies and are directly received cognitively. When (1) we listen to the voice of God via the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit or (2) we seek God's direction in prayer and meditation and we are given a clear and resounding sense of conviction that melds with the principles God has already illuminated from His Scriptures, God is guiding us explicitly and directly. Such directions by the Holy Spirit may not be physically explicit and directly mediated by our sense apparatuses, but they are still, nevertheless, explicit and direct. Second, if we exegete the Scriptures correctly, those great and powerful demonstration of "The Mighty Acts of God" were exceptional cases. Those physically and directly sensed "Acts of God" did not happen daily. The Messiah wasn't born in each generation, in every decade, in every year, or every day. The Messiah's birth was a once in an eternity event. Those "Mighty Acts of God" were manifestations of God's presence and/or power. They were not routine and mundane occurrences. Consequently, those explicit and physical manifestations must be seen as the exceptions to the rule. Descriptively, they are, therefore, not normative; they do not represent the normal ways God directly communicates with us. God's normal way of directly communicating with us is through our conscience and our souls (cognitively) through the illuminating presences and power of the Holy Spirit. (See for example, John 16:13-16 and 1 John 2:27. See also Psalms 9:7-10 (especially 10b); 1 Chronicles 28:9; Proverbs 14:33; Luke 12:41-48; Acts 17:16-34 (especially 22-23 and 27-28); Romans 1:18-19, 28-32; and Romans 2:2, 14-16.)17 God directly communicates with us in two ways: (1) by experiencing God's presence directly as mediated by our five senses of the body and perceptual apparatuses and then by our cognitive apparatuses and structures of the brain or (2) by experiencing God's presence directly and cognitively as mediated by the indwelling Holy Spirit. One is not more direct than the other. The Biblical data does not allow us to typologically describe the first as direct and the second as indirect. Both are direct ways or modes of experiencing God. Likewise, we cannot say that experiencing God directly through our five physical senses is more explicit than experiencing God directly through the inner activity of the Holy Spirit. The opposition or distinction is not between explicit versus implicit ways that God communicates with us. Both ways are explicit. One is explicit via the five senses and perceptual apparatuses; one is explicit by by-passing the five senses and perceptual apparatuses via the agency of the Holy Spirit directly to the cognitive heart or mind. Although we may never directly experience in this lifetime and through our five, external sense apparatuses God's presence, this doesn't mean that our experiences of God via the activities and agency of the Holy Spirit are any less explicit or direct. They are both explicit and direct in different ways; one is not more direct or explicit. In both cases, the infinite must accommodate his presences and mind/will to finite ways and forms for the finite minds of humans to attend to, recognize, respond, and understand. Occasionally, in a small minority of cases, God may via the normal, physical senses directly and explicitly reveal Himself and communicate with us in a theophany--in an audible voice and in a physically explicit form--as recorded in the Old Testament. However, the wise and the mature know--like Moses and Elijah and the writer and hearers of John's Gospel--that great and mighty signs and wonders will not make or guarantee that a person will respond positively to the will and plans of God. That was tried and tested before. For example, the children of Israelite who left Egypt had more signs and wonders-theophanies-than any other group of followers, yet none of them made it across the Jordan to the "Promise Land" except Joshua and Caleb and Moses', Joshua's, and Caleb's families. Let's look at another example. After three years of ministry, the true followers of Jesus only numbered around five hundred people at his ascension although tens of thousands saw Jesus heal the sick, raise the dead, and perform other miracles. These types of explicit and direct encounters are not normative or not always or normally efficacious. The normative, direct, and explicit ways that the people of God in every generation have encountered God are (1) through Scriptures and the illumination of the Holy Spirit and (2) through prayer and meditation and communion with the Holy Spirit. VI. How Our Positive and Negative Choices Work in Conjunction with God's Pre-Determined Responses and Outcomes A. God Has Predetermined the Final Two Destinations We must remember that God has predetermined the two finite choices or ends (destinations) from which we must pick; the infinite has created finite choices and options within which finite human beings can exercise their finite free wills. In regard to our topics (predestination and salvation or Kingdom citizenship), this means specifically that God has limited our final destinations/ends to two options: (1) salvation and eternal life in the Kingdom of God and (2) condemnation and being thrown into the lake of fire. Human individuals have the freedom to choose from among those two final destinations and none other. Consequently, our trips through time and space have two destinations picked out for us; we are-in a real sense-"pre-destined" before the foundation of the universe to choose destination A or destination B. Destination A or B are our "predestination" endpoints. B. God Has Predetermined the Means or Vehicles for Reaching These Final Two Destinations We must recognize that God has also predetermined the means--or vehicles--for humans to arrive at their final destinations: new heaven and new earth or the Lake of Fire, the second death. Just as God has predetermined before the creation of the world to be both the gift and the giver of the gift, God has also predetermined to give us the choice and ability to choose gift and giver of eternal life. This choice and ability to choose was historically secured and objectively obtained by Christ because of Christ's life, death and resurrection. As the Scriptures says, "If Christ had not been raised, then your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (1 Co. 15.17). Christ is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world (e.g., John 1:29-36 Acts 8:26-40, and Revelations 13:8 [cf. 5:6 and 5:12]) as the sacrifice for our sins. Consequently, God has given humanity the subjective means of volitional choice to choose (1) to recognize that God exists, (2) to recognize that we are sinners deserving of punishment in the Lake of Fire, (3) to acknowledge and confess that our individual debts of sin and the price of salvation are beyond our own ability to pay, (4) to turn away from our sins, (5) to accept God's gift of salvation (Christ's life, passion, death and resurrection), and (6) to allow Christ to be ruler and savior of our individual, hearts, minds and bodies. On the one hand, the absolute and Infinite God absolutely reserved absolute and infinite freedom for the one and only absolute, infinite being: God! On the other hand, the absolute and infinite God has fashioned for finite humanity finite freedoms and finite free wills in which to make their finite choices that have infinite and absolutely predetermined and predestined consequences. Still confused? Let me give you an example from everyday life. If I as an adult take my child or grandchild to an ice cream parlor and tell him or her that they may only choose one item, and only one item, from the kids' menu, I have predetermined his/her range of choices and restricted her/his range of available items. I have not, however, taken away his/her freedom-her intellect, her desires, her motives, and her volition. S/he is free to exercise his/her freedom and to choose an item from the designated children's menu. In fact, s/he is free to choose any "one" thing from the kids' menu. This child or grandchild may not have the freedom to choose everything available, but s/he still has the freedom to choose from a finite [or limited] set of choices. In addition, s/he also may have another restriction to the exercising of his/her freewill-a limited window of time in which to make his/her choices. In this case; my offer of ice cream may only be available for a limited time-e.g., the next ten minutes or so. My ability to set up limits does not necessarily mean that I have taken away my child's or grandchild's ability to choose. I have only limited that ability to act upon a certain set of choices within a certain chunk of time. [This example may be use as the opening video or scene to start this lesson.] Similarly, God does not have to take away human freewill to predetermine [or predestine] everything in creation. God is free to set in place certain things that are outside of our influence (e.g., the laws of physics) and is free to set in place certain things in which humans have the ability to interact with and modify for the good or for the bad (e.g., our physical environment). In doing this, God does not have to take away our freewill. God can instead limit our choices and abilities to exercise our volitional freedom within a predefined context, boundary or set of circumstances. Restricting my choice does not mean the same thing as taking away my volitional freedom and ability to choose. As an adult, my purpose or intent was to give my child or grandchild a gift of a serving of ice cream. The child can cooperate with my intention to give him or her a gift. Likewise the child can reject the offer or gift. The child is free to choose. God is likewise free to offer a gift and we are free to accept it or to reject it. This is the view that we see in the Old Testament. God gives the patriarchs, judges, prophets, kings, the nation of Israel, and individual choices to cooperate with God or to defy God and God's ways. In the below excerpt from Michael Heiser's course Sons and Daughters of God: The Believer's Identity, Calling, and Destiny, Heiser tackles predestination and God's foreknowledge using story as a metaphor for life. Like the journey metaphor, the story metaphor allows us to see how God's foreknowledge works with and not against our free wills. God's foreknowledge does not predetermine our choices. Our choices may be finite, but they are still choices although God foreknows the choices we will make and the outcomes of our choices. Sons and Daughters of God: The Believer's Identity, Calling, and Destiny by Michael S. Heiser Learning Objectives After this section, you should be able to: • Explain how 1 Sam 23:1-13 shows God's foreknowledge, and why that does not necessitate predestination • Explain the significance of God's plan happening in "real time" Introduction We're going to read through 1 Sam 23 to get a flavor for this notion about predestination, how God sort of looks at the future. And there is going to be an implication in here that's important for us as we, later in the course, think about our participation in God's program. First Samuel 23:1-13 So beginning in the first verse of 1 Sam 23, we read this: Now they told David, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors." Therefore David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the LORD said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah." But David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" Then David inquired of the LORD again. And the LORD answered him, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand." And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, "God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars." And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." Then David said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant." And the LORD said, "He will come down." Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the LORD said, "They will surrender you." Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. Summary of 1 Samuel 23:1-13 Now, do you see the relevance to the predestination question? David is in a jam. Saul was going to come down; he is in the process of coming down to Keilah to encircle the city-classic siege warfare tactics-trapping David inside. And of course, when he does that, he's just going to say to the men of Keilah, "Look, I am going to sit here as long as it takes. I will starve you out. I will cut off your water supply." You just do what you do in siege warfare. "Hand David over to me and nobody gets hurt; I'm gone." So David asks, "You know, is this going to happen? Is Saul going to come down and besiege the city? Will the men of Keilah hand me over to Saul?" And God says, "You bet." He says yes to both things. And so, what happens? David does what you and I would do: he leaves. Foreknowledge Not Predestination So, what are the implications? Here's what we are aiming at: God in this passage foreknew two things that never happened. That tells us that foreknowledge does not necessitate predestination. God foreknows two things that never come to pass; His foreknowledge did not necessitate the predestination of those events because they never happened. Now, this is going to matter later when we get into Gen 1, the fall. Humans are added to the divine family, and God shares His attributes with them, one of which is freedom. When God has His intelligent family members, whether they are divine beings or whether they are human beings, when He tasks them with participating with Him in working out His program, His plan, His will, that's going to happen in real time. What We Do Actually Matters And yes, God knows what's going to happen. He knows all things-real and possible. But the possible things, at least a lot of them, don't always happen, even though God foreknows them. And so, we again need to take the lesson here that what God tasks us to do in our time, in our place as His children, as His coworkers, what we do actually matters. We are not robots. Everything is not pre-programmed. We'll hit those thoughts again a little bit later when we talk about imaging. For now, we need to get back to the nature of God's family, the other elohim. We know they are not members of the Trinity; we know they are not idols. And we've talked about why God doesn't really need a council, but this is what He uses. So let's go back to some of the other questions and wrap them up. (Michael S. Heiser, Sons and Daughters of God: The Believer's Identity, Calling, and Destiny, Logos Mobile Education: Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019.) C. God's Pre-Determined Reality and the Theodicy Question Many people are not able to distinguish such limitations to our freedom (that is our finiteness) from our freedom to exercise our volitional abilities (that is, our ability to make spiritual, moral, and relational choices). Some can recognize that our limitations are real and valid when expressed within a physical or biological context, but not when expressed within the spiritual, moral, and social realms. This becomes a major blind spot for some. Consequently, the failure to distinguish limitations to our freedom from our ability to exercise our volitional abilities per se prevents some from coming to a Biblical and Orthodox understanding this topic. As a result, they assume that predestination means-as stated previously--that God is the only real actor on the stage of reality and that God, therefore, must control reality as a puppet master controls and directs marionettes. Such people think they are protecting God's sovereignty when in reality they are trying to shrink the infinite into a finite, metaphysical box. (They are trying to use the excluded middle argument of p or ~p.) Others think that by rejecting God or the concept of God they can solve the question of "why 'evil' exists" and the problem regarding human limitations. They assume that this metaphysical or philosophy turn will somehow and in some way help humanity to gain the ability to exercise true freedom-a freedom without limitations. But this is nonsensical because--even if God did not exist--humanity as it now exists would still have the same limitations regarding the exercise of our volition. Even if God did not exist, humanity would still not have the ability and freedom to avoid sickness, death, decay, and the purposeful and evil intentions and/or negligent actions of others. Humanity would still not be ability to suspend the physical or spiritual laws and to change the properties of those laws. In short, with or without God, we are only free (1) to accommodate ourselves to those physical/natural, moral, and spiritual laws and to use them to do good or evil or (2) to defy those laws and suffer harm or death. Humans are--after all is said and done--still finite creatures. Being an atheist or a theist does not change our physical, mental, or spiritual limitations. Those limitations are part and parcel of our humanity; they are a consequence of us being finite and mortal creatures. They exist whether you believe God exists or doesn't exist. VII. Final Word Regarding God's Blueprints We started this essay by reframing the original question that I was asked: "Do I believe That God has a Blueprint for my life." We reframed that one question into its two basic propositions. The first dealt with God's sovereignty and foreknowledge while the second dealt with our level of autonomy and freedom. (1) What are the infinite choices, options, and possibilities that the absolute, all powerful, all sovereign and all-knowing God has reserved for God alone in relationship to God's own purposes for creation and God's own designs for humanity? (2) What are the finite choices and options that the absolute, all powerful, all sovereign and all-knowing God has chosen for humanity to exercise and what are the limits and purposes of these God-ordained human freedoms and autonomy? What we were seeking was to understand God's character, attributes, and purposes in relationship to the doctrine of predestination (e.g., Ro. 8.20-30; Ep. 1.11-14; and 2 Timothy 1:8-12) and how they relate to the doctrine of human freewill (e.g., Dt. 30.11-20, Ps. Jn. 3.17-20, Ro. 3.21-24, 10.8-13, 1 Jn. 1.5-10). By rephrasing the original question into two propositions, we sought to achieve better conceptual clarity. Regarding the first proposition, we argued that God has reserved the right to design and plan "time, space, and matter" in anyway God wanted--in short, the way that reality is as it is. This has also meant that God has reserved the right to predetermine what are the two final destinations at the end of "time" for individuals. The two predetermined destinations or predestinations are (1) eternal life or (2) the Lake of Fire. Regarding the second proposition, we have subsequently discussed what finite choices or options that our infinite God has given to and reserved for humanity. The two predetermined or predestined manners, options, or choices are (1) the choice to choose which of the two final destinations we want to reach and (2) the means to cooperate with God and/or to reject God. In relation to our volitional abilities and choices, we also reviewed how God has predetermined or predestined His responses to our choices in these arenas for the purpose of maximizing our chances of winning. God had fine-tuned His responses of grace--before time, space and matter where created-- so that there would be a win-win scenario for us to choose over a win-lose scenario. God had fine-tuned His responses of grace so that we would have the best opportunities to make the best choices and, thereby, receive salvation and Kingdom citizenship: the ultimate win-win love scenario. God's desire is that all will respond and receive salvation (1 Tim. 2:4). God's desire was to predetermine, that is, pre-tune, the settings of nature and of life to provide humanity with the maximal opportunity to choose a win-win outcome. However, God desire does not cancel human's, finite volitional freedom. We are free to thwart God's desire or to thwart what God considers best for us. We are free to choose one predetermined destination (life eternal) over the other predetermined destination (the lake of fire). In God's divine wisdom, God has granted us the gift, that is, the volitional ability, and the means, that is the empower efficacy of actual and prevenient grace acting on our will, to make these choices. Rather than use the metaphors of "blueprints," I proposed shifting the metaphor from (a) "blueprints" to (b) one (i) of "taking a journey" to one of the two predetermined final destinations or (ii) of human maturation and vocational growth and choices. In such metaphors, God has absolute knowledge of our lives and has predetermined how our choices will interact with and affect our journeys' ends or vocational and human developmental outcomes. We co-select our own journeys or traveling routes or maturation processes whether healthy or unhealthy or whether for optimal or minimal productivity and functionality. We can freely act in accordance to God's will and purpose or can freely act in opposition to God's will and purpose. God has determined a finite number of options, with a finite number of choices, selections, or routes and within a finite window of time in which we can act-that is until we die or until Christ returns. We must choose which of the two predetermined destinations we want: eternal life or the lake of fire. Failure to actively and consciously choose the gift of salvation is failure to choose life. While none of us are forced to choose condemnation (or to stay in our condemned state); we can all accept the gift of salvation and receive eternal life: the ultimate win-win. The default destination is condemnation and the Lake of Fire: the ultimate win-lose. Failure to choose means continuing the path to destruction. Consequently, everyone chooses his or her final destination and maturational endpoint. The choice is up to each of us. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (ESV John 3:17-19). In this life and reality, we can choose to follow God's directions and score a win-win with God: (1) the fruition of God's sovereign will and plan and (2) our salvation and redemption. We can also choose to follow the dictates of our own hearts and continue down the path to a win-lose situation: (1) the fruition of God's sovereign will and plan and (2) our condemnation and destruction in the Lake of Fire. God wins in both scenarios; we win in only one. Bibliography Achtemeier, Paul J. Inspiration and Authority: Nature and Function of Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pring. Blackaby, Henry T., Claude King and Richard Blackaby. Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, Revised and Expanded. Nashville: Lifeway Press, 2007. Print. DeMoss Wolgemuth, Nancy Leigh. Seeking Him: Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival. Chicago: Moody P, 2015 (rpt 2019). Print. Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser, 1999. Pring. Emery, Nina, Ned Markosian and Meghan Sullivan. "Time." Winter 2020. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Web. 15 July 2022. <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/time/>. Forlines, F. Leroy. Biblical Systematics: A Study of the Christian System of Life and Thought. Nashville: Randall House Publications, 1975. Print. Halvorson, Hans and Helge Kragh. "Cosmology and Theology." Winter 2021. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Web. 16 July 2022. <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/cosmology-theology/>. Henry, Carl. "God Who Speaks and Shows." Henry, Carl. God, Revelation, and Authority. 2nd ed. Vol. IV. Wheaton: Crossway, 1999. Print. Lewis, Clive Staples. Mere Christianity. New York: HarperOne, 1952 (rev 2001). Print. Pink, Arthur Walkington. Spiritual Growth. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1971. Print. Pultarova, Tereza. "What If the Big Bang Wasn't the Beginning? New Study Propoese Alternative." 5 December 2017. Space.Com. Web. 15 July 2022. <https://www.space.com/38982-no-big-bang-bouncing-cosmology-theory.html>. Skaggs, Rebecca. "Time." Lexham Theological Wordbook. Ed. Douglas Mangum, et al. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2014. Print. Vos, A. "Molina, Luis De." Who's Who in Christian History. Ed. J. D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1992. 480. Logos Software Electronic Library. Willard, Dallas. Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1984 (rpt 2021). Print. -. The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives. Grand Rapids: Family Christian P, 1988 (rpt 2001). Print. Wright, Norman Thomas. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. New York: HarperOne, 2006 (rpt 2021). Print. 1 This collocation of Bible verses were taken from Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 1999) 2 "All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the Beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelations 13:8 NKJV). 2 Tim 3 See for example Revelations 20:12-21:4. 4 A good visual image can be made through the use of PowerPoint. Take a picture of a map or globe of the earth or of a patched worked quilt, any quilt, and make two slides of the very same picture. Place before each of those slides a blank slide so that the outline of the slides appears as such: Slide 1: blank slide, Slide 2: Map; Slide 3: Blank Slide; Slide 4: Map. For slide 2, select a transition like honeycomb (for the patched worked quilt) or clock, vortex, dissolve or glitter for the map or globe graphics. Also set Slide 2 with a 6.00 sec duration. This represents God's creation and God's planning and foreknowledge as being trapped in time and space as an unfolding and expanding reality, line-by-line, stich-by-stich reality. In slide 4, make it without any transition. This represents God's foreknowledge and God's planning as being a "whole cloth" reality, as God working outside of the bounds of time and space. Slide 2 represents how things appear to those caught in time and space; whereas Slide Four represents whole cloth and instantaneous reality that God also sees and only sees. We are caught in time and space and see only the unfolding; God being omnipresent and omniscient and all powerful can be in and see time and space unfolding and also be outside and not bound by space and time [which God created] and see it whole cloth-beyond, before, and outside of time and space. 5 In logic, this is analogous to knowing which of the two disjunction formulas one is using. The first is the exclusive disjunction [p v ~p] and it is the basis of the "law of the excluded middle." It is usually interpreted as meaning "it can be either p singularly or either ~p [not p] singularly, but not both "p and ~p" at the same time." (E.g., the flag is either white or it isn't white.) The second disjunction is the inclusive disjunction [a v b] (this can also be written with the exclusive disjunction [p v ~p]); it is interpreted as meaning "it can be either p / a singularly or either ~p /b singularly, or both p / a and ~p /b at the same time. (The flag can be either white singularly or not white singularly, or it can be both white and not white at the same time, i.e., red, white and blue as in the American Flag.) The problem is not with the exclusive disjunction nor its use per se. The problem is when to employ an exclusive disjunction or inclusive disjunction. The rule is that one should always employ an inclusive disjunction (that can handle multiple variables and factors) unless and until there is enough contextual (discourse, social, or historical) evidence or information to assume (that is in scientific terms to falsify) that an inclusive disjunction is not warranted (i.e. that the problem involves only one or two variables or factors for which exclusive disjunctions can be legitimately employed). One begins with inductive and/or abductive reasonings and the inclusive disjunction first until the evidence and context makes it appropriate to use deductive reasoning and the exclusive disjunction. 6 For a list of such future rewards and blessings, see for example the article #5500, "Rewards, for God's People", in Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 1999). 7 The following texts are a list of Biblical passages that deal with the inspiration and authority of Scripture. For a more comprehensive treatment, see Paul Achtemeier' s, The Inspiration of Scripture, or Carl F H Henry's God Who Speaks and Shows, Vol. IV., of God, Revelation, and Authority, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1999. 8 A. Vos, "Molina, Luis De", Who's Who in Christian History, ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992). 480. 9 These are more appropriate metaphors for understanding God as the master programmer and master player of reality. When playing chess, we do not make up the rules or change the rules willy-nilly: e.g., the pawns cannot start acting like the queen just because we what them to act that way. In a similar way in real life, we are constrained by the laws of physics and the moral and spiritual laws of God. God as the ultimate master game creator, programmer, and player 1 does not take away other players' free will or ability to make choices or to select options; instead, God has limited our choices or options to the laws of physics and the moral and spiritual laws that God has created. Like IBM Big Blue super computer's chess matches with human chess masters the possibilities of win, lose, or draw were actualized as Big Blue winning or drawing and the human masters as losing and drawing. More on this later. 10 Through sins of commission, we make an active response to reject God's grace, call, or prompting. 11 Through sins of omission or inactivity, we fail to accept, act, think and/or do the right thing. 12 F. Leroy Forlines, Biblical Systematics: A Study of the Christian System of Life and Thought (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications, 1975). 38. 13 I like to rephrase the term predestination into its full metaphor of a journey or destination to be taken. This involves predetermining (i) a destination or journey to be undertaken (creation), (b) planning the routes to take (history), and (c) the two endpoints or goals in mind (salvation or eternal damnation). 14 See also Hans Halvorson and Helge Kragh's (Cosmology and Theology). 15 My argument does not rest on the sophomoric premise such as can God create a rock too big for God to hold or move. By God's omnipotence, we mean that God can perform any act consistent with His nature. He is never limited in an activity by lack of power (Gen. 17:1; 18:14; Job 42:2; Mt. 19:26; Acts 26:8; Rev. 19:6; and others). By omnipotence, we do not mean that God can do the ridiculous and the absurd. There are some things that God cannot do. He cannot lie (Tit. 1:2). He cannot make a square circle. (F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth: Theology for Postmodern World (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications; Worldwide Ministries, 2001), 72. 16 For a more in-depth introduction to "time" as a philosophical and conceptual issue, see (Emery, Markosian and Sullivan) or (Skaggs). 17 Especially helpful are the books Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, by Henry Blackaby and Claude King, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God and The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, Basic Christianity by John Stott, Simply Christian by Norman T. Wright, Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Tim Grissom, and Spiritual Growth by Arthur W. Pink. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Predestination and Freewill: Do I Believe That God Has a Blueprint for My Life? By Floyd Knight Copyright (c) 2010-2012 by Floyd Knight. All rights reserved.