Friday, August 22, 2008

Predestination

In the Book of Common Prayer, on page 871, in the Articles of Religion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, USA, adopted on
12 September 1801, there is an explanation of Predestination to Life, to wit: “The everlasting purpose of God whereby He hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he has chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.” In contrast, the Calvinist definition of predestination is the concept that “everything is freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.” [The Anglican terminology of that definition is “double predestination,” which seems reasonable enough.]
It’s hard to conceive that God has ordained everything that I do, because that challenges the Biblical notion that we have free will. Is our God really deceptive enough to let us believe that we only THINK that our free will decisions originate in our brains, when in actuality He’s already decided what we’ll do? The closest I can get to that is Paul’s wonderful passage in Philippians that “He is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure [2:13]. I interpret this to mean that if I love him enough, and strive to make my mind conform to his, He will inspire me to do his will. That, to me, is a far cry from ordaining what I do!