2011-12-05T15:55:00.001-08:00

Unification of Freewill and Predestination

TemporalOmnipresence

The following is a theological idea that I have beenkicking around for a long time…that Predestination and Free Will are notopposing theological viewpoints but are two different ways of looking at thesame thing.

In order to understand this viewpoint I need to explainmy understanding of the nature of time versus the nature of non-time, oreternity.

1. Timeis a function of the material universe. When God created the material universe,He created time as an integral part of the material universe; the same asgravity or the speed of light.

2. Godis omnipresent in His physical universe, and is therefore omnipresent in timeas well.

Holy, holy, holy isthe Lord God Almighty, who was,and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8 NKJV)

3. Heinhabits the past, present and the future all at the same time.

4. God’snatural state is an eternal, or non-time, state.

5. Time cannotcontain Him because it is His creation.

6. Thereforewe, as created, material beings are subject to time while He is not.

If we accept the ideasabove then, I believe, it is possible to unify the ideas of Predestination andFree Will by seeing them, not as competing theological viewpoints, but as twoways of describing the same thing…God’s Omnipresence in time, or TemporalOmnipresence.

Linear Time

We live in a stateof linear time. When we are born, one event follows another until we die. Fromthe time we are born we make decisions until we die. Looking forward from birthwe have countless decisions to make which form our character and for which wewill be held accountable by God.

But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they willgive account of it in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36 NKJV)

But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? (Luke 6:46 NKJV)

This is basically the doctrine of Free Will: Godis with us at birth and that all of the possible futures we could have, basedupon our decisions, are genuine andpossible. There is no onefixed path or “destiny” and we will be held accountable for the decisions wemake.

Eternal Viewpoint

Yet, we also know that “…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, whichGod prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)

How could it be otherwise? God is neversurprised by what happens. He knows what tomorrow brings and even states thatHe has prepared our good works ahead of time. Paul also states that, “He chose us in Him before the foundation ofthe world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”(Ephesians 1:4)

This then would then seem to bespeak of twocompeting ideas: one is that we alone are responsible for our actions, and theother that God has “chosen us before the foundation of the world”…before weeven had a chance to act at all.

The Alpha and the Omega

Theidea I have is that both Predestination and Free Will are two ways of lookingat the same idea….Temporal Omnipresence.

The Alpha

When I am born God is with me at thebeginning of my life. He is Alpha to me…the beginning. As I grow He and Iinteract in making choices. Some of these choices are His will, and some arechoices I make that are disobedient to His will. At some point I become BornAgain, my spirit becomes alive, and I can communicate with Him. I come torecognize that, although He has been speaking to me all of my life, I now knowit as the voice of God.

Afterbeing Born Again, the decision making process does not change…I still makechoices that are obedient and disobedient to His will…all of which haveconsequences in this world, in my relationship with Him, and in the final “BemaSeat” judgment for reward.
For we must all appear before the judgmentseat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good orbad.(2 Cor. 5:10 NKJV)

This process does not end until I die and goto be with the Lord.

The Omega

At the end of mylife God is Omega to me…the end. He “looks back” on my life and now all of mydecisions are “fixed” in time and cannot be changed. I die and my choicesbecome permanent for all eternity. In this sense, I was “predestined” to makethese choices because He knew that I was going to make these exact choicesbefore He created the universe.

Conclusion

God is with me atthe beginning of my life, with me at the end of my life, and at all pointsin-between. Because he is Omnipresent in time as well as space, He is with meat every point of my life at the sametime. Past, present and future cannot contain Him since time is Hiscreation.

If true, then thismeans that Predestination and Free Will are two different ways of looking at myposition in the time stream. From birth to the last moment before death I havefree will to make decisions that have temporal and eternal consequences and forwhich I am held accountable. After death, my decisions are fixed in the timestream and always were before the creation of the universe. The best name I can come up with for this ideais Temporal Omnipresence.

About Jay S. Leach

2008-07-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

I began teaching in 1983 and started working with Behaviorally Disordered students in 1986. I have taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and at four different psychiatric hospitals.

In 1994 I was hired to help design a behavior control system for the Corpus Christi Independent School District in Texas for use in their Special Education program.

After leaving the classroom I became a Head Middle School counselor and then a district-wide Special Education counselor working with Behaviorally Disordered students. I am currently a High School counselor in San Diego, California.
My interest in Christian living and theology stems back to 1980 when I became Born Again and began studying the Bible and learning from the ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. I attended Seminary for a year but left to work with Emotionally Disturbed students. God then led me to become a school counselor and I am still doing that job and loving it!

I have written a book about how to work with Emotionally Disturbed and Behaviorally Disordered students named "What Do I Do With These Kids?". It helps teachers, administrators and parents understand why students with behavior problems act the way they do and explains practical techniques that can be used to control these behaviors, including a point and level system complete with classroom forms. It is available on the Amazon Kindle platform and is in its fourth edition.