By: John W. Hardin
When
confronted with some of the more
controversial issues concerning
doctrine, most of us (Baptists) dismiss
the inconsistencies of Biblical
interpretation between what we know as
truth and what someone else is
professing as truth. It is easier to
avoid the debate completely and stand
firm in our convictions than to confront
these doctrinal differences. Such is the
case with the issue of Predestination.
We, as Baptists generally avoid
confrontation on the subject of
predestination. We understand that God
has commissioned Christians to preach
the Gospel to those who are lost, teach
them and pray for their conversion (John
3:16). We also know that the Holy
Spirit compels those who are lost to
accept Jesus Christ; and Revelation
22:17 affirms that there is choice
to be made by man to receive the Gospel
and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ, “And whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely”.
The opposing side to this
argument comes from the Catholic and
Reformed Catholic worldviews (commonly
labeled Calvinism). Their standpoint on
judgment and grace is that God, being
completely sovereign and omniscient,
knows who will be condemned to hell or
who will receive mercy before they were
born… even before the creation of the
world.
This is where the incongruity
lies. So, we as Baptists are left with
the decision to:
1.
Accept
God’s Word as the absolute inspired
truth, and dismiss the incongruity as a
mystery not yet revealed; or,
2.
Consider
the plausibility of the Catholic /
Reformed interpretation of
predestination as it reflects what would
seem to be an accurate description of an
all-powerful God.
In either of these two cases we
stand the chance of passing to our
posterity a relegated understanding of
God and His attributes. We cannot
dismiss the incongruities in the
doctrine of predestination as we stand
the chance of passing to our children a
sense of defeat. Augustine has
completely satisfied the intellect of
billions of people with his
philosophical explanation of
predestination, and it does not agree
with the Biblical doctrine of
Soul-liberty. At some point, our
children will be confronted with the
logic of Augustine, and could attempt to
fuse it with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
that we have taught them. The end result
is that they will inevitably be drawn
back to Catholicism. For the sake of our
posterity, we cannot continue to
side-step Augustine’s philosophies.
These incongruities must be satisfied in
our minds, and in our children’s minds
or else the worldly philosophies of
Augustine will.
The Lie:
The
initial logic in Augustine’s
philosophy of history is in his
interpretation of time as it relates to
creation.
Augustine reasoned that because
God created the ability for living
organisms to reproduce after their own
kind, He essentially created in their
respective day the potential to achieve
a predestined end.
First, I would like to point out, that
Augustine reasoned since God created
living organisms to reproduce after
their own kind, He accordingly created
in each species the “potential” to
achieve the predestined end that He had
created them to achieve. Essentially,
according to Augustine’s reasoning,
God created the beginning with the end
in mind, or God had created the end of
time via the beginning of time.
The Truth:
We
understand time from our viewpoint as a
linear constant from past to present,
let’s try to understand time from
God’s view.
All
of creation has the definite signature
of it’s creator on it.
God, being triune in nature, has
illustrated His nature for us in His
creation, and with an observation of
God’s handiwork we can begin to see
this is true:
1.
The three
states of matter (solid, liquid and gas)
exist simultaneously as matter, but only
one state is evident at any given time.
2.
All color
that we perceive to see exists as three
primary colors, all emitting from one
light source.
3.
The three
dimensions of space (height, width, and
depth) all exist simultaneously, and are
completely dependent on each other to
exist (a two dimensional object cannot
exist.
The
fourth (and certainly not the final)
example will be the focal point my
argument; this is what encompasses all
that we perceive as the “physical
reality”.
The creation account of this
“physical reality” of Genesis 1:1
also has God’s signature in the
structure of space, time and matter
(energy).
What
God created in the beginning was heaven
and earth.
The heaven would be the
reasonable thing to create first because
it was the place where all other
creation would exist.
The “first” heaven to be
created was what we now call space.
The
second thing God created was the earth,
and by creating the earth, He created
matter.
At this point in creation all
that existed was a three dimensional
canvas with an image of the earth on it.
Time did not exist at this point.
Genesis
1:2 states that “the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters.”
Genesis 1:3 states “And
God said, Let there be light: and there
was light.”
Before this statement by God, the
universe did not exist as we know it
now, and neither did time. When the
Spirit of God moved, and said “Let
there be light”, the time line
began to expand.
The next verse Genesis 1:5
gives us the first confirmation that
time was present:
“And God called the light
Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the
first day.”
Now
to address the issue of the direction of
time:
Ecclesiastes
3:16
That which hath been is now; and
that which is to be hath already been;
and God requireth that which is past.
The
preacher here in Ecclesiastes
assuredly understood that time was a
fluid linear action, so what was it that
made him say, “that which hath been
is now”, and “that which is
to be hath already been”?
It is obvious that the writing of
Ecclesiastes was inspired by God through
the preacher.
God was giving us some insight
into His point of view.
The past exists still, as God can
still see it as it were happening now,
as the future has already occurred.
For
Augustine and his students to assert
that God created the end of time first
is erroneous, even heretical.
In accordance with the above
explanation we can understand that God
created the beginning and the end at
precisely the same time, and the
direction of time was ordained by God to
move from the beginning to the end.
Let’s look at that verse in
Ecclesiastes again:
Ecclesiastes 3:16
That which hath been is now; and
that which is to be hath already been;
and God requireth that which is past.
The
last part of that verse; “and God
requireth that which is past”,
gives us another clue as to the subject
of time.
Our view of time is fashioned, so
that the only part of time that exists
for us is the present, or the event.
Since we are not omni-present we cannot
exist at all points of time.
But, the writer of Ecclesiastes
rightly said; “That which hath been
is now; and that which is to be hath
already been.
God knows and sees everything
from the beginning of time to the end of
time, all at the same time, but God only
“requireth that which is past”.
This is interesting because it
would seem from God’s point of view
that all time should be required because
that is what actually exists.
But God apparently respects the
existence of the fluid linearity of
time.
As far as sin, “God
requireth that which is past”,
nothing future of your point in time is
required of you.
Although God sees and knows what
is in the future, He doesn’t regard
the future, or hold man accountable for
any point in time until that event is
past.
This
view of God’s creation regarding time
should not be regarded as inhibiting a
perfect understanding of the sovereignty
of God. In fact, God has created man in
time in such a way to facilitate
free-will, and thereby enable man, to
freely demote himself to nothing and
exalt God to Absolute Supreme Ruler in their
life. This is genuine Sovereignty.
John
W. Hardin
