An adolescent's take on predetermination

Good things seldom happen to me at fast food chains. On my way to my church seminar this morning I dropped by at McDonalds for a quick bite. Ordering my cup of ice milo, I took my drink to a nearby table to wait for the rest of my meal. It was a darn long wait and before I knew it, my eyes were glued to the pages of a book that I'd had borrowed from my friend a few days before. My throat felt a little dry. Instinctively, I reached out to grab my cup of cool beverage on the table - or so I thought.

Three seconds and a few guilty sips later, I quickly put the cup back down and pretended that nothing had ever happened.

Oh horror of horrors - It turned out that I had actually swiped that ice milo from a kid dining at that table right in front of me! My ice milo stood innocently just a small distance away from his. I cannot imagine what I would have done if a random stranger just came along and started sipping at my drink but the young kid was blissfully oblivious. I remember my mum always used to tell me that my absent-mindedness would kill me someday. Thanks mum! At least that kid was equally absent-minded. =x

Faux pas aside, was I to solely blame for my own actions? Or were they the consequence of some unknown entity better known as fate... or God? Interestingly the church seminar that I went to touched a little on predetermination and destiny. It set me pondering a little - Can free will exist in the world of God? Are our fates predestined by God?

Well my personal take on this issue is a resounding yes - free will DOES exist in the world of God.

At first glance this would seem to be a ridiculous notion. After all, God and free will seem to be diametrically opposed. He is the master and we follow his instructions - or do we? It is evident in the bible that Man has the ability to make choices - and not all of these choices are pleasing to the Lord. There have been many cases of transgression against the Lord. In Genesis it was Eve who chose to heed the malicious lies of the snake and to swallow the forbidden fruit. It was Adam's choice to listen to his wife and disobey his Creator. In the book of 1 Samuel, It was King Saul's choice to turn his back against God and to make numerous attempts on David's life. In the book of Jonah, the wayward prophet made a decision to escape from the mission entrusted to him by God. And the list goes on.

Such actions are only possible because the Lord is not an autocratic dictator. He expects us to love Him and obey Him out of our own volition. The fact that not everyone in this world believes in Him is evidence of free will. A relationship with God without free will is not love - it is compulsion. That is something I believe my Creator does not desire. This is also why the Apostle Paul said that Christians are "justified by faith" and not by following religious dogma. Christianity is first and foremost a personal relationship with God and one which we willingly enter.

Man is then faced with the choice of listening to the voice of God or succumbing to his own temptation and sliding down the slippery slope of sin. This can also partly answer why evil exists if God is so good and all powerful. Simply put, evil exists because Man exercises his free will in contrary to the will of God.

Now this begs the next question. Does this then render God ineffectual and powerless? Not so! I believe that the will of God is stronger than anything Man can conceive of. The Lord preserves the free will of Man but he is not constrained by this. God can impose his will and his judgement on all creation while at the same time allowing them to make choices. If we choose to sin, we suffer the consequences of God's wrath. Whatever we do, there is no escaping the final judgement with the second coming of Christ. I think that the Lord manipulates our destiny on a more macroscopic level while we "choose" our path on a more miniscule level. To put it simply, the Lord decides the Beginning and the End; the Alpha and the Omega. He ensures that evil does not go unpunished and the faithful do not go unrewarded but at the same time he allows us humans to decide what paths we choose to follow and how we wish to reach our endpoints. We determine the consequences that we will face in the later parts of our lives. We determine how we want to treat others and how we want to impact their lives. (Of course the Lord can interfere with some of these choices and he does that in accordance to his will) We can choose to indulge in a life of debauchery and sin for the rest of our lives or we can choose to be a virtuous and faithful person. Either way the endpoint is still the same - a personal interview with your Creator at the pearly gates. You determine your own testimonial.

That is about all I have to say about this issue. Feel free to disagree or agree with my opinions - after all you have the free will to do so. =D

PS: Ah yes I am fully responsible for my embarassing actions at McDonalds.