Predestined or Free to Choose?

Very simply put, the Christian religion’s doctrine of predestination teaches that God alone chooses, in advance, who will be saved to eternal life, and who will be doomed to eternal destruction. It claims that man does nothing to influence God’s choice, and that nothing man subsequently does changes God’s decision. 

Again very simply put, the doctrine of free will teaches that God offers salvation to everyone, and it is entirely up to the individual to either accept or reject this offer. It claims that man is entirely free to make this choice. 

Are these teachings mutually exclusive? Or is the truth a combination of some elements of both?
Many Bible verses can be found which seem to support predestination. They can be countered by an almost equal number of verses seeming to support free will. 

The problem with just looking at verses is that not all are taken in their fuller context, and many are meant to be taken in the context of the entire Scripture, limiting their proper meaning when taken on their own. We do know that God has given us many ‘pictures’ or examples of truth, in the accounts recorded in the Scripture (Old Testament). They're a great place to begin a study of this subject. 

Let's start by looking at a few verses which describe the ‘heart’ of man, and do some word study. 

The Hebrew word translated in English as ‘heart’ in the Scripture carries a meaning of the inner man, the thoughts, feelings and motives of the self. In Hebrew, the heart was considered to be the source of thought and motives. It was the kidneys which were considered to be the source of emotion! So where you see ‘heart’ in the Scripture, you can generally substitute ‘mind’ to get a more accurate meaning in today’s English. 

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us the heart (mind) of man is deceitful (not to be trusted, with a motive to gratify self instead of God), and desperately wicked. The word translated wicked here actually carries a meaning of sick, frail, feeble, incurable, full of trouble or woe. 

Yet despite this natural state of ‘bad’, man was expected to turn from his own way to trust God’s way, and obey Him. Deuteronomy 30:14 tells us God has given us the ability to choose what is good, meaning that there is the possibility of doing so. The entire Torah is given to show man what is the right choice, to point out what sin is. 

God expects us to choose righteousness, and He has equipped us with the ability to do so. What stands in our way? Genesis 6:5-7 tells us that God saw that ‘every intention’, every desire and thought of man was evil (wretched, displeasing to God, having no value) continually, so that He was sorry He had made man. Yet in the very next verse, Genesis 6:8, we read that Noah found grace in the eyes of God. 

The word ‘grace’ carries the meaning of acceptance, compassion, of a sense of being pleasant and agreeable. We read in Genesis 6:9 (confirmed in Genesis 7:1, Ezekiel 14:14 and 20 and 2 Peter 2:5) that God considered Noah a righteous man, that Noah walked with God, that he was blameless among men. We also read in some of the account of Noah’s life that, for example, when God said ‘Make yourself an ark’ (Genesis 6:14) and gave exact specifications, Noah made the ark, ‘according to all God had commanded him, he did’ (6:22 and 7:5, 9, 16). We see Noah’s right actions stemmed from his faith and trust in God.

What we do not see is that God caused Noah’s choices and actions to be righteous. The text quite clearly gives credit for trusting in God to Noah. The text does not say God created Noah pre-programmed to only trust. This is important to note. 

Young’s Literal Translation (a word for word equivalent translation) reads: 

8And Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah. 9…Noah [is] a righteous man; perfect he hath been among his generations; with God hath Noah walked habitually. (Genesis 6:8, 9b) 

1And Jehovah saith to Noah, `Come in, thou and all thy house, unto the ark, for thee I have seen righteous before Me in this generation… (Genesis 7:1) 

We also see that God’s law, His instruction or Torah, was available to men. God instructed Noah to take seven pairs of every kind of ‘clean’ animal into the ark. Since man had not yet been given animals as food (this permission is recorded as given in Genesis 9:3) the reference to ‘clean’ at this point was only in respect to sacrifice. Noah already knew what ‘clean’ meant, and how to make proper sacrifice. Part of his right response to God was that he followed the Torah. 

We see this demonstrated in the account of Noah’s burnt offerings recorded in Genesis 8:20-21, according to Exodus 29:25 and 42. In the Exodus verses we see that the burnt offering was given on an altar ‘at the entrance to the tent of meeting’ where God said ‘I will meet with you, to speak to you there’. And God did. He continued to bless Noah’s trust in Him, trust demonstrated through Noah’s obedience to God’s instructions. 

Could it be that while ‘every intent’ of every person is by nature (due to sin) wicked from birth, the one who is willing to trust in God is enabled to not obey the wicked impulses, but instead is enabled to obey His good ways? Could this simple willingness to trust be what causes God to have compassion on them, despite the constant wicked impulses of human nature? 

In Genesis 15:6 we read that Abraham believed God (when God gave him His promise) and God credited Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness. The word translated ‘believed’ carries a sense of being faithful, trusting in, permanence, absence of strife, morally right, to be firm, established, continued. Its primary meaning is that of providing stability and confidence, like a baby would find in the arms of a parent (Strong’s Concordance #H539). The implication is that Abraham received the promise from God as something true and sure, as a baby trusts in the arms of a parent. And that attitude, that belief, pleased God greatly. 

The word translated ‘righteousness’ that God credited to Abraham, carries a sense of truth, integrity and blameless right conduct. Abraham’s faith (trust) in God was counted by God as righteousness. Note it was not any action of Abraham’s that God counted as righteousness, for that would mean he was considered righteous through his works. It was Abraham’s faith (trust, continued reliance) in God and his acceptance of God’s promise that God counted as righteousness. His works were the natural fruit of that.

Just as we’ve seen in the account of Noah, Abraham’s right actions stemmed from his trusting confidence in God. With both of them, obedience was the result of faith. Note that this righteousness did not lead to eternal life. It was not salvation, the deliverance from the consequence of sin (eternal separation from God) that is needed by all. It is my understanding that this salvation could only be brought about by Yeshua. In each of these situations, it was clearly God who chose. It is made equally clear that the faith of the ones chosen, the unreserved trust in Him, mattered to God. 

Now let’s consider the account of the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 7:6-9 God makes it clear that Israel was chosen to be His ‘treasured possession’ because HE had set His love on them, and because of the promise He made to their forefathers. Again we see that it is God who chooses. And that He is pleased to bless those who are faithful to Him, to a thousand generations of their descendants! 

Even though Israel was a chosen people, not all of them would be accepted by God. God’s acceptance of them also depended on their response to Him, on their willingness to trust in Him and obey His instructions. We can see this clearly in the account of the Passover recorded in Exodus 11 and 12. The Israelites were given specific instructions. Following these would preserve them and bring about their deliverance from bondage. Not following them would mean the same loss of life as God was going to cause among the Egyptians. They were given choice, free will. Only those who demonstrated their faith in God by their acceptance of and obedience to His instructions were delivered from slavery into freedom. A second aspect of predestination is more specific. In the account of the Exodus, it is also very clearly stated that God ‘hardened’ the heart of Pharaoh and his servants. See Part Two...