Predestination and free will, at the same time...

Predestination and free will, at the same time...

When we imagined our torso rib-slice-worm (RSW) for the last post we ended up with an incredible picture of humankind all the way back to Adam! All of the hydra stalks were cross connected and twisted around each other in an amazing tangle. But we failed to think about one aspect that our 3D flatland visitor saw immediately when he looked at the amoeba... the amoeba was really a worm that stretched below (past) and above (future) the slowly rising water in the drum. For some reason, the worm was only self aware right at the water/air interface! However, the 3D visitor saw all of the worm at once... as a creature in time.

In Frank Herbert's sci fy clasic "Dune", he visualized time as a billion pre and post possibilities intersecting at now. I am not proposing the same concept, but it is a somewhat related thought. Instead, I am visualizing a creature, which exists in time-space as a billion, stacked up time slice worms. Again, we pick one slice to help visualize this creature, say, the rib-slice-worm (RSW). We spent a lot of time visualizing this guy last post and even saw him as a bud off an Adam Hydra, attached finally to the dust of the new creation. But, try to make this next leap in the visualization... Think of yourself as the 3D visitor to Flatland who could see the 3D amoeba-worm stretching both above and below the water's surface. To the time-free 4D viewer, our human worm creature already exists in the future, just as it exists in the past! Whoa... stop a while and let that soak...

My RSW is only self aware at the past/future interface just as the Flatland amoeba worm was self aware only at the water/air interface! This view of my RSW has some interesting consequences. For this post, we will only think through one of them. How do you feel about predestination? In Christianity there has been a "war" of sorts for a long time about predestination and free will. Some of the major lines of reasoning became focused in the teachings of John Calvin (Calvinistic) and Professor Armineas (Arminian). While there are various points of difference, one major one is the difference in how they see predestination and free will. After all if we are predestined to sin, then how can we be held accountable for that sin? Can we not see God as having freedom in time so that he can look "up" through the future to see me accept Christ as savior and Lord? So, I am predestinated because that is what God sees. Or, from the other side, God is soverign and he knows his children from the foundation of the universe. They are soverignly elected, and therefor arrive at the moment of rebirth. Those who are not the elect do not go through the "narrow gate". Both of them are free to choose to sin, and are fully responsible but the elect have their debt "paid in full". (if you want more details there are at least 300 years wourh of books and other writings on the subject! Eternal secutity can take a whole nother life time to ponder...)

Hummm... all of that would have seemed very hard to visualize just a few weeks ago, but now that you can view your RSW, you can see that in fact, both are true at the same time! Problem solved! God sees the entire creature from the foundation of the universe to the Adam-bud to the me-bud. God may soverignly pass my RSW through the narrow gate while I maintain full free will and responsibility for what my worm does on the way there... see? This image was an incredible reliefe 25 years ago when I was struggling with these two different theologies! Both schools seemed to have right ideas and both seemed to have weak ideas. I have never been able to give enough context to explain it to more than a few people, so hopefully you, gentle reader, are now among the group who sees this! Ordinary thought just does not allow one to think about predestnation and free will at the same time, but with our new time creatures, it is a synch! It is all just a matter of perspective!

In Watchman Nee's classic "Sit, Walk, Stand" Nee also touches this truth. He describes the believer as simultaneously seated with Christ in the heavenlies, walking through a messy life, and standing on the power of a choice for Christ all at the same time! You can visualize that easily if you think of your RSW existing at all those points already. Years later when I was talking to my daughter about how a road knows the way back to the tent, I answered "It knows because it is already there." This is also that kind of vision - see it?

I can not end this without relaying my favorite Calvinistic/Arminian story... Oh no... there he goes again... This is from a neighborhood Reformed Prespretarian (Calvinistic) pastor who was talking to us as we were thinking about changing churches. John Calvin and John Wesely (Arminian) both died, and were walking up paths to heaven. As luck would have it the paths they were on joined and as soon as they saw each other, there was great rejoycing! "John! how good to see you!" "No, John, it is my pleasure! How delightful!" (sure, they talked like that...) They continued their rejoycing and reminiscing as they walked up the path. Soon, they came to the walls of Heaven, and they saw the Pearly Gates. They stopped. Wesely looked longingly at Calvin... Calvin nodded as in final agreement... there, above the gate, was an inscription: "Whosoever will may come!" They embraced, and continued on arm in arm. They entered heaven and started to walk from the gate a bit down the street of gold. Suddenly, Wesely felt Calvin tug on his sleve... They both turned around and stared back at the Pearly Gates. There above the inside of the gates was another inscription: "Known from the foundation of the universe!" It was just a matter of perspective.
Nois