I recently was asked to officially state my position on God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in salvation by a national ministry. They asked to keep it in a summary form [because we all know one could write volumes on the minutiae of the topic]. Please find below my best shot at describing my viewpoint.

[This can be considered an extension of the Calvinism & Free Will & The Heritage of Sin entry]

First, predestination is a doctrine plainly set forth in the Bible. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, the issue is not whether we should have a doctrine of predestination, but what kind should we embrace.

With that said, I believe that predestination, in its most elementary form, is that our final destination, heaven or hell, is decided by God before we are born [Ephesians 1:4-5]. In other words, from all eternity, before we ever live, God made a choice-he chose some individuals to be saved unto everlasting blessedness in heaven, also known as the elect, and others he chose to pass over, to allow them to follow the consequences of their sins into eternal torment into hell, also known as reprobates [Romans 8:29].

The cry against predestination usually culminates in the determination that it is not fair. If by fair, we mean equal, then the protest is accurate. Probably what is meant by fair is just. But if all men are guilty of sin in the sight of God, and from the mass of guilty humanity, God sovereignly gives mercy to some, what do the rest get? They get justice. The saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. No one gets injustice. Or better, justice is not injustice, as some might argue.

What follows is usually a concern about protecting the dignity and freedom of man. But we first must observe the importance of God”s sovereignty. The reason we must start with God”s sovereignty is that if God is the supreme authority over heaven and earth, all other authority is lesser authority. As a part of God”s sovereignty or authority is the idea that God foreordains whatever comes to pass [interestingly, this is not an idea unique to Calvinism, but simply a tenet, and a necessary one at that, of theism].

Moving on to the idea of free will, I would define it as Jonathan Edwards has in On the Freedom of the Will. Edwards calls it “mind choosing” which means that before we ever can make moral choices we first have some idea of what it is we are choosing. Our selection is then based upon what the mind approves or rejects. If the mind is not involved, then the choice is made for no reason and with no reason. It becomes an arbitrary and morally meaningless act.

According to Edwards, a human being is not only free to choose what he desires but he must choose what he desires to be able to choose at all. This means that every choice is free and every choice is determined. But determined does not mean that some external force coerces the will. Rather it refers to one”s internal motivation or desire. In short, our choices are determined by our desires.

So how do we “get an idea” of what we are “choosing” when it comes to salvation? Though I believe that the will is a natural ability given to us by God to make choices, the problem is we lack the moral ability to choose God. Before we can choose Christ, we must first have a desire for Christ. And in the Fall, man lost his original desire for God. The only way for man to have a desire to choose Christ, he must first receive that desire from God. Regeneration precedes faith [John 6:65].

So how do we interface God”s sovereignty with human freedom? First, it should be said that these two ideas are not contradictions that we must embrace [since the Bible teaches both things]. If in fact they were contradictions, that would reveal that the Bible is errant.

I believe that the “interface” reveals that this is a mystery, as opposed to a contradiction, of great proportions. Mystery refers to that which is true but we do not understand. It is easy to confuse mystery and contradiction. We do not understand either of them. All contradictions are mysterious. Not all mysteries are contradictions. Christianity has plenty of room for mysteries, but none for contradictions.