Parallel Christianity

A serious look into the doctrine of free will and how predestination defines it

As we read the bible, we are utterly at the mercy of God as to whether we are enlightened or deceived. The bible has the power to open our eyes, but it also has the power to ‘answer us according to the idols in our hand’. That is a phrase that points directly to the scope of free will belief. The bible not only is used for enlightenment; it is used as a tool of darkness. It can be weaponized to counter beliefs that go against free will, and also as a defense agent to shore up walls against the supposed horrors of predestination. But I caution you. Remember when the Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Say we not well that thou hast a demon??” Whatever they thought Jesus was saying to them went against what their bible was telling them. I could have worded that last sentence differently and said what they ‘thought’ their bible was telling them; to somehow have the bible off the hook for their deception, but it wasn’t about what they thought the bible said; it was about exactly what their bible was speaking to them. God did not write the bible to clear Himself of some judgement for choosing His own children. He wrote it to enlighten His chosen and keep everyone else deceived. It is the bible that speaks for both parties. If it was written for the intent that free will says it was written for, predestination would not appear in it. So if you are a free will believer and disagree with this, you should realize that you have an obligation to explain why predestination is in the bible. But of course, you cannot do that because there is no conviction to uncover things that are of no value. Your agreement that predestination is in the bible is our point of commonality, but it proves that free will is an idol because predestination should have stricken it from your heart as it did ours. You cling to free will because you have not believed predestination. To be convinced of this, our eyes will have to be opened. A person could read about predestination for fifty years and even memorize the subject matter with no effect and come away holding free will in the most sacred place of their heart. Others can read a single sentence and be made aware of the necessity to look further into it.

In the book, we go through many ideas that make people comfortable with free will and at the same time, show hundreds if not thousands of reasons to question it. Our goal is not to enlighten free will believers or even offer them a way out of it, but to signal the obscure ways free will dominates our minds to the point where the only way free is to hear the voice of God. Did you catch anything here?? I defied free will. Let’s use a part of a verse to prove this point. ‘…and they that hear shall live’. This is the part of the verse that free will disregards. ‘The day comes and now is that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live’. This is telling us that every soul that hears the voice of God will live. But it doesn’t say that to a free will believer. It says that ‘some’ who hear the voice of God will live. It’s not what they think it says. It is exactly what the bible is telling them.

Our difference is that we have been compelled to look into predestination, when the world has not been. That is in essence the work of grace; to compel the chosen to look into predestination. In seeing the absolute contempt for predestination from the world, we have a surety that becomes foundational.

Finally, ‘rhetorically’ two men stood before two theme parks. One man looks up at the first one and reads, ‘Come One Come All’, and looks up at the other one and reads, ‘For the Chosen”. He looks back up at the first one and says, ‘I know what this means’. He looks back up at the other one and says, ‘I don’t know what that means’, so he enters the first gate. The second man looks up at the first one and says, ‘I know what that means’, and looks up at the second one and says, ‘I don’t know what that means’. He then pauses at the first gate and turns to the second and says, ‘Maybe I better go find out what that means’.