Is predestiny about who we are or free will choices? Calvinist beliefs.

Predestiny and free will are two choices given to us by Christian denominations. By people, really. Those who influence what denominations believe about what God said. But are they choices given to us by God? You know, the One who gave the words to the people who actually wrote the books in the Bible? What if God's words, not men's words, say that predestiny is about the free will choices we make? We begin with Calvinist core beliefs.

Is predestiny about who we are or free will choices? Calvinist beliefs. is article #4 in the series: Predestiny versus Free Will. Click this button to view the titles for the entire series

Then, a few days ago, something else came to me. One of the issues I have with the predestiny in Calvinism has to do with things Jesus said that don't appear to line up with predestiny. But then, what do we do with the verses Calvinists use to justify their position on predestiny?

As we go through Calvinism, we'll see if my impressions of its theology really are along the lines of the adjacent image. We see a road between two hills. One is dead. Let's call it Hell. The other is alive. Let's call it Heaven.

There are road signs, but they don't say anything. They don't need to. Because according to Calvinism, we seem to have no choice about which hill we're going to.

There's nothing we can do about it. Salvation, the path to the green hill, isn't even available to people unless God chose to make it available.

There's nothing we can do to avoid the green hill either, even if, for whatever reason, we wanted the dead hill.

Our goal is to see if that truly lines up with what God Himself told us, in His book. The Bible.

If you're a regular here, then you know I don't like to pull out a verse and make a conclusion. We have to look at the context of any given verse. And we also have to look at the overall context of the Bible. What does the New Covenant say? How does the Old Covenant support that context? Where does culture come in? What did words mean at the time, from both a cultural and language usage point of view?

What am I doing here? Questioning God?

Yes, God is God. As we say, God is sovereign. He can do what He wants. And if He wants to do that that sentence says, who are we to deny that?

At the same time, just as the Old Testament writers did, why can't I ask about it? Like Job, I probably won't get an answer. God can question me back and I know I have nothing that will change anything.

And yet, there are questions. I think, hope, believe, these questions are about the people who put forth this theology and support it, not with God Himself. After all, the conclusions of both Arminian and Calvin came from the same Scripture.

To approach this fourth segment, I decided to do something different. Given the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, I decided to see what ChatGPT has to say. See if it's a good starting point for this topic, rather than rewriting/modifying the existing first two segments of the series, use it as a starting point for this one.

The summary it produced is a good one. It has both the core beliefs on predestiny for Calvinism and free will for Arminianism. It also gave the common verses used to support each belief.

Rather than footnote every instance of each segment of ChatGPT's responses, they can be identified by the text font/color of this sentence.

So, with that, let's get into it. Let's see if God predestined certain people to be saved because He already knew what choices they would make in their life. And, that with that knowledge, God helps us achieve His goals and helps us live the life to the full that Jesus spoke of.

What do Calvinists believe about predestiny?

I posed the following question to ChatGPT: what do Calvinists believe about predestiny?

It returned a brief background paragraph, followed by five key beliefs held by them.

Calvinist predestiny summary

First, here's the summary paragraph.

Calvinists, followers of the teachings of John Calvin, hold the belief in the doctrine of predestination as a central tenet of their theological system. Predestination refers to the idea that before the foundation of the world, God determined the eternal destiny of every individual, either for salvation or damnation. Here are some key beliefs of Calvinists regarding predestination:

The key here, for today's topic, is within this sentence: Predestination refers to the idea that before the foundation of the world, God determined the eternal destiny of every individual, either for salvation or damnation.

It's those words - every individual. The concept of God predetermining the eternal destiny of every person, individually, is what we're going to closely examine.

Every Christian should believe God is all-knowing. In other words, God already knew what was going to happen before He created anything or anyone. That means, among other things, not only did God know how the things in His creation were going to turn out, He also knew the heart of every person He was ever going to create. Therefore, does the issue of predestiny need to be on an individual basis, or could it be based on the heart of each individual?

In other words, could predestiny be based on God's foreknowledge that some of us would love Him, while others among us would not? Could that choice God knew beforehand be the criteria upon which God predestined some of us for eternal life with Him, as to eternal life without Him?

Honestly, I don't know for sure where this is going to end up. I think it's going to show that the premise is possible.

Truth be told, none of us know for sure whether either, or both, of the two theologies are correct. After all, we're just people. God is God. He can do what He wants. However, He gave us some amount of knowledge about Himself. And He gave us a brain. And the Holy Spirit.

Also, God gave us the command to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. That's what this is about.

Personally, while admitting I could be wrong, I find it odd that God would create a large number of people who were predestined by a loving God to go to Hell, with no chance at all for redemption. To me, it seems to fly in the face of the good news of the Gospel.

Finding out that there's at least hope for everyone to be saved feels more loving to me. But, as I said, I'm not God. I'm certainly not going to walk away from His offer of salvation if I'm wrong. But then, having said that, as we'll soon see, if Calvin was right then what I just called God's offer of salvation isn't an offer at all. More to come on that last thought.

Calvinist belief #1: Unconditional Election

Unconditional Election: Calvinists believe that God's choice of who will be saved is not based on any foreseen merit or action of individuals. It is an act of God's sovereign will and grace alone. God elects certain individuals to salvation purely out of His own good pleasure and without regard to their deserving or earning it.

Notice: God's choice of who will be saved is not based on any foreseen merit or action of individuals

Several questions arise from this.

Does God ignore His foreknowledge of His creation?

As mentioned, God already knows everything about everything. So what are we to make of this statement in light of the belief that God knows everything ahead of time? Here are the options:

Foreknowledge is understood variously as God’s eternal loving regard and saving purpose, or merely as his passive awareness of the future choices of free individuals.