Bible Question: If some people are chosen for salvation and some are chosen for hell how come the Bible says that God didn't make hell for people but only for satan and his angels, and how come we seem to be able to choose to sin even after we are saved. This would seem to go against God's will for His children. any help on this one would be much appreciated. |
Bible Answer: Dear Home Church, We have to trust that God loves us and gives the ability to choose any outcome for any situation that we want. Inherent within this ability, is the option to choose evil, and ultimately eternal seperation. Yes, this choice is against the will of God, but God does not force His will on us concerning this choice that we must all make. 2Pe:3:9: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God is not some cruel monster that winds us all up like toys and watches us spin out into predetermined outcomes for His amusement. I realize that this is not what you're saying, but many foolishly make this charge against God. Fully understanding the nature of free will, requires us to think outside of the reality that we know. We percieve reality as happening in a linear time-based fashion. That is, all events have a logical history of causes happening one after the other. Though imagine for a minute how God, being eternal and not subject to our time, sees time itself. God doesn't see events happening one right after the other, all time and all outcomes are laid out before Him. Before God created the universe, He knew the outcome of every choice that His free willed creations would choose. Now I realize that this may be difficult for us to fully comprehend or accept, but not for God. God's experience of existence is not the same as our experience, and this is due in part to our perception of time. Since God has seen every outcome and the final fate of the creation as an outside observer, the universe is in a sense predetermined. We, however, do not share in this knowledge. We percieve time in a linear fashion and do not know the outcome of all events, therefore, we live oblivious to them (though through prophecy, God has given us a limited knowledge of the future). To us, nothing in the future is "completely" known (even though God has given us a very detailed outline). As a result of this, our experience is completely free willed, and our lives are shaped by the decisions we make, the outcomes of which, we don't fully know until the choice is long behind us. These concepts are difficult to understand, but consider the following illustration concerning the mystery of prophecy: In ancient times, God delivered messages to His people using prophets. God would tell the prophet something like, "Tell my people that I have seen what they are doing, and I do not like what they are doing. Tell them that if they don't stop doing THIS, then THIS THING will happen to them." God, through prophets, also sometimes said things like, "Tell my people THIS so that they should avoid THAT, but they will not listen, therefore THIS THING will happen, for I have seen it." How could God know such things if He had not already seen them? Prophecy certainly attests to God's complete knowledge of all time and events. Also, prophecy is a great example that shows us that God truly cares, which can be summed up using one word: intervention. The greatest intervention that God ever made is shown by John 3:16, in that God came here Himself to save us and bring us back into a proper relationship with Him. Please understand, that built into free will is the option to choose the wrong thing (and all of us have done this). God has accounted for this and shown us why we must choose what is right, and learn not to choose what is evil. However, in order to know why we shouldn't choose evil, we had to first experience evil, otherwise we would've never known about it. By allowing the creation to experience the corruption of evil for a short time (in comparrision to eternity), God will make an end to evil and bring in everlasting peace once His plan is complete. Consider, can a parent make a child do everything right and never do anything wrong just by establishing rules? No way. Children have to learn through experience, no matter what their parents teach them or tell them, because they will not listen until they know better. Knowing comes with experience, but with no experience, knowledge cannot be ascertained, and nothing can be learned. God's creations are this same way: We can't just be told what the right way is, we have to learn what the right way is, and why it's better to choose than the wrong way based on our own experiences. Consider these questions: 1. Is the universe completely determined because God has seen it? Yes. 2. Do we share this ultimate knowledge of all events with God? No. 3. Do the choices we make directly affect our lives, and the lives of others? Yes. 4. Is accepting Christ a choice? Yes. 5. Do we have complete free will to choose then? Absolutely. God Bless, -Rob |