This morning Acts 9 stood out to me--Paul's conversion. I began to think about how this conversion really throws a wrench into the sadistic view of free will.
God gives us free will to choose Him. As good little Christians we've heard it time and again...We've heard it so often that it becomes cliche. God gave us choices so that we could make the right ones. God desires our love, and He can't get that from a bunch of robots. Yes, we understand. It makes sense...but on the other hand...
What about that weird gut-wrenching feeling that free will is just one big sick joke? That God gives us choices--desiring us to choose Him--knowing full well that we are going to do what we want instead. Why would a loving God allow people NOT to choose Him? If those who don't choose Him go to hell, then how can God even remotely call Himself loving? Free will is a sick joke, so...we might as well decide to believe that there is no God since we've sufficiently explained Him away enough to feel proud of ourselves...
This reminds me of something my students say every time they have a question on a test with only one of two possible answers--such as true/false or "A or B" questions. They say, "Miss Stephens! There is only a 50/50 chance we will get these right!" They say that the odds of choosing the right answer as opposed to the wrong answer are exactly divided down the middle. I used to say the same thing when I was a student. However, this point is completely ridiculous.
The chances are not 50/50. The chances are EXACTLY 100%! Why?...Because ONLY ONE ANSWER IS RIGHT! The problem in not getting the right answer is insufficiently studying or incorrectly reading the question.
Now let me apply that reasoning to free will. Every person on the planet is given a brain. No person on the planet had anything to do with deciding to be here. We choose to get wrapped up in other things like fame, money, sex, etc...BUT WE DON'T HAVE TO--especially since we never feel totally fulfilled with these things. We always want more money. There are always people with more friends and more notoriety than us. People have sex so much that they no longer find pleasure in it once they are married. The list goes on...
This point ALONE makes God a shoo-in for our 100% devotion; however, the fact that there are even more powers at work in the universe to help us make the right choices infinitely increases the odds in our favor. Look at Paul! His desire was to kill every Christian he saw! That didn't matter to God! God supernaturally intervened. He may not strike us with physical blindness, but He does deal with us individually. We would have to purposely REJECT God in order not to choose Him...and...That's what we do...because we would rather revel in the faulty logic of teenage test-takers than in reality.
Even the "tribes in Africa" conundrum fits this point. There are countless stories of tribes in remote places finally "waking up" and realizing that their methods of nature-worship or human sacrifice are empty, meaningless, and immoral. They call out to the true God to reveal Himself...and so He sends a missionary to them. It happens all the time. Testimonials all around the globe.
But I'm sure you want a little more proof than just hearsay...so...I encourage you look around yourself. Christianity is everywhere in some form. The Bible is the most accessible book of all time. This is because people in remote areas called out to God and God heard them and revealed Himself to them through His Word. I'm in Korea right now. South Korea is second only to the U.S. for Christian mission work. Less than a century ago it was almost 100% Buddhist.
Christianity has spread so much worldwide that there are hardly any people left who don't know of it. This global Christian influence is precisely what the Bible said would happen. God will not return until all people have heard His name. Until that time, His Word will spread, and all men will either accept or reject.
Choosing God as a part of free will seems completely impossible for humans. That's because it is. If it were up to us, no one would figure out this "God thing" and we'd all be atheistic nihilists...except we wouldn't even be here in the first place, b/c there would be no point to being here and we would have died out before we even began. However...put God in the picture and you find that He's been there all the time and waiting for you to desire Him.
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4 comments:
I've never really thought about it in this context before. You're right when we say there are more forces drawing us to God - and if it were up to use we'd probably choose to be atheists. This is a lot to think about and ponder because many arguments can now be refuted. I need to think about this some more.
Why is it that when someone prays for someone else's salvation they always pray "God, draw her closer to you?" Hasn't he already done that?
exactly!!! gosh!! it's like...all the parts i was going to say, but i left out at the last second, you say! i was going to suggest this: that instead of praying, "God make her choose you" we should pray "God please have chosen her." b/c God is the one who desires us. we don't desire Him but for the Holy Spirit. so..it would make more sense to appeal to God's sense of desire for us, rather than praying "God make her act against her own nature." not that God can't change hearts...but for some reason when people pray, "God make her do this or that"...it tends to show a lack of faith...like we are setting God up for failure asking Him something that we don't even believe will happen, b/c it's so unselfish to desire God and ALL people are intrinsically selfish. you know? but then...i started to think about how formulaic that sounded and i didn't want to get into "formula prayers" like God is a magic genie...but it's such a great point! God has already chosen us! (and that also brings up the calvinist/armenian debate that i didn't want to get into in this particular blog...or else it would be PAGES long!!! and who has time to read that?)
That's the thing that I liked about this post - that we are already drawn to God because He created us - some of us just choose to ignore that hunger for Him that has already been placed in us. So when people pray "draw her closer to you" God has already done it - so we need to pray that they would draw closer to God.
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