by Tyrone Slade

Created on: December 28, 2006   Last Updated: November 14, 2010

I have been asked this question many times in the past, if one is predestined to be damned or accepted into heaven, then how can one have free will? First one must examine what free will and predestination actually are. Free will is the ability to say, and or do as one feels like saying and or doing. Predestination is the set out come of an event. Lets look at some examples of predestination that are in the Bible, keep in mind that the Bible is full of people that God chose, or predestined for serves in the Bible, so I will just chose at random.

First let us look at Moses, who was saved from the river, and lived his life as a son to a princess. Then for whatever reason he killed a man for the beating of a Jewish person,causing him to have to flee and by fleeing he ran into God, got a wife and walked into his destiny. Was it predestined that Moses would kill a man, or that he would lead his people out of slavery? Regardless of what Moses would have done in his life, his destiny was to lead the Jewish people from Egypt.

David was destined to be king, Samson destined to free the Jewish people from the philistines, Samuel destined to be a priest of God, Nehemiah destined to rebuild Jerusalem, Mary destined to bear Jesus, and Joseph destined to raise Jesus as his son. Regardless of what kind of sin these people committed in their life, they were destined for a purpose.

In the book of Job, after Job starts to believe the he has done something to offend God, God comes to him (Job 38) and asked him a series of questions, while the questions are good it is the answer that Job gave to God that caught my attention(Job 42:2) "I know that you can do all things: no plan of yours can be thwarted." What does that mean? Does that mean that no matter what a person does, their actions can not mess up God's set plans for a person's life and the world? This verse in Job simply means that no one and nothing can mess up God's plans for your life.

Where does free will play in then? God knows all things the past present and the future, just because God knows everything a person will do that does not mean that the person is not free to do or not do them. God just knows what that person will do. God knows when and where a person will die, just as the time and date the world will end and the second coming of Christ will be, that is predestination, but King David's sleeping around and Moses' sin that caused him not to be allowed into the promised land, were acts of free will.

Does this mean that God has elected people to be saved, and how did God chose who will and will not be saved? God knows who and who will not accept God's plan for redemption, and the ones that God knows will accept His offer are predestined to go to heaven and the ones that God knows will not acept the offer are predestined for eternal separation from God's mercy and love. Just because God knows who will or will not accept His offer, in no way means that one does not have the free will to accept or reject the offer.

As for election, there are a few people among the predestined, that were chosen to serve God and in no way could escape their duty. As with Jonah, try as he may, he was unable to escape the duty of bringing the message of forgiveness to Nineveh. Likewise, Jesus chose the twelve out of the many that believed and they had to fulfill their duties, even Judas did his job and delivered the message that we should not let our guilt destroy us.

In conclusion, free will does not conflict with predestination, for as Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen".

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