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Possibly the biggest theological debate in Christianity since Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the Whittenburg door has been the one continually fought between Calvinists and Armenianists.

The core of the debate (whether or not it is the core of the belief systems) is the collision between man's free will and God's sovereignty. The Armenian would argue that God makes no decree over man's decisions, but has endowed His creation with total and absolute free will. On the other side, you have the Calvinist argument which says that in His sovereignty, God chose those who would ultimately be saved (the elect) and that He predestined' the events of their lives and the choices they would make to get them there. And while both of these views can be argued with biblical authority' on their side, it is my goal to reconcile the two, showing how God's sovereignty and divine election do not thwart the free will given to man.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," as stated in Genesis 1:1. If we skip down just a few verses to Genesis 1:26, God then decrees He will "make man in (His) image" and set him to rule over the earth. It seems that if man was created to rule, then he would certainly be given decision making abilities and the freedom to do so.

On the other hand, we know things about God's sovereignty such as the fact that the Book of Life, which contains the names of the saved, was written before the foundation of time. To go contrary to the song, there are no new names written down glory. They have all been there since the beginning.

Interestingly, both sides will argue the fact that this is God's foreknowledge'. One side says that God wrote the names down because He knew who would be saved in their own time on earth. The other argues a Jewish understanding of the word know,' in the form of "Adam knew Eve." They say that it is not an acquaintance or information type know, but that it is an intimate loving relationship which one chooses to engage in. The thought then, is that God chose to intimately know these people, even before they ever made a choice. If you want a good proof-text of this point, see Romans 9:11-12.

This latter idea, however, thwarts the idea that man can make a conscious decision toward salvation but that rather it is something assigned on them by the purpose of God. One side says that we choose it for ourselves; the other says that God chooses us for Himself. And unfortunately for the undecided convert to either school of though,

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