A reader writes, "FATHER, My question is: If it's true that God is ALL knowing and ALL powerful, how do human beings ultimately have the freedom and control of the path we take in life? God knows every decision or direction as well as our final outcome before we're even born. In knowing every choice we make before we make it how does that give us complete control of how and where our souls end up?"
This is one of the questions that Christianity (and other religion) has struggled with since it's inception. The problem is a logical quandary. We appear to have free will, that is, it seems to us that we have the ability to choose between Good and Evil and most of the Bible seems to support this.
However, logically, if God is omnipotent, then surely God already knows what our choices will be, and therefore our perception of free will is simply an illusion. Other parts of the Bible seem to support this view. People who believe that God already knows our choices believe in "predestination." Frank Logue covered this and the response of Armenius in a previous post, so I'm not going to repeat what has been written before.
As I have discussed before, Heresy (which simply means wrong belief) is when something that is normally good in Christian doctrine is overstressed to the point where it obscures another good in doctrine. In this case, it's possible to err on either side.
On one side, Pelagianism held that human beings have full control of their fates, with no divine intervention, denying original sin. The problem is that in this example, Jesus becomes simply a moral exemplar and the purpose of the crucifixion and Resurrection becomes questionable. Most Christians throughout history have believed that God has more of a role in our fates than this.
On the other hand, Antinomianism held that since God already knows where we are predestined to end up, our moral acts in this life do not matter. Of course, the Bible is full of witness that our moral acts DO matter to God, but if you are using pure logic and believe that God is omnipotent, you can certainly arrive here.
The problem with both of these approaches is that choosing one or the other emphasizes one positive aspect of God, either the majesty of God or the loving gift of free will, and detracts from the other. Contrary to what many people seem to believe, to have an Orthodox (means right-thinking) faith is not to have all the answers, but to be able to live in humility with some amount of theological tension. In this case, we need to be able to affirm the power and vision of God, but also affirm God's gift of free will. This DOES create an intellectual quandary, and much of Christian theology is bound up in clever ways to get around it.
Ultimately, I have to simply accept that I am trying to force a God who exists beyond the bounds of human thought into categories I am comfortable with. At this point, I have to stop, remember that I am not dealing with a being with human limitations, and simply accept that the two goods can live in tension. It's not always easy, but who said being in relationship with God would be?
David+
Father David. A great post. Could you talk more about heresy. Your definition is a good one. Orthodox though is right praise which moves us beyond logic alone--which is not the sum of reason. Logic can get us in trouble left to itself.
Posted by: *Christopher | June 01, 2005 at 09:42 PM