| What You Should Know about ULTIMATE REALITY |
| Grace AND Free Will? |
| GOING TO HELL NO MATTER WHAT? |
| That some people are predestined to hell is a frightening thought for most Christians. What many Protestants do not realize is that their religion began with this sort of theology. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin strongly rejected the Catholic belief that Christians could do deeds that are meritorious in God's sight. To deny human merit, the Reformers had to deny free will, which is the God-given ability of a rational creature (angel or human) to choose otherwise than the way that he or she chooses in any given situation. But to deny free will and still believe in hellfire means that it is God alone Who determines who is saved and who is lost! This is where the belief in the predestination to hell of some, even most people, rears its ugly head. It is very much a part of the Protestant heritage, although today more and more Protestants are thinking like Roman Catholics! Some Protestants continue to protest. They call themselves Calvinists. They see themselves as the champions of God's grace. They say that either God does ALL the saving (which requires a predestination of some to hell), or else WE save ourselves! Since it is absurd, even blasphemous, to claim to be our own saviors, they claim that God is the only One Who determines each and every human being's everlasting destiny. It is true that we are saved by God. His work within us is called grace. We cannot be saved without it. But He does not want to save us without our free cooperation with His plan. John Calvin taught that everything that you and I do voluntarily we also do necessarily. God has eternally decreed everything that happens. Everything! So a truly consistent Calvinist would be able to say, "My sins last week happened, and they were certain to happen, and they were predestined before the foundation of the world. I voluntarily did evil last week, but I could not have done other than what I did." Yet St. Paul strongly disagrees. With every temptation to sin, God has made a way for us to escape from falling into sin. These are his exact words: "No temptation has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the temptation He will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it" (1 Cor 10:13). This makes sense only if every human being has a free will and can cooperate with God's grace OR refuse to do so. Our good God does not make any of our sins necessary! Not one. What is salvation from sin like? Well, imagine a wall as tall as the World Trade Center used to be. Let's pretend that there is a lever at the very top, and unless it is pushed upwards in two minutes, the world will be destroyed. There is no time to send someone in a helicopter. No one is tall enough or close enough to be able to save the world. Then God does a miracle. Out of nothing and instantaneously, He makes a stool that reaches from the ground to within a few feet of the lever. Then an angel scoops you up and takes you to the top of the stool. When you regain consciousness, after half a minute, there you are on the biggest stool in the world. You discover something else. Your right arm is in a mechanical device lifting your hand towards the lever. God made the stool and this machine on which your arm rests. All along, you know, by carefully observing how this device is constructed, that you are free to remove your arm from the metal sleeve on the robotic arm, if you want. You have a free will and a way out. You can withdraw your arm from the mechanical sleeve, or you can cooperate with God's plan to save the human race. The sleeve is moving slowly but surely upwards to bring your fingers into contact with the lever. Now it happens, and the world is saved! Thank God! Did you save the world, or did God save the world? You would have to worship yourself to take any credit for saving the world. You only cooperated with God's actions. But things could have turned out very differently, very differently indeed, if you had chosen not to cooperate! When it comes to the salvation of our souls, we call the spiritual stools, angelic transports, and robotic arms God's "prevenient grace." Original sin has put salvation out of the reach of us all, but grace brings it within our grasp. Without grace, no amount of merely human activity can accomplish anything spiritual. But with God, "all things are possible," even our salvation. |
| What will you do with Jesus? |
| Neutral you cannot be. |
| Some day your heart will be asking, |
| "What will He do with me?" |
| --A. B. Simpson |
| Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the gospel. |
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