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-69-
The God Who Is
Predestination and Human Responsibility
The psalmist declares God has done whatsoever He has pleased (Psalm 115:3). A Welsh revivalist once said that when a man comes to the Scriptures, he must accept some things he does not like and a great many things he does not understand. One area of misunderstanding that has brought a great deal of vexation and confusion into the Church from its earliest beginnings is the issue of predestination and the corresponding place of human responsibility.
It is manifestly clear that the Scriptures teach the absolute predestination of men; yet, they also teach the absolute responsibility of men. I do not profess to be wiser than my forebears in being able to understand how this can be, but I know that both are true, and that it is serious error to deny either. The truth of these two doctrines does not lie midway between the two, but is rather found in the extremes of both. He is most faithful in handling the truth of God who makes a forthright proclamation of both doctrines, and not he who refuses to preach but one of them.
The Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) affirmed that the Scriptures teach Jesus Christ is "very God of very God, and very man of very man" and that He possesses two natures "without confusion." God's truth like the nature of Christ is two-sided; like a coin it has an obverse or "head's" side, and a reverse or "tail's" side. In the former case, the Scriptures are written from God's standpoint; and in the latter case, they are written from the standpoint of man's responsibility. Some Scriptures describe the sinner as being "dead in trespasses and sins," as "having no hope" (Ephesians 2:1,12); while others command sinners to "repent," "believe," "come," etc.
On the one hand, Jesus testified, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44); and on the other hand, Jesus wept, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not" (Matthew 23:37). Yet, the psalmist declares God "turnest man to destruction; and sayest, `Return, ye children of men'" (Psalm 90:3).
This is the reason Isaiah prayed, "Oh Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear?" (Isaiah 63:17). This is the reason Moses confessed, "The LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear" (Deuteronomy 29:4). Yet, the Lord Jesus wept, "And ye will not come to me that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
Note again that the truth of God does not lie in the nebulous gray area somewhere between predestination and human responsibility, but is rather found in the extremes of these doctrines. Nevertheless, through the ages men who have failed to grasp this fact have tried 3 ways to solve the apparent contradiction posed by the two doctrines. First, Some have embraced the heresy of fatalism, while others have embraced the heresy of Arminianism, which is religious humanism. Still others have accepted the notion that God as a primary will, and a permissive, or secondary will.
The "Permissive" Will of God
A Fallacy
In recent years, the notion that God has a "permissive" will has gained acceptance. It teaches that God has His "d'ruthers," but that He stands as it were with His hands in His pockets either not knowing how to effect His pleasure, or incapable of effecting it. It limits the Holy One of Israel because if "Plan A" goes awry, He is then forced to set "Plan B" in motion.
Some teach that the sifting of Peter (Luke 22:31) and the destruction of Job's children (Job 1:18,19) are examples of God's permissive will. However, unless we allow our emotions to cloud our judgment, we can see that Scripture teaches that even the lot cast into the lap is disposed according to His will (Proverbs 16:33).
People unable to accept the fact that God who is "higher than the Heavens" is beyond their comprehension invariably "lean unto their own understanding." Therefore, when Scripture says that God performs things they do not understand, they must either claim that the Devil does those things, or that such things are according to God's "permissive" will.
Some have averred that what they perceive to be "evil" that is done by God in His permissive will is done by another and not by God Himself. Such examples that are advanced are the fall of the sparrow, the evil spirit that tormented Saul, and the lying spirit sent into the mouths of Ahab's prophets. In the case of the first, Jesus attributes the fall of the sparrow directly to the work of the Father saying, "One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" (Matthew 10:29).
In the example of the evil spirit that tormented Saul, we are expressly told that it was "from God" (I Samuel 16:23). So, in the third example we are told that the lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's false prophets was sent by God: "Go forth," He said; and Micaiah testifies, "Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets" (I Kings 22:22,23).
Some have played fast and loose with God's truth by suggesting that the crucifixion is an example of the "permissive" will of God. Yet, Scripture testifies first, that Jesus was "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). In other words, the crucifixion was predetermined. And second, it is the testimony of Isaiah that "It pleased the LORD to bruise him" (Isaiah 53:10). The crucifixion was not "Plan B," or the secondary will of God: it was the determined will and counsel of the Godhead. Yet, God holds the crucifiers guilty and responsible saying, "Yet you by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:36).