Originally Posted by
jakester
classyT - the tension that exists in the topic of predestination is essentially in the following two questions:
1) does God predestine believers according to his foreknowledge of their choices? Because God knows what choices people will make, since he is outside of time and space and knows the future, he knows who will choose to follow him. Based upon his divine foreknowledge of man's choices, he predestines man for salvation based upon his knowledge of the future.
2) Does God choose those whom he will grant eternal life to irrespective of his divine foreknowledge? In other words, the fact that God is outside of time and space has no bearing on predestination because he is the one choosing man for eternal life, not man choosing eternal life.
Books have been written which attempt to outline where the logic breaks down in each of these questions so there's no way Tj3 or me or Galveston can quickly summarize what the answer is in a few short paragraphs (sorry Galveston but it's really not so simple...no disrespect). The reason being is that if you start to follow the logic of either line of questioning above, you run into snags that need to be contemplated.
Honestly, Tess, I don't know if I would even feel comfortable going into detail about it but if you have particular questions, perhaps we can talk through some. I subscribe to something called Divine Determinism which espouses both individual free will and divine sovereignty as compatible. I'm really not one to recommend books to people but I found this book by Jack Crabtree to be a very interesting read:
The Most Real Being: A Biblical and Philosophical Defense of Divine Determinism
I must make a disclaimer, though. This book is not an easy read but reading it is well worth the effort as it deals with some profound issues relating to our choices and God's control over his creation, etc.
Regards.