Metaphysics and Predestination
Metaphysics and Predestination
They didn’t talk much about Calvinism in the seminary I attended, so I had some studying to do when I began to realize what was going on with my kids – a their mom and step-dad’s church. I’m not sure there’s a better source on the subject than Dr. Larry Walls’ book, Why I Am Not a Calvinist.[1] In that book he describes his experience debating a serious Calvinist and starts with his concern about some inconsistencies:
… according to Calvinism, it is entirely up to God who is and is not saved, and if one is not numbered among the elect, one cannot help but sin. And yet God blames sinners and punishes them for their unbelief even though they cannot act otherwise.[2]
Calvinists base their soteriology on the traditions of Augustine and Calvin (obviously). “Augustine is so wholly with me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings.” – John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion. There was a belief that the sovereign will of God could never be thwarted – the logical conclusion being that everything which happens in life is foreordained and predestined by God. Yet we read in Exodus 32 how God wanted to destroy the Israelites after the golden calf incident, but Moses talked Him out of it. Moses argued that the other nations would say that God led the Israelites out into the wilderness to destroy them, and God changed his mind. Think about that. Moses changed God’s sovereign will and convinced Him not to destroy the unfaithful Israelites. It would be like an ant talking me out of mowing my lawn because the other ants would no longer trust me if I did that.
You could not be in physical proximity to a Bengal Tiger for long if the tiger did not limit his physical power to tear you to pieces. And so it is with God – He created us to be in relationship with Himself, and limits the use of His omnipotent power in His interactions with His created beings. This is a theme in my novel, Alfedora and the Drakebureau.
If you would, allow me to indulge in some thoughts regarding the metaphysical question of God and time. It is logical to think that if God knows the future, then His foreknowledge determines it. This is the view of the predestination-believing Calvinist. And if, like Augustine, you believe that the sovereign will of God can never be thwarted, then Paul’s use of the word “predestination” in Romans, Ephesians, and elsewhere necessarily means that everything which happens in this life has been predestined by God. And it sounds holy and it sounds righteous to say “God works in mysterious ways” even when an innocent child is kidnapped, abused, and murdered by someone addicted to some sexual perversion. I would suggest that is nonsense.
And it begs the moral question, “How can God claim to be good when there is malevolence and suffering in the world?” Bear with me – I think we can begin to give a somewhat plausible answer to the question (which is a theme in the Alfedora book), by taking a look at things from both a moral and metaphysical perspective.
I hold two degrees in geophysics so I can talk a little about science. Einstein, when he first put together his relativistic equations, realized that they implied that time itself had a beginning. But back then the prevailing notion was of an eternally existent universe so that the primordial soup and evolutionary processes would have as much time as needed for life to spring forth from nothing. To rectify his equations with the concept of a steady-state universe, he put in what he called “the cosmological constant” which was a sort of fudge-factor which bypassed the need for time to have a beginning. Years later, when scientists discovered more about the big bang theory and the age of the universe, he took out the cosmological constant and said it was one of the biggest blunders of his career.
So think about that. Einstein’s relativistic equations and the big bang theory both suggest that time had a beginning. What was there before time began? The human mind cannot conceive of a time before time began. We imagine time travel in The Terminator, Dr. Who, Back to the Future, and my favorite, Futurama.
But after making the jump from now to the mid 1800’s or the year 2029 (in which Skynet is defeated), the time traveler (John Conner) finds him or herself within the never-ending, continually moving forward one-dimensional thing we call time. We can imagine jumps in time, but we cannot imagine what it means to exist outside the realm of time.
And I see no contradictions between the Genesis 1 account of creation, the big bang theory, and Einstein’s relativistic equations which suggest that time itself had a beginning. Einstein’s relativistic equations make a connection, however un-intuitive, between the speed of light and time. When God said, “let there be light” in Genesis 1:3 there may be more going on than meets the eye. If it is true that God created time, then God exists outside the realm of time. To the Calvinist, it is inconceivable that God could see the future without determining it. But I would suggest that in order to be in relationship with created beings who are also free-moral agents, He separates His ability to see the future from determining it. If that is not the case, and He causes innocent children to suffer hellacious torture and death at the hands of a demented monster, then He cannot be good. Likewise, if He predestines some to believe (and therefore to be saved) as the Calvinist teaches, while predestining others to not believe (and therefore to burn for all eternity), then He cannot be good.
The notion that He predestines some to be damned logically flows from the notion that He predestines some to be saved. This is called double-predestination and is more intellectually consistent than the more moderate Calvinist, who is not willing to suggest the damned are predestined too (perhaps out of a sense of concern for what others might think). But it leads to another conclusion: God doesn’t really love everyone. How can He love you if He has predestined you to burn for all eternity? And at one such church I am well-acquainted with, they have no problem telling you, “God doesn’t love you,” if you are not deemed to be part of ‘the elect’. Maybe it is sad that you are not part of the elect. Maybe it is sad that you will burn. But God’s will cannot be altered, and His wrath cannot be denied. Too bad, so sad… for you.
And if we are limited in our understanding of the universe, are we not even more limited in our understanding of how God exists in relation to time? Once we begin to doubt the metaphysical assertion that to know the future is to determine it, the moral question of whether God is good (or not) takes precedence. Metaphysical speculations which suggest that if God knows the future, then His foreknowledge determines it are simply that.
The pastor of the extreme Calvinist church I am familiar with does not know the metaphysical assertions to be true. Science and reason stand against him. And yet he is willing to assassinate the character of God in is hubristic assertions which he says are rooted in logic. Like Scrooge, he violates the spirit of James 2 (show me your faith in the goodness of God’s character by your works) in your dogmatic assertions about “how we are saved” which has no relationship to the Gospel (the Good News of forgiveness, redemption in Christ, and the inauguration of God’s Kingdom here on earth).
The NT writer Paul exhorts us – “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, NASB).
[1] Walls, Jerry L. . Why I Am Not a Calvinist . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition
[2] Ibid, Kindle location 1436.