Let’s Play ‘Pass the Predestination’

Predestination, according to oxforddictionaires.com comes from two words. Firstly pre meaning previous to or before. Secondly destination, meaning the place to which someone or something is going or being sent.

Predestination, therefore means that the place to which someone or something is going is known or decided in advance.

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Picture the scene: It is a child’s 5th birthday party and they are playing ‘pass the parcel’. Under each layer of wrapping there is a small chocolate. There are enough layers for each child at the party to unwrap and have a chocolate. The father of the child decides in advance when to stop the music to ensure that every child gets a chocolate. This is Predestination.

The doctrine of Predestination is closely related to the doctrine of Providence, which I would suggest you read before going any further.

There are two main views of the Christian Doctrine of Predestination. Both concern God’s knowledge of who will respond to His offer of Salvation through the Repentance of their Sin.

1. God is Omniscient (all knowing), He can foresee every possible response to every possible situation. This is often call Foreknowledge. Because of God’s Foreknowledge He knows, but has not decided who will respond to His offer of Salvation. This view of predestination holds that individuals have free will and can choose to respond to God’s offer to bring us to Salvation. 

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Picture the scene: I believe that I don’t need to set an alarm clock because I have foreknowledge that my wife’s alarm will go off at the time I want to get up.

This doctrine of predestination would normally be held by someone who holds to the doctrine of Limited Providence or Free Will Theism.

2. The second view holds that because we are sinners we are all unable to choose Salvation by ourselves. Because of this, only God’s grace can bring us to Salvation and it is not the choice of the sinner. Therefore, God must choose or predestine who will (and who will not) achieve Salvation. It could be argued that with this view of predestination, humanity has no free will.

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Picture the scene: Remember that alarm clock my wife set? Well she predestined it to go off by setting it in advance. She did this because of her foreknowledge that I wouldn’t bother to set my own alarm!

This doctrine of predestination would normally be held by someone who holds to the doctrine of Meticulous Providence. 

Someone who holds to the doctrine of Open Theism would not hold to the doctrine of predestination.

The main chapters in the Bible concerning predestination can be found in Romans 8 and 9, Ephesians 1.

Les Miserables … The Theology of Love, Part IV

This is Part IV in a series of posts on The Theology of Love, please see Part I, Part II and Part III before reading on.

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In Part III we learnt that Jesus gave us two instructions for love which can be found in the Gospel of Matthew. It is the second of these instructions which we will examine in this post: Love your neighbour as yourself.

First we need to know who our neighbour is. Jesus was asked this very same question in Luke Chapter 10. His answer was to give us the story of the Good Samaritan. Therefore, our neighbours are the people we meet in our daily lives; whether we know them or like them or not. The BBC has some modern day real life Good Samaritan stories on their website.

Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troggs

It was The Troggs who sang I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes in the song Love is all around. But the Agape love which Jesus wants us to love our neighbours with, is a love which does not expect anything in return.

In the musical Les Miserables, Valjean agrees to take into his care and love Cossette who is the illegitimate daughter of Fantine. Fantine is a dying woman who used to be one of Valjean’s workers. Valjean does this with not thought about what is in it for him. 

It could be argued that Valjean’s decision to love cossette is a direct response to the Grace and Mercy shown towards him by The Bishop earlier in the musical. In the same way, our love for our neighbours could be seen as a direct response to the grace and mercy shown to us by God through Jesus’ death on the cross to Atone for our Sin and to bring us to Salvation.

In fact, Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew said: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 

So, to love our neighbour, especially the most vulnerable is to love God too.

I will finish this series on The Theology of love, with some words from the Isaac Watts hymn When I survey the wondrous cross:

Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

The Fuel of Compassion

Compassion, according to Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology is:

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That (human) disposition that fuels Acts of kindness and Mercy. So Compassion could be seen as the unleaded petrol in a car which carries two passengers; kindness and mercy.

An historical example of someone showing compassion is Oskar Schindler. Schindler was a Nazi Czech businessman, who used Jewish workers to start a factory in occupied Poland.

Oskar Schindler. Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org

As World War II continued, and the fate of the Jews became ever certain, Schindler ceased thinking about his profits. Instead, Schindler had compassion on his Jewish workers, displaying kindness by paying ever increasing amounts of money in bribes to buy more and more Jews to work for him. He is credited with saving approximately 1200 Jewish people from certain death in concentration camps and gas chambers.

Psalm 103 reminds Christians that the Lord is compassionate. It is God the Father’s compassion which fuels his Grace and Mercy through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, to Atone for Sin and to bring us to Salvation.

Picture by Rev Adam Gompertz. (Used with permission) For more information see Revs Art and Revs Classic and Sportscar Event

Christians also believe that they should have compassion towards others, this has led to the formation of many Christian charities which seek to improve the lives of others.

Compassion and Tearfund are examples of Christian Charities which use the fuel of compassion to power their fantastic work.

Reversing into Forgiveness

According to oxforddictionaries.com forgiveness is ‘Stopping feeling angry or resentful towards (someone) for an offence, flaw, or mistake.’

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Christians believe that if they Repent of their Sin then God will forgive them. This means that God, who is slow to anger will not be cross or resentful towards them. Forgiveness  is closely related to Grace and Mercy.

Let’s look at this through a true example:

I’m not a very good driver. Recently when reversing my car out of my driveway, I drove straight into the back of my next door neighbour’s car which was parked on the road outside his house. My car was fine, but his was left with a sizable dent in it. This was my sin.

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I immediately went to tell my neighbour what had happened. He had every right to be cross with me, but instead he was polite and kind towards me. He did not treat me as my sin deserved, rather he had mercy on me.

I then began to give my neighbour my insurance details, so that he get his car fixed. “What are you doing that for?” he asked “I  don’t need to get the car fixed, it is old anyway.”  By not demanding money from me, my neighbour was showing me undeserved love; he showed grace towards me.

Finally I apologised  for the damaged caused to my his car. “I’ve already told you, it really is fine.” I had been forgiven by my neighbour, he had dropped any resentment towards me. Since that day, he has never mentioned the event, even though we are both reminded about it because of the state of his car.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Christians are reminded that forgiveness is not something they should just seek from Father God for their sins, but it is also something they should actively seek to do towards other people who hurt them.

 

Grace, Mercy and Les Miserables

Mercy is not being given a punishment that we deserve. It is not being punished as our Sin deserves.

If I were a high school student and didn’t do my homework, I deserve to be given a detention. The teacher would show mercy on me if they decided not to give me the detention.

Grace is loving someone despite the wrong they have done. In short Grace is the undeserved love of God.

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In the 2012 film Les Miserables, Valjean, a convict who has broken his parole, is taken in by a Bishop. Valjean decides to run off with the Bishop’s silverware. He is caught by a policeman and brought back to the Bishop. The Bishop shows mercy on Valjean by saying to the policeman that he had given the silver to Valjean. This act of mercy ensures that Valjean does not get punished. The Bishop then shows Grace to Valjean by letting him keep the silver, telling him to use it to make him a better man. The Bishop has shown Valjean love which he doesn’t deserve.

Through Jesus, God our Father uses mercy and grace to atone for our sins and to bring us salvation.

For more on sin and atonement see: Sin and Atonement, Atonement Part II

For more on salvation see: Salvation

For more Theological examples using Les Miserables, see: The Theology of Love, Part IV