Recently I have been learning about predestination. Through the book I have been reading, I have learned the views of many different Christian leaders: John Westley, John Calvin, Martin Luther, C.S Lewis, Billy Graham, and John Piper. Throughout all of these views, opinions, and beliefs, one question continues to surface in my head: What do I believe? So after some careful thinking, this is my argument.

      Is God powerful? Yes, yes and yes. As a believer, I absolutely put my faith in the fact that God was the ultimate and only creator of man. And as I believe this, Genesis 1:1 answers this question: “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.” God demonstrates his ultimate and infinite power through the creation of every known and unknown thing in the universe (and beyond!).

      Does God love us? As I first thought of this, the first thing that came to mind was the song: Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus…… Because he first loved me. Psalm 36:7 says it all: “How precious is your unfailing love, Oh God.” Did you hear that? UNFAILING. No end whatsoever. I believe that God loves each and every one of us, and will continue to do so eternally.

       Does God love it when someone becomes a believer? Hebrews 11:6— “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” This is clear. God is pleased with those who have faith in him.

       Does God still love unbelievers? Let me ask this. If you create something, say a paper airplane, do you love it? It works, it flies well, and you have hours of fun playing with it. I would. And because God created us in HIS image, we must assume that he loves what he created, man especially. It wasn’t a typo when he says that man was “very good”. He loves us especially, even the unbelievers. The classic faith-sharing bible verse, John 3:16, states “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.” It does not state, “For God so loved his future believers…” No. God loves the whole world.

       Does God know everything that goes on? 1 John 3:20 states that God knows EVERYTHING. There is not a seed that falls to the ground that God does not know about.

       And finally, we ask the Lex Luther (Batman vs. Superman, Dawn of Justice) question: If God is all powerful, how can he be all good? And if he is all good, how can he be all powerful? Even in this secular movie, we see philosophy about God’s might and power. So let’s continue looking at the Bible.

     Is God all powerful? I already answered that. If he can create molecules and atoms, planets and stars, electricity and radiation, people and animals, hearts and souls just by breathing, then he can easily step in and save every human on the planet. But to what purpose? He could have done that at the fall. He could have created hundreds of billions of us with one purpose: To love him. And yet to what avail? We would have been mindless robots. He created our free will: Do we choose to love God, or reject him. And it would even so be the same today. If God saved every human just by saying “Hey guys! I DO exist!!!!”, then we are just back at what could have been the Garden: Mindless human robots saying (input robotic voice) “I love God. I love God. I love God….” And yet… When one of we humans turns and learns to love God, then it is REAL love. It came from a difficult, soul-rendering choice, and it came out of our free will. So yes, God is all powerful, and he CAN save every human being on the planet, but he, out of his free will, chooses to save us.

    Is God all good? This is my final question. How can a God who created us in his loving and beautiful way allow his children to be subjected to terrors and horrors instigated by Satan: Murder, rape, teen pregnancy. How can a God who loves us allow millions and millions of Jews to be shot, raped, tortured, gassed and starved in the Nazi concentration camp. How can a God who spoke you into existence with the gentlest whisper in the history of whispers allow his children to fight and be slaughtered in thousands upon thousands of wars throughout history. How, how, HOW???? God IS all powerful, we have already established that. So how can he be all good? You want to know? Let me tell you: He sent his only son, his greatest and most precious person in the universe, to be subjected to torture, pain and death. All of this to save a few humans who rejected their creator. They said “Screw you, God,” And pushed him away. In doing this, he offered another choice. He offered us the choice to believe in God’s sacrifice, now his works. We don’t have to believe in God’s work (his creation of us), but instead the sacrifice that we saw with our own eyes. God is good, because he gave us another choice.

    Wow, that one was messy, and long. Ok, so what have we decided? God is powerful. God loves us. God loves it when someone comes to faith, and still loves those who don’t. God knows everything. And finally, God is good. But everything in you (and me) screams, “But how can God be good and powerful at the same time and these evil sins are STILL on earth! We still suffer!” Sin came into this world as the result of our fore-father:Adam. As our representative, he was trusted with guarding the garden and his wife. He failed at both. Thus -because his traits are passed onto us- we still sin. That is a result of our own choice, and if God decides to not divinely intervene, then we cannot question that.

     I am not a theologian yet. But here is my take on things: There are several reasons why sins are still on earth.

1: A man brought sin into earth, and a man must take it away. Jesus has not returned yet, and has not yet removed sin. Why?

2: God uses these sins to test and shape us.

3: Because every time God tries to help us out of our sin, we fight Him tooth and nail, the entire way.

     By this point, every person unsure in this matter is screaming at me: But that’s not fair!!! And do you know what? As I rap this up, let me ask you one question. Is God obligated to save us all? No! Does he owe us anything? No! He could leave us on this planet to die in misery and we would not be able to question it. After all, we renounced him. We told him, “Screw you, God!!!” And shook our fist at him. He tried to hug us and hold us, but we bit, scratched, and punched him the whole time. And so if God chooses, out of HIS free will, to save some of us, then praise God! Some of us will not go to Hell. There is hope for a select few. Yes, we have a free choice. But it is not in our salvation. Every movement and word that orchestrated your salvation was from him. We did not choose that. Because God chose to save a few of us, we can lift up our hands and sing, “Hallelujah,” because God is good.

Now, I am not writing this as a theologian or pastor, nor am I trying to shove this down somebody’s throat. I am simply writing what I have discerned. If you don’t agree with me, email me and tell me why! Thanks!

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