Predestination and the Last Days
April 12, 2007
If you purchase and run a car without a clue how to take care of it, and for some reason you refuse to read the owner's manual, it is certain you will end up with a pile of scrap metal. That's not predestination. It's a certain prediction, and the dealer could have made it the moment he discerned your nobody's-gonna-tell-me mindset. When it comes to the Bible and the "last days," this is the analogy that fits.
The auto-purchase analogy can be seen in the Genesis account, which most people count as a fairy tale. God did not create humans with the ability to govern themselves. Power corrupts, absolute corrupts absolutely, and so forth....God knew it all along. He did not create humans with self-rule ability, just like he did not create them with ability to fly or to walk through walls.
But the first humans ignore him and disobey the only command he has issued, [Gen 2:17] a command which symbolizes their reliance upon him. They embark on the path of self-rule.
Genesis 2:17 says: "But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”
Disobeying, eating from the tree, means not respecting God’s right to decide good and bad. Instead, those first humans, by their actions, declare they will decide such matters themselves, in effect, rejecting God’s right to rule in favor of self-rule.
Thus begins a long experiment of human rulership, which God permits as it is the one way of permanently settling the issue of rulership. God knows how the experiment in governing will end, just as the dealer knows how your car stewardship will end. In time, the evidence mounts to the point where all but the most pig-headed can see that God had it right all along....humans just make a hash of things with self-rule. God can then bring "the end of the world" and restore matters to the default position....the one where he governs. He's not upset with the earth; he's fond of it. It's his handiwork. He's upset with those who have ruined it, and he tosses them as a landlord might toss a bad tenant. Thereafter, the earth can be brought to the paradise condition envisioned from the outset.
His rulership....this is what the Bible means by "God's Kingdom." It is proclaimed ahead of the eviction, and people are able to respond for or against. There’s no predestination. Everyone has opportunity and God’s will is for all to respond, though he knows not everybody will.
This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, whose will is that all sorts of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth. 1 Tim 2:3,4
How exactly this plays out in every detail is unclear, but it certainly makes sense for a person to act in harmony with knowledge acquired.
And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come. Matt 24:14
When the books are finally closed on the experiment, a thousand plus years from now, will humans once again get it in their heads that self-rule is the way to go? Hopefully, Mark Twain's words will apply:
A cat which sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again. In fact, it won't sit on a cold one either, for they all look hot.
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Very well written. Lately, I've been seeing even more evidence of mankind's failed attempts at self-government.
The global warming/climate change issue has been declared since the 1960's. It gained popular notice in the 1980's. Now, in the 2000's, we are starting to be faced with the consequences of our actions, and still there are plenty of people who refuse to make any change.
It seems to me that greed, which is a fundamental part of human nature at this time, has taken over. I won't go into details here, but if makind had the ability to self-govern, it seems apparent that we'd be using our natural resources in a sustainable way, moving towards cleaner technology as it becomes available. That is the path that makes "big picture" sense. Instead, we keep to the most profitable technologies, which will never be the newest, and figure that the rest isn't our problem.
I wonder how such people will respond when food and energy prices grow to the point where they have to take notice. I wonder how they will respond when suddenly, the poor who were supporting them can no longer do so? The IPCC seems to thing that we'll see such times, yet there are powerful people who don't want us to know that.
Posted by: Screech | April 14, 2007 at 12:30 PM