Evaluating predestination

Should Religious believers accept predestination?

The extent to which God predestines humanity

Predestination has been present in many theological theories, such as those presented by Augustine and Calvin.

YES:

Predestination must be accepted because the holy texts say so.

Job 14:5 'A person's days are determined...'

Qur'an 76:30 'And you do not will except that Allah wills it...'

Jonathan Edwards said that the concept of freewill was incompatible with dependence on God. If a moral agent could choose their own response to God, then morality and salvation would also be dependent on them, reducing God's omnipotency.

Augustine's Doctrine of Original Sin can be found in the outcome of the Council Of Carthage who discussed theological matters. They agreed with the view put forward by Augustine.

predestination ensures that God is still all powerful. If we say that freewill exists, basically it means that God would not be all powerful because freewill is outside of his control.

Predestination shows that God is omnibenevolent (all-loving) If God was not, he could leave the whole of humanity to go to hell. He shows his love by choosing the elect.

Miracles are proof that God is onmipotent. This view was championed by c.S Lewis. A miracle is no more than God interacting with this world by introducing new laws of nature. God does these laws to remind us of his omnipotence and his predestining nature as the creator and controller of all laws of nature.

NO:

Pelagius did not agree with Augustine's theory because it said that the existence of freewill diminished the power of God. If God truly was omnipotent, then there would not be freewill determining people's actions.

Despite the defeat of Arminianism at the Synod of Dort, it is gone on to influence many branches of the Church such as the Methodist Church. John Wesley said that a person is free to accept salvation and to also reject it.

It can be said that the existence of freewill does show how God is omnipotent because God has placed the Holy Spirit to guide people. Only an omnipotent God could do this in all of humanity.

Saying that predestination demonstrates God's love is wrong because only a few are selected.

Bertrand Russell also said that predestination would be wrong because how can a God punish people for doing wrong if he was the only to predetermine their actions? 'A God who punishes or rewards on the basis of God's own eternal decisions is unfair and immoral'.

Also, if God punishes people for their actions why he controls it, then it must be said that he was responsible for mass disasters such as the Holocaust.

Saying that miracles are due to God predestining them rules out miracles as an answer to spontaneous prayer.

If people's lives are predestined by God, then that is not truly the behaviour of an omnibenevolent God. A comparison would be like a child playing with a teddy bear.