Free Will and Predestination: Revisited in the Twenty-First Century

By Loren Henry Wilson

This book is about a word that has probably caused more disagreement and
contention in the churches of Jesus Christ than has any other word in our
long history. The word is predestination. This book is also about the free will of
man and the question of how man can be free if God has previously determined
his fate. For centuries, the usual arguments that Christian people have made
about these two issues have been exclusively from one side or the other, with
little consideration for the opposite point of view. Seldom have they ever been
considered together with any design to see how they might both exist with any
validity. Although there have been some attempts in recent times to initiate dialog
that might bring the two sides together, more often than not the conclusions to
these efforts have been to acknowledge that both views are in the Bible, but only
one can be understood at a time. The other is simply left alone as a mystery and
ignored, resulting in more disagreements and even divisions.
So here in these pages we will consider them together. The objective reader may
fi nd here some plausible arguments and some fresh insights into what the two
words predestination and salvation truly mean. So we ask, is anything in
this life absolutely certain? Is life, here and hereafter, a big gamble to see how it
will all turn out? The Bible has the answer to both questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462861279

Loren Henry Wilson

Over the years Loren Wilson has been pastor of six churches in three states, USA, and is now teaching the Bible indepth over international short wave radio and local stations. He and his wife, Diane, are currently living in Macon, Georgia. They have four children and twelve grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2011 by Loren Henry Wilson.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011906420

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-6126-2

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4628-6125-5

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4628-6127-9

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Contents

1.   The Strange Case of Dr. Nicodemus

A Minority Report

The Majority Report

Blowing Like the Wind

Seeing Is Believing

God Loves the World

I Pray Not for the World

Was Jesus a Fake?

Was He Born-again?

What about BC?

How Could God Know?

2.   The Problems with Free Will

The Unspeakable Problem

A Possible Solution

Is Eternal Life a Gamble?

Does God Intervene?

Universal Free Will

Suppositions and Ramifications

3.   The Dilemma

Let’s Be More Honest

God Can Save Anyone

The Key Is Context

Ignoring Contexts

4.   Was Anyone Born-again Before Christ?

The Mystery Nation of God

The Church in the Wilderness

What Must I Do?

Growing up with God

Like the Wind

5.   The Meaning of Salvation

What Is Salvation Anyway?

Abomination of Desolation

Salvation without a Preacher?

The Word of God

Saved from What?

Rescue the Perishing

America’s and Africa’s Great Need

Anybody Can Be Saved

Of Cabbages and Kings

6.   So What Is So Hard to Understand?

Who Are the Elect?

Why Does Anyone at All Believe?

His Blood Is Not Universally Offered

7.   The Tulip Acrostic

Tulip

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

Whoever Believed in Predestination?

A Voice from the Past

Did Not God Know?

The Gospel of Damnation

8.   The Little God Who Can’t

So Who Is Going to Heaven?

No Fear

Would You Respect This God?

Arminianism—The First Step into Humanism

9.   Why Preach Predestination?

Preach It on the Housetops

Grace Depends Upon It

Another Reformation

10.   But What about the Lost?

Who Are the Vessels of Wrath?

Living with the Weeds

Every Knee Shall Bow

What about Christmas?

11.   The Silence of the Lambs

The Squelching of the Church

Our Problems Are Theological

PREFACE

This book is about a word that has probably caused more disagreement and contention in the churches of Jesus Christ than has any other word in our long history. The word is predestination. This book is also about the free will of man and the question of how man can be free if God has previously determined his fate. For centuries, the usual arguments that Christian people have made about these two issues have been exclusively from one side or the other, with little consideration for the opposite point of view. Seldom have they ever been considered together with any design to see how they might both exist with any validity. Although there have been some attempts in recent times to initiate dialog that might bring the two sides together, more often than not the conclusions to these efforts have been to acknowledge that both views are in the Bible, but only one can be understood at a time. The other is simply left alone as a mystery and ignored, resulting in more disagreements and even divisions.

So here in these pages we will consider them together. The objective reader may find here some plausible arguments and some fresh insights into what the two words predestination and salvation truly mean. So we ask, is anything in this life absolutely certain? Is life, here and hereafter, a big gamble to see how it will all turn out? The Bible has the answer to both questions.

—Loren Henry Wilson

CHAPTER 1

The Strange Case of

Dr. Nicodemus

We all know the story of Nicodemus. He was the man who came after dark for a talk with the Lord Jesus. Together they had a deep, meaningful conversation about spiritual matters, and we have the record of it in the Gospel of John (chapter 3). Through the centuries of time that have elapsed, popular Christian theology has extracted some weighty conclusions out of what these two men said.

The general idea has come to be that Nicodemus came and talked to Jesus that night to find our how he could be saved, so Jesus therefore gave him instructions about how to be born-again, which is supposed to be the same thing as what is often called getting saved.

Moreover, later in the conversation, Jesus spoke the famous words, For God so loved the world . . . This is part of the well-known verse John 3:16. The assumption here is that Jesus meant that God loves everybody in the world and therefore wants everybody to be born-again. These are the popular conclusions that are made from this conversation.

But are they accurate conclusions? Well, in the first place, Nicodemus did not come to the Lord Jesus to ask him anything. He came with a statement to make, one that required nightfall and secrecy. He came to give a remarkable minority report from his political party, and it was a dangerous one to make.

Why call him doctor? Because if he were with us today, that is how he would be called. He had what amounted to doctorate degrees, and the party to which he belonged would be the equivalent today (in the United States.) of Baptists, Catholics, and Republicans or Democrats all rolled into one. That kind of power is always protected by careful protocol. It was embarrassing for him to seek out a professional visit with an unlearned commoner, no matter how famous he was becoming or how popular he was with the people. He had his valued reputation to uphold; therefore, he came by night.

But Nicodemus knew that this Jesus was no common man and was probably even the much-promised Messiah. This healer and miracle worker exhibited far too much power to be anyone else—even more than the miracle-working Elisha of ancient times. Therefore, after he came through the doorway, he made his opening statement. He said, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2).

A Minority Report

By this time, Nicodemus had also seen the resentment and opposition toward Jesus that was developing among the Jewish rulers. And he saw the danger in this. If this Jesus were indeed the Messiah, he knew that he would someday become the ruler of Israel and even of the world. God would allow nothing to stop that. Nicodemus had faith as well as scriptural learning, and he knew that. This meant that any opposition toward Jesus on the part of the Jewish government would result in worse destruction for their nation than the empire of Babylon had shed upon them five hundred years before. As it turned out, it did happen just as he probably feared. About forty years later, their nation was obliterated by the Roman forces. That night, Nicodemus knew he had to do something. He would start with a visit.

The now popular idea that he came to get himself saved derives from a later time. During the time of Jesus’s ministry, there was no concept of believing in Jesus to get oneself eternally saved. The people were not even sure who he was, and much less did they know the New Testament theology that was written and developed many decades later.

So Nicodemus made his minority report, and it was a significant one. Scripture tells us that there were some other Pharisees who believed in Jesus too but who did what Nicodemus did—kept it secret for their own safety.

The Majority Report

The rest of them, the majority, had another report (Matt. 12:24). It was that the many miracles that Jesus did (which they knew were real miracles) were powered by the devil. Believing this, they went on to form their policy toward Jesus around that assumption, and this as well as other factors finally led them to spearhead our Lord’s eventual execution upon the Cross. They wanted to save their nation from harm by the Roman legions too, but their idea of deliverance was opposite from the understanding of their wise associate, Nicodemus.

After Nicodemus made his opening statement that night, he may have expected Jesus to discuss the issue of political dangers with him. Who knows?

But our Lord replied to him instead about a far greater subject than the rise and fall of nations. He immediately addressed the issue of why Nicodemus was making such a positive statement about his identity in the face of the obvious disbelief by the majority of his party, the Pharisees. He said, Truly I tell you that except a man be born-again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

No, Jesus was not changing the subject in order to tell him what to do to go to heaven. He was right on the subject that Nicodemus had started. He was saying in essence, Nicodemus, why do you see something that the rest of the Pharisees are not seeing? Why are you so different that you have to come to me by night with this confession? That was the real issue, as Nicodemus was about to learn, and it continues to be the real issue today.

What is the answer? It is the new birth. It is the birth of spiritual eyes and spiritual ears and a spiritual heart that can perceive things that the world cannot perceive. There is no reason why Nicodemus should have been any different from his unbelieving Pharisee friends except for this. And it had already happened. Nicodemus had at some time been born-again even before his perception of Jesus had been formed. His resulting born-again faith is what led him to form his perception so that he could say, We know . . .

Who knows when this new birth had happened within him? But it had happened. Who knows when any of us experience the event of being born-again? One thing is sure: it had happened for Nicodemus prior to his belief about who the Lord Jesus is, because it was his spiritual nature that had formed his belief about this unique miracle worker who was among them.

Blowing Like the Wind

Jesus went on to reveal to him the only technical information we have about the new birth in the entire Bible. It is simply that the