The Great Debate

This funny is to give the previous post some space so you can see that pic.

But since the subject was raised, let me talk a bit about the determinism/free will debate.

God is sovereign. But what does "sovereign" mean? It means that God is the king, the Lord of all the universe. There is nothing over which God does not rule. The question in the determinism debate, it seems to me, is: Does God micromanage?

The idea of micromanaging is if, in giving someone else authority over an area, do you follow that "giving" by determining all the specifics of how it should be run?

God clearly gave authority to others to rule over sections of His creation. "He gave the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night." Thus, those arenas of authority God handed over to those powers to rule. And the earth God handed over to humanity. Not only is humanity supposed to rule over the creatures of the earth, but humanity is to "subdue" the whole earth. The earth isn't just for us to enjoy and use, but to rule. (Genesis 1, 2, Psalm 8)

So when God gave the earth to humanity to rule, is God constantly controlling everything? It says that certain things were determined beforehand, before the foundation of the world. What is determined from the foundation of the world?

-Jesus was known (I Peter 1:20)
-Jesus was loved by the Father (John 17:24)
-A kingdom for merciful humans was founded (Matt. 25:34)
-The Father choses a people for himself (Eph. 1:4)
-The Father predestined a people who were adopted by Him (Eph. 1:5,11)
-There are names written in the Lambs Book, and these do not worship the Beast (Rev. 13:8; Rev. 17:8-- although it seems that some names can be taken out of the book Psalm 69:28 and Rev. 3:5)
-A certain people were determined to conform to Jesus' image. Then God acts on that determination to make it happen. (Romans 8:29)

What does this mean? That God's chosen people were chosen before the foundation of the earth. Does this mean that God chose each one individually? Revelation almost sounds that way because of the determination of "names" (although the erasing of some names out of the book gives one pause). But all of them could be that God determined the people, the nation, and the means of salvation (as it hints in I Cor 2:7), but not necessarily the specific individuals. It seems that God had a plan, from the foundations of the world, to deliver humanity and He has been working on that plan, especially through the coming, death and resurrection of His Son.

But has God been a micromanager? I don't think so. I don't think He's been going behind humanity, controlling every aspect of that which He gave over freely. Yes, He has made the occasional changes, as any manager would do, and He makes evaluations of how each division manager has done (not so good, so far-- Psalm 82).

It seems that God has limited his own sovereignty, according to His own word. When He delegates, that delegation is firm. Even when he destroyed "all" of humanity, he kept a remnant, so that His promise would not be made null and void.

But the real problem with the questions that Calvinists and Armenians discuss is that they are really beside the point. The thing we should really focus on is having every aspect of our lives put under the Lordship of Jesus. We may think it is determined ahead of time or it is our own choice, but it doesn't really matter. Those who submit to Jesus, those who are conformed to His image, those are the ones who are chosen. Thus, whether it is by destiny or by choice, it is our goal, our destiny.