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Free Will or Predestination—What Is the Truth?

Free Will or Predestination—What Is the Truth?

Do you believe in free will, that your choices matter, that you determine the eternal outcome of your life? Or do you believe in predestination, that you really don’t have freedom, that God has predetermined what will happen to you and for you, and that it is God’s choices alone that determine your eternal destiny?

This is a long-standing debate, going back centuries, within Christianity, leading to two general theological views:

  • Arminianism, which is named after Jacobus Arminius, is the belief in free will—that our salvation is dependent upon our individual choice.
  • Calvinism, which is named after John Calvin, is the view that God alone decides who is saved and who is lost.

There are sincere, loving Christians on both sides of this debate, yet these views are mutually exclusive, meaning they both cannot be true. It really is one or the other.

So how can we know which view is true and which one is the misperceived view? By understanding God’s design laws, how reality actually works. As we unpack the core principles of Calvinism, we will discover that one of these two views is an expression of reality, God’s design laws, while the other is built on claims, assertions, and proclamations—not testable evidence.

Indeed, one of these views, if true, would destroy love. And that is why it really does make a difference which view we hold, because our beliefs change us—meaning we want to be lovers of the truth, for the truth always leads us to ever-increasing intimacy with Jesus, the source of all truth.

Historic Calvinism has five main pillars, and proponents of that view use the acronym TULIP to remember and teach them:

T—Total Depravity. This is the idea that all humans are born corrupt, at enmity with God, possessing a carnal nature that naturally wars against God, and that we can do nothing to change it.

In this view, total depravity means that we are so corrupt, so sinful, so selfish, so darkened, that we have no ability to respond to God and accept His offer of salvation.

There are several problems with this position. First, it fails to recognize that God (Genesis 3)—as soon as Adam and Eve broke trust with Him and corrupted themselves with sin—immediately interceded in the human condition and put enmity between Satan and sinful humans. This means that God intervened to prevent our sinful nature from having absolute sway over our power of choice. God intervened in humanity and placed a desire for something better, a longing for healing, reconciliation, for freedom from fear and selfishness. God intervenes in every heart to convict and woo us by His Spirit, and though we are still tempted by our carnal natures, God’s intervention has protected our liberty, our power to choose, so that we do have the ability to choose to surrender to Him for complete healing and salvation.

When we choose God, we open the heart to Him and then receive the indwelling Spirit, which provides the divine power to resist sin and live victoriously. In other words, while we cannot overcome sin by our choice or by our power, we do have the power to choose to trust Jesus, surrender our lives to Him, open the heart and invite Him in, and He heals and transforms us.

Another problem with the theory of total depravity is that it doesn’t represent Adam and Eve after sin; it more accurately represents the sinner at the end of time, the eternally lost, who have rejected God’s love, have despised truth, have persistently chosen over and again the lies, fear, and selfishness that sears the conscience, warps the character, and hardens the heart.

Sin persisted in eventually destroys the faculties that are sensitive to the movements of the Spirit of truth and love. When those faculties are fully destroyed, a person then enters into a state of total depravity, a state in which no amount of truth or love has any more impact upon them. But how does a person end up in such a state? By the exercise of their power of choice to reject every entreaty from God, thus hardening their heart beyond healing—just as Pharaoh did. For an exploration of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart demonstrating God’s role and Pharaoh’s role and how Pharaoh was the one who actually hardened his own heart, see my blog God Is in Control of What?

U—Unconditional Election. In Calvinism, this means that God chooses to give some people eternal life because He wills it regardless of what that person wants, chooses, or does. God’s election is sovereign and overrules any choice on the part of the sinner—and this view is claimed by Calvinists to be an evidence of God’s love.

But this is a gross perversity of God’s agape love; it is, in reality, a violation of the design laws of love and liberty, teaching that love is authoritarian and domineering, that it forces it way and doesn’t grant real freedom. The laws of love and liberty reveal that it is impossible to experience genuine love without freedom. Further, if God were to do this, it would erase the individuality of the sinner, making instead a programmed robot.

L—Limited Atonement. Calvinism teaches that the atonement was made only for the elect, not for all humans, that Jesus’ death did not make it possible for all human beings to come to salvation, but only those whom God has chosen to save.

They make this argument for several reasons, but all of them are based in multiple layers of false assumptions. Calvinists believe the lie that God’s law functions like human law and, therefore, that Jesus’ death was necessary to pay our legal sin debt—rather than the truth that after Adam sinned, humankind was “dead in trespass and sin” (had a terminal sin condition) and that without a remedy would die.

They fail to recognize that when Adam sinned, neither God nor His law changed—and, thus, nothing needed to be done to fix God or His law, but that, in fact, the actual condition of Adam and Eve was changed. The first humans were changed from beings operating upon God’s design law of love to beings infected with fear and selfishness (carnal nature) and without eradicating the infection of fear and selfishness and restoring God’s design law of love within, all humans would die. “Those who sow to the carnal nature, from that nature reap destruction” (Galatians 6:8). Thus, Jesus came as the second Adam, taking up our nature, being tempted in all points like we are (Hebrews 4:15) yet without sin, thereby “destroying death and bring life and immortality to life” (2 Timothy 1:10).

This distortion of God’s law as imperial (God making up rules and then enforcing His law through externally inflicted punishment) leads to a distorted view of the atonement. Calvinists ask questions, “If Christ’s death was for all men, then why are all men not saved?” “Couldn’t a sovereign God save all men if He wanted to?” Thus, because they misunderstand God’s law, they misunderstand God’s sovereignty and think that whatever happens, like some people being lost, is because God wants them lost, otherwise, God would choose to use His power to save them. Worse, they claim that God is the one who chooses for them to not only be lost, but to burn in hell.

When we understand God’s law as design protocols for life, such conflicts resolve because we understand His sovereignty correctly. God as the Creator built reality to operate upon design protocols, the supreme one being love, and genuine love requires genuine freedom. Robots cannot love. Thus, God sustains and maintains His laws, including liberty, which means that some freely choose to reject the love and life that God offers.

I—Irresistible Grace. This means that whomever God decides to hit with His grace, they are unable to resist it and will be saved. According to this teaching, God’s grace cannot be resisted. Thus, only those whom God chooses are saved. The lost are lost because God didn’t choose them and didn’t hit them with irresistible grace. This view corrupts the truth of God’s character of love by teaching that God, apparently, just doesn’t love everyone enough to be bothered to dispense His grace on everyone and, thereby, save everyone. But such behavior, if it were to occur, would be a violation of the law of liberty, and would erase individuality, destroy personhood, create puppets, and make human beings devoid of the image of God.

Who really wants to destroy the image of God in man? This doctrine teaches ideas that if they were true would result in the destruction of individuality, identity, the capacity to think and do, and the ability to love, creating mere robots controlled by the supreme power.

And what kind of god would God be if He actually operated this way? This is exactly Satan’s view of God—a being who arbitrarily chooses to do things—such as make up laws and then enforce them by inflicted punishments.

P—Preservation of the Saints. This means that if God has chosen you and has hit you with His irresistible grace, then He will preserve you so that you can never be lost. It is a form of “once saved always saved,” but even more corrupt because in the Calvinist view, you don’t even have to initially choose to be saved. You are a passive pawn in the hands of a controlling god.

Again, such a view destroys individuality and the ability to love because we have no freedom and are merely puppets directed by the whims of God.

Arminianism advances the principles of free will, that God provides what is necessary for salvation for all human beings but that each person must choose to accept what God offers. This view retains our individuality and is in harmony with the laws of love and liberty; thus, it advances the restoration of the image of God within and retains our ability to love.

Arminianism has widespread support in the Christian church—Methodist, Baptist, and Adventist, and many others have traditionally embraced the teaching that God has granted free will to humanity.

Understanding the real issues in this debate is about God’s law, which is a direct manifestation of God’s character. Imposed law is the law of dictators. Design law is the law of our Creator. Imposed law takes away freedom and destroys love. Design law is the basis of freedom and the manifestation of love.

I invite you to reject the imposed-law lies and choose life, love, and freedom by embracing the design-law reality of our Creator God of love.

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Testimony 50

After coming into contact with Come And Reason Ministries, I can finally say that many of my unanswered questions have fallen into place. I discovered that my view of God’s Law was “imposed laws and rules” with “imposed punishments” and that this was the major culprit of my many unanswered questions. Thanks be to God for using you and those around you to help us who have struggled with this “infection” of thought. I have now rejected the “imposed law” concept to fully embrace “Design Law”… to look thru “Design Law,” instead of “imposed law,” is a relief.

Viliami L., Australia

 

Testimony 3

My husband is a pastor and I listen to your lesson almost every week. Thank you for helping me in my study life and to help me love the “real” God more.

C. F., NC, USA

 

Testimony 12

I have been really blessed reading your response to the various questions on your site.

K.C., OH, USA

 

Testimony 20

I just wanted to personally thank you for your teachings and insight into scripture. I came across your website via my cousin who suggested I look into “Healing the Mind” information. My youngest daughter has been struggling over the last couple of years and it all came to a head this spring. When I started listening to the “Healing the Mind” lectures my own life began to be transformed. I began sharing with all my daughters the concepts you laid out so clearly. I ordered your book and soaked it up. I just want to say “Thank You!” My walk with the Lord has been refreshed and renewed. Your obedience to the Lord is a blessing to so many.

R. K., Anderson, SC, USA

 

Testimony 30

God lead me to your book “The God-Shaped Brain” while I was searching for another book about the brain and then to your interview about your book on HeartWise Ministries [where] I found out about [Come And Reason Ministries]. I’m now devouring the webcasts of your Bible studies. I have been so greatly blessed and I thank God so much for your courage to speak the Truth in love no matter what. Listening to you contrast the two opposing systems (laws) and digging deep to unearth the hidden treasures in the Bible makes me so incredibly happy and I feel very blessed to be part of your Bible Study Group although I live far away. I am just so excited that there is a group of people that is spreading the Truth about the character of God and it saddens me how few realize what our Father in Heaven is really like.

Kessy B., Australia

 

Testimony 31

It was very touching to hear the testimony of your class share how viewing God’s true character has changed their lives. My feelings are the same – there is so much freedom in knowing that God LOVES me – regardless of my… just, REGARDLESS! I’m still blown away by the true gospel, the fact that God is not ready to strike us when we fail. He is not arbitrary. He simply loves us and warns of the natural consequences because He can’t stand to see us suffer. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GOD!!!

Ceil V.,  UT, USA

 

Testimony 48

I just want to tell you how blessed I have been reading “The Remedy!” It has become a daily part of my devotional relationship with God. In it I have found a God of love and a God that loves me! The bible has come alive for me! It is the first time that I can say that I have felt hope fill my heart as I have read God’s word. This is good news I can share! Thank you, Dr Jennings! Thank you for your heart for others. I can’t put into words how this has set me free! It has strengthened my trust and love for God.

Jason H.

 

Testimony 66

I am incredibly grateful for the transformative impact you’ve had on my life, and words cannot fully express my appreciation. Over the years, I have been an avid listener and follower of C&R and extend my heartfelt thanks for creating the C&R mobile app. It has allowed me to immerse myself in your lessons repeatedly, enabling me to grasp the profound significance about the Character of God, Design Law, the protocols for life, the reasons behind the current chaos, and Christ’s mission to restore everything. They have deeply touched me. Having studied with various churches, I came away with the perception that God is no different from the deities of ancient Greek or Roman mythology—demanding sacrifices and taking pleasure in bloodshed. Thanks to your transformative teachings, I have experienced a profound awakening to the true nature of God and the immense power of His love. It is truly a remarkable and liberating sensation to finally grasp the truth and embrace the empowering nature of God’s laws. My self-perception has become brighter and more infused with love. My journey of growth continues on a daily basis.

Chris P., Lake Mary, FL, USA

 

Testimony 55

I was born [into the church], then I left it for many years. 10 years ago, I came back, but I could not take the hypocrisy and the lack of answers to the missing pieces. I struggled, but I did not abandon my commitment to know the truth. God is leading me to the simple understanding of his relevance and I am relearning what the church taught me as a youth… that he loves me, that he has led me to a knowledge of him such as I have never known. He is using Dr. Jennings to connect the dots that are now so apparent and hiding in plain sight!

Dean P., Arlington, TX, USA

 

Testimony 21

I am absolutly on fire with the message at Come and Reason! I can’t get enough! I’ve read your book, blog, and articles. I’ve listened to your Bible study podcasts, your radio show, and your series – all excellent! It wasn’t until the past couple of years that I have I like I’m becoming “healthy,” with more to share with others than just beasts and commandments! I used to be a Bible worker and preached when the pastors were gone until I had had enough. I didnt realize at the time what the problem was, but i know now… the message wasn’t properly focused. Now my flame is rekindled. All of your little examples are so perfect in explaining something “complicated” and making it easily understood! Now I’m trying to shape it into a life changing evangelistic series! Thank you!

M.T., USA

 

Testimony 24

I wanted to thank you very much for presenting your understanding of God. I’ve always been troubled by this question: Why did Jesus have to die? Since my conversion I understood that The Father & Jesus are one, I did not have issues with that. But was there not any other way to save us than for Jesus to die? I guess I actually had a question about God – if He is so wise, how come He did not find another way? I did not see the real ‘beauty’  in the cross. Only when you explained the picture in the medical context, Jesus providing medicine for my selfishness, have I started to finally ‘see the light’. Thank you so much. Your seminar, “Healing the Mind,” are absolutely marvelous & have shared them with my family and many other people, including colleagues at work. Thanks, thanks, thanks. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry.

M. W., Australia

 

Testimony 65

I have been tuning into your weekly study classes for a while now and wanted express my appreciation for the teachings that ha been a huge blessing in opening up the true message of the word. Viewing scripture under an imposed law theory always, without fail, raised more questions, concerns, and conflicting scripture interpretations that were discouraging at the very least. Looking at scripture through the design law lens has brought more truth to light for me personally and an understanding of our Heavenly Father that places Him “above all others,” where I am now more than thrilled to witness and serve Him.  I “stumbled” across this ministry a year or so ago and would only watch a few minutes at a time. But the more I listened and the longer I paid attention, the more my spiritual eyes were opened to the ever present truths of scripture. The comprehension of the great controversy and it’s origin by the lies perpetrated and perpetuated throughout the Bible on the attack of God’s character and government is truly priceless. Keep up the Good Work! Your servanthood is desperately needed in such a time as this!

Jeff D., Reading, MA, USA

 

Testimony 13

I borrowed “Healing The Mind” DVDs from a friend and showed them at my home for a small gathering of women friends. Neither of my friends are Adventist, but they both enjoyed and embraced the messages you taught. In fact, one of the ladies prayed out loud in our group and that was the first time she had ever had public prayer.

J.B. ,Dalles, OR, USA

 

Testimony 67

I was introduced to Come And Reason by a friend of my mother-in-law, who gave me several CD’s of Dr. Jennings. The clarity of the message and recognition that God’s is a God of love was so clear, advancing beyond Dr. Maxwell’s message. However, grappled with Maxwell saying God used emergency measures for the fallen world. Now after several years of being a regular listener of the Come And Reasoning bible study class and attending Jennings’ meetings in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, things are becoming clearer for me. Design law versus imposed law has added so much to my personal understanding of theology. This message has really impacted my work in counseling so many people miserable because they are searching for and trusting human governments to create order and peace or believing in a God who says love Me or I will kill you. I am grateful that I have an alternative view to offer my clients that makes sense. I teach a bible study class on a semi-regular basis and I value the materials that Come And Reason so freely offers to aid me in presenting this vital message. Thank you for continuing to provide advancement in our very limited understanding of a Infinite God that is rational and believable.

Dr. Roger D, Arlington, TX, USA

 

Testimony 56

I cannot thank you enough for opening my understanding to the beautiful truth of God’s Law of Love and how it applies to everything. I have been a Christian for over forty years, but I feel like I am only now seeing with my eyes open. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!

Tammy Cinzio, Australia