Predestination

Christianity is not a one-time one-stop occurrence wherein individuals are saved in an instant and thereafter need do nothing the rest of their lives. Christianity is a constant maturing process, a lifelong movement from milk to meat, from simple truths to complex doctrines. It is our calling, a necessity of our life as Christians (especially because we are surrounded by so many lies) to always seek to grow in our faith. I am simply asking that we remember that every day.

As I sat in philosophy class today, it came to me that there may be a particular reason why predestination seems to come up so often as the topic of debate in Christian interdenominational discussions. You see, religious belief, or ideology- which we might understand as a set of beliefs that determine who we are, what our place in the world is, and where we will be going- is an integral element of all humans. Even evolutionists have created an ideology of evolution- it explains who they are (chemical-biological structures that perchance fell together over billions of years); what their place in the world is (top of the food chain, for whatever reason); and where they will be going (dirt).
What is interesting to note, however, is that all ideologies also have some form of savior. In most cases that savior is the self or the species to which one belongs (such as the instance of Hitler's Aryan race). Evolutionists, while they do not foresee an eternal dwelling place, nevertheless establish their salvation prospects in the idea of improving humanity. If, that is, humans are continuously developing, evolving, growing, and progressing, then each person's efforts to improve the world creates a legacy for them which outlasts their name. Thus one might say the evolutionist has created eternal life for their name if not their body and consciousness.
Other religions likewise, despite various efforts at effecting some sort of supernatural hierarchy, inevitably turn back to themselves as the source for salvation. This is true of almost all common religions today, although it is certainly more evident among cults like Scientology than within Islam or various take-off brands of Christianity like the Mormons. While all such deistic religions create a supernatural, super-powerful god who operates to a varying extent within the individual and within the world, the impetus for salvation nevertheless exists either initially or finally within the individual, thus effectively giving the individual a power equal to or greater than the gods unto which they otherwise claim to submit.
How does this relate to Christianity and predestination then, you ask? One must understand predestination in order to answer this question. Predestination is the belief that before the creation of the world- before God had created anything at all- God chose His people. In other words, He predetermined those whom He would intercede with in order to bring to His salvation. It is important to note the stipulation that God did not choose based on what He foresaw happening amongst humanity- whether meritorious deeds or future decisions to follow Him- but rather that God determined whom He would save, and then in the course of these particular individuals' lives worked by grace through the Holy Spirit to save them.
Another important stipulation is that predestination does not, however, remove the free will of mankind to choose a master. Predestination does not seek to make a fortune-teller out of God, so that because we know God saves some and doesn't save others we can just sit back and watch what happens. Rather, predestination recognizes that God chose some to save and therefore in their lives He works to redeem them by way of the Holy Spirit working in their hearts. The Holy Spirit, insofar as we attempt to understand its actions, could be said to change the otherwise sin-obsessed bent of our fallen human nature in order that we, in loving response to God, choose to accept Him. Conversely, then, those whom God has not chosen to redeem would be allowed to exercise their free will to continue to follow their sinful pursuits which are the whole aspect of their human nature for all the days of their lives.
The question still has not been answered, however, as to why predestination is an integral element of the Christian faith. I humbly submit my reason here: Predestination is the sole element in the history of mankind which identifies God as not just the initiator or completer of our salvation, but rather as both. Whereas all other religions and ideologies determine man to be either the initiator or the completer of his own salvation, Christianity through predestination recognizes that all redeeming work is started by God according to His loving kindness and mercy, and is also completed by God. Our joyful responses as those redeemed by His grace are necessary, but are otherwise impossible outside His actions.
For a Christian therefore to reject predestination inevitably reduces Christianity to one belief among many millions of beliefs wherein a pile of good intentions are sabotaged by an ultimately self-glorifying establishment of man as an agent of his own salvation.
Now, an important point to establish here, and for all future ideas I write, is that in condemning Christianity which rejects predestination I do not seek to judge all Christians who reject predestination. Many if not most Christians have at best heard of predestination once or twice and certainly have never had the idea expounded to them (and how could they, in the watered-down evangelical society of today). In this sense, then, the weight of judgment falls not on individuals who have not yet comprehended and joyfully accepted predestination as a foundational aspect of their faith, but rather on those so-called reverends who have refused to provide such spiritual meat unto their flocks. It is therefore safe to say that my judgment of those churches who reject predestination is specifically a judgment of those churches. Whether the sheep will continue to follow their lost shepherds, or might rather choose new shepherds to follow, is a problem I will leave to the sheep.
-Kevin B.