Divine Determinism states Determinism to Varying degrees.
What is Determinism?
Determinism is a theologically lensed (Man Interpreted) statement that holds to the precept that “because God is Omniscient and Omnipotent, all occurrences in all of existence are God’s specific revelations of God’s Desire / Will.”
There are varying degrees of Determinism.
I would say that much that goes on in creation is not God's will. God allows it to happen for the furtherance of His good purposes, but it is plainly stated in Scripture that He "desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4), yet Scripture clearly indicates that not all men shall be saved. God is light, and in Him there is no shadow of turning. God determined beforehand to limit His control of intelligent beings and allow for a limited free will (limited by our own human frailties and capacities), and yet because God sees the end from the beginning, He can work around and through our freedom in order to bring about His desired end, which is extremely, supremely, and completely good.
Core Theology has to identify several issues that arise from either a Determinist stance or Free Will stance.
I hold to a limited free will, as I stated. I am comfortable with the answers this stance provides as well as it's compliance with the Bible.
Issues to grapple with:
Why did God create people and angels that eventually end up doing terrible things?
God created intelligent beings with a limited free will in order to create beings capable of true agape. Automatons are not capable of agape. Limited free will includes the capability for both the highest good and the highest evil, yet, in and of itself, limited free will is a good and wonderous gift. Therefore God gave angels and humans this gift despite knowing the consequences.
Why does God allow Terrible things to happen?
Because in order to provide opportunity for agape, God has to allow for the choices of His creations, some of which are extremely evil. As for natural "evil", like disease and natural disasters, these are a direct result of God's judgement on humankind for their many heinous sins. Every human deserves death for their sin, and ultimately it does not matter whether we die a "natural" death alone, or we die along with thousands of others in a tsunami... we all die one way or another, and that is God's just judgement on our sin. I am pretty sure that not every disaster and illness is directly God's judgment on that geographic area or that individual person, still, they are the results of human sin and God's judgement upon it.
Because intelligent beings with a limited free will chose to rebel against their perfectly good and just Creator. God will eventually bring this to an end, but in the meantime humans and angels are learning an important truth: existence without obedience to our perfect, omniscient, loving God will result in terrible consequences, not only punishment from God, but direct results from our sin that are terrible and inevitable. In the movie "Looper", a man who came from the future told a man from the present "You should do this. Trust me, I'm from the future." In other words, he had knowledge of the consequences of his choice, and knew what the man from the present should do. In a similar way, God knows all possible futures, and directs us only in the way that will result in the best possible ultimate good for ourselves and everyone else.
Adam and Eve had perfect freedom of will, but still chose to disobey God and do what He explicitly told them not to do. As a result, the nature of their will was corrupted, and they were then inclined to evil. In some way, one that is not clearly defined in the Bible, every one of their descendants has inherited a sin nature... mostly this is manifested as pride and selfishness, which leads us to rebel against God's will and fail to love Him and other human beings.
Why will some people be Lost?
Agape must be freely given and received. This is the entire reason for our limited free will. In order to come to Christ, one must freely accept God's offer of agape, and be willing to agape in return. Because of our fallen nature, we cannot do this apart from the enabling of God's Spirit. Some people will respond, some will not.
What does Omniscient mean and how does it impact all of Creation... even beyond our universe?
The way I understand it, God knows all possible realities. This is unfathomable to our limited minds. What this means to me is that God is steering a path for each of us who are saved that leads to the best possible outcome eternally given our free choices. The prognosis for those who never receive Christ is not so good.
There’s a ton of argumentative discussions on this topic... But... from heart... How would you answer these 6 questions if asked them by an Atheist... genuinely searching to confirm or deny their specific beliefs?
I think my answers are solid, but I've not been challenged on them by unbelievers (atheists), but by my brothers who do not believe in my ability to reject God's will for me.
One last point... if a person believes Atheists don’t have a theological perspective of Who God is, they are mistaken.
Perhaps not consciously, but they do.
