The very fact that there was a tree in the garden of Eden should alert us to the fact of choices being important. Reformed theology nullifies man’s choosing, and makes salvation a choice that God makes, i.e. man has no part in salvation only God does. Reformed theology believes that God wills or is the cause of everything, that no acts is outside of God’s will. Basically He chooses a select few for salvation and damns the rest not giving them any chance of redemption.
Initially if you look into the theology, you could be lead to believe it is true, for it explains many verses in the Bible. However we have to be careful when breaking up scripture to not make a doctrine out of a few scriptures especially if there is counter scripture. So I will start with a counter scripture. A scripture that shows clearly that God did not preplan all the actions of man.
Gen 6:5-7 The LORD saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. He was very sorry that he had made them, and he said, "I'll destroy every living creature on earth! I'll wipe out people, animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them."
God’s will is not divided, how could He will the time of Noah and man’s response, know all about it, yet be sorry he created man. It makes no logical sense. So let’s go to the verses that are the center piece of Reformed theology. But before we begin, I will make a statement, I do not believe that the following verses apply to the individual salvation of man, which I believe is by freely responding to the message of the cross, and abiding in God’s will, bringing about salvation. But rather these scriptures apply to the “purpose of God” (Romans 9:11), the overarching plan God has for humanity. A structure, or thread of His will that runs through our everyday lives.
Rom 9:11-23 (For
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed
it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
What if God, willing to shew
his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Reformed theology, takes the above scripture as meaning that even our individual salvation is chosen by God, where I say it is the overall purposes of God that are chosen, pivotal points in history or our lives.
We know from the Bible, that “God is love”, in general if you read the Bible you see a fair minded God, who asks us to “love one another”, to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”; all in all God seems fair. The verses above seem far from fair, God hardens some, sending them to hell with no chance at all. That does not seem like, the God who says “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. But let’s go right back to the verse about God hardening Pharoah. What does it say?
Romans 9: 22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Paul says inspired of the Holy Spirit, God “endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath”, what does he mean by that? Well,
2 Peter 3:9 says: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God is long-suffering, not willing that any perish, but that all, and I stress all, should come to repentance. If we flow this thought through the passage in Romans. It could be stated this way: “what if God wanting to show His wrath against the vessels of dishonor, had previously endured their behavior, i.e. attempted to bring them to salvation, but they had resisted it, so God gave them over to a plan that displayed His wrath”
Romans 1:20-22 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
But we have to admit from scripture that God has foreknowledge the ability to know certain events or people beforehand. But what people do not realize is you don’t need a fixed story to know certain people or events. A supercomputer can predict outcomes in a game of chess, which involves “knowing” all random choices a person can make. Using a thing called a Decision Tree, and for good reason, it predicts outcomes based upon decisions. Below you can see a Decision Tree for a simple game of Naughts and Crosses.
So how does this fit with God’s foreknowledge? Let’s say you have a dice, and roll it. It has 6 possible outcomes. If you roll it again the next time, it has the same six outcomes. If you record each outcome, maybe 5 first, then a 3, then a 2. Let’s say we wanted to record all possible outcomes that end in a 6 being rolled on the fourth try. It could be 1, 4, 3, 6 or it could be 2, 5, 1, 6. We would find there are many combinations but they all end in a 6. Let’s say 6 is our end game, it matters not what happens in between the first roll, and the last, as long as our last roll is a 6. Let’s say 6 represents the end of creation when Jesus returns, or what we have been talking about fixed points of God’s purpose. It matters not what happens in between as long as Christ returned, or our purpose is fulfilled. We can look at the numbers in between as free will choices, the freedom to have any number of outcomes does not affect our end game, as long as we force the last number to be a 6. I believe that God has set end game points in every person’s life, a point of decision, an important event, a choice event ordained by God. How we respond to these important events will determine the path for our life. Yet it is a path through what I would call a Decision Tree. This is why God could say in Genesis “I'm sorry I ever made them”. Yes God has foreknowledge, but at the point in Genesis that he “currently knew”, He was sad of the outcome. He still retained foreknowledge of all that would happen after, according to his plan and will.
