In Norman Geisler’s book Chosen But Free, he attempts to tackle what is arguably the most talked about issue in Christian circles. The topic of predestination and free will are constantly discuss in Christian groups and people have different opinions. I believe that this is foolish. I know for certain that I am a Christian and will spend eternity in Heaven, to waste time arguing whether God predestined me is pointless and a waste of time. We, as Christian people, should not be so consumed with wanting to know if God appointed us one of His chosen people or if we came to it out of our own free will. All that should matter to us is that we know He is in our life and we should desire to share the love we feel from him with as many people as we can. The truth is we can never know for certain one way or the other so we should share with all people since we cannot possibly know if they were “chosen.” Having said that, I agree with some of the points Geisler makes in his book. God is all knowing and is everywhere ultimately He knows who is going to choose Him and receive eternal life but we have the free will to get to that conclusion on are own. It is the same with any other aspect of our life. For example, God knows who we will marry from the day we were born, but it is up to us to determine that at the right time. Same with salvation, he knows the exact moment we will be saved when were born but we direct our journey to discovering that salvation. I believe that God has the foreknowledge of everything that is going to happen to us during our lifetime. I do not however believe that all events in our lives are fixed. Things can change depending on the path that we choose to take. I think of it as there are many roads and God knows where all roads will eventually lead but we have the free will to choose which one of the roads we will take. I do not like how Geisler calls Christians the “elect.” I do not believe that God chooses certain people to believe in Him thereby destining all others to an eternity in hell. If that were the case why would God command us to go out and make disciples in scripture? If all Christians were elected all missionaries are pointless and no Christian should need to witness at all. God commands Christians to be witnesses. If this theory were true God’s command is pointless and we would have to negate a portion of the scripture. And if you do that who is to say that other commands God has given us could also be ignored? It just doesn’t make any sense. I also agree that God cannot possibly be responsible for our sin. He is incapable of associating with evil. He is responsible to no one but Himself and therefore is always in obedience making sin for him nonexistent.
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