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To harmonise free will and fore­knowledge, we need to reflect onthe limits of free will. Some things are not within our power. Social and polit­ical constraints may further limit the choices open to us. The choice of Germans to follow Hitler plung­ed Europe into a war that severely limited what our fathers could do: if called up, they could obey or face the consequences of disobedience.

Even among the real choices open to us, in the end we make the choice we want. We may be affected by bio­logical influences, subliminal ad­vertising, the pressure of family and friends, but, when all is said and done, we make a choice, and it is constrained by what we want at any one time. It is not really free in the philosophical sense, since it is the sum total of who we are, our bio­logical and physical make-up, our history, our environment, etc.

Now think of the old couple who over years of marriage have got to know each other’s likes and dislikes, whims and the like. So well do they know their partner’s psychology that they instinctively know how the other will react as a situation arises. If it is possible for a human to know us this well, so much more God.

God knows everyone throughout history. He knows all the causes and consequences that will ever be. But God is not merely an observer, but influences history by influencing men as his instruments. Our Re­formers saw God taking the initia­tive, dropping ideas into our minds: “the goodness of God . . . inspired man’s understanding.”

It was not man’s “own wit [that invented] so many diverse devices in all crafts and sciences, except the goodness of Almighty God had been present with men, and [even in un­believers] had stirred their wits and studies . . .” (Homily on Rogation Week).

He does this non-coercively — mainly in ways similar to those in which people and events inform and influence our decisions. God has revealed his will, and we can co-operate or rebel; either way, we must accept responsibility. Even if God influences us and knows us well enough to know what we will do, and even if our evil helps for­ward his plans, we remain morally responsible.

He is pictured as a father who re­wards and chastises, a shepherd of his people, guiding us by reason, revelation, by those he sends as messengers, and even by the rare supernatural intervention. All these influences, together with the natural outcome of what would happen anyway, create his Providence, in which we play our part willingly.

God shepherds together all causes, including the exercise of our free­dom, knowing the future. Our prayers are included. If he answers or acts in response, it is all already taken into account.

Predestination to life happens in the context that all men start in rebellion against God, falling short of God’s standard, and are guilty. He provides a way of escape: he sends a Saviour and makes salvation con­ditional on receiving him. Jesus remarkably tells us (Luke 16.29) that those who reject Moses and the prophets will still not believe even if one rose from the dead.

So, first, God must cause us to believe: only then will we turn to him and behave differently. But who, really believing in the Living God, his power and revelation, would perversely continue in rebel­lion? Once we believe, obedience is the rational, sane choice to make; and, if we value our future com­forts, it is the one most will make. But wrong attitudes and habits are internalised, and in a real way we struggle against our old selves once, guided by God, we choose to turn ourselves around.

So predestination to life is the subtle work of God within us, causing us to will his will, to believe, be sanctified, and be saved. But what if God passes over us and we never believe, never repent? Is God to be faulted because we carry on in sin and unbelief? Is God to be faulted if, on the great Day of Judge­ment, he acquits all whom he has chosen and who have conformed to the image of his Son, and condemns those who, through their own con­tinuing in sin, have justified their condemnation?

God has given us one life, one probation with two alternatives, and our choices make us the authors of our own destiny. God, realising this would be the destiny of all our fallen race, has to intervene gently if he is to save some. He makes the gospel possible by sending his son, and then causes some to repent and believe — this is predestination to life eternal. None need despair, as God only so actively intervenes to save. None are without hope; for, while they live, there is still time for the gracious God of love to inter­vene and rescue even them.

Alan Bartley
Greenford, Middlesex

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