Five Theses On Predestination

A few points, some of them which will be necessarily polemical, en vrac:

1. We’ll never understand predestination (or lack thereof). If one subject begs for a healthy humility with regard to the divine mysteries, this is the one. Men are totally embedded within time, and only experience it as a forward arrow. God transcends time. It is simply impossible for us to understand what is going on. This, not laziness, is why this post is so brief.

2. If men are not ontologically free to choose or refuse God, nothing makes sense. Certainly not the Biblical narrative, from Genesis to Revelation. Certainly not sin and suffering. And certainly not the Cross. What is the point of any of it?

3. Trying to mine Paul for answers to debates framed in philosophical terms from several centuries after he lived seems inherently absurd.

4. I really enjoyed this post by Rob Bell. (Yes.)

5. Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.