How God deals with us as regards where we will spend Eternity.
Here is an area that is indeed difficult to understand and draw conclusions about. It is not spelled out in direct statements in the Bible. It is only to be seen through the study of several other Biblical areas.
But it is an important area in that it speaks of how God deals with us. It weighs heavily into the areas of God’s mercy and justice. So in how we see it impacts how we see God and each other.
Some have concluded that we have no choice. That freewill means no more than accepting the roles God has created us to fulfill. They believe in total predestination.
The problem with this thinking is the Bible does declare we have freewill. There were freewill offerings in the Old Testament. There were those God gave options to, as in Abraham with his son Isaac. And they made their choices. In the New Testament, Paul speaks of freewill seeking of God. He talks about his desire not to sin in the spirit but the failures to succeed in the flesh.
And the biggest problem is that God says he wants none to perish in Hell. He wants all to be saved and with him for Eternity. Yet in this doctrinal thinking God deliberately creates many to go to Hell. Not their choice they go but his. And that makes God a liar and a hypocrite by saying one thing and doing another.
Others have concluded we have total freewill. They say we can be saved one day and lost the next by changing our minds. They say we can one day decide to be obedient to God and then say forget it, sin is more fun or something like that.
The problem is that if this were true then those in Hell would some day be able to repent. The fallen angels could one day repent as well. After all, they have total freewill. Plus the Bible says once saved nothing but nothing in all of creation can take away that salvation and that God predestines us all the way to glorification.
Further, the Bible says that those who go to Hell will enter the Lake of Fire and spend Eternity there. Their sins are eternal and their punishments are also eternal. In reading such as Lazarus and the Rich Man you see the Rich Man asking that his family be persuaded to turn to God. But you see no repentance from him.
Some would argue this means he simply knew it was futile to do so and was accepting his fate. But that stands in direct contradiction to the Bible. God is full of mercy and wants none lost. Christ died on the cross so all could live. God in his justice would not bar a repentant sinner from coming to him. And no where in the Bible does it say at death the door to mercy and God is slammed shut and all options to change are gone.
Plus, regarding both the total predestination and the total freewill positions, God tells us in Romans that he foreknows who will love in him freewill and then predestines them all the way to glorification. Clearly both freewill and predestination play a role in our lives.
So do we start in freewill and then loose it when we accept God or reject him all the way to death? No, he knows who would accept him if given a chance and predestines them to not only get that chance and to succeed. Plus it is not success in total until glorified.
Further, contrary to what many believe the Bible makes it clear that every person who has lived on the earth has been allowed the option of coming to God in salvation. Be it through Conscience, Law, or Gospel all have had the opportunity to be saved. None will be able to stand before Christ and say they were not given a chance for there will be those of equal opportunity who were saved. Where the Law or Gospel could not reach Conscience always could reach.
So what is the answer? How can predestination, freewill, mercy, justice, eternal punishment, no more angels falling and all the rest be harmonized? How does it all make sense while not violating any of the many statements on these related issues in the Bible?
The answer is to look how God created all beings with spirits having freewill choice. He made them in his image. So God’s nature is the answer here.
We are told God is unchanging in his will, purposes, and all the rest. But we are born changeable so not really in keeping with that aspect of being created in his image. Is that a contradiction or something else? It is something else.
God has freewill but will not violate his sense of justice, mercy, and so on he has committed to. And he wants our freely given love and robots following programming cannot give true love.
So to be in God’s image our choice to love and obey him must be done in freewill. We must have the ability to reject as well as accept. So God did not and could not create us with our eternal decisions in place as his are. He had to create us in a condition that would give us both options.
But being in his image once that eternal decision is made we lock ourselves into it and will never change. Once solidly on one path or the other we will only continue to journey down it. There is no turning back because it is not in our natures to do so because we are created in the image of God’s nature on such issues and decisions.
So, those condemned to Hell have made their eternal choice. They will never divert from it. They will never bow their will to God. They have no choice but to submit to God as a conquered nation submits to the conquering king. But that never means they submit their will to the conquering king and will rebel and over throw him the first chance given.
For those who have trouble accepting this concept look at a historical reality. Satan was the most powerful and beautiful angel ever created. He was with God at his throne. He and the third of the angels that fell saw the earth created in a perfect condition. They knew God created them and everything that existed. And they still rebelled.
That is the power of this decision. And in reading you see exactly what the options are we choose between. They are nothing more than serving God and his will and ways or serving oneself and one’s own will and desires. It is just that simple.
All beings that have freewill choice knowing good from evil choose to serve either themselves or God. And they will never deviate from that choice no matter what they know, see, or experience once that choice is made. And that is exactly in keeping with being created in the image of God on this issue.
