Fact or Crap: Does Destiny Control our Fate?
Rev. Christina M. Neilson
March 22, 2009
Sometimes it’s difficult to sort out the truth from lies. Despite popular belief, Tarzan never said "Me Tarzan You Jane," Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam," and Sergeant Friday never said "Just the facts, Ma'am." It's all true, honest!” Sometimes urban legend takes on a life of its own. What is fact, and what it just, well crap!
The fact is that Calvin was a tortured man. This 16th century renaissance humanist created the foundation of the reformed church as he debated the merits of predestination, the elect, reprobation, justification and original sin. To his credit, he wrestled endlessly with his theological positions, ruminated over his ideas. On the one hand, he loved the debates with Francis David, admired him, wanted to be like him, agreed with him, and on the other hand he was tied to his conservative theology that became definitive.
He says in his early writings called the institutes:
"Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which He has determined in Himself, what He would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some and eternal death for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say he is predestinated either to life or to death,” Calvin could not bring himself to condemn David to death, as he really admired the man, but he did let him rot in prison.
Does God intervene in our lives? Fate is credited and blamed for all kinds of events. Does fate control everything? Or as Nellie put it when we discussed this sermon that she purchased at the service auction last year, “Are we merely pawns in the circle of events that put us in that situation? Is it our destiny? Or is it our decision?”
I’ve never been a Doris Day, “Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, the futures not ours to see, Que, sera, sera” kind of person. The idea of fate does not make me feel at all hopeful. The definition Nellie looked up says fate is “the supposed force, principle or power that predetermines events. The inevitable events predestined in the force, or a final result or consequence. An unfavorable destiny, doom.” It may be completely delusional for me not to believe in fate, but I just can’t put my energy into that negative space. Nor can sit back and passively wait for things to happen to me because it’s “God’s will.” Fact or Crap? I say crap.
If I were to follow my destiny I should have married a farmer. I would have a boy and a girl and perhaps a few spare kids. We would live with my extended family on my in-laws homestead in the "big house". My husband would tend to the farm business, and I would raise chickens, kids, baby animals and vegetables. We would go to church on Sundays and have dinner at my parent’s home at noon.
Somewhere deep, I knew this would never happen. Perhaps it was the freedom I felt when I learned how to read. I learned of other lifestyles, other places, other people, other options. I learned that not all lifestyles are scripted, that we have choices.
Perhaps it was the desperation I felt to leave this isolated setting. Domestic abuse, alcoholism thrived, while opportunities for young people lagged. I left behind fundamentalist religious beliefs.
Perhaps it was the love of creativity that moved me. My passion for music, theatre, art and philosophy. My endless hours spent in search of the true meaning of life.
Perhaps it was the pain of losing my first child. People said I was the lucky one. I was relieved of having to raise a child as a single, very young parent on welfare. God provided the miracle, the solution to my "problem." My relationship with the farmer was over. I could have married the farmer, but it would have premeditated my death. (Death of my soul.) He could not support me through the loss. I could not be what he needed. My scripted life was through. I didn’t need any more miracles, or divine intervention. If God predetermined the death of my child, he has a vicious will. I decided to take my “fate” into my own hands. And though I did not believe that God imposed his will and took my child, I definitely did feel the presence of God during this experience. And the absolute presence of my community, friends and family as well.
Bishop Spong answers a question of a reader who asks him whether God intervenes in our lives, he responded, “I am suspicious of most claims but I would never say that God was limited by my knowledge. The theological problem comes when those who support intervention have to explain why God did not intervene to end slavery, to stop the Holocaust, to divert a tsunami or a hurricane. It is not easy or accurate to be theologically simplistic.”
Why do people want to answer complex questions, like why did this happen, with simplistic answers like, It’s Gods will.” Have they never known the pain of losing a dearly loved one? Have they never had to really search their heart for their role in situation that felt uncontrollable? Are we so overwhelmed by sin, evil, that we have to attribute it to influences beyond our control?
Belief systems can become cultural habit. Someone asks us how we are doing; we say fine, even though a car may have just hit the dog, you got a flat tire on the way to church. At my home church, it was not an uncommon greeting for one to say, have a good day, and the response would be “God Willing.” It was automatic; God’s will being an accepted and unquestioned norm.
It’s not such a stretch to accept that it may be God’s will that good things happen to us. Many people believe in a loving God, and that we would be given salvation and grace.
Perhaps it is too strong to say that these doctrines are “crap”, but stay with me as I talk about them, which may be confusing because they are based on what Universalists consider to be a faulty premise: that we are born into original sin. We have always believed in the inherent worth and dignity of a person, untainted by original sin.
The Calvinist Reformers were unwilling to acknowledge that any part of our salvation depends upon something in us. This is due to their concept of the seriousness of sin. Suppose God required our free consent. In order to give that consent, some part of our will has to be free from the effects of sin. Since we are born in original sin, we are never free from sin.
Calvin points out that God carries out his plan differently when dealing with people who have faith in him and those who do not. Everyone ends up acting in accordance with his plans. But with those who have faith, there is a conscious collaboration. The belief is that Holy Spirit works with them in the way God intends. The “ungodly,” those who don’t have faith, don’t cooperate with God. They still do his will, but they do it because he has set up the situation so that they end up doing what he wants.
The Calvinists believe that God pre-selected those who would go to heaven, and those that would go to hell. Once saved you are always saved. (Double predestination) God has foreknowledge of all human actions, and knows those who are hardened by sin (reprobate) and who are not.
The doctrine of single predestination has the same effect but teaches slightly differently. God is supposed to have predestined only the elect to be saved. The rest are lost, not because God decreed that they should be but because He did not say that they should be saved. Lutherans believe that the elect (Christians) are predestined to salvation. They believe that it is Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection is the reason for election, not predestination itself. Unlike Calvinists, Lutherans do not believe in predestination to damnation. Instead, Lutherans teach eternal damnation is a result of the unbeliever's sins, rejection of the forgiveness of sins, and unbelief. They believe that no amount of works, either positive or negative, can ever separate us from God. The only thing that can keep you from the elect is if you don’t accept Jesus as your savior, therefore evangelizing is a moral imperative of the faith. Our free will determines if we choose to follow Jesus.
Biblical support of predestination is found in Romans, where it says,
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. This is actually one of my favorite passages, but I interpret this to mean that our life has meaning and purpose when we are in touch with our inner calling, not that a certain few are predestined to God’s purpose for us.
Universalism rejected predetermination. Universalists felt that a loving God would not condemn anyone to an eternity in Hell, and believe that salvation would be universal - available to all. Some of the Universalists believed that they might spend a portion of time in hell, others that there was not hell at all, but they all agreed that God would not ETERNALLY dam anyone, no matter how sinful their nature. We are not born into original sin; therefore there is nothing to be saved from except our own consciously chosen actions, for which we accept the consequences in this life. It is a theology sufficient for the day.
If everything were pre-ordained, what motivation would anyone have to do good works? If nothing that we do or say affects the ultimate outcome, what keeps us from despair? Isn’t free will necessary for our well being?
We are handed a “lot in Life”, but it doesn’t have to be our destiny. It is just a script that we are likely to follow. But knowing our limitations empowers us to move beyond them. I wanted to travel, to get a college degree, experience the world. Not something that most people I grew up with wanted. But knowing my parents couldn’t afford college, only made me determined to save for it. Knowledge of our situation allows us to make choices, choices that allow us to move beyond the conditioned responses we are accustomed to.
No matter what our lot in life brings us, we are only able to determine our own choices. We may influence and be influenced by others, but our control is limited to a very narrow range. When the will of the people overwhelm the will of the individual, it may feel destined, but it’s really just a matter of being outnumbered.
As I researched the variances in the theology of pre-destination, I came to believe that I don’t believe in pre-destination, either to go to heaven or hell. I don’t believe that there is an “elect” that God favors, or that our destiny is determined before we even exist. I don’t believe that God has any plan for us one way or anther, only that we are born into certain circumstances that are beyond our control, and we have to learn how to deal with them to the extent that we are able. I can’t choose to be born, I had no role in how much money my parents made, the place of my birth, or my genetic make-up. But I could choose to eat the food that was offered, or not. I could move away from my place of birth, as I grew older, I could choose to work and save money to allow for greater choices in our life. Each choice, each experience that I gained, allowed for a broader application of my free will.
Not only do I believe that God has no plan for me, or for you, but that God has no plan for God. This is called the anti-pre-destinarian position. God is not fixed, but is ever progressing, becoming something new, or discovering something new about Himself with each new moment, just as we are. It's as though God is waking up to the possibilities that are inherent in our everyday acts, and like an artist developing his ideas in dynamic interaction with an ever-changing medium, He is making new discoveries about himself every day. The past is what God has thus far become in the process of all experience, and the future is pure possibility.
Examples of Biblical passages which support free will: Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,"
We don’t have control over every aspect of life, but we do have the capacity to shape our lives in the way that we feel called. We will inevitably meet up against resistance, greed, selfishness, and sin, but we can negotiate our way through and around these obstacles, rather than fall into hopelessness or despair about a plan for our destiny that we did not choose. Each experience, each decision, each moment shapes and molds us into the fabulous miracle of evolution that we each are. May you awaken to your possibilities, and embrace this amazing you.