One of my protestant friends says that the names of the chosen ones are already in the Book of Life and no matter what those names will not be erased because God already knows how these persons are going to live. Things happened because God allows them, even bad things. For me this kind of thought is quite similar to the ancient Greeks beliefs, no matter what you do, your destiny is waiting for you.
I believe God let us choose our own destiny; our actions will lead us to Heaven or hell. Of course He can intervene if He wants to, but I believe generally He just let us proceed on this world in the way we want to, until the day we die. In the other hand, there are several religious that believe God does not interfere at all with this world, I don’t think this is right either, I guess He interacts with us everyday but no choosing for us. I would like to know what is the position of our Church about this?
PS. Sorry for my bad English, I’m still learning it!
God bless you, Eduardo.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a problem with this issue. In large part my concern stems from the fact my own father turned up in my bedroom the night he died. He started with an apology (yawn - I’ve told this so many times its boring), we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this terrifying scream and promptly disappeared.
I think he’s in hell.
However at one stage in the “discussion” he cried out, “I always was doomed! I didn’t really have any choice!” I answered back (despite the fact I wa an atheist in those days) “That can’t be right!” He replied, “Oh, it’s right, all right. You can see that from here”.
However later in the same “discussion”, he said, “I was WILLING!” (to act in the cruel, stupid, vindictive, bad-tempered way that got him condemned in the first place - I’d say very willing actually).
So he may have been “doomed” - was Judas foredestined for example, since Christ indicated that a man “must be lost”?
I’ll give another little story which indicates that to me God can very, very subtly maneouvre around our choices. My father died in a suburb called Nundah. Sometime in 2005, I was driving a cab part time at night (and getting sick of the drunks too). One night I just happened to be in Nundah, and this brought back to mind the issue of my father’s apparition.
So I prayed for a “sign” that there was truth in what he said, and it wasn’t just a deception.
I got back this sense I ought to know better than ask for a sign, but I persevered anyway.
Later than same night, I queued up on my usual cab rank in the city. Eventually a bloke hopped in, a bit the worse for wear, and just said, “Nundah!” I asked him whereabouts in Nundah, and he just told me to drive, and he’d tell me where to go. So off we went.
We ended up directly opposite the very same unit where my father died. Same night I’d asked for the “sign”.
As far as I’m concerned I got my “sign”. But bear in mind that all night I’d had free will where I drove, customers had free will when and where they wanted to go, other cab drivers had free will; traffic lights modified my transit times, I may or may not have had a toilet break or three, other road users had some effect, and the bloke I picked up had to make a specific choice at a specific time so that I was the specific cab driver who picked him up, and who literally guided me right back to where my father died.
Don’t ask me how God did it, but somehow despite all our “free” choices, He still gave me the “sign”.
Don’t ask me. I simply do not understand it. We’re left with God’s statement to Isaiah (and he was no slouch either, being the equivalent of today’s Chancellor of the Exchequer) -
Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Thus this would make HIm dependent on you for knowledge.