Well, let’s talk about predestination/Calvinism.
While it is known that God has predestined some events, I’m talking about pure predestination (people chosen to go to heaven or hell). What’s your opinion? Maybe a discussion on this can flourish.
I’ve flogged this one to death on this forum but on the night my father died he appeared in my room. He started with an apology for his years of cruelty (summed up by himself literaly as “I’ve been an absolute mongrel to you!”), we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this almighty, terrifying scream and then disappeared.
I think it was him, and I believe he’s in hell.
However during the discussion he once blurted out, “I always was doomed! I didn’t really have any choice!” I argued back, saying that couldn’t be right (incidentally I was an atheist at the time - this was 1979). He replied, “Oh, it’s right, all right. You can see that from here!”
But later he also admitted, “I was WILLING” (to do the things that damned him).
When I spoke about this to my old pastor, his comment was “I think he was willing. In fact, I’d say he was very willing”.
So predestination may well operate, but so does our choice.
As an anecdote, he died in Nundah, which is a suburb of Brisbane. At the time I was living in Yeronga, another suburb.
Sometime around 2005/6 I was driving a cab a couple of nights a week. One night I happened to be in Nundah, and this brought to mind the above episode. Since there is some frustration associated with this, I prayed that if what happened that night was real, could I please have some sort of “sign” or confirmation. I got this sense I ought to know better than ask, but I did so.
Later that same night I was sitting on the Queen Street rank, when a bloke came up, weaving slightly from too much alcohol, hopped in and said, “Nundah!” I asked him where, and he said, “Just drive. I’ll tell you where to go.”
Off we went. I followed his instructions and ended up at the house directly opposite the unit where my father died. I even mentioned it to him, but I don’t think he found it edifying.
But that was the very same night I asked for a “Sign”. And I got it.
Now I had free will where I drove that night, every other cabbie and passenger who used the Queen Street rank that night used their own free will, and the bloke who wanted to go to the house directly opposite my father’s death unit also had free will. Yet somehow God managed to get it all to line up.
Free will? Predestination? Sheer co-incidence? You tell me, and we’ll both know.
