Little Red Book Ministry

I. Man Was Created With Free Will
“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken” (Genesis 3:22–23).

Man was given the right and the responsibility to make moral choices. Adam made a very poor choice which has affected the whole creation. The price for sin is eternal damnation, but God has graciously devised a plan whereby we might be redeemed back to Him through the shed blood of Jesus Christ who became our Savior. Many theologians have attempted to prove that man does not in fact have free will. They argue that God has chosen from the beginning who He will redeem and who He will not redeem. This comes from a few verses that seem to indicate “foreordination” or “predestination”(see for instance John 15:16; Ephesians 1:3–5, 10–11). There are a number of verses, however, that indicate that God had “fore-knowledge” of who would accept salvation and who would not (Romans 8:29–30; 1 Peter 1:1–2). In the face of the vast number of verses that indicate free will, it is most logical to presume that the few verses in disputeactually refer to the foreknowledge of God rather than to predestination.

The position taken by those who believe in predestination also fails in an examination based on simple logic. If God has already chosen who will be saved and who will not, there is no reason for us to carry out the great commission of going into all the world to preach the gospel. The elect persons will be saved regardless of our actions. Thus, much scripture is negated or at least trivialized. Also, the whole process of going through this life becomes a shameful sham. In such a case, a just God would simply bring to life his chosen people and prevent the unchosen from coming into existence. Why should He create masses of hopeless victims? Predestination is a hopeless, futile position.