After Hundreds of Years, Still This?

I saw every pastor’s nightmare last night: congregational anarchy.

The question was posed, as it somehow always is, about the predestined/free-will aspect of Exodus 7 (could Pharaoh choose to be hardened? or is he an automaton, a will-less pawn of God). Pastors love to make their congregates think, to get mad, to boil in their seats wanting to shout out their stance on this issue that is one of the most divisive in Christendom. But this time, the pastor opened up the floor to the young adults gathered for worship, and the spirits of Calvin and Arminius possessed people as the questioned turned into an anarchy of bickering.

The crescendo of battling theologies was reined in eventually, but lines had been drawn amongst the group—for the first time out in the open of our collective theological distinctions were not discussed but argued—and we looked an awful lot like an ecumenical council debating the teachings of Origen.

After hundreds of years, we are still left with this bickering over something that masquerades as Calvinism versus Arminianism, Open Theism versus Omniscience, Free Will versus Automaton—and all we are left with is a lawn drawn in the sand, except this time we start throwing rocks instead of dropping them and walking away.

Whenever we are confronted with something as mind bending as these questions, the question itself must be questioned. First off, why do we care about predestination or free-will?

An integral part of this discussion is the backdrop of the Enlightenment and Reformation and the influence of individualism on the masses. Just two generations divide the writings of Calvin, Arminius and Descartes, and the overall philosophy of the Enlightenment focuses on the individual, as due both the theologies of Calvin and Arminius.

The movement away from this question, in the vein of Barth or Frei, is to question the foundation of these polemics and return to the ancient creedal positions then start over and rethink (the basic premise of post-(whatever) theologies).

The Apostles Creed makes no distinction between the events it outlines, only referencing them as past, current, and future happenings. The Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed do not outline any line of individual sovereignty either (for that is the question of Calvin and Arminius: how sovereign is the individual?)

The Athanasian Creed does echo the Apostle Paul well, and reorients us toward a better question: not how sovereign is the individual but how sovereign is God?

The Ancient Fathers declared:

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible….So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.

Paul spoke less ornately and more forcefully to the same point:

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ”I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ”For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, ”Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? (Romans 9)

It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God—our individuality is pointless when we are alive, when we are in the Body of Christ, when we love our neighbor as ourself and act the part of the selfless servant as Christ himself did for us. In Philippians Paul speaks of Christ not wanting to hold onto his divinity, but pouring himself out, he saved the whole cosmos. There is so much more to the story once the individual is removed, once the self-centeredness of Western civilization disappears and the freedom of the servant shines through, basking in the light of God’s sovereignty. Ask yourself not about your own sovereignty, but about God’s sovereignty. And knowing the peace that passes all understanding, rejoice in the Trinity, for the ancient creed says, ”And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.”