Hello Rene,

 

Glad to hear from you on this controversial subject.  Wow!  You obviously vehemently believe that humans have a free will!  In your letter you make it sound as if most people believe in predestination, but I think its just the opposite....most believe that we have a free will.  And its understandable why this is.  Human's want to believe that they have ultimate power over themselves.  The strange thing is that they want to be accountable for what they do....at least those who are Christians and make the "choice" of Salvation.  I'm sure people who end up in Hell would prefer to blame God, and people who believe in evolution would prefer to blame Mother Nature.  But believe it or not, there are a lot of intelligent Christians who believe that man ultimately does not have a truly free will. 

 

You call the "doctrine" of predestination "nonsense."  Perhaps it is nonsense to you and/or anyone who fails to realize that a belief in man's free will also requires the acceptance of blatant contradictions inherent in the free will argument.  One stipulation of the intellectual pursuit of knowledge is that the Truth cannot contain any contradictions.  The concept of man's free will contains many.

 

For those who have not comtemplated the issue, I will point these contradictions out.  One can chose to ignore the validity of these contradictions, but in doing so they are depriving themselves of access to the Truth.  And if you chose to disagree (or agree) through posting letters on this website, please do so in a scholarly manner.  Anger inspired attacks don't go over well.

 

First of all, belief in an absolue free will of man necessarily requires the nullification of God's omniscience.  God cannot be omniscient if man has a free will.  If man has a free will to make choices, then this would require that the source of those choices comes from somewhere that God has not created (since the choices are not the creation of God).  The human mind is created by God, so our choices could not come from our own minds.  Where then do our choices come from?  Where is their source?  Is there somewhere that an infinite God--who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and whose essence is present everywhere--is there somewhere that His control does not reach?  Somewhere where we, as created beings, have a power superior to God's omnipotence....where we can create our own power to make our own choices out of nothing??  The reason this would give us a power superior to God's is because even though He is omnipotent, and created everything that exists other than Himself, yet we have a power to make choices that He doesn't create. 

 

Can you see all of the contradictions going on here?  You cannot claim that God is infinite in everything--power, presence, and knowledge--and also say that man can make choices that come from a source other than the mind of God.  You can claim it,  but due to its inherent contradictions,  it cannot be considered as objective Truth. 

 

In a more practical sense, "you" make the choice to write a letter to Five Doves today.  At least you assume that its you making the choice.  But would you also admit that God knew ahead of time that "you" were going to make that choice?  Now some might argue that God foreknew that you would use your free will to make that choice.  Let's look at it this way....God knew "you" were going to make that choice before you made it, right?  Now accepting the fact that He knew what choice you were going to make before you made it, could you have possibly made any other choice than the one He knew you were going to make?  If you say "Yes," then you are saying that God is fallible.....that there is a choice you could have made that He didn't know you were going to make.  If you believe that God knows everything, then unless you wish to believe a contradiction, you must also believe that everything that happens, including our choices, HAS to happen exactly the way it does.  It can happen no other way, unless God's foreknowlege is limited. 

 

Everything that exists comes from the Mind of God.  Your choices exist.  Therefore your choices come from the Mind of God.  That it simple Logic.  Logic defies contradictions.  The Truth must neccessarily be Logical.  Predestination is Logical.  Therefore, predestination MUST be the Truth!! 

 

Please be careful what you accuse as being "nonsense" and "from the Devil."  The accusation of "using predestination as an excuse to sin" doesn't apply here.  Man has no excuse for what he does.  He does what he must do.   

 

Many reading this will think I'm nuts.  That's OK, you can go right on ahead believing that you have a free will, as impossible as that is.   Rene, you said that Predestination is a doctrine from the Devil.  Let's use Logic here again: 

 

                                                                  Anything that contains contradiction cannot be Truth.  That which is not Truth is a Lie.

                                                                  That which is a Lie is from the Devil.  The Free Will doctrine cantains contradictions.

                                                                  Therefore, the Free Will doctrine is a lie from the Devil.

 

There is much more to say on this and I will continue in my next letter.  For example, if God created everything that exists other than Himself, then He necessarily created "Evil."   *GASP*