Positive Predestination and Logic
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 11:44 pm
During my recent trip to the village, some Lutheran missionaries who live down the road from us invited us over for dinner. There were four of us from the construction crew that was building our house, and we were each sharing about our denominational backgrounds. I mentioned that I was Assemblies of God in name but that I identified more with Anabaptists. Eventually we got into a discussion and the topic of predestination came up. Lutherans believe in 'positive predestination', which they summarize with the rather crude statement: "If you go to heaven, it is through no effort of your own. If you go to hell, it is your own d*mn fault." This makes absolutely no sense to me. At least the Calvinist interpretation of so-called 'double predestination' is intellectually cohesive because it states that God arbitrarily predestines some for heaven and some for hell, but to suggest that it is my own fault that God didn't predestine me for heaven seems completely illogical, and my Lutheran friend admitted that it is not something that can be comprehended by the human mind.
While I believe that there are things that are mysteries to us as human beings that we will not know this side of heaven (and maybe not on the other side either), should we draw the line at things that are decidedly illogical or contradictory? For example, if God predestines some for heaven and they can't go to heaven through any work of their own, logically those whom God does not predestine for heaven are predestined to hell. So how can we say it is their own fault?
I bring this up to ask the larger question of the role that logic should play in informing our faith. For example, I am comfortable saying something like: "I can accept that A+B=4 but I just don't know what A and B equal. That is a mystery to me." But I am not comfortable with saying something like: "I am willing to accept that 2+3=4 even though I know logically that it equals 5."
Where do we draw the line between things that are mysteries and paradoxes and things that are logically inconsistent and contradictory? I know most who hold to Reformation theology would say that our logic and reasoning is also fallen and unreliable, but is there a role for logic and reasoning in our faith to avoid the pitfalls of obvious contradictions and inconsistencies?
While I believe that there are things that are mysteries to us as human beings that we will not know this side of heaven (and maybe not on the other side either), should we draw the line at things that are decidedly illogical or contradictory? For example, if God predestines some for heaven and they can't go to heaven through any work of their own, logically those whom God does not predestine for heaven are predestined to hell. So how can we say it is their own fault?
I bring this up to ask the larger question of the role that logic should play in informing our faith. For example, I am comfortable saying something like: "I can accept that A+B=4 but I just don't know what A and B equal. That is a mystery to me." But I am not comfortable with saying something like: "I am willing to accept that 2+3=4 even though I know logically that it equals 5."
Where do we draw the line between things that are mysteries and paradoxes and things that are logically inconsistent and contradictory? I know most who hold to Reformation theology would say that our logic and reasoning is also fallen and unreliable, but is there a role for logic and reasoning in our faith to avoid the pitfalls of obvious contradictions and inconsistencies?