Theological Determinism

Tony Gao
2010-10-10
“God in all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and
unchangeably ordained what so ever comes to pass.” This is a quote taken from the
Westminster catechism. This statement simply means God has preordained all that will ever occur,
thus there can be no deviation from the future's pre-set pattern, after the initial ``cause`` or creation by
God. Another argument that goes hand in hand with the first is that since God is defined as
omniscient (meaning that He knows everything past present and future) we do not have the
ability to decide our own fate. For example if God knows beforehand that you will fail a test
today, you have no choice in the matter, since in order to the pass the test you must contradict
God, which is impossible, for He is omniscient. Of course there are serious flaws in these
arguments, for God is also defined as benevolent. If God has preordained all that will come to
pass, then he must wilfully create sin or allow sin, which contradicts the fact that he is
benevolent. To put it in simpler terms, one can only sin if God wills it. Another oblivious flaw is
that the existence of God has not been proven, which would destroy all of my previously said
statements. But if one assumes that God does indeed exist then we are not free because for a
man to be truly free, he must be also be free from God.