Predestination and Free Will - Part 8
Middle Knowledge and Ultimate Ends
As we wind down our look at middle knowledge as an
alternative to the predestination/free will problem, we've been
discussing some of the unique explanatory benefits of holding
the middle knowledge position. (For you who have just joined us
or missed any of our previous discussions, you may read them
online at http://www.comereason.org/newsletters/.)
This month, I'd like to explore how middle knowledge answers
an objection we hear quite often: why would a loving God create
people only to damn them to hell?
God's Will For Salvation
Christianity teaches that God is all powerful, all knowing,
and all loving. However, it also teaches that salvation is
exclusively through Jesus - and God "is not wishing for any
to perish, but for all to come to repentance"(2 Pet. 3:9).
If God has all knowledge (including middle knowledge as we
claim), He would know that actualizing our world will result in
many souls being lost. Why would He create such a world?
Wouldn't He look through all possible worlds He could have
created and chosen to create one where everyone is saved?
I have argued elsewhere that hell is a logical result of a
person choosing not to follow Christ (see http://www.comereason.org/exst_god/exs020.asp
) So, the assertion shouldn't be stated "why does God send
anyone to hell", but rather "why wouldn't God create a
world where all people choose Him and are saved".
Now, we know that God created us with the freedom to choose
His ways or our own ways(1). People
are condemned to hell because they reject the righteous ways of God
and seek their own pleasures (ref: Rom. 3:12, Matt:7:14).
William Lane Craig asserts this when he writes, "People who
are damned are so because they willingly reject God's grace and
ignore the solicitation of His Spirit."(2)
Logical Limitations of God
The assertion above, though, assumes that there could exist
such a world where everyone is saved and that world would suit
God's purposes. This isn't necessarily so.
God is omnipotent (all powerful), but it is well recognized
that omnipotence does not include performing that which is
logically contradictory. In other words, to ask if God can make
a rock so big that He can't lift it is nonsense. It's not a lack
of omnipotence.
Similarly, it may not be logically possible for God to create
a world where a significant number of people exist, all people
are given freedom of choice, and all people choose to be saved.
Dr. Craig writes "For God's ability to actualize worlds
containing free creatures will be limited by which
counterfactuals of creaturely freedom are true in the moment
logically prior to the divine decree."(3)
Since truly free people have the ability to reject God, there
may be no possible world where everyone freely accepts Christ's
atonement. If that is true, then it is illogical to demand that God
make such a world that can't exist.
Choosing Between Possible Worlds
But, even if some world is possible where everyone chooses
salvation, it is also possible that the total number of
individuals is so small that an all-loving God would choose to
create another. Craig continues, "Suppose that the only
worlds feasible for God in which all persons receive Christ and
are saved are worlds containing only a handful of persons. Is it
not at least possible that such a world is less preferable to
God than a world in which great multitudes come to experience
His salvation and a few are damned because they freely reject
Christ? Not only does this seem to me possibly true, but I think
that it probably is true. Why should the joy and blessedness of
those who would receive God's grace and love be prevented on
account of those who would freely spurn it? An omnibenevolent
God might want as many creatures as possible to share salvation;
but given certain true counterfactuals of creaturely freedom,
God, in order to have a multitude in heaven, might have to
accept a number in hell."(4)
Here Craig shows how it is not contradictory to believe that
an all-loving and all powerful God could create a world where
many people are not saved. As Craig points out, it is entirely
possible that God would want to bestow His grace to as many as
possible - not merely a handful. It is not out of the realm of
possibility that certain free persons exist who - no matter what
the circumstance - would simply never choose to follow Christ.
God, Salvation, And This World
Craig argues what God has done is bring into reality a
world that maximizes the number of people who are saved while
minimizing the number of people who are lost. He states "it
is possible that God wants to maximize the number of the saved:
He wants heaven to be as full as possible. Moreover, as a loving
God, He wants to minimize the number of the lost: He wants hell
to be as empty as possible. His goal, then, is to achieve an
optimal balance between these, to create no more lost than is
necessary to achieve a certain number of the saved. But it is
possible that the balance between the saved and lost in the
actual world is such an optimal balance.
"...It is possible that the terrible price of filling
heaven is also filling hell and that any other possible world
which was feasible for God the balance between saved and lost
would be worse."(5)
Ultimate Ends
So, it is possible that if God were to create any world at
all, the one in which we live contains an optimum balance
between the saved and lost. An objector may counter "then
God shouldn't have created anyone at all". However, this
ignores the fact that people do choose their actions. It isn't
reasonable to say that some shouldn't enjoy eternal life with
God because others will willingly choose to rebel against Him.
God is not responsible for those individuals rebelling, even if
He knew they would before they were ever created.
I hope this discussion has been enlightening. Next time,
we'll look at the objections to the middle knowledge position -
and we'll see if they can be answered successfully. Let me know
if you have any questions by writing me at newsletter@comereason.org.
Until then, God bless.
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