Unka Glen

thewatersareclear asked: Hi Unka Glen! I have a question about predestination; I’ve been finding it a really confusing topic. I believe that God has had our entire lives planned out, and He already determined everything that we would do. Even though we are given choices, He knows exactly what we’ll do, meaning that God knows whether we went to heaven or hell. If God already knows this, what is the point of Judgement after we die? If God already knows everything we’ll do, what’s the point of letting us do it? Thanks!

Unka Glen answered: When you have theological questions like this, I recommend you do exactly what I do. I take a small hand towel, Run it under the faucet and get it soaked with cool water, then I lay down and press that cool towel to my forehead and wait for it to pass. 

There is a great deal about God and the workings of both the spirit world and the physical world that we don’t understand, and I suspect, we can’t understand. To illustrate my point, try and explain how you car works to your dog. He might humor you because there may be a car ride involved, but otherwise, if he’s going to be honest, it’s all a bit over his head.

Oh sure, there’s lots of people who use fancy words, and who are real academics, and who act like they have all the answers on this stuff, and if there’s any group I’m CERTAIN that doesn’t know what’s up, it’s them. You learn about Christianity by living it out, not by living with your nose in a book. I’ve learned more about God by being on the ground in my mission field, than I ever could have learned in an academic setting.

Speaking of my mission field, only once did I ever have one of the ex-cons I work with ask me about predestination (he, of course, got the term from white suburban Christians, who were trying to “help” him understand the faith). And when he asked me about predestination, I said, “I dunno, what do you think?”

He said: “I rented a DVD last night, and it had several ‘alternate endings’ you could watch, so I think predestination is like that, God knows all the possible endings, but it’s up to me to choose the one I want, even though, as I’ve learned, all of the alternate endings I’ve chosen in my life were just dead ends that brought me back to that same place, to choose God, or do things my own way again.”

That’s still the smartest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say on the subject of predestination. 

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know this: God is giving you a choice, to accept a free gift of eternal life in Paradise, and to be in relationship with Him, starting now. And how you respond to that offer will make all the difference in the world. Everything else is something a theologian made up so he wouldn’t have to go out and feed the poor, or house the homeless, or make disciples.