MUCH misunderstanding arises through confusing
the Christian Doctrine of Predestination with the heathen doctrine of
Fatalism. There is, in reality, only one point of agreement between the two,
which is, that both assume the absolute certainty of all future events. The
essential difference between them is that Fatalism has no place for a personal
God. Predestination holds that events come to pass because an infinitely wise,
powerful, and holy God has so appointed them. Fatalism holds that all events
come to pass through the working of a blind, unintelligent, impersonal,
non-moral force which cannot be distinguished from physical necessity, and
which carries us helplessly within its grasp as mighty river carries a piece
of wood.
Predestination teaches that from
eternity God has had one unified plan or purpose which He is bringing to
perfec-tion through this world order of events. It holds that all of His
decrees are rational determinations founded on sufficient reason, and that He
has fixed one great goal “toward which the whole creation moves.”
Predestination holds that the ends designed in this plan are first, the glory
of God; and second, the good of His people. On the other hand Fatalism
excludes the idea of final causes. It snatches the reins of universal empire
from the hands of infinite wisdom and love, and gives them into the hands of a
blind necessity. It attributes the course of nature and the experiences of
man-kind to an unknown, irresistible force, against which it is vain to
struggle and childish to repine.
According to the doctrine of Predestination the freedom and
responsibility of man are fully preserved. In the midst of certainty God has
ordained human liberty. But Fatalism allows no power of choice, no
self-determination. It makes the acts of man to be as utterly beyond his
control as are the laws of nature. personal, abstract power, has no room for
moral ideas, while Predestination makes these the rule of action for God and
man. Fatalism has no place for and offers no incentives to religion, love,
mercy, holiness, justice, or wisdom, while Predestination gives these the
strongest conceivable basis. And lastly, Fatalism leads to skepticism and
despair, while Predestination sets forth the glories of God and of His kingdom
in all their splendor and gives an assurance which nothing can shake.
Predestination therefore differs from
Fatalism as much as the acts of a man differ from those of a machine, or as
much as the unfailing love of the heavenly Father differs from the force of
gravitation. “It reveals to us,” says Smith, “the glorious truth that our
lives and our sensitive hearts are held, not in the iron cog-wheels of a vast
and pitiless Fate, nor in the whirling loom of a crazy Chance, but in the
almighty hands of an infinitely good and wise God.”1
Calvin emphatically repudiated the
charge that his doctrine was Fatalism. “Fate,” says he, “is a term given by
the Stoics to their doctrine of necessity, which they had formed out of a
labyrinth of contradictory reasonings; a doctrine calculated to call God
Himself to order, and to set Him laws whereby to work. Predestination I define
to be, according to the Holy Scriptures, that free and unfettered counsel of
God by which He rules all mankind, and all men and things, and also all parts
and particles of the world by His infinite wisdom and incomprehensible
justice.” And again, ”.., had you but been willing to look into my hooks, you
would have been convinced at once how offensive to me is the profanc term
fate: nay, you would have learned that this same ab-horrent term was cast in
the teeth of Augustine by his opponents.”2
Luther says that the doctrine of
Fatalism among the heathen is a proof that “the knowledge of Predestination
and of the prescience of God, was no less left in the world than the notion of
divinity itself.”’ In the history of philosophy Materialism has proven itself
essentially fatalistic. Pan theism also has been strongly tinged with it.
No man can be a consistent fatalist.
For to be consistent he would have to reason something like this: “If I am to
die today, it will do me no good to eat, for I shall die anyway. Nor do I need
to eat if I am to live many years yet, for I shall live anyway. Therefore I
will not eat.” Needless to say, if God has foreordained that a man shall live,
He has also foreordained that he shall be kept from the suicidal folly of
refusin to at.
This doctrine,” says Hamilton, “is
only superficially like the pagan ‘fate.’ The Christian is in the hands not of
a cold, immutable determinism, but of a warm, loving heav-enly Father, who
loved us and gave His Son to die for us on Calvary! The Christian knows that
‘all things work together for good to them that love God, even to them that
are called according to His purpose.’ The Christian can trust God because he
knows He is all-wise, loving, just and holy. He sees the end from the
beginning, so that there is no reason to become panicky when things seem to be
going against us."
Hence, only a person who has not
examined this doctrine of Predestination, or one who is maliciously inclined,
will rashly charge that it is Fatalism. There is no excuse for anyone making
this mistake who knows what Predestination is and what Fatalism is.
Since the universe is one systematized
unit we must choose between Fatalism, which ultimately does away with mind and
purpose, and this biblical doctrine of Predestina-tion, which holds that God
created all things, that His provi-dence extends to all His works, and that
while free Himself He has also provided that we shall be frec within the
limits of our natures. Instead of our doctrine of Predestination being the
same with the heathen doctrine of Fatalism, it is its absolute opposite and
only alternative.
1The Creed of Presbyterians. p. 167. 2The
Secret Providence of God, reprinted in Calvin’s Calvinism, pp. 261, 262.
