We evaluate Frodo's "freedom" from within context of the story. Within the story, Frodo is making freewill choices to act bravely and with integrity. Inside the book, Frodo has the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; he has the ability to act at his own discretion. Within the story he has independence and self-determination.
That is on the one hand. On the other hand, Frodo is not self-existing; he has no freedom to act contrary to Tolkien's pen. Frodo is subject to "authorial-determinism", whereby Tolkien determines Frodo's free will choices. Tolkien decides what course Frodo will follow as is necessary to tell the story he wants to tell.
Likewise Jonah's freewill choice to run from his responsibility must be evaluated within the context of the "story" God is telling. Jonah is subject to "divine-determinism", whereby God authors Jonah's decision to disobey his command. Jonah is not self-existing; he has no freedom to act contrary to God's "pen." God determines Jonah's free will choices. God decides what course Johan will follow as is necessary to tell the story he wants to tell.
In order to understand Preordination, one must also understand "transcendence." God exists on a higher ontological level than his creation, and as John says, nothing exists apart from him, nothing comes into existence apart from him and nothing happens apart from him. God is the author of all that exists.
These actions do not describe God as loving, just and righteous as the Bible describes God, but rather it describes the action of someone evil and sadistic to cause innocent men to sin against their will just so God can then punish them. What kind of satisfaction can this type of sadistic behaviour bring to God? What purpose is being served by such sadistic actions, what lesson can man learn from this type of corrupt behaviour?
Matt 23:37-38
"
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."
If we look at the above verse under a Calvinistic lens, we find the following:
On one hand we see that it was God's desire that those Jews
would be gathered together under Christ's protective wing. Yet God acting
against His own will ordained that these Jews
would not be gathered under Christ's protective wing. God preordinated the disobedience of these Jews causing them against their will to not be under Christ's wing and then God punishes these Jews for not being under Christ's wing even though it was God's desire that they
would be under Christ's wing. And then God puts all the accountablility on the Jews for not being under Christ wing by saying "
ye would not" when in reality it was God that "would not".
And people try and tell me Calvinism is "logical". It's insanty!!!
More insanity from a Calvinist author:
"In Spite of All of the Foregoing Statements, We Have to Come to the Point Where We Confess That We Do Not Understand How It Is That God Can Ordain That We Carry Out Evil Deeds and Yet Hold Us Accountable for Them and Not be Blamed Himself: We can affirm that all of these things are true, because Scripture teaches them. But Scripture does not tell us exactly how God brings this situation about or how it can be that God holds us accountable for what he ordains to come to pass. Here Scripture is silent, and we have to agree with Berkhof that ultimately “the problem of God’s relation to sin remains a mystery" (Systematic Theology, p.331.)
Wayne Grudem
More:
"While it is vitally true that God foreordains all things, it is also equally true that man is totally and completely responsible for his actions. Though God foreordained 9/11, it is also true that these wicked men acted freely, doing exactly what they wished to do. How can we reconcile the foreordination of God with man’s sinful actions? We cannot. This is what theologians call concurrence or what Henry Krabbendam calls the complementarity of truth. These doctrines are infinitely glorious and do not fit within finite minds."
I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well being and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these. (Isaiah 45:7) The attacks of 9/11, killing nearly three thousand people, were acts of pure evil. The tsunami that washed over much of the...
banneroftruth.org
Calvinists create a problem that is not found within the Bible. And then they have no solution for the sadistical behavior of God that
Calvinism created, so they conveniently brush it off by saying "
it remains a mystery" and "
we cannot" reconcile the problem, a
problem man created. This is not any different than
man creating the idea of original sin.....which creates the
man made problem of Christ being born with sin.....which creates
man made solutions to 'fix' this problem when in reality
the problem nor solution are even found in the Bible. The Bible does not provide solutions to these problems for the Bible does not create these problems.....no need to solve a problem that does not even exist.
The above website tries to give a solution to God causing some event to happen yet at the same time claims God is not responsible for what happens.... yet the Calvinists I cited earlier cannot find a solution, that "
it's a mystery".
The above website (that claims to have the solution) says that "cause" has different meanings. He writes "
But there is more than one sense of the word cause. We rightly distinguish between efficient and final causes (sometimes labeled proximate and ultimate causes)."
Then he gives examples:
"God is the final cause; not the efficient cause of evil.
To illustrate that someone or something can be the "final cause" of an evil act and yet not be held morally responsible for it, consider these examples:
My friend, without my consent, robs a bank to get money to help pay my medical bills. He is the efficient cause of the action. He is morally culpable. I am the final cause, the one for whose sake the thing was done, yet I am not morally culpable.
My enemy, in a fit of rage over something I have done or said, goes on a wanton spree of vandalism. He is arrested, tried, and found guilty, because he is the efficient cause. Yet he continues to blame me for the episode. Indeed, I am the final cause—for he did this because of me. But I am not morally culpable.
A car thief caught in a sting operation makes the futile plea that he is not guilty because he would never have stolen that car if the police had not left it unlocked with the keys in the ignition. Here the cops are absolutely the final cause, because they staged the opportunity for the crime in order to catch a ring of serial car thieves operating in the neighborhood. The thief himself is the efficient cause. He is also the only person in this scenario with evil intent.
Those are not perfect examples, because there is no exact parallel to a sovereign God, but those examples do clearly illustrate how someone can "cause" an evil action that he or she is not morally culpable for."
Do I believe God brings things about to happen? Yes. Do I believe God causes these things to happen
by violating man free will by ordaining men to do things whereby man has no choice at all? No.
In the first example, my friend robs a bank to get me money to pay my bills. Am I resposnsible for his own willful actions? No. Did I CAUSE (ordain) him to rob the bank
against his will? If I did, then I
DO HAVE culpability in the robbery.
Did God violate Jonah's free will by ordaing him to disobey? No. Therefore God was just and righteous in punishing Jonah in the whale.
Then we have in Jonah 3
And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
In Jonah 3, Jonah has already received just, righteous punishment from God for his
own choice to disobey God. Yet Jonah now in chapter 3 decides he will go to Nineveh as God told him. Did God "cause" Jonah to go to Nineveh
against own will through preordination?
Absolutley not. Jonah going this second time was a
free will choice of Jonah for Jonah now knew the
CONSEQUENCES of disobeying God. Could Jonah have freely chosen to diosbey God this second time?
YES!!!! Why did he not disobey God a second time? For he knows there is judgment coming against those who disobey God and he did not want to face God's judgment again.
