Joel Hendon

Biblical Options, Free Moral Agency, Fair Or Unfair?


Posted: Thursday, December 08, 2011

by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html

In my lifetime of trying to live according to God’s oracles, I have heard a great number of people contemptuously ridicule the fact that God gave man the right to choose to serve Him or not to serve Him. A choice. They add scornfully that the choice isn’t much of a choice. It is the same as any other choice in life. You may choose to rob banks rather than work for a living. One is rewarding but difficult. One is easy but the reward is possible death or imprisonment. Take your choice.

The fact of the matter is, God’s gift of free moral agency is an excellent choice. He didn’t have to do that. He could have just ordered one to keep his edicts or die in their tracks. The entire facts of why man is here and why the freedom of choice, the reward and the punishment all stems from one thing. An eternal Spirit God, who has all power, all wisdom and knowledge, desired to create physical beings to live according to His instructions and to worship Him out of respect and awe of His existence. Of his own volition. In order to influence that decision God has offered an unimaginable reward for those who do so. An eternal existence without sickness, pain, worry or care in any way. But for those who prefer to refuse to live for Him as instructed, He promises an eternal punishment, as undesirable as the reward is desirable.

That thought, crammed into such a small paragraph should leave no question as to what any person should choose. Yet, from the beginning of time until this day, only a tiny percentage have chosen to follow him. And the bible assures us that it will be this way until the end of time on this earth. Read these few verses of scripture and see if you can follow the plan, the covenant made with man, and also realize that the reasoning of this God whose wisdom far exceeds that of you, me or any man.

Here is a verse referring to something which occurred before the creation. Peter tells of this to the Jews on the first Pentecost after Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:23 KJV)

This verse explains much. It shows that the Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, discussed the plan ahead and determined that Jesus would have to die in order to save man from his sins. Now, here is another which explains why God desired to create man in the first place.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)

Paul is here writing to the church (the Christians) who worshipped in Ephesus and explains to them that God had chosen before the foundation of the world, that man should live holy and without blame before him in love. The term “chosen us” refers to those who accept and obey His instructions.

The criticism and the misunderstanding of those individuals who feel the choice given to humans offers a poor choice, is they fail to understand that God created all physical matter and life. He could have designed and created beings who could not sin, but be pre-programmed to be totally obedient. But this obviously was not what God wanted. Such a being would not show respect and awe towards Him since they would have no choice in the matter.

And another point is, God is the creator. All things are His. He is free to do whatever He wills.

Would those dissenters, prefer that they had never lived? If so, then they need to take that up with their parents.

And the primary point is this, we need desperately to be thankful that we can make the choice for eternal life. It is offered to us and Jesus Christ was willing to live a destitute life and die a tortuous death, in order for us to have the choice we have. Man is supposed to life a sinless life. None have ever accomplished it, except Jesus, the Son of God. Therefore, there is no way man can offer restitution for his sins. Only Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life, has the right to forgive sins.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12 KJV)

And this very man, Jesus has warned us all, that there will be few who will accept His offer.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (Matthew 7:21-23 KJV)

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14 KJV)

In closing this discussion, I’ve also heard many say that, “If a person really believes all that, then he would be a pure fool not to do his best to live right.”

I rest my case. As long as one is alive and in their right mind, they have the opportunity to make the proper choice offered them. But after death, there is no further opportunity. The bible teaches of no purgatory where one can serve a sentence and still gain the reward.
Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of conservative religious and political articles.http://hebronics.org/index.html

This Article has been viewed 112 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.