Predestination, Example

Theologians endeavor to escape from the above conclusion by a flow of words—like the cuttle‑fish they darken the waters

of thought by the flow of dark, unintelligible words, and thus make their logical escape. But a plain consideration of the

facts of the proposition, laying aside theological subtleties—a consideration in the light of Common Sense—shows us

that admitting a Personal Deity, possessing All‑Wisdom and All‑Power, then Predestination must be a logical result. Let us examine the statement. If Deity be All‑Wise, (Omniscient), then he must know all things, absolutely, truly, infallibly—all things, past, present, and future. He must know the subsequent results of all actions—

the subsequent effects of all causes, the operation of all laws. He would not be able to make mistakes of judgment, or errors

of foresight. There could be no necessity for any changing of his mind, if his wisdom is absolute. He must possess perfect

and infallible Foresight, Foreknowledge, and Prescience, which means: “The quality of having knowledge of, or foresight into,

events before they take place.” And if he so knows what will take place, and his knowledge be true, perfect and infallible

(and it must be so to be absolute) then these foreseen, and foreknown, events must take place and occur. As Hale well says:

“If God presees events, he must have predetermined them.” If this be not so, then the absolute qualities attributed to Deity

are false and non‑existent, or the terms are meaningless. Moreover, if the All‑Wise knows what will happen (and this he must know if he be All‑Wise) then even his All‑Power cannot change the things that he knows to a certainty. Some theologians, wishing to escape from this dilemma, have

held that his All‑Power may overcome his All‑Knowing, and thus take away his infallible Foresight, Foreknowledge, and

Prescience—but this is childish, for Absolute Knowledge could not be destroyed, impaired, inhibited, or changed. Deity must be held to be either absolute or not absolute. If he is absolute, the above facts must be assumed to be correct—if he is not, then we must go behind and beyond him for the true Absolute.

Moreover, if such a Deity exists, he must have made the laws of the universe, for there could have been nothing else to have

made them, and if they existed without his making, then such a Deity would not be absolute. If he made them, then he must

have set them in motion, and kept them in motion ever since. And, if so, then he must be held responsible for all that happens,

or can possibly happen, under them—they are his own creation, and he is their Cause, and the Cause of all that proceeds from

them. Moreover his All‑Knowing must have made him fully aware of all the possibilities and certain effects of the operation of these laws. There is no escape from this conclusion. No wonder that old Omar raised his voice in indignant protest against this

conception when accompanied by the “bribe of heaven and threat of hell” as a reward or punishment for doing that which must be inevitable because it has been predestined by Deity. The conception of a Personal Deity, or Personal Supreme Being,

absolute in nature, who created the universe and its laws, must carry with it as a logical accompaniment the conceptions of Foresight, Foreknowledge, and Predestination—which are but newer names for the old fetish of Fate and Destiny. In this is found the parodox of theology, from which it can never escape, and which it has never been able to reconcile.