Biblical Texts and Question 1

Of the four assigned Biblical passages, I enjoyed Psalm 139 the most. The first ten lines were extremely comforting to me, as I sat back and remembered that no matter how uncertain I may be, or how much I may change during this time in my life, God always knows my heart and its desires. These first ten lines also serve as a reminder that we can’t outgrow or outrun God, because as David says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” This passage depicts God as an omniscient Maker that knows our every thought because he stitched us up in our mothers’ womb before we were even brought into the world. In the past, a pastor I had coffee with described God as a clockmaker; in essence, he explained that he believed that God has carefully constructed our bodies and our hearts so that He may know them and how they work, but once wound up and released, He lets us go and observes.

After reading the Biblical Assignments reading, I agree with Dr. Simpler’s point that this passage never makes the distinction between a God who simply knows all of our thoughts and desires, and a God who determines all of our thoughts and desires. I therefore disagree with biblical scholars who use this text to argue for theological determinism. I do not believe that this text supports theological determinism since it never states that God controls our thoughts and desires rather than just knowing them.

I do, however, agree with the interpretation of Jonah 1-2 serving as an example of compatibilism. When God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah makes the conscious decision to instead go to Tarshish to run from God, thus demonstrating Jonah exercising free will. However, with Jonah’s overall plan in mind, God sends the raging ocean storms to try to help Jonah realize that he cannot run away from God’s will. When Jonah realizes that he will in fact die in the belly of a giant fish if he does not do God’s bidding, he again makes a conscious decision and pledges his loyalty to God. To me, this is a perfect example of compatibilism since Jonah is able to exercise free will in his actions, but there is still evidence of God orchestrating his overall plan. In addition, I also connected this passage and this theory to The Adjustment Bureau, due to Bureau allowing humans to make everyday choices, but adjusting their courses in order to make them stay on track.

After reading these passages, I am left with one key question: to what extent does God control our ability to make truly free decisions, if he crafts our minds, bodies, and hearts with a better knowledge of them than we ourselves have? In essence, I struggle with understanding how free our decisions can really be if God has pre-determined our personalities, decision-making capabilities, emotions, and other factors that heavily influence the way we make choices.