One of my family's favourite games is the Super Mario franchise from Nintendo. We've played everything from classic Mario to 3-D, the-entire-universe-is-spinning-around-you Super Mario Galaxy. But one of my personal favourites is the brilliantly sideways thinking Paper Mario.
Have you ever wanted to yell at Mario, when watching that heroically mustachioed plumber mistiming his jump and crashing to his demise against an advancing mushroom - JUST STEP TO THE SIDE! Like, I mean, you never see a matador attempt to actually *leap* over a charging bull do you? He just casually sidesteps. Much easier.
Paper Mario gives life to this very idea. I've pasted a picture here to explain it better. It starts off with Mario in 2-D, but whenever you want to, you can *switch* perspectives, and Mario can just shuffle around his enemies or realise that from the other perspective, there is a bridge or a staircase you can easily walk across, instead of leaping across an impossible chasm.
The point is that, when you add a new perspective, suddenly a previously 2D issue transforms itself entirely! Our human experience teaches us that we live in a 3D world. 2D Mario wouldn't understand that, so if we yell at him to "JUST STEP TO THE SIDE!", he'd be like "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
Which brings me to today's topic - a friend asked me, what do you think of pre-destination, and the problem that some people have with the idea that if God knows the beginning and the end, and He knows the decisions we are going to make, then how can He blame us if we make bad decisions??
Many people much cleverer than me, with theological or philosophy degrees, have explored this topic at length. But here's my (hopefully) digestible, pop-culture friendly take.
In the classic movie Back to the Future, Marty McFly ends up zooming in a time-travelling DeLorean sports car from the 80s back into the 60s, where he gets himself involved in a series of hilarious escapades with his then-teenaged parents. Now, Marty knows that a bunch of things are going to happen, because he's from the future. He knows that his father is supposed to meet his mother at a high school dance. He knows that the ice cream parlour janitor is going to become the mayor. At one point, he gets hold of a sports almanac from the future, so he knows what the athletes at various sports events are going to do.
In a sense, like Paper Mario shifts his perspective from 2-D to 3-D, Marty has stepped outside the usual flow of time. But from the perspective of the people who are still in the normal flow of time, like his parents and the prospective mayor and all the sports athletes, nothing has changed. They still make their decisions, of their own free will. The mere fact that Marty knows what they're going to do, doesn't change the fact that, *at that point of time* they made those decisions themselves. Marty didn't force them to do anything.
In the same way, God exists outside of time (and even space!). He made all of creation, something from nothing. One might say, that's impossible! But that's exactly what science says, per the Big Bang Theory. Something from nothing.
Isaiah 46:10 says "
I make known the end from the beginning; from ancient times, what is still to come" and 2 Peter 3:8 says "
with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day". One might again say, that's ridiculous! But that's exactly what science predicts, per the warping of the spacetime fabric in black holes - collapsed stars with unimaginably massive gravity.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time would be infinitely dilated by a black hole's infinitely massive gravity, such that someone outside the black hole sees someone inside the black hole as having time effectively stopped. Conversely, someone inside the black hole sees everything outside the black hole as having time flying by infinitely quickly.
So, for God who sits outside time, the whole otherwise problematic concept of "predestination" and knowing something is going to happen before it happens, may not even make sense. He knows everything at once. There is no "before" or "after". He is from everlasting to everlasting. I can only imagine what that's like, because to Him I am merely 2D Mario!
But the fact is that each day, I make my own choices, out of my own free will. From His perspective, He certainly knows what I'm doing, but that doesn't mean I have no responsibility for my choices. Because from my perspective, outside the black hole, and as I'm making those decisions to hop, skip or jump in real-time, I'm entirely accountable.
Alright, so I hope Back to the Future and The Black Hole [two of my favourite 80s movies!!] have adequately explained that just because God knows what we're doing, doesn't mean we don't have free will.
But what about the next obvious question - if everything we do is already known, then *even if we have free will*, why bother? And the answer to that, is, curiously, love.
Let me illustrate. Suppose a father tells his son, "Son, pick up your worn clothes and clean the floor". Now, the son has free will. He can choose to do his chores. Or he can choose not to. Let's suppose that the son knows that his father employs a domestic worker. And that at home, there's a robot Roomba that, without fail, activates itself to mop and vacuum at 10 am every day. Even if the son does NOTHING, he knows that the clothes will be picked up, and the floor will be cleaned. It's inevitable. So, why bother?
Yet a loving son will pick up his clothes and clean the floor. Because his obedience demonstrates love for the father. John 14:18 says "
If you love me, you will keep my commandments". And the son also knows that obeying his father makes him a better person. Learning to take responsibility for his own messes, saving someone else work, perhaps even getting some exercise :D
When God says - go do this. Help a friend. Encourage the discouraged. Lift up the downtrodden. Share the good news. We know if we don't, God will find a way to get it done anyway. But we still choose to do it. Because He's shown us His love so many times, we respond in gratitude and love, and in expectation that He's shaping us to be even fitter, and even more useful, to Him and to others.
God loves us, from everlasting to everlasting. And He has a great plan for us! A plan that doesn't bind us as automatons, but invites as as His beloved children. Thank God for that!
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. Jeremiah 29:11-13
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