In the Image of God

While making prayer beads with an interfaith group recently, someone suddenly asked what we all thought about fate. This seems to be a fairly common concern with a number of friends of mine in the past, so I decided it would probably be a good time to post it here. This is perhaps one of my most internally well developed theological ideas, and as such I tend to skip details, so let me apologize beforehand if I neglect to elaborate on something.

The first statement which must be made is that I believe there is neither a future nor a past, but one single dynamic moment in which we participate, along with God, in creating the next expression of that same moment. The only settled future is that which God has already decided will happen at that time (prophecy). It is not that it has happened, or even must happen, but that when time reaches that point, God will enact measures to ensure such an even or events occur.

To be made in the image of God does not mean that God is a bipedal mammal with opposable thumbs. The statement itself indicates the nature of God: maker. God is the creator of things, and likewise, we share the quality of creativity. Not in the ordinary, mundane sense of the word, but in a spiritual way with implications throughout the cosmos. As God created the Universe and us, we participate in the creation of the future, the development towards union with God, and the eventual conclusion of existence. To attempt to link any form of physiological similarity with God – male or female, black or white or yellow or red, old or young, etc. – is so far beyond a moot point it becomes ludicrous. God is creative with ultimate reality, and so are we.

It is astounding how much debate occurs over the notion of Free Will. While a complicated issue, there is no way to reconcile a loving, self-sacrificing God with humans as mere slaves to fate.

Why would a loving God create people who He knew were going to be condemned? Why would He plan out a world which He would later need to destroy for its corruption? Why would He change his mind about ending the life of a king when the king’s heart changed? Why develop such a complex drama when the entirety of the work could have been refined from the start. Where is evil if God controls all?

The primary concern at hand is the understanding of God as omniscient. After all, if God doesn’t know the future, then there is something that God doesn’t know. Unfortunately, this argument makes one tragic assumption: that there is a future to know. Simply because we have a word for it does not mean it necessarily exists, nor does the ability to imagine the future mean there is a future, particularly since the imagining is done in the present. If there is no future to know, it is not a limitation of God that He doesn’t know it. If anything, this version of time empowers God, allowing Him to interact with creation at all times, freeing Him of the same restraints it frees humanity of. More than that, it frees God of direct responsibility for evil, which is generally accepted throughout scriptures as being something God isn’t a huge fan of. Free Will frees God from being the creator of evil and instead merely the creator of the potential for evil. Freedom is a gift, meant to be used for the benefit of all; its misuse is the aberration and thus the source of evil. Furthermore, it is Free Will which provides for a meaningful basis of salvation. Our sinful nature condemns us all, leaving every individual in need of salvation. Christ died to provide everyone with a means, if they so choose, to acquire that salvation and return to a right relationship with God. Without freedom of the will, it would simply be God’s decision to save who He wished, which would be all according to scripture. If He couldn’t save all, then He would certainly not be omnipotent. If all are saved, then it is not true that few find the hidden gate. If we are condemned without free will, we are condemned for the actions God chose for us to do before we were created, as God could have chosen not to create, or to modify the parameters around one’s life to ensure that one did not remain condemned. Scripture gives directives towards humanity to seek, believe and act, not simply to sit back. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

If we have Free Will, then there cannot truly be a future. If there was a future, our wills would not have the freedom to create a future. Thus, not only must there be free will, but there must also not be a future. We, like God, have a say in what happens next. It is in that very quality of helping to create the future that we are in the image of God. We are allowed to choose, just as God is allowed to choose.

The only thing about the future which is set is the things which God has already decided He will do. Prophecy is not a lie; when the time comes, God will make happen what He says He will make happen. If God says “I will flood the world in a few months,” then in a few months God can make a flood happen. At no point does prophecy mean that these things will happen without God’s input.

I apologize for the lack of scriptural citations in this, but if people wish, I can edit this to include the dozens of citations I vaguely reference. As I said at the beginning, I have wrestled with this more than perhaps any other single topic, and so I simply wrote it out of memory. May it properly portray the word of God in the spirit in which it was written.