God’s Sovereignty, Predestination and Human Free Will, Part 1

How does it all fit together?

The other day, a Christian apologist that I listen to posted a clip from one of his recent interviews, answering the question of “If God is sovereign over all things and knows who will be saved already then why bother being evangelistic? Why bother participating in apologetics?“ (for reference, here’s the IG post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSnSvmKEhpo/?hl=en). The comments on his post were interesting, reflecting (in my opinion) how unable some are to agree to disagree with those who hold a view different than theirs. Some seemed to go off the deep end and ascribe words to the man that he didn’t say, outright calling him a Calvinist and accusing him of heresy. In the tone and content of much of the feedback, I noticed a huge blind spot regarding what the sovereignty of God can actually look like, how it fits in among His other attributes and how much weight our free will truly carries. Needless to say, I was inspired to throw my 2 cents in, starting with part 1, God’s sovereignty. Predestination will be part 2 and Human Free Will will be part 3. The idea is to help us digest the info a bit better.

What I heard asked at the heart of the question, the true concern, was “if I’m not in full control of my life and God already knows how everything will go and can overrule me in any choice I make, without me having that same information, then what’s the point of me ______?” (fill in the blank here: praying, evangelizing, tithing, defending the faith, etc.). Questions such as these can reflect the realization that one is indeed not the king or queen of their castle, that they finally understand they are not autonomous. For some, they’re genuinely trying to understand the topic as they learn more about God and are growing in their understanding of Him and His greatness. On the other side of the spectrum, there are those looking for loopholes, for justification to reject God and His rightful place in their life, showing how little they trust Him, if at all, and they don’t like His sovereignty one bit. Their ego, their pride, chafes at it, the idea that God can do whatever He wants in their life and doesn’t need anyone’s approval for it.

There also seems to be confusion around what predestination is, scripturally, and what the Christ follower is predestined to become (spoiler alert: conformed to the image of Christ, not some sort of “fated” mysticism hogwash that deceived people fall for). Thanks to the muddy waters around this word, a few get bent out of shape when confronted with the notion that God is omniscient, hating the idea that God already knows everything that will happen in their life, the choices they’ll make, the things in life they’ll experience and, once again, they don’t. Pride and ignorance are a bad combination (more to come on predestination in part 2).

Before digging in to the answer to the actual question of how God’s sovereignty, scriptural predestination and our free will fit together, let’s highlight some facts about God Himself, about us humans and establish a bit of context for the topic. Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list but it’ll help keep us focused on the task at hand. A few of the things we learn about the Lord in scripture are:

• He alone is self-existent and creator of the heavens, the earth, and everything in the earth

• He alone is sovereign over all creation

  • As Sovereign King of the universe, He has all power and rightful authority to do what He wants, when He wants, how He wants

  • Authority: the right to tell someone else what to do and expect it to be done

  • In His Sovereignty, He determines and presents our choices to us (and ‘no’ isn’t always an option - ask Jonah and Balaam)

    • The offer of salvation is the only time one is guaranteed to have the option to say ‘no’ to God

      • Outside of that scenario, God has the right to tell whosoever He wants to do whatsoever it is that He wants and His direction will be carried out

    • He knows the decisions we will make in every situation and He knew this before He created us

• God alone is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent

• He is always right and never wrong

• He is never unsure

• He is never confused

• He is not accountable to us or obligated to conform to our will

• God’s plans always come to fruition and succeed

• His ways are above our ways, same with His thoughts

  • Even when He gives more info than we ask for, it doesn’t guarantee we’ll understand (ask Daniel and the apostle John)

Now, a few things we learn about us in scripture:

• We:

  • are created, finite beings

  • do not know everything

  • are frequently wrong

  • have plans that fail

  • are easily confused

  • over complicate simple things and think we’re being “enlightened”

  • can only be in one place at one time

  • have limited power and strength

  • are not God

    • are subject to the will of Sovereign God

    • have free will but is not equal to or greater than His sovereignty

      • it does not overrule God’s sovereignty, authority or will

      • it allows us to choose from the options that Sovereign God gives to us

  • cannot choose an option that He first does not present to us (again, see Jonah and Balaam)

  • are not sovereign over all creation

  • have limited authority imputed to us from God for what He has created us to do and not as a result of our own existence

Alright, that should give us enough clarity on God’s place, and ours, in the food chain. Let’s dig in: if God is omniscient (He is), why should one _____? Let’s start with something simple, like pray. Why pray? Because He told us to. The answer really is that straightforward and uncomplicated. It’s often when one doesn’t like what they hear that things become “complicated”, and the truth is one is looking for ways to reject the facts they were presented with and still be in the right, I think. But I digress…

Note in Matthew 6:7, Jesus said “And when you pray…”, not if. God expects us to pray, to talk to Him, and for us to listen as He speaks to us. In verse 8, Jesus even reminds His audience that the Father already knows what is needed before He’s even asked. We, on the other hand, do not. God already knowing what’s needed does not nullify the expectation that we will go to Him in prayer about anything and everything, that we will actively communicate with Him. Since the garden of Eden, we’ve seen that God is relational in His dealings with us, and those in relationship with others talk to each other, they communicate (the quality of that communication is a different topic). He also chooses to invite us in to what He’s doing and the time we spend talking to Him is one way He provides direction to us. Does He have to do that? No, but I’m glad He does.

How about evangelize/disciple/teach? The answer is the same: because that’s what Jesus told us to do (Matthew 28:19). By telling us to do these things, He’s inviting us to participate in His work. Does Elohim already know who will give their life to Jesus and who will reject Him? Of course. Do we have that same information? No. I can promise that if you search the scriptures, you won’t find one single solitary time that God told anyone that they were required to have the same knowledge and understanding that He does before being obedient to what He said. What one will find repeated throughout scripture is that the Lord wants us to trust Him, based on His character and who He is, and do what He says. We do this as a response to His love for us, demonstrating our faith and belief in Him, and that we love Him.

I could continue to add examples to this list but my hunch is the answer will still be the same. The why behind Christ followers doing anything, even though God already knows what’s going to happen or how a situation will turn out, is because He said to. At no time is our obedience, trust or love for Him predicated upon our understanding or knowledge equaling or surpassing His (which would be impossible, in my opinion).

When traveling down the road of reconciling the Lord’s omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence with the things we see happening in the broken world around us, it can lead to more “why does He allow thus and such to happen if God really loves us/is good/cares for us?”. Over time, we’ll tackle those topics too. This is enough for now though. As you read through all that I’ve written here, I would ask you to do your own research. Dig through the scriptures, interrogate the text, learn from the Lord and what He shows you in His word. Decide what you believe based on that effort and don’t simply take my word for anything. Be like the Bereans!

January 1, 2026