From our assigned readings - Psalm 139: 1-18, Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15, Jonah 1: 1 to 2: 10, and Mark 10: 17-22 - one can see how Biblical writers perceived free will and determinism. From my point of view, it seems they all thought that God was the one that controlled our lives, from birth to death. We may have an idea of free will but we are never truly free from the works of God. What shaped these writers' ideas about this issue? Could they be the written words of God given to them through divine intervention? Or were there other factors that shaped their idea of story writing?
I'm not a history buff, and I don't claim to be one. However, times were very different in the ancient Middle East. War, disease, tyranny, and famine ravaged the land. People were looking for answers - people were looking for hope. Perhaps they were looking for someone good to follow to replace the ones that burdened them so. I don't know. It seems to me that the writers were very keen on following rules; especially in Jonah and Mark, the ones who did not follow the rules were punished accordingly. Jonah, with his free will, disobeyed the rule of God and was tormented by storms and man-eating fish. The man in Mark was told that if he wanted eternal life in Heaven then he was to give up all his riches. If you continue reading (Mark 10: 31), Jesus says, "But many that are first shall be last, and the last first." Hence, the ones who suffer the most have the most to gain. To me, this reflects how many people lived during this time. They resented the rich and the powerful and therefore believed that because they, the ones who were poor, were suffering they would live the afterlife in peace. They needed someone to follow because they were lost. They needed someone to follow because they only knew suffering from the ones they were already following.
Follow the rules set out by the one who is good to you and you shall have your just reward. Going back to determinism, this notion is clearly the path taken. Free will is wrong, and although we all possess it we must fight against it. God knows best because he created everything and everyone. According to Ecclesiastes 3:1, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven," and in 3: 11, "He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." In Psalm 139, it speaks of how God knows everything from our thoughts to our actions and how He is always there even in our death. In the stories of Jonah and that in Mark, determinism is greater than free-will and it shall always prevail. If we do not follow His rules than we are dooming ourselves - for our plan is already written out and we must not diverge from it.
Like I've said in previous posts: I truly want to believe that we have control over our lives - that our futures have yet to be written. So these texts are little off putting to me. Why have free will embedded in us if we can't use it without being punished? Why would God tease us with this feeling of being able to choose for ourselves if in reality He chooses everything for us? Why live if we are to only be drones of His story?
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