By TC Lo (盧天賜); August 11, 2011 (Latest revision: Feb.19, 2012)
The question of predestination has haunted me ever since the first time I heard of it in the Cell Group Bible study many years ago. I have asked many people but I have not yet heard of an answer fully satisfying to my logical mind. I know there is no perfect answer because the biblical God I believe is a hidden God, and I know I should respect God’s privacy. But I think this does not mean that we should not exercise our God-given mental faculties to explore because we don’t know the exact boundary beyond which I ought not to invade the hidden part of God.
One day, as I was thinking about this issue, out of a nowhere, an illustration came to my mind—a jigsaw puzzle analogy—which seemed to be able to lighten the burden of the discussion of question of “Predestination versus Free will”, or “God’s sovereignty versus men’s responsibility”.
• The designer of the cosmic jigsaw puzzle is God.
• How the jigsaw picture should eventually end up is predetermined by the WILL of the designer.
• People are free to put down the puzzle pieces—i.e., men has free will. Their actions are driven by human logic, circumstances, morality or plain guessing.
• Those pieces which are in the supposed rightful places will stay—if your actions follow God’s will, your labor will not be in vain.
• But those pieces which are not in the rightful places will eventually be forced to move and re-positioned—i.e., God’s prevails.
• Playing the cosmic jigsaw puzzle game is the total summation of human activities in history.
• History will eventually converge to God’s plan even human beings have been trying to work against it.
你有沒有玩過拼圖板 (jigsaw puzzle pieces) 遊戲, 或日本數字遊戲 (Sudoku)? 當我開始排列拼圖板時, 我由角落開始, 一步一步向內發展, 很快我便會構成一片似乎成功的圖案. 突然間, 我發現中間地帶有一些機會, 我便從那裏又發展另一片新的圖案. 很快地, 一片一片不連接在一起的圖案散佈在尚未完成的畫面上. 現在重點就在這兒: 如果這些巳排列好的拼圖板的確在它們應有的位置上, 遲早這幅拼圖是會被連接成功的. 但如果這些巳排列好的拼圖板只要其中有一片不是在它應有的位置上, 這幅拼圖是絕不會成功的, 因為不連貫性遲早會被顯露出來, 所以, 那些看來局部的成功, 不能保證全盤的成功. 日本數字遊戲 (Sudoku) 的情形也是如此.
在無神論的哲學 (如進化論, 存在主義, 佛學思想, 等) 中, 它們在問題的個別方面都有成功之處, 但這只不過是局部性的成功, 但在整體而言, 沒有一個無神論的哲學思想能一致地, 附合現實地, 合理性地解釋宇宙之源, 客觀道德律的存在, 人生的意義, 及人和宇宙的歸宿, 在這各方面都有連貫而不互相矛盾的解釋, 亦即缺乏全盤性的成功.
[請參考本 blogs 的另一文: “信心與行為” (Feb. 19, 2012)]
