10. Humans And Their Destiny – (Freedom or predestination)
Poet Nguyen Du wrote in The Tale of Kiều,
“Upon reflection, everything’s by the will of Heaven.
Heaven has given us a human life with a body and a fate.
If he doomed us to roll in the dirt, then we’d roll in the dirt.
Only when he gives us nobility then we can live a noble life.” (Translated by Vuong Thanh)
Nguyen Du is a Confucian who believes in the theory of destiny, in which all life and death of the universe and all living things are determined by heaven.
He also mentioned human freedom, “virtue trumps destiny”, at the end of the story.
“The root of goodness comes from the heart.
The true heart worths more than all the talents combined.” (Translated by Vuong Thanh)
It means that humans can change the destiny by heaven with their kindness,
Freedom and predestination are two difficult problems that seem difficult to reconcile.
1. WHAT IS FREEDOM AND WHAT IS PREDESTINATION?
- Freedom
Many people get the ambiguous notion that freedom is to do whatever they want. This is not true in real life. Humans cannot survive if there is chaos, where everyone can do anything in lawless and orderless situations. Although living by instinct, animals must follow the rules of the herd.
Freedom, in fact, is only very relative and has many limitations. These limitations do not eliminate freedom, but on the contrary, they help our freedom develop. Road rules, for example, limit our personal freedom, forcing us to follow legal regulations. But it helps us stay safe on the highway and get to our destination the fastest and safest.
In short:
Freedom is our will to choose according to what is beneficial and good, which leads us to life and growth. We have the right to choose the bad, the evil, but sooner or later it will lead to degradation and destruction. The better people do, the freer they become.
Freedom comes with responsibility. The law of cause and effect responds objectively to all actions. Whatever we do, we do with a sense of freedom, we will face the consequences and take responsibility for what we do.
- Predestination:
Predestination is pre-arrangement of a task; whether we like it or not, it will happen; the result does not depend on our free will. Predestination naturally includes the element of time before and after.
Predestination, in other words, our destiny, has been arranged by someone to have a known outcome. For example the fate of of those who will be rich or poor. Even though we try hard to make ends meet and spend sparingly, the poor are still poor. No matter how I manage, I can’t get better.
Thuy Kieu is talented and beautiful, but because “The jealous gods tend to heap spites on rosy-cheeked beauties,” she struggled to find a way out of her difficult situation but she could not. “Thus she had gone on a journey of heart-rending sorrow.” The cat is still a cat; she got out of a brothel to returned to another one. “What a human wishes for, Heaven may not allow.” (The Tale of Kieu).
Buddhism believes that it is due to complex causes and conditions, but what is the explanation of the Old and New Testaments?
2. FREEDOM AND PREDESTINATION IN THE BIBLE.
The Bible talks a lot about human freedom and also many times mentions God’s predestination in human life.
- Freedom:
God gives humans freedom and He always respects that freedom. Jesus told his disciples, “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends” (John 15:15). Friends are free and respected.
Book of Genesis says, “The LORD God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die” (Gen 2,16-17). God gives people the freedom to choose fruit from one tree or another, including the freedom to disobey Him and eat the forbidden fruit. He also warns people of bad things in advance. Don’t do it, or you will die.
Book of Deuteronomy says, “See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the LORD, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live” (Deut 30:15-16).
The book of Ezekiel says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). In the New Testament, the letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians reads, “For you were called for freedom” (Gal 5:13).
Judas Iscariot was warned many times by Jesus about his shameful betrayal so that he would sincerely abandon the idea of selling Jesus, but he did not listen. In the end, He let him do whatever he wanted and He lamented “It would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Mt 26:24).
The story of the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she was pregnant with the Savior. After asking the envoy “How could that happen” and listening to the envoy explain everything, Mary said “Yes.”
We see that God still respects the redeeming of humanity so that humans can cooperate freely and not be coerced.
What about predestination?
- Predestination:
The Bible also talks a lot about predestination, typically the saying “so the scripture words were fulfilled,” which is repeated many times.
– Matthew 26:24: “The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him.”
– Luke 4:21: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
– John 19:36: “For this happened so that the scripture passage might be fulfilled.”
Jesus spoke clearly about predestination: “Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.” (Luke 12:7).
Psalm 139 clarifies:
“LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
You sift through my travels and my rest;
with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
LORD, you know it all.” (Psalm 139:1-4)
So nothing is beyond the will of heaven: “Winning or losing wealth is the destiny by God” (Nguyen Trai, Man Thuat).
But how do we know heavenly destiny?
Wen Nhu Marquis Nguyen Gia Thieu pondered in Cung Oan Ngam Khuc: “Lie with hand over forehead to think heavenly destiny over.” Heavenly destiny is so miraculous that it starts and ends unpredictably; and he agreed with Nguyen Huu Chinh in Ngon An’s poetry collection, “Only it is the right time to recognize how miraculous heavenly destiny is.”
3. UNREVEALABLE HEAVENLY DESTINY
No one can recognize heavenly destiny. According to the ancients, anyone who knows a heavenly fate must keep it a secret. If it is revealed, they will certainly die. So no one knows what is right or wrong.
Famous prophets such as Trang Trinh (1491), Nostradamus (1503) and recently Vanga (1911-1996) predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, the Kursk submarine disaster, and New York’s twin tower collapse… all used vague language. Only when the event occurs will people consider the above prophecy to be true.
But Jesus as Lord is different, because everything comes from Him. “They were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority” (Luke 4:32).
God is not like prophets. He is the truth itself. “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) “And the truth will make you free … So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free” (John 8:32, 36).
Indeed, as Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17).
God came to free us from the slavery of sin, bringing true freedom. As Saint Paul said in his letter to the Galatians, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free” (Gal 5:1).
As analyzed above, true freedom is to choose good things that bring life and growth.
Freedom is to know how to choose a life that goes with inevitable laws of nature. “You will survive in the natural laws, or you will perish against them.”
Freedom is not opposed to predestination because God has arranged (predestined) for us to participate in His divine life, if we are not lost by abusing our freedom and doing evil.
However, because our intelligence is limited, we do not understand all the details, so our judgement may be right or wrong. For example, when inviting a friend to our house for dinner, we choose a day when he is not busy, and a suitable time. You know for sure that your friend will come because of the close relationship.
Unlike us, God knows everything, including our psychological laws. He can predict with 100% accuracy which path we will take. He is already familiar with our fate like Psalm 139 that we just read above.
God predicts, not determines. Furthermore, we live in 4-dimensional space. God is spirit, the master of time and space. We cannot judge His actions based on the limited space and time of the world we live in.
Conclusion:
Do you want to be truly free and do you want to participate with God in His eternal life? It is your freedom.
So from now on you should sow seeds to get good results. Jesus said, “Everyone who believes in Me may have eternal life” (John 3:15). “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13).