If they had taken out a few red light cameras, instead of blowing up scores of innocent people, they might have been hailed as heroes.

By Doug Lawrence

Probably the strangest part of the Boston Marathon Bombing Story is the fact that observant Muslims, all around the world, believe that the bombings were the will of Allah.

It was written … so to speak … since if Allah permits it, then it is his will that it should be. That’s what Muslims understand to be true.

The concept is known as “double predestination” … which means that none of us have free will, and all are mere puppets … some destined for eternal hell fire and some destined for the rewards of paradise … acting out the preordained will of a totally irrational, impersonal and unknowable god.

And … according to Mohammed (pbuh) … there’s not one thing anyone can do about it!

There is no personal guilt. There is no personal responsibility for sin. There is only the requirements of Muslim Sharia Law … which itself is a strangely twisted, regional and cultural derivative of the original Hebrew Mosaic Law.

Muslims also typically don’t understand that attempting to live according to Sharia Law is actually a deadly curse, so it’s no surprise that Muslim terrorists tend to do all the wrong things, for all the wrong reasons … since they obviously have things totally bass-ackwards … and their god wants it to be that way.

Kind of makes you wonder who their god really is.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Muslims, much like Calvinist Protestants, believe in “double predestination”

Q: I’ve heard that Muslims typically believe in predestination … that men are only powerless “pawns” in God’s overall plan … and that everything  happens “because God wills it”. How do Catholics balance their concept of personal free will, with the concept of God’s all powerful, sovereign will/plan?

A: It all depends on whether you believe in mere predestination … or in “double” predestination. Muslims and Calvinists typically believe in “double predestination” … where some people are irrevocably destined (by God) to Heaven and some are irrevocably predestined to Hell … and neither group has the ability to do anything at all to change that divinely predetermined destiny.

You’ve probably heard the old excuse, “The devil made me do it!” In this case, it’s “God made me do it!”

Of course, if free will does not exist, then it would be virtually impossible for God to hold anyone responsible for committing sin. From there, the matter of personal responsibility, merit, divine judgment, and the necessity (even the practicality) of our redemption in Jesus Christ, becomes a very slippery slope, indeed!

Catholics believe in in a form of divine predestination that does not prevent our free will choices, that let’s man be man, and God be God … all at the same time. This section from the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how that typically works. Read it carefully:

“Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God”

599 Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”³⁹³ This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.³⁹⁴

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”³⁹⁵ For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.³⁹⁶

Please explain the idea of FREE-WILL

Q: Please explain the idea of FREE-WILL.

I am a believer in God, but the concept of Free-will makes no sense—it is unexplainable?

A: This is an example of limited predestination, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God”

599 Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”393 This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.394

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”395 For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.396

Note the two different “threads” that operate in the above statement.

God does what only God can do, knowing all and seeing all, from eternity.

Man does whatever he chooses, but in the end, God’s will always prevails, because God is more than capable of taking into account all the feeble and ill considered actions of mankind.

Those who deny free-will are more in line with Calvin’s discredited theory of  “double predestination” which makes life meaningless, salvation unnecessary, judgment a joke, and the concept of a redeemer essentially superfluous.