The Omniscience of God has always led human beings of every age, above all those who question the Faith and those who are not much in tune with the Will of God, to ask themselves the following:
If God knows everything, then of course He knows whether I am going to be saved or condemned; why, then, should I strive to try to attain salvation?
Knowing that we are going to deal with the most difficult and complicated theological subject, we will try to clarify this dilemma as best we can, but starting from the premise that we will not obtain the completely satisfactory answer during our life on earth.
We must understand that the mystery of divine predestination is, as the Council of Trent tells us, “a hidden mystery, indecipherable as long as we live in this world”. (cf. Denz. 805)
Only in the light of God, in the midst of the Beatific Vision, will we be able to see clearly how God has arranged and ordered all things marvelously, with His Infinite Wisdom and Love.
Since it is the Enemy of God who places this kind of almost insoluble doubt in our mind, in order to try to lead many astray down this apparent dead-end street, let us observe that —as in all his propositions— there is a lie. Not in vain does Saint John say of the Devil: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father (or inventor) of all lies” (Jn 8:44).
This “brilliant” human dilemma (which is not so human, because it is Satan’s invention, although he makes us believe it is a “brilliant” idea of our own) starts from a lie, which consists of a confusion.
What is that confusion? Believing that “predestination” and “foreknowledge” are the same thing. And they are not. So we must begin by distinguishing one from the other. That is to say: no one is condemned because God knows this beforehand.
It is true: God knows the evil that we human beings will do. But… can we say that we do something evil because God knows we are going to do it? No. In other words: God knows the evil I am going to do, and He knows it because I am going to do it. But it is not that I do it because God knows it beforehand. These are two very different and opposite things. Do we see the confusion into which the Enemy tries to draw us?
To better understand this point, let us take an example from present-day human life: the Stock Market. If a student of the financial market were to predict that the shares of a certain company are going to rise by x% within a certain span of time —say some 6 months— could we say that the one who caused the rise in the stock market was the person who predicted that rise? No. What happened was that this person has a superior and anticipated knowledge of the behavior of that particular stock and of the stock market, and that knowledge allowed him to predict what was going to happen.
God does not predestine anyone to damnation in Hell. Those who are condemned come to Hell because they deliberately commit one or more grave sins and persist in that sin or those sins until their death. They freely reject one or more Commandments of the Law of God, and —what is even more serious— they also reject the continual and abundant graces that God gives them for their eternal salvation, especially the graces of His Infinite Mercy for the repentance and forgiveness of their sins.
So whoever is condemned condemns himself. He is not condemned because God knows this fact beforehand.
God did not make us robot-like creatures. God made us free. And He desires that we choose Him freely. For this He gives us all the graces necessary to be saved. He cares for us day and night, every instant of our life. And He watches over each sinner so that he may repent and be saved.
“Come and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow” (Is 1:18).
God has not predestined anyone to damnation. Quite the contrary: He has destined us all for salvation. It is what is called in Theology “the Universal Salvific Will of God”.
“God our Saviour will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4).
“God chose us before the foundation of the world and determined from all eternity that we should be His adopted children” (Eph 1:4-5).
We are free to accept or not, to be saved or not.
“For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son; that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren. And whom he predestinated, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Rom 8:29-30).
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34).
“And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect which he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days” (Mk 13:20).
“You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain” (Jn 15:16).
“Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom” (Lk 12:32).
This temptation concerning predestination and salvation is so serious that the Church, since the Council of Trent, in the middle of the 16th century, at the time of the Protestant Reformation, clearly condemns those who hold that the grace of justification is attained only by those predestined unto eternal life, and that all the rest, although they are called, do not receive grace, as being predestined unto evil by the divine power. Those who think thus were condemned in this Council (cf. Denz. 827).
In summary, God predestines the good to Heaven, but He never predestines the wicked to Hell. Condemnation comes about because the sinner does not repent of his sin and persists in that attitude until the moment of his death.
By virtue of the universal salvific will of God (a term which means that God wills all human beings to be saved) and, in view of the merits of Christ, God offers to all of us —without exception— the necessary and sufficient helps —superabundant, even— so that we may all be saved.
If we take advantage of all the graces of salvation that God continually and superabundantly pours out upon each one of us, through prayer, through the Sacraments (especially Confession and Holy Communion), and through the teachings of His Church, our final goal will be Heaven, not Hell.
Hence, as early as the year 855, at the Third Council of Valence, the Church proclaimed: “And we do not believe that the wicked perished because they could not be good, but because they would not be good” (Denz. 321)
But let us look at another detail: divine predestination is a wholly and absolutely gratuitous grace, which no one can merit.
“No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him” (Jn 6:44).
“You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain” (Jn 15:16).
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
“For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will” (Phil 2:13).
“Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24).
“So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom 9:16).
“What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Cor 4:7).
Well, then, does the Magisterium of the Church rightly say, according to the Council of Quiercy (year 855):
“Almighty God will have all men without exception to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), although not all are saved. Now then, that some are saved is the gift of Him who saves; but that some are lost is the merit of those who are lost” (Denz. 318).
Source: Círculos teológicos BuenaNueva.net
