THE ULTIMATE VIDEO GAME

  Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

                Video games are very popular. I have tried my had at several video games over the years, although I fall far short of being a gamer. The best video games are the ones that take strategy and require the player to make choices, which affect the outcome of the game.

                Video games are designed to give the player multiple options. Each choice opens up a different pathway that the gamer can follow. Some pathways lead to victory and others lead to defeat. The gamer doesn’t know which is which until he or she has traveled down the path. When a gamer enters a game, they are free to make their own choices, even though the programmer has determined ahead of time the outcome of those choices.

                One of the great debates in Christian theology is the debate between free will and predestination. This debate is often cast in very black and white terms, with no middle ground. As I read the Bible, I am convinced that there is a middle path that acknowledges both sides of the equation without negating either one.

                There are many classic verses that are used to support the concept of predestination. Romans 8:29-30 is one example. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. This passage seems to clearly teach that God predestines our lives.

                There are also passages that suggest that God has given to us free will, and has allowed us to choose our own pathway. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 is an example of this side of the equation. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In this passage, God, through Moses, is clearly giving the people of Israel a real choice.

                So which is it; free will or predestination? I would like to suggest that video games may give us a clue to discovering a middle way. As beings, created in the image of God, we have been given the gift of consciousness. We are self-conscious, in the sense that we are aware of ourselves as distinct, unique beings. Our self-consciousness allows us to evaluate our surroundings and choose the course of action we want to take. This is an act of free will, which reflects the free will of our Heavenly Father. Without free will, there are really no choices, no real options, only preprogrammed responses to certain stimuli.

                Given that we have the gift of free will, we do not have control over the outcome of our choices. Here is where the illustration of a video game comes into play. I believe that God has designed the world like a video programmer. He has designed the world with real choices that affect the pathway that a person will travel. At the same time, he has predetermined the outcome of those choices. Rather than leading us toward victory or defeat, each choice is leading us closer or father away from God. Every choice we make will send us in one of those two directions. If I take choice A, it will lead me to sin, pain, and hurt. If I take choice B, it will lead me to joy, grace, and fulfillment.

                To clarify my point, I believe that God has determined in advance the outcomes of the choices we make, but has given us the freedom to make our own choice. If we go back to Deuteronomy 30, we see Moses clearly laying out the outcome of the choices before the people of Israel. Then he calls them to choose their path. In the same way, I believe that God continually sets before us choices with predetermined outcomes and then invites us to choose.

                C.S. Lewis touched on this idea when he said that each choice we make is shaping us into the being we will be in eternity. We are either becoming more and more like Christ or less and less like Christ. The good news is that with every choice we make God’s grace is available. No matter how far down the wrong path we have taken, there is always an off ramp that can redirect our lives back toward God. God is at work within us, guiding and directing us through the Holy Spirit, but we still have the option to make our own choice, for which we will be responsible.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)