Predestination vs. Free Will: Is God Sovereign?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]God's sovereignty is limited by human freedom. Have you ever heard that, beloved? That's that's not that's not good theology. That's blasphemy.

[00:00:14]Cuz you say that God's sovereignty is limited by your freedom. Who's sovereign?

[00:00:22]You are.

[00:00:25]You are given now autonomy.

[00:00:28]You're given freedom that exceeds the freedom of God himself.

[00:00:34]>> What in the Calvinistic things are we talking about here?

[00:00:40]This was a popular argument amongst Christians when I was growing up.

[00:00:45]Whether or not you actually have free will or are you predestined? Did God predestined to know exactly what you would choose? Since God is all knowing, he already knows what you would choose.

[00:00:57]So therefore, you were already pre-programmed or predestined to make every decision that you are currently making. I, Lorenzo Reed, was predestined, predetermined by this God before I was swimming in my daddy's big nuts. I was predestined to walk away and not believe in Jesus.

[00:01:22]So therefore, I was predestined according to the will of this God that I am to burn in an entire in an eternal lake of fire forever. He made me to burn for his joy.

[00:01:42]Now on the other side of that, the way I was raised, the way I was brought up in a Baptist church, you have a choice. You have freedom of choice. Your destiny has not been pre-ordained. I could turn right now and [clears throat] say that I believe in Jesus. Jesus is my savior.

[00:02:03]Save me, Jesus. Let me into your father's house. Show me the room that has been prepared for me. I could say that and then I could believe it and then I can live it demonstrating that it is a true turning of the cheek, a true becoming a new creature.

[00:02:26]So I have the power to decide my fate, to decide my future, to decide my eternal situation. God doesn't have that power to determine that. So which is it? Do you see where the debate comes into play? If God is sovereign and God is all knowing and God is eternal, then God already knows what I'm choosing. So therefore, I am predestined. But if I have the power to make up my own mind and choose my own destiny, then I have powers that God can't have.

[00:03:02]So what is the excuse? Well, the excuse is God gave up his sovereignty. God allows you to have free will. God gives you the option.

[00:03:17]He he he second bases his power. He puts it, you know, on the second tier. He's not the AllNBA first team. He takes that part and put it on the AllNBA third team so that you have choice.

[00:03:31]But then the question begs, what if I was born to a family that practiced Islam? What if I was born in a country that outlawed Christianity? What if I was born before the time frame of Jesus in a place that never heard of Yahweh such as West Africa or in the Americas or in Australia?

[00:03:55]I would have never heard of this God. So then how is this God sovereign? How would I have had a choice? They say that the will of God or the understanding of this God is written on your heart. Yet, if that's the case, then how did so many people develop all these other religions, all these other gods, these other traditions? Some of these things go outrightly different than the God of the Bible. I mean, some of them didn't use oils. They didn't have oils. So, why would they use oils for anointing?

[00:04:30]They wouldn't have done it. Some of them didn't have accasha trees and things of that nature. So, how would they know how to build an ark? How would they know these? They would not. Some of them had rules that are different. Legal rules.

[00:04:44]Totally different. Do not boil a baby's mother, a baby cow in his mother's milk.

[00:04:51]What about the ones who didn't have cows at all or goats? those animals didn't exist in their area. You see what I'm saying? It doesn't work.

[00:05:03]So, what this Calvinist preacher is going to say next is basically everyone is predestined.

[00:05:12]>> Here's one even worse.

[00:05:15]God saves as many people as he possibly can.

[00:05:26]You know, he'd like to save everybody.

[00:05:30]He does the best he can.

[00:05:35]But if he would work in your heart to change your heart without your permission, he'd be violating your freedom.

[00:05:46]And so God can't save you unless you want to be saved.

[00:05:54]On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus did not ask Christ to save him.

[00:06:00]>> Now, I find this piece of rhetoric even more disturbing than the first. Now, we're going to work a little bit backwards from this one. Paul of Tarsus had no choice. Jesus showed up according to the story according to Luke, not according to Paul. Paul never told this story. This is a story that was told by Luke. So therefore, it's a story that's most likely was legendized by those who were followers of Paul so that it gives Paul the authority that he needs in order to claim that he is a messenger from Jesus. kind of putting himself in a position where Jesus according to some the other writers said that I will send the messenger and that messenger be the Holy Spirit and Paul acting as the Holy Spirit the same as Muslims claim that Muhammad is the last messenger the final messenger but I digress Paul didn't get a choice Jesus showed up and showed out knocked him off his horse blinded him for three days and then taught him everything that he needed to know Paul didn't have a choice You see, this viewpoint is an isolationist viewpoint, an isolationist argument that you will hear from many Christians over and over again. That God desires to save everyone. Not that he can't save everyone, but he simply desires to do so. From the Calvinistic point of view, God has already chosen everyone that he is going to save. So everyone who has come in contact with with Jesus, know Jesus, hear the Bible, read the Bible, go to church, born into a Christian family, God had already predetermined those were going to be be the accounts of your life.

[00:07:46]And that explains for them why God never showed up to the Mesoamericans in 1200.

[00:07:54]Why this God Jesus never showed up to the Mesoamericans in 1,00 BCE?

[00:08:02]Why he wasn't walking across the barren straits 15,000 years ago during the last ice age. Why he never showed up to the Aboriginals until the Europeans showed up there. Why my ancestors were worshiping Oshune and Oun and Mamawata and Esau I mean Essu for tens of thousands of years before Jesus ever shows up before Yahweh ever shows up never heard of him because according to the Calvinists those people were never meant to be with God. They were never meant to be with the God of the Bible.

[00:08:48]Jesus doesn't show up to them for around 1500 years after he dies.

[00:08:55]So he never meant for those ancestors of mine to ever be with him. Simply the ones who hear about it through colonization and slavery. Just them.

[00:09:06]Just them. See, this is an isolationist mentality. And even when the Christian who is not a Calvinist try to argue this point that God will every everyone will hear the word of God where they know that this story cannot be true that this process cannot be true because everyone will not hear the Bible. It's an impossibility. Even in 2026 it is still an impossibility that everyone will hear or read the Bible.

[00:09:34]Go to Saudi Arabia. Millions upon millions of people have never read the Bible.

[00:09:41]Go there. Go to the mountains of Tibet.

[00:09:44]They have never heard of the Bible, the Christian Bible. You have people in the Himalayas. They ain't never heard of you. So, no. This is just utter nonsense and The whole deal, the whole kitten kaboodleoodle. It's an isolationist mentality.