Over the
past 2000 years, the Orthodox Church has granted the title of “Theologian” to
only three Saints: St. John the Apostle,
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, and
St.
Symeon the New Theologian was born in Galatia in the
year 949. He was educated in Constantinople, and became abbot of the
monastery of St. Mamas. He
reposed on March 12, 1022.
St.
Symeon produced many writings which have been well received within the Orthodox
Church. In his second Ethical Discourse,
he discusses a number of topics, including St. Paul’s doctrine of
predestination: On the Saying “Those Whom He Foreknew, The Same He Also Predestined”
“Predestination” is an excuse for sloth: God
calls everyone to repentance
I have
heard many people say: “Because the Apostle says; ‘Those whom God foreknew, the
same He also predestined; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and
those whom He called, the same also glorified‘ [Romans 8:29-30] what good is it
to me if I throw myself into many labors, if I give proof of repentance and
conversion, when I am neither foreknown nor predestined by God to be saved and
conformed to the glory of God His Son?”
We are
naturally obliged to state our opinion clearly to such people, and to reply: O,
you! Why do you reason to your own perdition rather than your salvation? And
why do you pick out for yourselves the obscure passages of inspired Scripture
and then tear them out of context and twist them in order to accomplish your
own destruction? Do you not hear the Savior crying out every day: “As I live …
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from
his way and live” [Ezekiel 33:11]? Do you not hear Him Who says: “Repent, for
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” [Matthew 3:2]; and again: “Just so, I tell
you, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” [Luke 15:7, adapted]?
Did He ever say to som: “Do not repent for I will not accept you,” while to
others who were predestined: “But you, repent! because I knew you beforehand”?
Of course not! Instead, throughout the world and in every church He shouts:
“Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”
[Matthew 11:28]. Come, He says, all you who are burdened with many sins, to the
One Who takes away the sin of the world; come all who thirst to the fountain
which flows and never dies.
In the
10th century A.D., St. Symeon wrote about Predestination from an Orthodox
perspective
Does He
distinguish and separate anyone out, calling one to Himself as foreknown while
sending the other away as not predestined? Never! Therefore, “you should not
make excuses for your sins” [Psalm 140:4, LXX], nor should you want to make the
Apostle’s words an occasion for your own destruction, but should run, all of
you, to the Master Who calls you. For even if someone is a publican, or a
fornicator, an adulterer, a murderer, or whatever else, the Master does not
turn him away, but takes away the burden of his sins immediately and makes him
free. And how does He take away the other’s burden? Just as He once took away
that of the paralytic when He said to the latter: “My son, your sins are
forgiven” [Matthew 9:2], and the man was immediately relieved of his burden
and, in addition, received the cure of his body.
So then,
let everyone who wants approach Him, and let the one say: “Son of David, have
mercy on me“; and, if he hears, “What do you want Me to do for you?” let him
say quickly, “Lord, let me receive my sight,” and right away he will hear, “So
I desire. Receive your sight” [Luke 18:38-42]. Let another say, “Lord, my
daughter“–i.e. my soul–“is severely possessed by a demon” [Matthew 15:22], and
he will hear: “I will come to heal her” [Matthew 8:7]. If someone is hesitant
and does not wish to approach the Master, even if He comes to him and says,
“Follow Me” [Matthew 9:9], then let him follow Him as the publican once did,
abandoning his counting tables and his avarice, and, I am sure, He shall make
of him, too, an evangelist rather than a tax collector. If someone else is a
paralytic, lying for years in sloth, carelessness, and love of pleasure, and if
he should see another, be it the Master Himself or one of His disciples, come
to him and ask, “Do you want to be healed?” [John 5:2-7], let him receive the
word joyfully and reply immediately: “Yes, Lord, but I have no man to put me
into the pool of repentance.” And then if he should hear, “Rise, take up your
bed, and follow me,” let him get up right away and run after the footsteps of
the One Who has called him from on high.
Now, if
someone does not wish, whether like the sinful woman to embrace the feet of
Christ [Luke 7:38], or like the prodigal son to run back to Him with burning
repentance [Luke 15:11ff], or like the woman with a hemorrhage and bowed with
infirmity [Luke 8:43 and 13:11] even to approach Him, why does he then make
excuses for his sins by saying, “Those whom He foreknew, them also“–and them
alone!–“He called“?
One may
perhaps reasonably reply to the person so disposed that “God, Who is before
eternity and Who knows all things before creating them, also knew you
beforehand, knew that you would not obey Him when He called, that you would not
believe in His promises and in His words, yet still, even while knowing this,
He “bowed the heavens and came down” [Psalm 18:19] and became man, and for your
sake has come to the place where you lie prone. Indeed, visiting you many times
every day, sometimes in His own Person and sometimes as well through His
servants, He exhorts you to get up from the calamity in which you lie and to
follow Him Who ascends to the Kingdom of Heaven and enter it together with Him.
But you, you still refuse to do it.
Then tell
me, who is responsible for your perdition and disobedience? You, who refuse to
obey and who will not follow your Master, or God Himself Who made you, Who knew
beforehand that you would not obey Him, but would instead abide in your
hardened and impenitent heart? I think that you will certainly say, “He is not
responsible, but I am myself,” because God’s forbearance is not the cause of
our hardness, Rather, it is our own lack of compliance.
Example of the emperor and the arena: God’s
foreknowledge
For God
knows all things beforehand, both past and present at once, and everything
which is going to happen in the future up to the end of the world. He sees them
as already present, because in and through Him all things hold together
[Colossians 1:17]. Indeed, just as today the emperor takes in with a glance
those who race and who wrestle in the area, but does not thereby make himself
responsible for the victory of the winners or the failure of the losers–the
zeal, or in other cases the slackness, of the contestants being cause of their
victory or defeat–understand with me that it is just so with God Himself. When
He endowed us with free will, giving commandments to teach us instead how we
must oppose our adversaries, He left it to the free choice of each either to
oppose and vanquish the enemy, or to relax and be miserably defeated by him.
Nor does He leave us entirely to ourselves–for He knows the weakness of human
nature–but rather is present Himself with us and, indeed, allies Himself with
those who choose to struggle, and mysteriously imbues us with strength, and
Himself, not we, accomplishes the victory over the adversary. This the earthly
emperor is unable to do, since he is himself also a man, and is rather in need
himself of assistance, just as we require it, too.
God, on
the other hand, Who is mighty and invincible, becomes, as we just said, an ally
of those who willingly choose to do battle with the enemy, and He establishes
them as victors over the cunning of the devil. He does not, however, compel any
who do not so choose to this war, in order that He not destroy the power of
choice which is proper to our reasoning nature, made according to His own
image, and bring us down to the level of unreasoning brutes. Thus God, as we
have explained, sees us all at once as if in an arena, just like the earthly
emperor looks down on the athletes in competition. But, while the latter does
not know who will lose and who will win until he sees the outcome of their
contest and, though he may prepare the victors’ crowns beforehand, he still does
not know to whom he is going to present them; the King of Heaven, on the other
hand, knows from before the ages exactly who the victors and vanquished are
going to be. This is why He said to those who asked Him if they could sit at
His right hand and His left in His glory: “It is not mine to give to you”
[Matthew 20:23], but that it will be given instead to those for whom it was
prepared.
God does not compel
This
therefore what Paul himself also knew when he said rightly:
Those whom God foreknew, the same He also
predestined; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He
called, the same He also glorified. [Romans 8:29-30]
It is not
God’s foreknowledge of those who, by their free choice and zeal, will prevail
which is the cause of their victory, just as, again, it is not His knowing
beforehand who will fall and be vanquished which is responsible for their
defeat. Instead, it is the zeal, deliberate choice, and courage of each of us
which effects the victory. Our faithlessness and sloth, our irresolution and
indolence, on the other hand, comprise our defeat and perdition. So, while
reclining on our bed of worldly affection and love of pleasure, let us not say:
“Those whom God fore-knew, them also He predestined,” without perceiving just
what it is we are saying. Yes, indeed, He truly knew you beforehand as
inattentive and disobedient and lazy, but this is certainly not because He
ordered or foreordained it that you should have no power to repent yourself
nor, if you will it, to get up and obey. You, though, when you say this, are
clearly calling God a liar. While He says, “I came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance” [Matthew 9:13], you, lazy and unwilling to turn
around and repent of your evil, contradict Him, as it were, and call Him a liar
Who never lies, when you make such excuses as these. “Those who are going to
repent”, you say, “were predestined, but I am not one of them. So, let them
repent therefore whom God clearly foreknew, and whom He also predestined.” O what
a lack of feeling! O shamelessness of soul and worse than the demons
themselves! When did anyone ever hear of one of them saying such a thing? Where
was it ever heard that a demon blamed God for its own damnation? Let us then
not blame the demons, for here there is a human soul which thinks up
blasphemies even worse than theirs.
So tell
me, where did you learn that you did not belong to those who are foreknown and
predestined to become conformed to the image of God’s glory? Tell me, who told
you this? Was it, maybe, God Who announced this to you, Himself, or by one of
His prophets, or through an angel? “No,” you say, “but I do suppose that I am
not predestined to salvation, and that all my effort would be in vain.” And why
do you not believe instead with all your soul that God has sent His
only-begotten Son on the earth for your sake alone, and for your salvation,
that He knew you beforehand and predestined you to become His brother and
co-heir? Why are you not eager to love Him with all your heart and to honor His
saving commandments? Why do you not rather believe that, having been
slaughtered for your sake, He will never abandon you, nor allow you to perish?
Do you not hear Him saying: “Can a woman forget her suckling child . . . yet I
will not forget you” [Isaiah 49:15]? So, if by anticipation you judge yourself
unworthy, and willfully separate yourself from the flock of Christ’s sheep, you
should understand that it is none other than you who are the cause of your own
damnation.
Therefore,
casting out of our souls all faithlessness, sloth, and hesitation, let us draw
near with all our heart, with unhesitating faith and burning desire, like
slaves who have been newly purchased with precious blood. Indeed, with
reverence for the price paid on our behalf, and with love for our Master Who
paid it, and as having accepted His love for us, let us recognize that, if He
had not wished to save by means of Himself us who have been purchased, He would
not have come down to earth, nor would He have been slain for our sake. But, as
it is written, He has done this because He wills that all should be saved.
Listen to Him say it Himself: “I did not come to judge the world, but to save
the world” [John 12:17].
By Fr Joseph Gleason
Source: https://theorthodoxlife.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/orthodox-predestination-st-symeon/#comment-4135
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