The word 'fate'
comes from the Latin word fatum,
which broadly translates as 'God's judgment'. Therefore, the foreordained plan
of our lives, which we call fate, is in fact the fulfillment of God's will with
regard to each human being.
With that said, Orthodox
theology has never supported the idea of fate as a steadfast course that we're
bound to follow. Of course, God knows everything there has ever been,
everything there is, and everything there will be. There is no moment in time
hidden from the Creator. However, God's omniscience isn't binding.
Saint John of
Damascus writes, "You must be aware that God knows everything in advance
but He doesn't predestine everything."
The Holy Fathers
say that God doesn't prescribe our actions; instead, He foreknows them. What
does it mean? First of all, if there is a total predestination, there is no
place for our freedom. If everything is foreordained, there isn't anything in
our lives that depends on us. If we are meant to perish, we surely will,
regardless of whether we do good or bad. In other words, if our 'fate' is to go
to hell, there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Hence, we might as well do
nothing, given that it doesn't matter if we follow God's commandments or not,
if we love God and our neighbor or not.
The Orthodox Church
has always rejected this line of thinking. Human freedom is a most important
principle in the relationship between man and God. Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon
says that freedom is the greatest gift of the Creator, and that's why God will
never intrude on human freedom.
Consequently, our
fate depends solely on whether we use our freedom to serve God and people or to
serve sin. Our eternal destiny doesn't depend on an arbitrary decision or sheer
luck. It depends on how we use our freedom—this great God's gift that we
received at the moment of creation.
By Andrei Muzolf, an associate professor
of Kiev Theological Academy
Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds
Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/sushchestvuet-li-ponyatie-sudba-ot-kotoroy-ne-uydesh
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