Time and Predestination vs Free-Will

I was in a group of girls sharing the lessons which we've learned in Malachi. On listening to S' sharing, I acted on my impulse to ask her if she is a Calvinist.

I immediately knew that it was an unhelpful question when another group member asked what a Calvinist is. Seeing that I was not articulate verbally, S took on the responsibility of treading carefully in giving a summary of Calvinism vs Arminianism while emphasizing that the truth of salvation lies solely in trust in Christ rather than the position we take on this debate.

It was when S was expressing the idea that although it often looks like we are making the choice to believe in Him, from God's perspective, it's really His sovereign choice which chooses us first which enabled us; that a thought struck me.

From God's perspective, this emphasizes how differently God sees things from us. No matter how capable, effective and efficient we are, we are still bound by the dimensions of this world: limits including time and space.

CS Lewis makes the point more clearly than I ever could in his book "Mere Christianity", Chapter "Time and Beyond Time":

"God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. ... Every moment from the beginning of the world is always Present for Him. ......

Suppose I am writing a novel. I write Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door!" For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is not interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary's maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spent in doing so would not appear in Mary's time (the time inside the story) at all.

... God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world."

Are you beginning to see as I had glimpsed that beginning of an idea of how the concept of predestination can be counciled with the concept of free-will? Every moment that comes to us one after another that becomes our Past, Present and Future is NOW to Him. If we try to put on His shoes (which are much too big for me), it is because He chooses us NOW, therefore in the book of our lives, we were able to surrender ourselves totally to Him from that Moment we chose to believe.

Free-will and the choice it allows can only be meaningfully made in each moment, within the dimension of time. Outside of time and space, when we are in the absolute NOW (as we one day will when He comes again), there just cannot be a choice - it's either eternal goodness or unending suffering.*

Both concepts, of predestination and free-will, can be correct. It just depends on which angle we look at, the perspective of chronos, within time, or of kairos, outside of time in God's reality.

The question is where are we choosing to live in the absolute NOW with every decision made in each moment as we live now in chronos? In eternal goodness expressing characteristics of our citizenship of heaven or in unending suffering?

*: Haven't you experience the timelessness of moments when we have intense experiences and how it seems to colour the rest of your life?

Intense pain: Betrayal by your best friend (How could she? I trust her so much...); the awful realization that the person on the pedestal you've trusted totally is actually nearer the spawn of the devil (How could I be so blind? I even have had $1,000s/$1,000,000s loaned to him/her/I nearly want to marry him/her); the constant repression/nagging/abuse from your beloved where your life becomes repetitive suffering and you look back with horror when 'yes' was given to marriage (That was the biggest mistake of my entire life....)

Intense bliss: Seeing a child rocking on a baby rocking chair, with sunlight pouring in and drinking milk from a bottle (so safe, so secure); the moment you realize the love of your life reciprocates your feelings (so beloved); the moment you realize God's love when he took on your punishment so that we may always be in the stronghold of Someone absolutely loving, just and merciful (so precious).