The idea of predestination is not something that theologians pulled out of thin air. It is something that is written about in depth. Sitting on a couch pondering navel lint and predestination won’t give a man a good understanding of what it is. Assuming that predestination is single or double without reading the text of scripture isn’t gonna help a guy understand it at all.
Predestination is one of the hardest concepts to understand in scripture. We live downstream of many thinkers and it’s hard for us to wade through all of the logic. I few years ago I finally found a good place to start. It was helpful to contrast the views of Calvin and Luther on this subject. Platonic and Aristotelian logic also influences our modern understanding. This doesn’t come to a man while sitting on a couch gazing at his navel while having an esoteric experience.
Free will. Being born into sin, inheriting a sinful nature, committing sin, not seeking God (no one seeks God; Romans), dead in trespasses and sin, how can a man consider that he has a free will? What is that freedom? Do you mean a fully free will that had full knowledge of good and evil? Is a fallen man capable of making a pure moral choice? What are the confines and ability of a fallen sinful will? What binds it? What limits it? Is the human will capable of free fully informed moral agency? Is the human will limited by the fact that we are born sinful? How can a dead man know a thing?
