Theological Determinism
One way of ensuring
that the Bible contains all the words God intended would be by appealing to theological
determinism, which is the view that every event has been guaranteed to have
been given some aspect or attribute of God, either his will or his foreknowledge.
Theological determinism enables us to quickly solve the puzzle of how Scripture
can be both the words of God and the words of human beings. The answer is that
God determined that the human authors wrote down exactly what he wanted them to
write, and so Scripture is a product of both humans and God. Usually those who
make this sort of claim endorse a view known as compatibilism, which
claims that humans can be free and responsible even though their actions have
been determined by God. So, the human authors freely wrote down what they did,
but God guaranteed that the words of Scripture are as he intended them to be
because he determined that the human authors acted according to his divine
will.
There are some concerns
over this approach. The first, of course, comes from those who reject theological
determinism. Some reject is for purely philosophical reasons, usually offering
arguments for incompatibilism, which claims that human freedom and
responsibility are incompatible with determinism. Given incompatibilism, if the
human authors wrote their part of the Bible down freely, then their actions
cannot have been determined by God; and if God determined their actions, then
they cannot have acted freely
Another concern
raised against theological determinism is in the difficulty of squaring the
view of the so-called problem of evil. That is, of God could determine human
actions such that he could guarantee that people act exactly as he wants while
retaining human freedom then how could there be any evil in this world since
God could guarantee that all human beings choose what is good? Moreover, if God
could ensure that everyone would freely choose hum, then why do some people end
up in hell? Because of this last problem, some argue that theological determinism
implies universalism, that everyone will eventually make it to heaven . . .
Given these considerations, some philosophers argue that an incompatibilist
view of human freedom allows for a more promising way of responding to the
problem of evil (though this claim is quite contentious!)
Considerations of
free will aside, there is another reason why we think appealing to theological determinism
is not a satisfactory theory, or at least why it provides an incomplete answer
to divine inspiration even if one accepts theological determinism. For, if theological
determinism is true, then God not only determined the words of Scripture but
also the words of The Odyssey and The Divine Comedy [RB: or
the foundational works of false religions, like Islam’s Qur’an or the theological works of John Thomas], for God determined that Homer (or whoever the author
was) and Dante would write exactly what they did—especially if one believes
that God determined every action and event in the world. But clearly the latter
two works, great as they are, are not inspired in the same sense that Scripture
is said to be inspired. So merely determining what the biblical authors wrote
does not by itself provide an adequate theory of inspiration, even if it
ensures that they wrote exactly what God wanted—for that would be true for
every author and every book, especially if God determines every human action.
So theological determinism requires significant supplement if it is to work as
a viable theory of divine inspiration. (Stephen T. Davis and Eric T. Yang, An
Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology: Faith Seeking Understanding [Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2020], 40-41)
Further Reading
Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
