Think Wink.

At Theology for the Masses, I posted a comment by Fleming Rutledge in his commentary on “The Lord of the Rings” called “The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings.” I was skimming through it again last night as I was going to sleep and found this rathern lengthy discussion about predesintation. I found it to be rather interesting as Tolkien strikes me as one who would not hold to any form of predestination. That just goes to show you that I really don’t know the guy (or the long shot the Rutledge doesn’t but I am going to say that I am the problem there). Rutledge says,

We first heard of the dead and their destined role back at the Hornburg, when Aragorn told Legolas and Gimli what he saw in the palantir. It does not detract from Aragorn’s courage in the least to say that he has been strengthened for the dreadful journey by his knowledge that he is the one appointed to take this path. He knows that he is the one who must summon the oath-breakers to the Stone of Erech, erected by Isildur long ago. Thus the will of Aragorn has brought Grey Company to the Paths of the Dead is not entirely his own; another will had chosen him from the days of his forebears — if not before.

Let us pause to examine the call of Jeremiah in the Old Testament.

The word of the Lord came to me [Jeremiah] saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; appointed you a prophet to the nations…to all whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you you shall speak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliever you says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 1:4-8)

Does anyone think that Jeremiah is any less a person because of his call? On the contrary, he is the most vivid personality in the Old Testament, the one we know the most intimately. He has been embraced by Bible readers of our time because he has let us see his personal struggles. St. Paul is the same: he writes that God “set me apart before I was born” (Galatians 1:15). DO either of these men lack freedom? It is striking that the two biblical people we know best, Jeremiah in the Old Testament and Paul in the New, both insist that they are creatures of predestination. They seem MORE human and complex, rather than less — the very opposite of puppets. I am making the case that Aragorn, who knows that he, as the Heir of Isildur, is predestined to undo the damage Isildur unleashed upon Middle-earth when he failed to destroy the Ring, is actually finding his true self as more and more of his destiny is revealed to him. That it costs him dearly we already know — he has told his companions that the ordeal of the palantir was worse than the battle of Helm’s Deep — but we also see him coming more and more into his own.– “The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in THE LORD OF THE RINGS,” Fleming Rutledge pg. 266-267.

I was very impressed with this quote, a lot more than the one posted at Theology for the Masses. I had never really been able to express how a person still has a will that makes real decisions and yet be predestined to be conformed to Christ. It really helped me understand how Romans 8:29-30 actually works. I hope that it helps you understand or at least gets you to question the validity of predestination.

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