So in the Unbelievable discussion between James White and William Lane Craig, White objected that there isn’t some ‘essence of James White’ that existed before creation for God to know what ‘James White’ would do in any given circumstances. He also suggested that if he had been born in a different time, place and physical body then he would have different desires – he would not be the same ‘James White’, contra any theoretical ‘essence’ that would be the same basis for the person of ‘James White’ in any given world.
I’d like to run off that with respect to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. Calvinists make much of the fact that Jesus’ betrayal is prophesied in Scripture (Psalm 41:9), portraying it as Judas having been chosen and even made into the ‘son of perdition’ by God’s sovereign decision. To which I usually ask, why is it that Judas is never specifically named in prophecy when someone like Cyrus is (Isaiah 45:1)? Seems to me that ANYONE with the suitable personality (disloyal, loves money, etc) could have been the one who betrays Jesus!
But could ANYONE have been put into Judas’ place instead, and the same end result obtained? Woud you or I have acted differently? In order to run this thought experiment at the extremes, let’s use one of the most revered and respected people in the Bible – Mary, blessed mother of Jesus.
IF the person whom we know in this actualized world as Mary had been placed as the twelfth disciple of Jesus, instead of becoming the mother of Jesus – tweak the parameters however you want to make it happen, say Mary was born a generation later and male and into a family of a hardcore Sicarii! – WOULD Mary have similarly betrayed Jesus?
Of course we could never know for sure, but I think this is a potentially fruitful pondering to go deeper with. If we do NOT think that Mary would have done the same betrayal as Judas despite being put in the exact same situation, then we are claiming that purely genetics and environment do NOT fully determine a person’s thoughts, decisions and actions (which is what physicalist atheists affirm btw).
Or as a formula:
Judas + Specific genetics X & environment Y & circumstances Z = Does betray Jesus
Mary + Specific genetics X & environment Y & circumstances Z = Does NOT betrays Jesus
In other words, we would hold that each person DOES have a different set of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom – something that makes them ‘them’, call it a soul, essence, personhood, whatever.
Although God performs the soveriegn act of determining people’s circumstances (Acts 17:26), this does NOT entail or equal God deterministically controlling what each person would FREELY choose in any given circumstances. To reject this conclusion is to say that yes, Mary WOULD have betrayed Jesus if she had replaced Judas in some other world!
And inversely, I have suggested that under Calvinism and its unilateral, unconditional reprobation, Mary who is the mother of Jesus in our actualized world COULD have been chosen by God to be made into the ‘son of perdition’ who betrays Jesus! After all, since Psalm 41:9 does not name the person, ANYONE could have been sovereignly picked by God to be the ‘son of perdition’. [To which thus far, nobody has clearly either affirmed or denied the notion (you can see the conundrums raised either way they choose!) but instead diverted from the question – similar to how James White costantly dodges the issue of whether God is the author of evil, yes or no, which has similar conundrums for him whichever way he answers!]
And if it is conceivable that someone (such as Mary) would not have betrayed Jesus in any feasible world she was placed in… Then is it conceivable that someone like Judas would deny Christ in any feasible world – the basics of transworld damnation. (Arguing from Mary, the mother of Jesus to transworld damnation… Who woulda thought?!)
NB: I am not sold on the idea of transworld damnation yet. Partly because of passages like Matthew 11:21-23 if taken at face value seem to imply that those cities WOULD have repented, IF Jesus had come to them.
THE SCOTTTCAST 