TED Talk

TED Talk Outline: Defining Destiny

1. Give background information on how I found the topic (start the narrative structure)
   1. Ask audience if they believe in destiny, and to define it if they can
   2. Quickly explain soteriology (beliefs on salvation), eschatology (beliefs on the afterlife and the End of Times), how my research from Honors 101 and desire to originally go to seminary has led me here.
2. Quickly define Arminianism and Calvinism regarding free-will theology/predestination
   1. Arminianism = focus on God’s grace and free-will to decide your life/salvation
   2. Calvinism = God’s sovereign power and predestination to decide your life/salvation.
3. Showcase most important/interesting source or idea from each perspective
   1. “Infinite now of eternities” (Rice 122, 124).
      1. God who reacts and adjust to people’s decisions, sees all possibilities, recommends the best path, God is outside of time
      2. Even after ignoring God’s best path, he recommends a new plan
   2. “Acute personalization of Grace” (Habets 337).
      1. Predestination is able to happen because God’s power allows him to choose who is elected
      2. By electing certain individuals, God automatically creates a personalized relationship with that individual, and God is not cold or exclusive, by loving because he reaches out to humans first.
      3. It is “a very awful thing, to be in the immediate presence of God” (Hindmarsh 386-388). [God’s power creates a purifying grace]
4. I realized that the question of God’s character is about three variables:
   1. Sovereignty, grace, and justice
   2. How do these variable interact?
      1. Mutually exclusive?
         1. All cannot exist together, Old Testament God, Revelation
      2. Mutually inclusive
         1. God’s grace is dependent on His power (Calvinist Perspective)
      3. Disjoint/independent
         1. The variables can work together, but do not rely on one another
   3. How does scripture support these perspectives?
5. What do we believe today and why is it important to evaluate?
   1. Rid us of condemnation for others and love as Christ did
   2. Create an increasingly accepting faith able to work closer with secular societies (as Christ ate with sinners)
   3. Give believers themselves the ability to forgive and walk in this grace, rather than focusing on acts of evangelism, tithing, discipleship, etc. Grace comes first, then forgiveness and confidence in Christ, then His fruits. “Faith without works is dead”.