The Theory of Choice - Part Two

Case Study and Consequences

First - though I will provide a very high level overview up front, it will be very helpful to have read the first part of this topic - it can be found here.

The basic elements of choice (whether “reactive” or “proactive”; subconscious or conscious), in brief are:

• moral intuition – this is the generic term for what most would refer to as the soul. The term in Hebrew is one of the most difficult words to translate. It is used (625 times) but has caused Hebrew scholars much consternation – resulting in some 70 different translations of the word. The most common: life/lives (180); person/persons/people (90); and soul (238). Included in the understanding (and therefore some of the ways it is translated) are desires, passions, appetites and emotions. The equivalent Greek term is “psuchē” a word with unknown etymology. Here it is intended to refer to the most basic, often underlying, determination of right and wrong, or even of degrees of value – though giving it that much structure may over-state how core it is. Subconsciousness or maybe pre-consciousness may best serve our purposes. Its functioning can be seen in children at very early ages.

• principle – a fundamental and comprehensive law, doctrine or assumption; a rule or code of conduct. Typically developed as a result of experiences that are aligned with one’s morality.

• values (both of the options and of the resources) –

  • the resources’ values are based on availability and applicability; wherein scarce resources, with a variety of applications, typically are treated as being most valuable.

  • the options’ values are a reflection of perceived utility (with utility being defined as the ability to produce a needed, wanted, or desired result at acceptable levels of resource depletion) when considered alongside other known options. So, if both “A” and “B” result in the desired outcome, the option with more preferred ancillary benefits would likely be selected.

• priority – technically this is a reference to that which comes first in time or sequence: what is prior; a precedence; a preferential ranking that allocates rights to resources

• decision/choice – the determination of the resources to be expended after the consideration, either implicitly or explicitly, of all relevant options, as evidenced by an action or series of actions.

• feedback – (both incremental and analytical)

  • the step by step acknowledgement of and reflection on the elements of decision making with the intent of identifying biases and heuristics that may in fact facilitate unwarranted expectations of either resource budget or outcome probabilities.

  • the analysis of resources expenditures and outcomes both generically (i.e. alternative expenditures or acceptable outcomes) and specifically (i.e. how the initial “budget” and expectations compare to actual results) that enable the objective evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of a process or an element of the process relative to its intended purpose.

I want to make sure that I note that though these elements are somewhat progressive in that their is a certain amount of dependency on prior elements in the development of subsequence, the proactive and conscious effort to engage in the decisioning often results in significant feedback loops that, in essence, cause a “two steps forward one step back” effect (though that itself over simplifies: there are times when it will actual produce a “one step forward, two or three steps back” dynamic: and that is often a good thing).

CASE STUDY

To emphasize the foundational importance not only of Man’s ability to choose, but the reality that he must be presented with a scenario that requires him to choose; as well as to provide application of what was just presented regarding the elements and dynamics of decision making, it makes sense to provide a case study that emphasizes both. Going all the way back to our origins we can find insight and opportunity to examine the causal implications of choice.

As a reminder, the need for choice was bounded with the following definition:

A decision or choice regarding the utilization of a resource is not necessary unless a conscious conflict exists that prevents the fulfillment of all possible needs, wants or desires. Or stated from the other direction: as defined, a choice is only required if there is a lack of resources.

It is understood and by design that the parameters of the definition eliminate many theoretical discussions.

There was a purpose with God in creating Man eternal and in His Image and Likeness; in creating Man, male and female with the charge to re-create more eternal beings; in breathing the very breath of God into Man’s nostrils; and in giving Man authority to rule the earth, sky and waters – and the inhabitants of them – and to work to subdue the earth by turning it all into the Garden of God. The purpose was to prepare Man for Eternity and all that comes when the New is Made; to, as Paul puts it, bring mankind to God, approved and tested:

“And do not be conformed to this world (“aion” = a space of time, an age), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove (“dokimazo” = to test, approve) what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

The state of being “approved and tested” describes the results of facing a choice and choosing right - as God defines it. Why Man must choose is centered in the Nature of God – He is God and as such cannot abide sin (“missing the mark; not providing that which is required”) - in order to share Eternity the willingness and successfulness of choosing right must be proven.

In theory, Mankind could have been created without the capacity to choose – if he had been we would certainly not be having this discussion. If Man had been so designed, he would not be in the Image and Likeness of God – but would have been more like what a pet or even a toy is to us – and would therefore not be fit to share Eternity with God, even if he was in Eternity with God. As we know: God chose to make Man in His Image and Likeness – and, by the way, He also faced the consequences of His choice – the laying down of His own life. But we will go deeper into that in just a moment.

God, Who is God, knew that Adam must choose; choose to serve Him and Him alone. (It should be noted that Jesus, the last Adam (1Cor.15:45) was also required to make the choice (Matt.3:16-4:11) before He was allowed to take dominion on the earth.) Adam was given the opportunity to choose: obey the command of God and live or disobey and die. But for Adam (and for all of us – as we see in James 1:14), for a choice to need to be made, something more must exist: desire.

Adam understood the command and lived in untested obedience for some amount of time before his desire was manifested (Gen.2:16-17 compared to 2:18-20) and its fulfillment was provided (Gen.2:21-25). “Untested” in that there was a lack; nothing that required making a choice. Choice requires a desire, a need, a want – something not currently fulfilled. The desire, need, want itself does not have to be bad or evil. For Adam, as we may recall, the desire was God-given (as was the command) and the fulfillment of that desire was also given from God. The desire (companionship – a thing God Himself desired) and the command (“thou shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”) stood without conflict; as long as this status quo was maintained, no unfulfilled “lack” was manifest, there still remained no need for choice: “equilibrium”.

Equilibrium is the state of being that requires no choice in the utilization of resources since all perceived needs, wants and desires are being met.

The conflict of choice is implied into a situation only when/if something happens to the equilibrium. A new need, want or desire; or a unforeseen lack of required resources.

What was missing from that formula for Adam, that which would require a choice, was a change in equilibrium or status quo.

Enter the serpent. (It should be noted that the reference here is to that which stood behind the beast itself - what Rev.12:9; 20:2 call out as the devil, Satan - the dragon and serpent of old - or better said - “serpent from the beginning”.) This (a created being not in the Image and Likeness of God who cannot be fruitful and who was not brought to life by the in-breathing of the Breath of God) enters the garden. A creation that, despite whatever beauty it was created with, was not commissioned to rule and subdue. Isaiah and Ezekiel suggest that it reacted strongly enough to the Man that it desired to usurp the throne of God; to secede from His kingdom.

If the pattern from Job’s experience (see Job chapters 1&2 and the conversations between God and Satan) started here, we could imagine God saying, “Where have you been, Satan?” followed with, “Have you put your heart, mind, and will upon my creation Adam?” And we could infer that Satan followed up with something like, “Of course he is obedient to You – there is no conflict, You have given him everything he needs – You have even hedged him into this Garden You planted. But, force him to choose by taking something he wants away and then You will know what he is made of.”

What we know for sure is that the serpent was allowed to change the status quo, to break the equilibrium; entering the garden and speaking to the woman. He was also allowed to question the purposes and character of God Almighty (acts that would have resulted in automatic destruction if Jesus had not already covenanted, before the world was made and its foundations laid, to be the propitiation for all sin and all iniquity: “For God so loved the world (“kosmos” – the created order) that He gave His only Begotten Son…”). And the serpent was allowed to contradict the very words of God – “you surely will not die”. As a result, the world changed; equilibrium was disturbed, the consequences of the command and the desire were no longer equal – conflict arose and a choice was required.

For Job, it was the loss of…well, everything, pitted against his confidence in his Redeemer. For Jesus it was the offer of material possessions and power and acclaim, pitted against acts of obedience including: separation from His Father when He becomes sin for us all; pouring out His life in submission to the Father; and fulfilling His promises to the Everlasting Covenant. For Adam it was the loss of the woman – she who was the fulfillment of the very desire God had placed within him and that was awakened by Him; pitted against the command of God. For the serpent…I freely and gladly reiterate that the cause of the fall of this light-bearer (the Hebrew word is “helel” and it means “star of the morning”; the Latin word is “lucifer”) is not directly stated.

With Job, God had proclaimed, “There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” With Jesus, God said, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well-pleased.” With Adam, it was being created in His Image and Likeness. With the “helel” we can only surmise what choice was presented and how he came to it. We are told of his fate (Revelation 20:10) and we are told of his role at the end of the ages in chapters 12, 13, and 16-19 of the Revelation.

We know that God alone was before the creation. We know that everything, everywhere was created for His pleasure (Rev.4:11) and that Lucifer was a part of that everything. We know (1Pet.5:8) that he goes about like a lion seeking who he may devour and (2Cor.11:14) that he can present himself as a messenger of light. We know that because of Adam’s choice he has become the prince of the authorities of the air – those with whom we battle (Eph.2:2; 6:12-18). But we are not told precisely how he became these things – how a celestial being who dwelt in the presence of God could become so full of envy and resentment as to give that all up, is beyond my capacity to configure. That he did is clear and that God allowed what he had become to influence the status quo and incite the choice is also clear. So, we can be sure that all of this was included in the Everlasting Covenant.

Adam would choose. For the purposes of God, Adam needed to choose, was created to choose. The conflict was created by the woman’s act of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – which she knew to be contrary to God’s command – which resulted in her innocence lost and her no longer being the helper opposite the man. The woman’s choice brought Adam to the precipice: he was presented with what he deemed as a desire that his current resources could not meet. He could choose to live in a world where his desire for companionship was unmet or to follow his desire and face the consequences of breaking the command. To elevate the fulfillment of his desire over the command of God; or to trust God and His promises…Adam chose, ”and he ate”.

In his eating their eyes were open, they were exposed and they knew it and their inheritance (and ours) was lost to the serpent. Satan is allowed to take over the rulership of the sea and the sky and the earth – to occupy Adam’s granted domain. It is in fact by means of this authority that he counsels with God regarding Job and assails Jesus after He is baptized and commissioned.

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God did not relinquish ownership (Lev.25:23) to either Adam or Satan – only the rights of inheritance (think “property manager” or “occupant”). When Adam “died” by breaking the command, he could no longer inherit; by submitting to the doubts and lies, by exalting his desire above the command of God, he allowed Satan to take his place. But there were limits – rules and rights of the Redemption that God claimed immediately after the fall.

So, it reads that our adversary (whose envy of Adam led him to resentment and rebellion against the plan of God) becomes the catalyst that forces Adam to choose and enables Man to become, by the immeasurable grace of God, fit for Eternity.

God knew the risk of creating Adam as He did – and He, of course, had a plan to address the consequences. This is the plan that the Bible refers to – at least in part – as the Everlasting Covenant. The covenant made by God, within Himself, in which He defines how He will interact with His creation.

God commanded. Adam desired. The adversary disrupted the equilibrium by questioning and twisting God’s command. The deceived woman eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and is lost to Adam (disobedience, even by deception, produces death).

Adam is now faced with the conflict of choice. In the mode of game theory specific to a “pure conflict, winner take all” strategy, the single move by the adversary forces the single move by Adam. He must either trust God and accept the loss of the fulfillment of his desire or accept the consequences of disobedience with the hope that he might be able to retain the woman. Adam chose idolatry – he exalted something, anything (his desire) above God and so faced death: immediate and ongoing.

It is essential that we understand that though God knew (since He abides in the Eternal Now; the Always, Everywhere, All at Once) what Adam would choose and had taken steps in the Eternity Before to remediate; His foreknowing did not cause Adam’s choice. The Man’s choice was his own. As were the consequences of the choice.

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Two addendums to the case study that may be helpful as we look at the immediate and long term consequences of Adam’s first choice.

The first is the acknowledgement that the simplicity (or at least lack of complexity) of the choices described above have, over the course of time, become entangled in our current choices in the form of what I will call “the presets” that were non-existent with theirs: in other words - they were not influenced by an environment of sin. Their only prior experiences were the blessings of the “very good” that God had made for them and for which they were made. That innocence did not excuse them; that they were however, does allow for a more or less pure examination of the choices that took place - they were not the result of their environment.

And second: We, on the other hand were “brought forth in iniquity”. We did not spend a single moment standing in the presence of God unveiled. Our fall, in that sense, is not as extreme – though the cause and consequences are the same. We have developed complexity in our motives and in our justifications. We can choose wrong out fear of pain or to satisfy our hunger for pleasure. Our striving with God can take on the guise of promoting peace or eliminating poverty – but doing so our own way because “we know best”. We can even doubt the existence of a creator or the morality of one if one does exist (something the Man could never do).

At the core, what is the case for us, and what was the case for Adam – and for everyone in between: we are made in His Image and Likeness with an eternal destiny AND we were formed out of the dust of the earth (“aphar adamah”).

CONSEQUENCE of EACH FIRST CHOICE

The reality is: the consequences of Adam’s first choice are so much a part of us today that it may be difficult for us to reconcile.

That we each are presented with the same point of conflict, a “first choice” moment, makes perfect sense in theory. It is, however, one of those ideas that cannot possibly be proven. In part because the world around us is still under the “property management”, the occupancy and rulership of the adversary of God as a result of Adam’s choice. Which means the “fall” of our first wrong choice is significantly less traumatic than was Adam’s. That, and the “odds” are severely stacked against us.

In a prior post I have touched on the entries into the Deed of Purchase that were allowed, under the legal authority of the Rights of Occupancy, to be placed by our enemy; the Red, Black, and Pale Green “horses” (see that earlier post on the opening of those seals here) that describe its mode of operation over the land, sea and air and the creatures that dwell in it. We have also previously and frequently discussed the troubling of Man by doubt, denial, and deception which lead to our subjection to sin.

But with those and in fact preeminent to them is the work of the Holy Spirit as the White horse rider bringing truth to bear and providing victory for those who receive His words.

Our “first choice” was not made in the environment in which Adam or Eve were first residing. But ever since it has been the environment consequent of their choice and will continue to be until Jesus returns and our inheritance is restored.

In the meantime, the Sacrifice that Jesus made for us, His choice to take away the sins of the world, has given us a down payment, the earnest agreement of our eternal destiny. Embodied in Jesus’ choice is the remediation of the implications of Adam’s first choice. The first Adam’s choice resulted in death through sin and to the surrendering of our God-given inheritance.

Jesus, the last Adam (choosing to become a man, live a sinless life, and surrender that life to the Father in order to satisfy the price of both our needs to be ransomed and for the restoration of our inheritance in God), places the choice, for each member of Mankind, to either accept or reject His offer (there will be no middle ground), back into the hands and hearts of each of us. We can neither blame Adam nor the serpent: we each control our destiny!

For those who choose to accept His offer, our “record” is expunged. The Father judges those who have received the ransom not by their own righteousness (which cannot satisfy the cost of freedom) but by the sinlessness of Jesus the Anointed One!

[As a matter of record, the Father justified Jesus, after taking our sins upon Himself, because of the sinless life He lived as Man. It was only then that He would be released from death and only then that the stone would be rolled away…(an upcoming book will go much deeper and broader into the beauty of ALL that He has done and ALL the ways that His sacrifice was foretold to us; in the meantime future posts will at least provide glimpses).]

Though Adam’s first choice after the equilibrium was broken made the world less than God’s design intended, the recompense and remediation that God had chosen to provide as the basis for His Eternal Plan brings us all back to the same place as Adam: we too by His grace are asked to choose to exalt the command of God above our own desires (even the good ones), to become a part of the “whosoever believe”, those who “take up their cross daily”, and who by His grace are restored to the eternal life that sin prevents.

Where this places us – and has placed us since Adam’s choice – is what Paul so poetically declares in his treatise to those followers of Jesus, the Anointed One, in Rome.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I like to, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good, not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the law that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, in which it was weak through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 7:14-8:11)

Well said and amen!

And though we may accept as an application or a hope, that the life of which Paul speaks, that which the Holy Spirit gives to our mortal bodies, can be experienced through a renewal of health as we walk this earth; we know, by his teaching, that this is, in particular, a reference to the resurrected immortality and the incorruptibility that is God’s promise to all who are members of His kingdom!

Paul also points out to those in Ephesus (and John confirms in 1John 2:16) that we battle against three forces – over all of which the anointing will give us the power of victory:

And you being dead by reason of your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the age of this world (“kosmos”), according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Eph.2:1-10)

As Paul discerns and disseminates the truths regarding our state of being, he also reminds us that this was not an “in time” reality; that this was a dynamic that was accounted for and overcome before the beginning of time, in the “Before” and was “secured” by our being “created in Christ Jesus”! And that we have, in Him, the promises of “ages to come” – a plural noun that Paul uses to express our participation with Him in eternity – for the purpose of Him showing us His grace in kindness.

The details of the new creation and of the “Before-hand” planning and preparation of God are woven throughout the narrative of the Bible. Sometimes rising to the surface (think the Mosaic forms of sacrifice and all of the symbolism found there) and sometimes almost hiding in the background by their subtility (think Naomi’s new life after Boaz’ redeems her husband’s inheritance).

Those, the shadows and types and whispers and weavings are topics of interest…