Does Fate Govern Your Life?
SOMETIMES people are inclined to think that life and death are governed by fate. They hear about strange events in others’ lives, how they die or survive under mysterious circumstances. They may wonder: Did it just have to happen that way? Are the days of each of us numbered?
Take, for example, the catastrophe when, on the night of July 25, 1956, the big Swedish passenger liner Stockholm in open sea ran head-on into the side of the Italian liner Andrea Doria. The bow of the Stockholm pierced right into cabin No. 52 of the Andrea Doria, swept in underneath 14-year-old Linda Morgan’s bed and lifted her up. When backing out, it carried her unharmed and safely sheltered from flying debris behind a steel shield on board the Stockholm. The Andrea Doria went to the bottom, but the Stockholm stayed afloat.
The captain of the Stockholm said Linda Morgan was saved through a “miracle.” However, her eight-year-old sister, her mother and 46 other passengers died in that accident. Did they die because the “number of their days” was up? Was little Linda spared because fate had more days in store for her?
What Are the Consequences of Belief in Fate?
If fate really governs everybody’s life, it would mean that fate had to arrange that the two liners would cross each other’s course at exactly the same moment and collide exactly the way they did to take the lives of exactly those persons on board whose days were up.
Consequently, every fatal accident or disease or whatever cause of death there is in the world must be prearranged and unavoidable for those whose days are up. No remedies or precautions whatsoever would do any good. The 17th-century British poet James Shirley would then have been right when he wrote: “There is no armour against fate.”
Just think. Would that not make fate the most inexorable dictator of all? Would not such a fatalistic view serve to dishearten its believers and deprive them of their initiative in life?
It is clear that if this “Dictator Fate” really exists, he must be terribly grim and unjust. He blindly measures out everybody’s number of days without the slightest consideration for a person’s desire to live or his efforts to care for his life. He demands everyone’s complete capitulation.
If such a belief were true, why drive carefully? Why quit smoking, heavy drinking, drug abuse? Why ever see a doctor or have an operation? Why learn to swim? Why—if your days are already numbered and the cause of death prearranged?
Does God Predestine Your Life?
Some people believe in divine predestination. They think that God foreknows everything that is going to happen to them. Therefore, they reason, every event is predestined, for what God foreknows cannot fail to take place. However, is this not actually the same as replacing fate by God? Would not this belief lead to the same absurd consequences as does belief in fate?
God’s Word, the Bible, does not teach such a fatalistic view. Instead, it clearly upholds the basic reasonable rule of cause and effect, as it states: “Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap.”—Gal. 6:7.
Moreover, the Bible explains in a very realistic way what is behind many of the mysterious things that now and then happen to people. It shows that two main factors are involved, namely, “time and unforeseen occurrence.” (Eccl. 9:11) Apply this to what happened to Linda Morgan that night aboard the Andrea Doria and you will understand why it took place.
Who, Then, Governs Your Life?
God extends to everybody a free choice. Through Moses, God admonished the people of Israel: “I have put life and death before you . . . and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring, by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him.”—Deut. 30:19, 20.
On one occasion an individual asked God’s Son, Jesus Christ, how many persons would be saved. In contrast to the teaching of fate, which may lead to indifference, Jesus told his listeners: “Exert yourselves vigorously to get in through the narrow door.” In other words, the door to salvation is open; God precondemns no one, but a strenuous effort on one’s own part is required to discipline and adjust one’s life in order to get through.—Luke 13:24.
Through His holy spirit God inspired the apostle Peter to tell people what they themselves should do to get in line for salvation. Peter said: “Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.” One of the most important prerequisites of salvation is to turn to the true God, whose name is Jehovah, pray to him and worship him.—Acts 2:21.
Finally, at the end of the Bible you can read how God through his spirit extends the following great invitation to everybody: “Let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.”—Rev. 22:17.
How do these Bible quotations portray God? Not as an inexorable dictator who governs your life through predestination, but as a merciful, righteous and loving God who gives you a fair opportunity, a free choice, and encourages you to do what is right to gain salvation and everlasting life. He would never do that if he knew that you were already predestined to a certain way of living and dying.
No, fate does not govern your life. Neither does divinely decreed predestination. Your life is in your own hands. The final outcome of it depends on your wishes and your choice. What will they be?