predestination

I'm reading a really good book about a guy who falls into another world or a parallel universe or something, and he has all sorts of adventures there. Its cool because the author can use the other world to explain things about it, and then because that world faces similar philosophical problems as this world, we can apply it to this world if we so choose. I liked this conversation the main character has with another character in the book, because it really made me think:

"Did I decide to do this, or was it preordained for me? If I was chosen before the beginning of the world, as you said..." The question trailed off. "Well, you know."

Ish smiled. "The Father, and I, and the Comforter alone exist outside of time, outside of the limitations of the framework we created for you to live in. We see the entire parade at once, as it were, from eternity to eternity, while you and those of the angelic and demonic realms are bound to a single, narrow vantage point. You must watch the parade as it passes. For us, there is no past or future. There is only 'now.'

"All choose the path they will take. Man chooses. The Dark chooses. The angels choose. All are responsible for the choices they make. Yet at the same time, the Father is utterly sovreign. All things were decreed by Him, in His good pleasure, before the beginning. Despite appearances to the contrary, free will in the creature and unlimited authority in the creator are not mutually exclusive. But your current frame of reference will not allow you to comprehend this.

"One day, you will better understand. But not now, not until you have been freed from your limitations. You see through a glass darkly. That which is possible for an infinitely dimensional God cannot be fully understood by one who is bound and limited by a four-dimensional existance."

"Four?"

"Time. Bound as such, you cannot grasp the necessary points of reference. It would be far simpler for a two-dimensional listener- constrained by two-dimensional concepts and hearing only two-dimensional terms- to grasp the concept of a sphere. What I can tell you is that all things and all events, even those of evil, are used by Us for good and for the carrying out of the Father's will.

"That is where trust comes in. And trust... simple trust... is faith."