THE MASTER OF MY FATE AND THE CAPTAIN OF MY SOUL

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

On Monday morning, June 11, 2001, 33-year old Timothy James McVeigh was executed for the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in which 168 people died. Prior to his execution, McVeigh, unremorseful to the end prepared a final statement. That statement is the focus of today’s theology lesson.

The unfathomable tragedy of September 11^th has all but overshadowed the carnage of Oklahoma City five years before, but the final chapter of the Murrah bombing came with McVeigh’s execution by lethal injection at the Federal Prison at Terre Haute Indiana. Timothy McVeigh’s final words were the last two lines of a poem entitled Inviticus written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley. After his execution, the warden read the chilling words---“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

But the question is---Are we as humans the masters of our fate and captains of our eternal souls? The Christian doctrine of salvation is divided between two belief systems; Calvinism and Arminianism. The fundamental tenets of Calvinism is divine sovereignty and predestination---God decided all those who will possess salvation in eternity past (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4-5). Arminianism goes the opposite direction---God leaves the decision of salvation up to each individual person; AKA human free will (Romans 10:9; John 5:39-40).

Theologically, humans cannot be genuinely human without free will. And free will has a part in the age-old question of evil in the world. In order for God to prevent evil in the world, He would have had to made us differently; i.e. with absolutely no say-so. Simply stated, God created us with the ability to choose. But choice involves the possibility of rejection. The Bible tells us to choose (Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:15; Isaiah 1:18-19). God did not make us as mindless robots. By giving us the ability (and obligation) to choose between heaven and hell, good and evil He is not robbed of His sovereignty. Timothy McVeigh chose his behavior and paid the consequence of his choice (Galatians 6:7-8). His evil was not God’s fault. Think about it.