Is Your Life Controlled by Fate?
“ALA NÒ DON.” In the Bambara language of Mali, West Africa, this expression means, “It is the work of God.” Slogans like this are quite common in that part of the world. In the Wolof tongue, the saying goes, “Yallah mo ko def” (God did it). And in one Dogon country-dialect, they say, “Ama biray” (God caused it).
These expressions have their counterparts in other lands. Sayings like, “His time had come” and, “It was the will of God” are often heard whenever death or tragedy strikes. In West Africa, slogans such as “Man proposes, God disposes” are commonly painted on public transport vehicles and are posted as signs in shops. For many they are merely figures of speech. Oftentimes, though, they reflect a deep-seated belief in fatalism.
Just what is fatalism? The World Book Encyclopedia defines it as “the belief that events are determined by forces that human beings cannot control.” What are these “forces”? Thousands of years ago, the Babylonians believed that an individual’s fate was strongly influenced by the configuration of the stars at his birth. (Compare Isaiah 47:13.) The Greeks believed that fate was in the hands of three powerful goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. However, it was Christendom’s theologians who came up with the idea that God himself determines a person’s fate!
“Saint” Augustine, for example, rejected the “false and noxious opinions” of astrologers. On the other hand, he argued that “to confess that God exists, and at the same time to deny that He has foreknowledge of future things, is the most manifest folly.” He claimed that for God to be truly almighty, he must “know all things before they come to pass” leaving “nothing unordained.” Yet, Augustine passionately argued that in spite of God’s knowing in advance all that occurs, humans still possess free will.—The City of God, Book V, Chapters 7-9.
Centuries later, Protestant theologian John Calvin took matters a step further, arguing that while some are “predestined [by God] to be children and heirs of the heavenly kingdom,” others are predestined to be “recipients of his wrath”!
Today, belief in fate is taken seriously in many parts of the world. Consider the experience of Ousmane, a young man in West Africa. He had been one of the best students in his school, but when he took his final exams, he failed! This meant not only repeating a year of school but also suffering embarrassment before his family and friends. A friend tried to console him by saying that it was God’s will. Ousmane’s mother similarly blamed fate for his failure.
At first Ousmane was happy to accept their attempts at sympathy. After all, if his failure really was God’s will, there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. But his father saw things differently. He told Ousmane that failing the exams was his own fault—not God’s. Ousmane failed simply because he had neglected his studies.
Having had his faith in fate shaken, Ousmane decided to investigate matters for himself. We now invite you to do the same by considering the following article.