In Jesus’ Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:15-24, the man hosting the banquet sent his servants to find guests for his banquet. When those originally invited refused, he sent his servants out into the streets of the town to invite “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” When there was still room, the host sent his servants out into the countryside to find more people and “compel them to come in” (Luke 14:21-23). Since this verse is related to the theological debate over predestination versus free will, what does “compel” mean? The Greek word is anagkazo, which means to compel or constrain. To understand the exact meaning of this word, it might be helpful to see how else it is used in the New Testament:

• In Acts, 26:11, Paul said, “I went from one synagogue to another to have them [Christians] punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme.” The King James Version says “compelled” instead of “tried to force,” and the Greek word is anagkazo. Paul used threats and maybe even torture to try to convince Christians to abandon Jesus. Obviously, he failed in many cases, so this falls short of being absolute control.

• In 2 Corinthians 12:11, Paul said, “I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it.” The King James Version translated “you drove” as “ye have compelled me” (the Greek is anagkazo). Paul was saying that he felt he needed to make this argument, but again this falls short of the Corinthians making the decision for Paul or forcing him to make it.

• In Galatians 2:3, when Paul went to Jerusalem to test what he was teaching, Paul said, “Not even Titus…was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.” (The Greek is anagkazo.) He was not suggesting that the Jewish Christian leaders would have forcibly circumcised Titus, but rather that they might have required this as a condition for accepting Titus as a Christian brother.

• In Galatians 2:14, Paul asked Peter, “How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” The Greek word for “force” here is anagkazo. Again, Paul was not thinking that Peter would force gentile Christians to follow Jewish rituals but that Peter might order them to do so. Ordering is not the same things as controlling.

So, the “compel” in Jesus’ parable is not proof of the truth of predestination. God goes to great lengths to convince and urge people to come to the feast He is preparing for them but stops short of overpowering human free will.