Paul's World
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God's Predestination is based on his FOREKNOWLEDGE of our belief in Jesus Christ.
1) If man does not have free will, then why did God give Adam and Eve a choice concerning the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
2) Where in the Bible does it say that God Predestines us to Believe? Nowhere!
3) All of God's Chosing is based on his foreknowledge: 1 Peter 1:2 "...who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance."
4) God wants everyone to come to repentance. If Predestination was not based on God's foreknowledge, then everyone would be saved. 1 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
5) How do you know you are saved? You know you are saved because of your belief in Jesus Christ. This is what God has ordained. John 5:24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life."
6) If your salvation is based on predestination apart from God's foreknowledge of your belief in Jesus Christ, then the Muhammad worshiper could be a saved individual. How would you know the difference?
7) Romans 8:29 "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." This clearly says that Those God Foreknew (That is, God Foreknew they would believe) He predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son. He did NOT Predestin them to be believers & He did NOT predestine them for salvation. Rather, he predestine the work of salvation to conform them to be like his Son.
8) Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Salvation is a by grace. It is a gift. It still comes through faith? What is faith? Faith is somethign you exercise in your mind. You make a decision to trust God, to believe God. Even the faith we have is a gift from God. Everything we have comes from God. Yet, we still have to accept the gift. We have to exercise the faith. By grace through faith you are saved, NOT, by grace you can have faith and are saved. God even gives faith to the unbeliever and demons. James 2:19 "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." The faith of demons does not save them, why? Because they do not use their faith to accept the gift of salvation. Now, if God gave faith to some and not to others, then people would have an excuse on Judgement day. They could say that God did not give them faith to believe in Him. But Romans 1 shows us that is not true. All men have the ability to believe in God. Romans 1:18 "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles."
9) Once again, the gift must be received. John 1:12 "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." You only become born again if you receive Jesus Christ and believe in his name.
10) Time and again, the only way we know we are saved is through exercising faith:
1 John 5:13 "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
Romans 10:13 "For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:9 "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
John 1:12 "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,"
John 20:31 "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
Acts 16:31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Romans 5:1 "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Mark 16:16 "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"
John 3:16-17 "“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
Hebrews 10:21-23 "And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."
Grace and faith are both dependent on each other in order for us to receive salvation but it is important to remember that it was not our faith that moved God to respond with grace. God had already moved through his grace, and our faith is the response to what we believe God has done. God does not force people to believe, our belief comes from our desire to submit to God, and put our trust in him. It comes from our free will. It would be pointless for God to desire us to love and trust him, if this love and trust was nothing more than him making us love and trust him. God longs to have relationships with us, a relationship is one that is entered into voluntarily by both parties and although God has given all men a measure of faith, it is up to us to act on that, and take that step in trusting him and loving him. It is not grace alone, that makes men to differ, for God has made his grace available to all men through the death of his one and only son, Jesus, rather it is as the scripture says: by God's grace through our faith, that we are saved. All men can attain God's grace, all men have been given a measure of faith by God, all men stand equal and so it is our free will that makes us respond differently to the offer of salvation. It is not grace plus faith. It is grace through faith.
Predestination is referred only to those people whom God has especial commission for them to carry out. Hence they cannot refuse bcoz God prompted them for that specific task like Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah & Paul, etc. But d rest of the world, God is not focusing on them yet at this point in time. There will be a time for them to be called & be given oppurtunity to know God. That is when God open up their understanding also to make choices between GOOD & EVIL, RIGHT & WRONG, LIFE & DEATH, BLESSING & CURSING, Deut. 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/deu.30.19.NKJV
Base on this passage, God gave His chosen people "freewill" to choose/make their own decisions after God gave them understandings about His "Way of Life" ! Those who are not called yet are not required at this time to make decisions/choices. In short, they are not predestined whatsoever!
For God said in John 6: 44,
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:44 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/jhn.6.44.NKJV
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
John 6:44, 65 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/jhn.6.44-65.NKJV
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/jhn.14.6.NKJV
These statements of Jesus are very clear that after God d Father called a person, opened up his/her understandings, --- He gave them "freewill" to choose. And they can refuse if they like to. Hence Heb. 6: 4-6 stated the "falling away" --- from d TRUTH 2Tim. 4: 3-NKJV
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Hebrews 6:4-6 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/heb.6.4-6.NKJV
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
II Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/2ti.4.3-4.NKNKJV
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Hebrews 10:26-27 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/heb.10.26-27.NKJV
Think about this:
If man has no "freewill" --- God should not have felt sorry when He created man on the face of this planet earth before the FLOOD of Noah! And He would not have wiped them off through the great deluge killing them all, except Noah & his family!