Does It Make You Uncomfortable?

Predestination is in fact taught in the Bible.

It is undeniable.

You can try to say that it only means God “foreknows” the future, but to do so you suspend the reality of the word’s actual meaning.

The concept is clear. The choice of all life and reality belongs to God.

We do choose. It also says that in scripture.

It is NOT Free-Will as the definition of Free-Will is directly opposed to scripture.

By definition, it states that God has NO power over your will, your choice.

That is patently unbiblical as God is not limited by anything.

“God limits Himself!”

No, for a God with no limits, a self-imposed limit, is a limit. There is no scriptural basis for this…it is something man came up with.

Oh, sure, it is comfortable, within the sin nature to desire it to be true, for it places the “choice” squarely on mankind as to whether or not they get saved. It is an “I will ascend” thing.

Do you believe in scripture?

Or do you twist it around until you are comfortable?

You think you don’t, but if you ignore passages or reject them entirely, you do not trust God to be in control over His own Word.

Oh, you can sit with “we just don’t fully understand”, but isn’t that a rejection similar to “Well, I don’t know if Jesus is God, but we will find out eventually”?

Scripture states plainly that predestination is true. It also states that choice is true.

Can both be true?

Obviously, if you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then they are.

To understand it, I found it very simply can be seen within any novel, movie, or TV show. The character in the show makes decisions and has to pay the consequences for each. Yet, the author of the story is THE one who made the choices, decisions, and every event that transpires.

Of course, this is a simplistic view of something and someone VASTLY larger than our comprehension can glimpse.

It still makes sense. It even answers the question of “How can it be fair!?” and “If God created evil, doesn’t that make Him evil!?”

Is George Lucas evil for creating Emperor Palpatine? Is Josh Whedon evil for giving Buffy the Vampire Slayer a hard life?

No.

So, what if, as it says, God chooses who gets saved and who doesn’t?

It does make it obvious then that our works, or effort, have nothing to do with it, for His choice was written into the story before we did anything.

“So, what does any of it matter!?”

Yes, the dismissal viewpoint. Instead of seeking to know God more deeply, we can easily soften Him by either changing His character and person into something more palatable to our sensibilities or ignore the questions entirely.

The easy way out. Idol worship.

The problem with this is the why of it all.

Why is it a problem?

Before you came to Jesus, you wanted to believe He just loved everyone and will accept everyone.

You were wrong. That you now know. Yet, His grace persisted to show you otherwise until you began to really see who and what He is.

Faith enabled you to see.

Can you not see that this is still an ongoing process or growth?

Yes, you got saved by grace which gave you the faith to believe. You were chosen, yet it only began the long process of growing that faith into something that pleases God.

Your faith went from a simple view of Jesus to something much more tangible, something real, something connected.

It still is, unless you deny Him, who He is, and stifle your relationship.

It is your choice…or was it?

Yes, it was His first, and you chose as He had already decided.

Both are true.

Can you see it?

Can you accept it?

Can you trust HIM?