the connotation of being a dirty word. The prevalent view has shifted
from Sovereignty of God to choose, to the untenable view that Christ went to
the cross and atoned for the sins all mankind. That is to say, “every
single person in the entire world has had their sins atoned for.” But the
reality is that atonement means, “to satisfy divine justice for our sins“,
and so how could it be possible that this satisfaction (or the value of that
atonement) was insufficient to Save all? Indeed, how could Christ have borne
all of mankind’s iniquity in His flesh, and died with those iniquities, and
yet most of mankind still have those iniquities? ..it makes no biblical, or
even logical sense. These people have obviously come to an erroneous conclusion
based on unbiblical assumptions. Christ did not bear man’s sins one and all,
He bore the sins of only those whom the Father, in His divine Sovereignty,
chose. He bore the sins of “All” His people, not all People.
Matthew 1:21
- “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus: for he shall Save His people from their sins.”
with all of scripture in it’s context, and the Sovereignty of God to Save
whoever He chooses by Grace alone. He does not save by any effort (work) on
our part to decide to choose Him. It was by the Sovereign pre-determination
by God, that He would bring who He will (for His own purposes) to Salvation.
In a word, Predestination!
The fact is, Predestination is not a foreign or dirty word, it is very much
a Biblical word. It was not invented by theologians to support their
doctrines, it’s the precise word that God inspired to be used. Predestination
is the Greek word [pro-or-id'zo], meaning to have been pre determined
or destined before hand. God knew exactly what He wanted when He inspired this
word to be used. Though many theologians in our day have developed a
distaste for the word, and thus work overtime trying to strip it of it’s
efficacious meaning, the word stands in stark testimony against man’s
attempts at wresting. Though people squirm in their seats at the sound of it,
and look at you as if you’ve uttered a horrible thing, God is not mocked.
The reason for this disdain is that the Church today doesn’t really like what
it stands for, and it thus makes them uncomfortable! For in their heart they
don’t want a God who says that “He” pre-determined things ahead of time. They
don’t want a Sovereign God, they want a god who reacts to their work instead.
They want a god that will let them be the one to get the glory of having
chosen God themselves, without any help from Him. But a Sovereign God who has
Predetermined ahead of time who will be Saved, is a God that won’t allow man
to glory in himself! And that is why many look to redefine the word, and in
essence, redefine God. For whether we like it or not, this Sovereign God is
“the God of the Bible,” and any other god is one of their own making.
Romans 8:28-30
- “And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. - For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did
predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them
He also justified: and whom He justified, them he also
glorified.”God did five things here for those He elected unto Salvation. He Foreknew
them, He predestinated them, He called them, He justified them, and He
glorified them.Man in his pride and arrogance will take the clear language of the scriptures,
and by rationalizing or wresting them, vainly attempt to make it not say
what God obviously inspired to be penned. But if a Christian can’t believe
what is written, what can he believe? God’s word is clear that He foreknew,
or in other words, “knew all of us ahead of time.” And He “also” Predestinated,
or Pre-Determined that those He foreknew, would become like Christ. In other
words, that we would be born from above in the image of Christ. Note that it
doesn’t say that God foresaw that we would be good, or that we would choose
Him, and so He then acted accordingly. This of course is what some people
teach, but it’s the private or personal interpretation of this verse, not
at all what the verse itself says, nor a myriad of other scriptures. God
had foreknowledge that there was none that seeketh after Him, there was
none that doeth good.Jeremiah 17:9- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?”
full of evidence for God’s sovereign election, but we see no scripture
at all which says, implies, or aludes to God saving man based upon his
own work of accepting Christ. Quite the contrary. Furthermore, it
contradicts many other scriptures, thus violating the most basic rule
of sound hermeneutics. Namely, “no scripture can make another scripture
untrue, or void.” For if God foresaw all of us ahead of time, then what
He obviously foresaw was that there was not one of us
which would seek after him.
Psalms 53:2-3
- “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if
there were any that did understand, that did seek God. - Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
foresaw that there is none good, there is none righteous, there is none
that seeketh after God. Therefore for a Christian to conclude that God
chose us based upon our seeking Him is a untenable and unbiblical
position. What God foresaw and knew ahead of time, was that we were all
filthy and desperately wicked. God saw us for just what we were. Dead
in trespass and sin wherein we were constantly in rebellion against Him.
Yet He, of His own Sovereign good will and for His own purposes,
foreseeing this, ‘also’ chose to Predestinate some of us to be conformed
to the image of Christ, reborn into new creatures regardless of our
filthiness or our inherent refusal to seek after Him.
James 1:18
- “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we
should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
It’s not a question of if God says that he predestinated us to be conformed
to Christ’s image, there is no question that He says that. There is also no
question that God “doesn’t” say that He foreknew someone would choose Him and
therefore predestinated us according to that (an incomprehensible doctrine).
We were not justified by our work which God “saw” ahead of time (anti-Grace),
God says He predestinated us, and also called us, and also Justified us. We
can never be justified by what God saw (our works), we are justified by
unmerited favor of God. We are justified by the work of Christ, which is
by Grace alone.
Ephesians 1:5
- “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
His will.“
unambiguously and concisely, God says He Predestinated us not according to
our own (supposed) free will, but God says He predestinated us according
to the good pleasure of His own will! These are not
isolated or ambiguous passages subject to personal interpretation, God
says these things clearly, again and again. It is not by the free will
of man, it never was, and it never will be. In how many different ways
does God have to say it before man gets the picture?
John 1:13
- “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Christ in us is unto bondage to the flesh, that we desire our own will.
If we were predestinated according to man’s will, we would never seek
after God at all. There would be no Salvation. It is only by the Grace
of God that we believe, and this because God ordained it. As is clearly
written.
Acts 13:47-48
- “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be
a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the
ends of the earth. - And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the
word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
choose life is another contradiction of God’s Word. It wasn’t because
of our will (which is to do what ‘we’ want), it was just as God states,
“according to the good pleasure of His will.” ..Grace Alone!
Predestinated According to Free Will? There are many misguided Theologians who will argue precipitously that,
“yes God predestinated us, but He did it according to our free will.” But
the scripture references of Ephesians 1:5 will not allow such a theory.
In context, it is clear that it’s His Choice, and not our own. The
preceding verses make that clear. Ephesians 1:4
- “According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:”
‘He’ chose us. He Pre-determined that we would become adopted sons by
Christ, and those predetermined, were determined according to what God
wanted, not what they wanted.
Moreover, you cannot be predetermined “to be” something by the will
of God, and yet be something by your own free will. i.e., by who’s
will was it anyway? God says by His will, man says no, by his free will.
That is both illogical and irrational. If God predetermined thousands
of years ago that you would be an adopted son, and made you conform to
Christ, then how did you freely choose today to be (or not to be) that
son conformed to the image of Christ? It’s confusion! But man in his
arrogance and pride, rather than just simply receive the gracious gift
of God, he instead fights the truth of scripture in vain efforts to
rationalize away the text, or to reinterpret it any way which conforms
to his humanistic reasoning. To say “we were Predestinated because
God knew we would choose Him”, is ridiculous and tortuous of
scripture. If that were the case then we were not predetermined, God
merely saw our own good work of Choosing and thus Saved us accordingly.
That’s Salvation by our deeds, which any way that you slice it, cannot
be Grace!
Romans 11:6
- “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no
more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work
is no more work.”
it still be by Grace. And to say, “God chose us because he foreknew that we would
choose Him“, makes a mockery of what God actually said there. For if God Chooses
us because we choose Him, then it’s not really God’s choice, is it? We’re
the ones doing the choosing. These Theologians are making a mockery out of
the word ‘Chosen,’ just as they have of the word Predestinated!
Psalms 65:4
- “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with
the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.”
- “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you,
that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should
remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may
give it you.”
- “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.”
- “Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot,
and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
- For many are called, but few are chosen.”This is the mockery that man makes of God’s use of the word Chosen.
Man in his pride and arrogance would change this to many are called,
but few make the choice. The ultimate in wresting God’s Word to make it
conform to the philosophies of man. The truth is, Predestinated by God
is really the only way it could be. For we cannot be Saved by any merit
of our own efforts in choosing God. For in saying this, what man would
actually be saying is, “while all those others sinners wouldn’t freely
choose God, I, being better, did and am rewarded.” Again, that’s the
merit system which is opposite of Grace. We cannot be Saved because we
do something to merit it, and we cannot be Saved because we make more
righteous decisions than the next guy. And that’s exactly what it would
be if we indeed are the ones who choose God and thus gain Salvation
because of that deed. There is none of us who would of his own seek
God. And that’s not rhetoric, that’s God’s declaration of our spiritual
condition before He saves us.Romans 3:10-12- “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
- There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
God. - They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one”.
understand, or there are some who of their own free will seek God, or that
there are some who choose to do the right thing? God says no, there is “not
one!” The natural man doesn’t like God saying that, and so pretends it’s
really not applicable! But the Biblical facts are, we only have virtue to
choose to come to Christ because God in His sovereignty gave it to us, and
drew us to Himself. Like the Woman who touched the hem of His garment, He was
the one out of whom the virtue came. We will not seek God without His pulling
us. We understand that all these scriptures are true, and we will not of our
own free will seek God. So then God Himself, through no merit of ours, but
by His own sovereign will, and for His own purposes (Grace), draws us.
John 6:44
- “No man can come to the Me, except the Father which hath
sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up
at the last day.”
These Theologians read that, but unfortunately they don’t hear it because
they don’t really like what Christ tells them. There is none righteous, there
is none that seeketh after God, there is none that understandeth. We’re all
like a bunch of snakes. But if we are all like this, then why does one come
to Christ and the other one does not? Here we have our answer. It’s because
the Father of His own free will seeks them, and draws them. As it is
written.
Ezekiel 34:11-12
- “For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both
search my sheep, and seek them out. - As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his
sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver
them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and
dark day.”
- “And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this
house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. - For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
And no man can come to Christ unless the father does this. Some
Theologians retort, ‘Yes, but we must first receive him.’ However,
the Biblical fact is that man cannot receive Him of his own.
John 3:27
- “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be
given him from heaven.”
man first seek Christ of his own “supposed” free will, when no man can
come? The answer of course is that, he can’t! It is an unmerited gift
given of God. Not because man deserved it by choosing, but simply by
the unmerited Grace of God.
Ephesians 2:8-10
- “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: - Not of works, lest any man should boast.
- For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
of our own free will or our own good works, but by the work of Christ.
Almost everyone who calls themselves a Christian will mouth the words, “we’re
Saved by the Grace of God,” but in real application they deny it because
they don’t truly understand what Grace is. It is undeserved, unearned, unmerited
favor. In other words, a completely free Gift. Do we really know what a truly
free gift is? It is a gift that you didn’t have to pay for by choosing it, and
that you didn’t get because you asked it, it was simply given with no
strings attached! That’s Grace! If the gift has strings attached, then it’s
not really free! This is what these theologians “CHOOSE” not to understand.
If I offer a gift but say, ‘first you must come choose it,’ then it’s not
free. The price of this gift is you coming to choose it! If the gift is
qualified by some deed, then it’s not a free Gift, as the person giving it
is indebted to give the gift “only if” (dependant upon) you do certain
things. That’s not Grace, that’s debt! And God makes that abundantly clear,
if we will receive it.
Romans 4:4
- “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt”.
to choose whoever He wants to bestow His free gift upon. Not because we
said the sinners prayer, not because we chose to come, but because God
was merciful to Choose to Save us despite that fact that we would not seek
Him. That is what that verse means when it says “..According to the good
pleasure of His will.” We didn’t repent because we were sorry for our sin,
we were sorry for our sin because God gave us repentance.
Acts 11:18
- “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and
glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted
repentance unto life.”
- “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God
peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;”
and predestinated (God’s word, not mine) according to the sovereign
good will of God to do so. Does God have the divine right to pre-determine
who He wants to Save? Of course He does, it’s His good pleasure to do so.
Who are we to argue (with God) and say it’s not fair, or not righteous
because “we should” be the ones to choose Him and get the Glory? But
that’s exactly what man says. God doesn’t move by what we think is right
in our own eyes, He moves according to what is right in His
eyes. By His will, not our will. Again God makes that clear:
Ephesians 1:11
- “In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His Own Will.”
to Salvation. Who predestinated us to salvation, and why is explained here
very plainly. It was according to the purpose of God, not according to our
choosing. In other words, as stated, for the purpose of His Counsel and that
His will be done. That’s why we were predestinated. Not at all because we
choose of ourselves to do something according to our counsel, or our
purposes, or our will. We were chosen, we love Him not because we are
virtuous, but because He first loved us (1st John 4:19). By Grace we
are saved from before the foundations of the world. We should give
Glory to God for His mercy wherein when we were yet dead in trespass
and sin, He, having foreknowledge of this, saw fit to Save us anyway.
It is ‘He’ who causes us to hear, react, come, and walk in His laws.
Ezekiel 36:26-28
- “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I will give you an heart of flesh. - And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. - And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and
ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
scripture states there is none that seeks after God) so He drew us
to him by His own power! He Caused or made us to walk in His will.
That is what we call a ‘Merciful’ God. We shouldn’t think that God is
unrighteous because He calls one to Salvation, and not another. Because
we all by right should end up in Hell, and not one could protest that
he didn’t deserve it. But God in His Mercy has seen fit to Save some
simply by His Grace. He’s not then unrighteous in doing so, or unfair, or
anything that man does imagine in the wickedness of his heart. In fact,
this very scenario and question is answered in Romans 9:15. We should
all read and consider this very carefully. It is talking specifically
about this topic of Election (being Chosen of God), and speaking
of Jacob and Esau. God says He hated Esau before he was even born! We
might (in our human minds) ask, how is that fair? Esau hadn’t done either
Good or evil, and yet God hated him before He was born. God anticipates
this question by man.
Romans 9:14-16
- “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
God forbid. For He saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion of whom
I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
mercy.”
do, or our deeds, or education, or heritage, or our good choosing that God
decides to have compassion on us. It’s by God’s Election, or God’s choice,
before we were even born (as the verses we already read of predestination,
before). God says, I will have compassion on whoever I will have
compassion, and I will have mercy on whoever I will have Mercy. He’s
saying very clearly that it’s His Sovereign Right as God to save
whosoever He wants regardless of what they have done or not done. Regardless
of circumstances of Jacob or Esau doing any evil. He declared the end from
the beginning, ordaining that His will would stand and Jacob would become
Saved. Because He loved him. It’s not a matter of if God says these things,
but one of if we will believe Him.
Isaiah 46:10
- “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and
I will do all my pleasure:”
ordained to stand that “His will’ be done, not the alleged free will
of man. But the thinking of the Church today is carnal, that this
type action by God is somehow not fair. They think, Why Does God
then find fault with people if He Saved one ahead of time?
(..man is questioning God at this point, as if He is the suspect of some
crime). The unfaithful church today does this continually in order
to try and get sympathy for their views. But let’s go directly to God
and get His Answer for us. It continues..
Romans 9:19
- “Thou wilt say then unto Me. why doth He yet find fault?
For who hath resisted His will? - Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, why hast
thou made me thus? Hath not the Potter power over the clay;
of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another
unto dishonour?
We can’t question God as if we think Him unrighteous if He does this!
He is not the suspect of some crime. We are the criminals, and He is
the lawgiver! We are the clay, He is the Potter! Who are we to
reply against God and insinuate that Predestination or being Chosen
(Election) before we were born is somehow unrighteous? No it’s
not unrighteousness! God is infinitely wiser than we are. As the potter, He
made us! Election or predestination is clearly taught throughout the
Bible, and there is no way of getting around it without verbal acrobatics.
He will do according to His will, not ours.
Daniel 4:35
- “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing:
and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among
the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say
unto him, What doest thou?”
scriptures in a deceitful unbiblical manner, we must come to the
conclusion that Man is Saved not because he decides of his own will
he wants to be, but because God decides or chooses according to his
will. It’s God’s sovereign right to Save whatever pot He wants, and not
to save whatever pot He wants. Man has no right to say this is not righteous.
Who are we to question it. And this is exactly what God is saying here
in this verse. And if we study the whole chapter carefully, in
context, and are honest with ourselves, we will see that these things
are true.
But what about those verses which say all? There are certain verses in scripture which use the word All, that are often
used in the attempt by some Theologians to deny the doctrine of
Predestination. For example, John 12:32
- “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me”.
be drawn to Christ. First of all this idea is contrary to everything else
that the Bible says. Such as, “no man can come to me except the father
which sent me draw him, and I will raise Him up at the last day.” If this
idea were true, all men would be Saved and raised up on the last day. We
then become universalists.
The fact is, the word “all” is usually qualified. In John 12:32 it’s used to
qualify the fullness of men who believe. i.e., all men without distinction,
not all men without exception. Note, this does not change the definition of
the word all, it is simply qualified.
The question we must answer is, does the word “all” always mean all of
everything in scripture, or is it usually qualified? Does “all” always mean
every single man without exception, or is what it may cover defined by Bible
context and reference? Let’s look at just a few of many examples. Because
the scripture plainly answer this question.
Mark 1:5
- “And there went out to him all the land of Judea, and
they of Jerusalem and were all baptized in the river
Jordan”
Land of Judea went to get baptized that day. It would be ludicrous for any
Theologian to make such a statement. Therefore, we must understand without
prejudice that the “all” there, is qualified.
John 8:2
- “And early in the morning he came again into the temple,
and all the people came unto him; and he sat down and
taught them.”
sense mean that every single person there came to listen to Jesus. They could
not all fit into the Temple. We understand clearly that the all is qualified.
Acts 22:15
- “For thou (Paul) shalt be a witness unto all men of what
thou hast seen or heard.”
- “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”
- “And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he
that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest
witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men came
to him.”
these instances mean every man without exception. Either the word
“all” is being used in a sense of a hyperbole, referring to a very
large number but not everyone without exception, or it is being used
to speak of all men without exception. And so for a Theologian to make
an all inclusive statement that “all” must mean everyone, or should be
understood in scripture to mean all men on the earth, is a misnomer.
As has been shown, it is clearly an untenable position.
As a practical example, If I were to say, “all the children rode the
Bus to school“. That is an absolutely true statement. But it doesn’t
mean all the children in the world, and it may not even mean all the
children at the school. It could mean all the children in a town who ride
the bus. i.e., like in scripture, the “all” is qualified! The word hasn’t
changed in meaning, it still means all, but it is qualified by what “all”
we are talking about. Likewise, drawing all men unto Christ is qualified.
It is not all men without exception, it is all men without distinction.
From every race and nation, all who will ever be risen in Christ. It does
not (nor could it, without contradiction) mean every single person in the
entire world! It’s the all who God says in John 6:44 can only come to Him
if God draws them. Obviously, all men will not be drawn. Else why would
God say no man can come unless he is drawn of God.
What about the verses that say “world?” The same Theologians look at the verses which use the word world in them,
and they do the same thing, not understanding (or in some cases, not wanting
to understand) that those verses are also qualified. Verses like, John 4:42
- “And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy
saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”
- “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world.”
Saviour of everyone in the world, not just an elect. But that’s not what
it say. God could have very easily inspired the words “every person in
the whole world” to be penned there, but He did not because that is not
what He is saying. The words “whole world” is qualified. Not that the
word is changed, Christ is indeed the Saviour of the whole world, and
indeed the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. But not “everyone
in” the whole world. Again, not everyone in the world without exception,
but everyone in the world without distinction. All the world who will ever
have their sins propitiated (Jew, Roman or Greek), will have them propitiated
by Christ.
Obviously some Theologians have not thought this out carefully. For if
indeed John 2:2 was saying not our sins only, but also the sins of the
whole world, it would mean that they were contrasting their sins, from
the whole world. Meaning, the whole world is different from them.
This very verse defines what is being talked about when it says that not
only for us (the Jewish world) but also of the whole world (the
gentile world also). That’s obviously what is being said. Not all the
Jews, and not all the Gentiles, but all those for whom Christ died. For if
Christ is the propitiation for the sins of every single man and woman in
the entire world, then by definition there is no one in the entire world
who has any sin left. Thus all would be Saved because Christ would have
satisfied the requirement for their sins. Consistently, this idea of paying
for the sins of everyone without exception, an untenable position.
For He was only the propitiation for the sins of those who were
risen with Him, washed clean in His Blood. Obviously, that’s not every jew
in the world, nor every gentile in the world, but everyone in the world for
whom He died. Not the Jewish world only, but the Gentile world also.
This is also illustrated in another verse which uses this word world.
2nd Corinthians 5:19
- “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the WORLD unto
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
we know that every man in the world will not be Saved, and every man in the
world will not have their trespasses “not imputed” unto them. On the contrary,
Hell will be heavily populated! It means both Jews and Gentiles and every
nation and tongue will have Salvation (the will not have their sins imputed
unto them). The meaning becomes obvious when we are not predisposed to
not receiving what scripture says. Man attempts to circumvent God’s Word,
but the truth of it is clear. God’s Sovereign Predestination reaches to the
whole world, not just to the Jewish people. That is the mystery (Col. 1:26-27)
which was revealed to the Apostles. salvation to the whole world, not just
to the Jews.
How Do I know if I am Predestinated? The fact is, God calls all of us to Salvation. The question is not
“am I predestinated?” That God’s business! The question is, why don’t I
answer the call? If I answer the call, then I will be Saved, and I
then know that I was predestinated. Those who ignore the call to
Salvation could care less that they were not predestinated. The unsaved
are not sitting around thinking, “Gee, I sure wish I was
predestinated.” Not at all! It’s only the arrogant Church which is
arguing about the unfairness of Predestination. But who is being short
changed here? No One! For all the true believers are Saved, and the
unbelievers don’t want to be Saved. So who is shortchanged by
Predestination? Anyone who comes to Christ, He will in no wise be cast
out. That’s a fact! If they come, then they were predestinated. Christ
says Knock, and it will be opened unto you. If they knock, then they
were predestinated. But the unfaithful church in vanity is upset because
it denies them the glory of saying they did something or that they had some
responsibility for their being Saved. In simple language, they want
some credit (Glory). Predestination strips them of their Glory in having
Chosen God, and places it where it belongs. All Glory to God for having
Chosen Me! That’s why they look at predestination as some horrible
unrighteous thing. But the age old adage still rings as profound, true
and wise as it always has..
No man can say he is not going to heaven because of Predestination. The fact
“Predestination keeps no one out of heaven, but it keeps a
multitude out of Hell.”
-WiseManSay
is, they are not going to heaven because of their sin. Their judgment
has nothing to do with them being predestinated to Hell. They are going
to Hell because of “their own sin.” And try as they may to place the blame
on God, it lies squarely at their own feet. The fact that there is none that
seeketh after God, is man’s sin, not God’s. Therefore, there is not one who
can righteously complain about unfairly being cast into Hell.
Predestination is God’s Business. Our business is to spread the Gospel
that many might hear and be Saved. We are the vessels God uses to get
the Job done. Our labor is in making sure that we are truly saved, and not
just kidding ourselves. The way to make sure is to make sure we follow (not
lead) the Word of God. We keep it faithfully.
2nd Peter 1:10
- “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and Election (Being Chosen) sure: for if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall:”
made it’s calling and Election sure. Jesus says, He that says he knows Me,
and keepeth not My commandments is a liar, and the truth is not
in Him. Those are strong words! Those are ominous words! But the
Church continues to say, “have no fear, you shall have Peace and
Safety, and no evil will come upon you.” But we simply cannot eschew the
Sovereignty of God in teaching that Salvation is in our hands and not God’s.
Being predestinated is not a dirty word, it is the Word of God. People
don’t like it because they want to keep their pride (Charitably called,
self respect). They want to think they had something to do with their
Salvation, when in fact it was All God’s doing. 100 percent, All, Total,
whatever you want to call it that signifies completely! God did it all.
He saw you, He called you, He caused you to hear, He drew you to knock,
and He opened unto you. It’s not the other way around, where you knocked
and He heard “your” voice. No, you heard His voice because He gave you ears
to hear, and then you knocked. Read the scriptures carefully. Face the
biblical facts, you were Predestinated and Called according to God’s
Sovereign will, or else you are not called and predestinated unto
Salvation.
Predestination is not a private interpretation, it’s a fact of scripture,
Just as sure as the scriptures are true and trustworthy, Predestination
is the fact that is written therein! God said it, He explained it, we
believe it! ..who are we to reply against God about it’s fairness. Who are
we to argue with righteous God? Who are we to question God about it? I am
no one to question God about what He says! ..Who are you?
Peace, Copyright ©1993 Tony Warren For other studies free for the Receiving, Visit our web Site
The Mountain Retreat! http://www.mountainretreatorg.net
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