ALoveDivine said in post 44:
Read Ephesians 1:3-14 and Romans 8 and 9 and tell me that predestination is not true.
It is true. The elect are those individuals who were chosen (elected) & predestinated by God before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-11, 2 Thes. 2:13), before they were born (Rom. 9:11-24), to become initially saved at some point during their lifetime (Acts 13:48b). This initial salvation is possible only because of Jesus' sacrifice (Rom. 3:25-26), which was also foreordained by God before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8, 1 Pet. 1:19-20).
Everyone on his own is wholly corrupt (Rom. 3:9-12), & so it's impossible for people on their own to ever believe in Jesus & the gospel & be initially saved (1 Cor. 15:1-4, Jn. 20:31, 1 Jn. 5:13) through their own will (Rom. 9:16, Jn. 1:13, 6:65) or through their own intellect (1 Cor. 1:18-2:16). Unsaved people can't possibly understand the gospel (1 Cor. 2:14, 1:18) because only initially saved people, who've received the miraculous gift of some measure of God's own Spirit, can understand it (1 Cor. 2:11-16). The nonelect can't possibly ever believe in Jesus & the gospel & be initially saved, even when they're shown the truth (Jn. 8:42-47, 10:26, Mt. 13:38-42), for the ability to believe in Jesus & the gospel comes only to the elect (Acts 13:48b) wholly by God's grace as a miraculous gift from God (Eph. 2:8, Jn. 6:65, 1 Cor. 3:5b, Rom. 12:3b, Heb. 12:2) as the elect read (or hear) God's Word the Bible (Rom. 10:17, Acts 13:48, 26:22-23), just as the ability to repent comes only as a miraculous gift from God (2 Tim. 2:25, Acts 11:18). Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers so that on their own they can't repent & acknowledge the truth of God's Word (2 Cor. 4:4, 2 Tim. 2:25-26).
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints teaches that perseverance is necessary for final salvation, and that all true saints of God will persevere because we are kept not by our own strength but by the power of God (1 Peter 1:5).
1 Pet. 1:5 means saved people are guarded ("kept") by the power of God "through" their faith. But the Bible gives no assurance saved people will choose to continue in the faith to the end, & not at some point wrongly employ their free will to depart from the faith, to commit apostasy (Lk. 8:13, 1 Tim. 4:1, 2 Thes. 2:3), to the ultimate loss of their salvation (Heb. 6:4-8, Jn. 15:6, 2 Tim. 2:12b).
Also, 1 Pet. 1:5 refers to the "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time", i.e. ultimate salvation, as opposed to initial (current) salvation. Initially saved people will obtain ultimate salvation only "if" they continue in the faith to the end (Heb. 3:6,12,14, Col. 1:23).
Calvinism's mistaken doctrine of OSAS (Once Saved Always Saved) through assured perseverance unwittingly ends up logically requiring saved people are robots. For if saved people can't possibly choose to do evil to the point where they can ultimately lose their salvation, then they no longer have free will. Also, the mistaken doctrine of assured perseverance unwittingly ends up logically requiring a Christian can have no present assurance he's truly saved. For if a Christian who doesn't persevere to the end was never truly saved, then no Christian can presently have the assurance he's truly saved, for no Christian can know if he'll persevere to the end. Down the road he could fail to persevere, & so end up showing he was only a fake Christian, a self-deceived hypocrite.
But under true, Biblical doctrine, every believer in the gospel (of 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Jn. 20:31) can know with perfect assurance he's presently saved (1 Jn. 5:13, 1 Cor. 15:1-4) if when he became a believer in the gospel he repented from his sins (1 Jn. 3:6) & confessed them to God (1 Jn. 1:9). And he can be sure as a saved person that he can never be separated from the love of God, so long as he loves God (Rom. 8:28-39), which means obeying him (1 Jn. 5:3, Jn. 14:21-24). And no matter how many tests a saved person fails during his lifetime (sometime subsequent to his initial repentance), even if he fails & commits sin 70 times 7 times in a single day (Mt. 18:21-22, Lk. 17:4), he can be sure that so long as he sincerely repents from every sin & confesses it to God, he'll be completely forgiven (1 Jn. 1:9). He'll lose his salvation in the end only if he wrongly employs his free will to do something like committing a sin without repentance (Heb. 10:26-29, 1 Cor. 9:27, Lk. 12:45-46), or becoming utterly lazy without repentance (Mt. 25:26,30, Jn. 15:2a, Rom. 2:6-8), or committing apostasy (Heb. 6:4-8, Jn. 15:6, 2 Tim. 2:12).