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Sin and salvation are choices made by living beings with freedom of choice.
If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
I always thought predestination meant that it had already been decided before birth that you would spend eternity in heaven or hell. I thought that meant those who were predestined to go to hell couldn't be saved. I don't believe in predestination.If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
God Bless!
Doctor of condescension, my reply wasn’t addressed to your highness, rather the proletariat. Let us then amuse ourselves as we dabble in such speculation and conjecture that will sooth our nescience.Believe it or not, that has nothing to do with the subject of predestination. It is not the contention of those who hold to the view of predestination that people have no freedom of choice.
When I see a comment like that, I'm not sure if you're deliberately setting up a straw man argument, or if you have trouble with abstract thinking. I don't expect most people to get it, either, but I wish they wouldn't perpetuate their misunderstanding for the whole world to read.
If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
God Bless!
In my thinking, the scripture is written to and for man, so God here is speaking considering the audience, that is us, He is relating to us through human terms. So He regretted making man so we could understand His coming judgement of destruction on all flesh by way of the flood. And by saying that and destroying the world and only saving 8 persons, God shows us He is in control of all things both the good and the evil. Sin has judgement following close behind. Paul in Corinthians says the former things were written down for us as examples to not to desire to be like them that were destroyed, so part of our edification.Another wording is: Did God make us (by His design) totally predictable? Many just assume this, but the Bible suggests otherwise:
"5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled."
So, if this wording is true, as I believe, then it says a fact -- God regretted that He had made humans.
7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
Remember how He made the Earth and all in it? --
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day."
So, God made all good, yet later regretted He had made us, and considered to destroy most or all creatures.
This means that by His design God must have chosen to create us to be unpredictable, and His choices are the best possible choices.
Ergo, for anything good to exist, evil must be possible, and all of it is somewhat unpredictable, even though we could imagine both nature and we are predictable in part, in aspects, in certain ways -- like the weather -- just not predictable in full "absolute everything".
Ergo it's simply not the case that all is predetermined.
What is predetermined is that God will accomplish His plans, because He has said He will.
Our redemption into Eternal Life.
The only way we can know the Father is by way of the will of the Son.Did God (the Father now) predestine or somehow "set up" even God the Son, our God, and all of us as well maybe...? And if so, what does that mean...?
God Bless!
Predestination is a tough answer and has to be supported by a lot of scripture. I don't have the absolute answer per se, but I believe God, in His omniscience and grace, knows who will be drawn to Him and those who will accept His call to confess Christ as Lord and Savior. Although He gives us free choice. . ."For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Ro 8:29). Maybe He knows when He forms us in the womb the response to Him will be unlikely(?)If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
God Bless!
The only way we can know the Father is by way of the will of the Son.
Was the Son predestined, yes, He was predetermined, foreordained, it is why Christ came into the world to be an offering for sin.
In Luke 10, Jesus tells us we only know Him and God IF He wills it to be so. And He then tells those who know Him and God that they are blessed of God.
Jesus Rejoices in the Spirit
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from thewise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; 24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”
1 Peter 1
17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
IN TRUTH, you only know God by the work of Jesus Christ. Notice it says 'who through Him believe in God', now dont you think this is profound? And it is personal.
If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
God Bless!
If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
God Bless!
I would like to suggest also, that maybe only from the moment one is "saved" that the Lord then, orders all his steps from there maybe...?
Or the only real true choice is our salvation, either accepting or rejecting, and maybe the Lord predestines all of everyone's steps, but around that choice, only one real true choice, to either accept him or reject him, and that he uses the bad (ones) for, or for the furthering of, the good (ones)...
What do you think...?
For example I don't know if I really have my own choice(s) "now", but wonder if it has always been that way or not...?
Beyond that, I sometimes wonder if I have been chosen for bad or good sometimes as well...?
Or are we all running off of (our supposed choices and choosing) are not all running off of past "programming", so to speak...?
Thoughts...?
God Bless!
I agree strongly, the concept of sin requires free will.The idea of sin and guilt is incompatible with the idea of no free will. Without free will, there cannot be sin or guilt.
No.If absolutely everything and all is predestined, and there is no choice in anything, then wouldn't all have to be saved...?
Or not...?
Comments...?
God Bless!
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