jamiec
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- Aug 2, 2020
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The heavenly decree, from before the creation of the *kosmos*, governs what they will be, and are, all instants of their existence, and how they die; but does not necessitate or coerce any of that. Their final destruction is their own fault. This decree cannot be frustrated, because God cannot be.Here is an interesting question about predestination:
Is a person reprobate and lost because of a dark decree in heaven or because of the person's own fault through continuing in sin and rejecting Gospel?
I am asking this question, because in the many pages of Calvinist literature, including the Institutes, I see what they teach, but I won't give any spoiler alerts about it yet.
But if souls are lost through a decree in heaven that they have no control about, why is there a day of Judgment where souls are brought to account for their lives? In a court of law a defendant cannot be found guilty if what they did was under duress and had no control over their actions.
You can't have it both ways: either the soul is lost through an immovable decree from heaven, or lost because of their own sinfulness and rejection of the Gospel.
Nonetheless, the offer of salvation is well-meant, IOW, is sincere; and can be embraced sincerely by the reprobate - but their living by it will ultimately be fruitless and end in their destruction, which, though from themselves is, like all things other than God, governed by God’s Providence.
They are not reprobate as though God “had it in for them”. They are not being “singled out” by God, as though God were a Transcendent Bully, forcing them against their wills to reject God. No. God loves the reprobate, & blesses them abundantly; but they refuse to be saved (whether they appreciate that they are (so to speak) “working out their own destruction”, or not.
I think (as St Matthew can be read as implying) that the reprobate will not know they are reprobate until they are judged. I think damnation is (like salvation) a state one “grows into” in this life, and that the result may be very surprising, pleasantly or not.
I suspect that the difficulty of the question arises from the genres of the Biblical texts, which in the 16th century were not adequately distinguished.
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