IS THERE A PREDETERMINATION? NO!

The teachings on God's predeterminations were first of all Augustine and Calvin. This doctrine teaches of God's preconception that people are destined either for faith or for unbelief, for salvation, or for perdition. Because of these two possibilities, this is a "double predetermination". Let's see what it says in the Bible.

 

The answers to previous questions highlighted the importance of the human will in their decision-making. It may have been the impression that only a person is acting, whereas God is only passively contemplating. This, however, does not correspond to the Bible's testimony: "So the pardon depends not on the wish and the An ascetic, but on God Merciful". So who wants, mercy, and who Wants to Harden" (Romans 9.16, 18). It clearly emphasizes God's action.

 

Thus, the person is in an independent, freely postulate hand of the creator, like the clay in the hand of Potter: "Who Are you, the man who is arguing with God?" The product will tell hath made it: why did you do it? "Is it not potter over clay to make one receptacle for honorable use and the other for the low?" (Romans 9.20-21). This makes it clear that the freedom of the individual to make a decision is always coupled with the free choice of God.

 

The idea of election is particularly confirmed by the following places in the Bible :

 

Matthew 22.14  -   "For many of the ranks and few chosen".

 

John 6.64-65  -  "But there are some of you who are non-believers". For Jesus began to know who is non-believers, and who betray Him. And he said, "I told you no one could come to Me unless it shall be given to Him by My Father".

 

Ephesus 1.4-5   -  "Since He has chosen us in Him before the creation of the world, that we be Holy and pure unto Him in love, preferring to adopt "To themselves be more than Jesus Christ" ".

 

Romans 8.29-30   -  "For who He has found, that has decided to be like this".

 

The image of His Son, that he might be original between many brothers; who He predetermined, that called; And who called, and acquitted; "And who has been acquitted and glorified".

 

Acts 13.48 "Pagans, hearing this, rejoiced and glorify the word of the Lord, and believe all that was designed to eternal life".

 

With regard to the biblical understanding of the predetermination, the following aspects are of paramount importance :

 

1. Time. The election takes place at some point in the past, long before our existence :

 

- Before the creation of world (Eph 1.4)

- Before conception (Jer 1.5)

- From the beginning (2 Thess 2.13)

 

2. Service. Election always includes serving God. So God, for example, elects Solomon to build a temple (1 Par 28.10), Levi's Knee on Pius Service (Deut 18.5). Jesus chooses the Disciples for Apostolic Service (Luke 6.13, Acts 1.2), and Paul becomes "the chosen vessel" for the publish name of the Lord to the Pagans (Acts 9.15), and all believers are elected to bear fruit (John 15.16).

 

3. Absence of persons. The election does not take place according to human merit and standards. God pays special attention to the small: Israel is a small minority of all peoples (Deut 7.7), Moses was not a "man of Repure" (Ex 4.10), and members of Christian communities largely do not belong to eminent persons (1Cor 1.27.28).

 

4. To salvation, not to death. What do God want, our salvation or our doom?

 

Its intentions are clearly expressed in the following words: "As the shepherd reassures the herd of his flock on the day when he is among the herd of his scattered, I will look at my sheep and release them out of all the places in which they were scattered in the cloud and gloomy day" (Ezek 34.12). The purpose of His coming to this land is as follows: "For the Son of man came to search and save the deceased" (Matt 18.11). In Jesus Christ, God goes to seek sinners to save them for eternal life. God's desire for salvation is directed towards all mankind: "God wants all men to be saved and to reach the truth" (1 Tim 2.4). This desire of God is also testified to in 1 Thess 5.9: "Because God has determined us not to be angry, but to receive salvation by the Lord of our Jesus Christ".

 

It is clear: there is a close, indissoluble link between salvation and election in the Bible; On the contrary, between the curse and the election, we are so linked.

 

Don't find it. So God's not picking anyone for a curse.

 

God hardened the heart of Pharaoh because of his pagan stubbornness, but not because he was predetermined to it before he was born. The Bible always warns that it is "too late", but the preposterous to eternal death does not teach anywhere. Executing John the Baptist, Herod outperformed all the boundaries of God's patience, so Jesus no longer answered his questions (Luke 23.9).

 

So, really, it is. And the other: God elects men for salvation; The human being is responsible for taking advantage of salvation.

 

When the prodigal son decided, "to stand, go to My Father" (Luke 15.18), His Father ran to Him (Luke 15.20). When we accept salvation in our free will, then the God Promise is true: "Love forever I loved thee, and therefore extended to Thee" (Jer 31.3) and "I have chosen you before the creation of the world" (Eph 1.4).

 

Before we take the Lord into our hearts, he has accepted us for a long time. God awaits and appreciates our conversion, but it would not have been possible without his mercy (Rom 9.16). Only the Lord knows how many people are favored by God (Phil 2.13) and free will (v.12).