Predestination
Before the world began?
A troubling concept has been brought to me to answer. That is, the idea of a “hard” or exclusive predestination where everyone's fate is unalterably decided before they are even born.
As I was blessed because when Christ appeared to me, the Holy Spirit showed me a new way to read the Bible to make sense of it. It had been as if cataracts were filling my eyes blinding me reading the Bible, even though I was top of class in law school. This is partly due to the way most churches teach as snippets and stories with no framework and many men of God do not see it because the extensive education they get in philosophy and languages may actually obfuscate the message for some of them. Two thousand years of philosophers writing about the Bible that have to be learned and studied, may make it more, not less confusing. Big words like “pretribulation” and “eschatological” do not help either.
By hard predestination, I mean the idea that unless you were chosen before birth, you cannot be saved, regardless of events in this life. I say rubbish, this is not Biblical.
For example, quickly read Ephesians 1:3-12. “We were chosen before the foundation of the world.” Sounds pretty predestination-y. But then, read verses 13 and 14. Notice the shift of pronoun from “we” to “you”. “We” were chosen before the “world began.” However, “you” heard and believed, and were saved by grace through faith. So the first group of Apostles and their hand picked companions were chosen before the world began. But the believers they converted were saved like you and I were saved. Humbled in suffering, on our knees with tears and lifted up by the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!
God is sovereign, and He wants His children to come to him, and believe in Him and obey Him voluntarily. He could have created a race of robots or smart monkeys; he chose to create us instead so that we could hear his voice and believe. And we have a choice because unless we have a real choice, where is the virtue? If it isn’t a real choice, it is meaningless. And it is apparent in all creation that everything God does is meaningful. The entire Bible from the fall of man to the resurrection of Christ is about that choice.
So is this consistent with the rest of the Bible?
“Sin is crouching at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Gen. 4: 7. God spoke to Cain, but clearly left Cain with the choice and Cain chose sin over the advice of God. He failed to master the sin crouching at the door; again implying human agency and free will.
“…whoever hears my word and believes the one who sent me has everlasting life will not be condemned...” John 5:24.
“…everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will be saved and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40
“Everyone who says with his lips that Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead will be saved.” Ro. 10:9
It is clear that the message of hope is: fear not! The message is one of inclusion, not exclusion. The Bible is good news for the whole world. Christ came so that men would not perish, but have everlasting life! John 3:17-18.
I am certain to be attacked and criticized online. But I do not care. The Bible as written, read cleanly and with fresh eyes is good news for all mankind. People like Richard Wurmbrand, under torture, converted some of his torturers to Christ. People whose lives were ruled by sin, or who are in prison for very serious crimes, have been saved. People who renounced God because they could not understand the loss of their child and cursed God and became apostates have been saved. For God all things are possible, and through suffering we can be brought back. See for example Romans 11: 11- 24. It is never hopeless. Everyone breathing who comes in sincerity and humility and believes and surrenders his life to Christ will be saved.
And don’t be distracted by the canard that “the devil believes”. The devil is not a human being. He exists to confuse and destroy as many people as possible. His cunning and lies and bitterness are never ending. And he is the source of all lies and treachery and betrayal and evil to destroy anyone he can. Dismiss all evil thoughts and fears from your mind and ask others to pray for you for assistance if these bother you.
To be clear, the message of the Bible, read as a whole with a sight untainted by the weighted opinions of 2000 years of human interpretation is one of inclusion, not exclusion. The Bible is good news for the whole world. Those of us who work in His name spread His seeds and tend His vines. We water, we lift up so that the vines do not lie on the ground and rot. We add fertilizer and topsoil and all the things that we can. He prunes. We do not do the pruning. It is not our place because we do not see all ends; He sees all ends. We are laborers; but the vineyard belongs to Him. He is the master vintner, the One who knows every single grape by name and its taste, sweet or sour, and exactly when to harvest it so that the wine will be neither too sweet nor too tart, and the aroma will be fragrant.
Nothing in the Bible prevents anyone reading this from being saved; every bit of it offers salvation. If you have sinned, you will be forgiven. If your life needs fixing, He will help you. He will not magically fix all your worldly problems, but He will give you meaning and purpose. If you are worried, He will show you that your worries are unnecessary, because you can serve Him as you are and, in the end, you will receive the reward of the righteous, regardless of what happens here. There will be work, there will be hardship, but even if He sent you into the lion’s den, He would go in with you. He will never desert His own.
And what is the work that God requires? It is to believe in the One that He has sent. John 6:28-9. For all who believe in the Son and look to Him have eternal life and He will raise them up at the last day. John 6:40. And with God everything is possible.
So the entire message of the Bible is positive. It is all good news. Good news for you, good news for me and good news for the world. Fear not, the Lord is with us. Just kneel before Christ and surrender your life to Him. I did because of guilt and suffering, and I have been happy ever since, in many ways, and every day has been blessed, even in the hospital in pain, near death. I know this is real, I share it to encourage and to convince you to see it. Your life will be better, not just in the afterlife, but right now. Amen.
Blessing, peace and joy to all people everywhere!
A troubling concept has been brought to me to answer. That is, the idea of a “hard” or exclusive predestination where everyone's fate is unalterably decided before they are even born.
As I was blessed because when Christ appeared to me, the Holy Spirit showed me a new way to read the Bible to make sense of it. It had been as if cataracts were filling my eyes blinding me reading the Bible, even though I was top of class in law school. This is partly due to the way most churches teach as snippets and stories with no framework and many men of God do not see it because the extensive education they get in philosophy and languages may actually obfuscate the message for some of them. Two thousand years of philosophers writing about the Bible that have to be learned and studied, may make it more, not less confusing. Big words like “pretribulation” and “eschatological” do not help either.
By hard predestination, I mean the idea that unless you were chosen before birth, you cannot be saved, regardless of events in this life. I say rubbish, this is not Biblical.
For example, quickly read Ephesians 1:3-12. “We were chosen before the foundation of the world.” Sounds pretty predestination-y. But then, read verses 13 and 14. Notice the shift of pronoun from “we” to “you”. “We” were chosen before the “world began.” However, “you” heard and believed, and were saved by grace through faith. So the first group of Apostles and their hand picked companions were chosen before the world began. But the believers they converted were saved like you and I were saved. Humbled in suffering, on our knees with tears and lifted up by the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!
God is sovereign, and He wants His children to come to him, and believe in Him and obey Him voluntarily. He could have created a race of robots or smart monkeys; he chose to create us instead so that we could hear his voice and believe. And we have a choice because unless we have a real choice, where is the virtue? If it isn’t a real choice, it is meaningless. And it is apparent in all creation that everything God does is meaningful. The entire Bible from the fall of man to the resurrection of Christ is about that choice.
So is this consistent with the rest of the Bible?
“Sin is crouching at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Gen. 4: 7. God spoke to Cain, but clearly left Cain with the choice and Cain chose sin over the advice of God. He failed to master the sin crouching at the door; again implying human agency and free will.
“…whoever hears my word and believes the one who sent me has everlasting life will not be condemned...” John 5:24.
“…everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will be saved and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40
“Everyone who says with his lips that Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead will be saved.” Ro. 10:9
It is clear that the message of hope is: fear not! The message is one of inclusion, not exclusion. The Bible is good news for the whole world. Christ came so that men would not perish, but have everlasting life! John 3:17-18.
I am certain to be attacked and criticized online. But I do not care. The Bible as written, read cleanly and with fresh eyes is good news for all mankind. People like Richard Wurmbrand, under torture, converted some of his torturers to Christ. People whose lives were ruled by sin, or who are in prison for very serious crimes, have been saved. People who renounced God because they could not understand the loss of their child and cursed God and became apostates have been saved. For God all things are possible, and through suffering we can be brought back. See for example Romans 11: 11- 24. It is never hopeless. Everyone breathing who comes in sincerity and humility and believes and surrenders his life to Christ will be saved.
And don’t be distracted by the canard that “the devil believes”. The devil is not a human being. He exists to confuse and destroy as many people as possible. His cunning and lies and bitterness are never ending. And he is the source of all lies and treachery and betrayal and evil to destroy anyone he can. Dismiss all evil thoughts and fears from your mind and ask others to pray for you for assistance if these bother you.
To be clear, the message of the Bible, read as a whole with a sight untainted by the weighted opinions of 2000 years of human interpretation is one of inclusion, not exclusion. The Bible is good news for the whole world. Those of us who work in His name spread His seeds and tend His vines. We water, we lift up so that the vines do not lie on the ground and rot. We add fertilizer and topsoil and all the things that we can. He prunes. We do not do the pruning. It is not our place because we do not see all ends; He sees all ends. We are laborers; but the vineyard belongs to Him. He is the master vintner, the One who knows every single grape by name and its taste, sweet or sour, and exactly when to harvest it so that the wine will be neither too sweet nor too tart, and the aroma will be fragrant.
Nothing in the Bible prevents anyone reading this from being saved; every bit of it offers salvation. If you have sinned, you will be forgiven. If your life needs fixing, He will help you. He will not magically fix all your worldly problems, but He will give you meaning and purpose. If you are worried, He will show you that your worries are unnecessary, because you can serve Him as you are and, in the end, you will receive the reward of the righteous, regardless of what happens here. There will be work, there will be hardship, but even if He sent you into the lion’s den, He would go in with you. He will never desert His own.
And what is the work that God requires? It is to believe in the One that He has sent. John 6:28-9. For all who believe in the Son and look to Him have eternal life and He will raise them up at the last day. John 6:40. And with God everything is possible.
So the entire message of the Bible is positive. It is all good news. Good news for you, good news for me and good news for the world. Fear not, the Lord is with us. Just kneel before Christ and surrender your life to Him. I did because of guilt and suffering, and I have been happy ever since, in many ways, and every day has been blessed, even in the hospital in pain, near death. I know this is real, I share it to encourage and to convince you to see it. Your life will be better, not just in the afterlife, but right now. Amen.
Blessing, peace and joy to all people everywhere!
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