Saturday, July 18, 2009

More on Predestination and Election from Me

“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” Acts 2:22-24

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Ephesians 1:4-6

“And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.” Deuteronomy 29:2-4

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:44

“Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” John 17:1-2

“And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Acts 2:47

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God…” 1 Corinthians 1:1

“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” James 1:18



In this post, I am not going to specifically answer questions, because they have hopefully already been answered. However, I am still going to write more on predestination. I hope what has already been written has answered your questions and that this post will make sense in light of the answers given to your questions.

If man is actually able to choose God, then he’s obviously not totally depraved, as the Bible says. As Martin Luther said, "It is not in your power to turn to God. If you think that it is in your power to turn to God you have missed the whole Reformation and don't understand total depravity. It is not in your power to turn to God. You are a sinner, you're dead, you're eaten up with corruption. Every free choice of yours is evil and not good. So how can we turn to Him who is light, righteousness, holy and good?" Also consider Romans 3:10-11, “There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” How can one who is “dead in their trespasses and sins” choose God? Therefore, the doctrine of human ultimate free will rejects that man is totally depraved. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the garden, they died spiritually. If they were only sick, they could choose salvation or not, but God said that they would “surely die”. Without God choosing us, we would all be damned.

Comments are welcome (as always). I wish I could write more, but a lot has already been written here on this subject.

1 comment:

  1. There's some good verses there. Clever technique, letting the Bible speak for itself. :-) Your synopsis was good too--I think you've given a very good picture of predestination over the past few weeks.

    I noticed your Scripture was in KJV--but that's another topic for another time. Maybe I'll write about that one. :-) But then, I'm already three pages into a 4,000 word blog essay, so far on creation. Sigh...

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