Pre-destination?

Question

For those of you that do believe in it, what would be the point of accepting Jesus and converting to Christianity when the decision is already made?

For those of you that don't, isn't God supposed to be all-knowing, therefore He should already know who will go where?

Answer 1

Simple predestination includes God making allowances for our various choices, but in the end, his divine will prevails.

The fact that he already knows what you choose doesn't affect your ability to make the choice at all. You are free to do whatever you like.

Some Protestant theologians, like Calvin, taught double predestination, where humans only appear to have free will, but are really predestined to be either saved or lost, from their conception.

Most Christian groups don't accept Calvin's views.

Answer 2

I think our 'pre-destination' is more like a road map, this is where we will go if we take this path, and we will go there if we take that path. The free-will , or right to make a choice determines where our life goes and what experiences we have. However not everyone has the same paths to choose from, so the pre-determination is about WHICH choices are before us. Sort of like five people taking a test on the same subject but they all have a different test.

Answer 3

Traditionally, in Christianity, the existence of predestination wasn't a question. The question was if God predetermined who he was going to elect for salvation before or after the Fall of Man. Even though a person was a Christian, it didn’t mean that person knew whether or not God had elected him/her for salvation! There has been debate of this for hundreds of years. Basically, though, they concluded that God picks who is going to be saved, and only offers salvation to those people. It would be like if I gave out a bunch of green hats, and I said that only those who have green hats can come to my birthday party.

The idea of choosing Jesus as one's personal savior is a very new idea in the history of the religion. This theology would be very odd to any Christian that lived over 200 years ago.

Answer 4

Most Christian predestinarians believe in the reality of human free-will.

So a person would be making a real decision for Christ.

Fore-knowledge is a different topic. If God knows who will choose him, that does not mean that God would force the person to choose him.

Cordially,
John

Answer 5

Playing both side of the fence?

Have you ever seen a computer program that plays chess?
The program runs through a "tree" of all possible plays to "see" an outcome.
Each time you move the computer runs this tree, the computer has no control of your move but the tree will tell the computer what to move to win "always seeing the end"

Every time you make a choice, God runs a program and can see where you are. He does not know what choice you will make but once you make it he can like the computer program can see your end game. Your end game may change over a lifetime many times.

Answer 6

WhatChair,if you want the real answer you will have to ask God,how ever I will give you my 2 sense worth. God, pure conscious energy visualized ( CREATED) all of creation to the smallest of detail, then looked and pronunced it GOOD,then released the vision through the "BIG BANG" into a process of outer manifestion that is still continuing, some call it evolution. WE ARE PREDISTINED to fullfill his vison.
If you have a vision of and want your dog to perform a trick,how many attempts will it take for him to learn to perform it exactly as you envisioned it?? Does your dog have free will? Does your dog not exercise that free will in a way that will please you?? Would it help your dog learn if you had an experienced dog do the trick,Showing him how?? God will bless you greatly for seeking the truth.LOVE Whistle Briches

Answer 7

This is a direct connect to the fact that you were created as a free moral agent; you were predestined to live for ever with Father in Heaven and partake of His goodness here on earth; the heart of man is corrupt; the Bible says 'His goodness leads man to repentence"; Romans 10:9-10 says that if a person will believe in their heart and confess from their mouth that Jesus Christ died for their lives and came to restore them in unity with Father God, then they shall be saved. Christ means 'the annointed one'. Annointing means 'yoke destroying and burden removing power of God'. This we can say Jesus Chirst or Jesus who is the power to destroy yokes and life burdens. My yoke is easy and my burden is light so says the Lord.

Answer 8

If God is omnipotent, then he would have to know the outcome of Judgment Day before you even lived. If your fate is already decided then free will is just an illusion.

Answer 9

That is a fundamental paradox. The fanatics will defend it to the end. Most mainstream Christians don't believe in this fate.

Answer 10

I don't believe in predestination nor deities. I do believe that every decision we make helps us shape our own destiny. Life is an unwritten slate and each of us authors our own biography.