Can someone please explain to me what pre-destined to salvation means?

Question

I just read someones answer to a question and they said if someone was atheist that whether the atheist was pre-destined to salvation would determine whether they went to Heaven or Hell. I have never heard of GOD predestining anyone to either........

Answer 1

That is a false teaching. God would not be so unfair as to completely shut a person off from having any chance at salvation for no apparent reason. People have free will and their fates are not predestined.

Answer 2

The predestination spoken of is Calvanistic in nature, and based
partly on misinterpretation of Paul's arguments to the church at Rome (romans end of chpt 8 and chpt 9). But what Paul is actually speaking of, is Salvation to all man, as being predestined - Paul is not refering to individual salvation, but salvation through Jesus, the Messiah as a predestined event, previous arguments in Romans and particularly the entire book of Hebrews show that the old law or Judeism - Levitical law (which Christ established/fullfilled) was a training tool, ameans of preperation for that whish is to come and that the Jews as his chosen people were to be the first teachers, teaching the world of God's Glory, and preparing for the predestined Salvation through Jesus.
Several Prophets spoke of the messiah and a predetermined course, that being that the Son of Man - the Messiah would come to earth for the purpose of being the only perfect attonement for man's sin and those who belive on Jesus and follow his commandments of repentance and baptism for remission of sin receive Salvation and can only lose salvation because of unforgiven sin. Paul is argueing to the judeo-christians that the gentiles were called to God and this was always his plan, yet the Jews had a problem of not understanding the Spiritual nature and could not see past the physical ideologies and therefore had great difficulty accepting that gentiles could also have salvation. The predestination of individual souls only shows what can happen when man cuts and pastes from the Word of God what he wants to make up his own way to better suit man's desires and conveniences.

Answer 3

There is no pre-destination.. we have free will to decide how to live our lives on Earth. It is how we live our lives and whether or not we choose to believe that will determine our fate. Although, It isn't as simple as "if you believe in God and that Jesus died for your sins.. you will be saved." There are those "atheists" and others who have never heard the message of God. Jesus is the only one that will determine how to handle that sort of situation. He is the only judge. He shared a parable that paraphrased, said: A father has two sons.. one stays home and takes care of the Father and tends to his fields.. the other goes off and parties for years.. upon his return, the partying son asks the Father for forgiveness... the Father hugs the son and gives both sons equal shares of his possessions. It's a parable that I believe that Jesus told to indicate that only He will determine the fate of our afterlife, whether we believe it would be fair or not..is not for us to judge. Hope that wasn't too confusing.

Answer 4

Some people think that some people are predestined to go to heaven, and some will go to hell. They feel that this decision is final, and it is their excuse for not believing in God or not bringing others to Him. But these are the REAL facts: God knows who will go to heaven and hell, but He WANTS ALL of us to go to heaven. Since God decided to give humans free will, we can choose to follow God and go to heaven, but the Lord won't force us to.

Answer 5

Some religions like Calvinists believe that God has already decided before we were born if you go to heaven or hell, and it doesn't mater what we do. Our actions don't play a part in the decision at all.

I personally think that Calvinists are wrong.

Answer 6

That is particularly the teaching of Calvinism... which is that God has predestined since the beginning of time who all will be saved and who will not be. I believe that spits in the face of the whole Bible and is completely false.

Answer 7

This is the first I heard of it. However, I'm venturing a guess and would assume some "new ager" made up that nonsensical expression. First, there's no "salvation" and no one is "pre-disposed" for it. I wouldn't even bother investigating dead-end expressions like that.

Answer 8

Pre-Destination is the belief that God chose all those who would go to Heaven before they were even created. I don't belive that though.

Answer 9

okay. we are all sinners. you must start there to truly understand predestination. we all deserve eternal punishment because Adam, acting as the representative of mankind, disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and sinned. he therefore trasferred guilt to every single person ever to have been, is now, or will be born. God, in His grace and infinite wisdom has saved a very few sinners as His elect. the only person it's not fair to is God Himself. "the beauty of grace is that it's not fair.." a line in a song by the Christian band Relient K sums it up. it isn't fair, it advantages us entirely. the five points of Calvanism also show this well.
Total Depravity (every part of every person is sinful)
Unconditional Election (sinners are chosen as elect regardless of social position, race, good works, etc.)
Limited Atonement (Christ saves only those set apart by God for redemption)
Irrasistable Grace (anyone chosen by God to be saved will choose to believe. thus, an athiest who dies without believing in God will be condemned to Hell, he is not saved. everyone who is elect will come to praise God's name in this life)
Pererverance of the Saints (saints are not special people in this reference. saints refers to any and all Christians. PotS means once a Christian, always a Christain)
we are the ones advantaged. We do not by any means deserve Heaven, it is God's gift to His elect. an atheist pre-destined would convert to Christianity before said atheist died. that atheist, if not of the elect, would be condemned to eternal punishment for his sins in Hell.

those who think God "wants" everyone to go to heaven, or "forknows who will choose" are unfortunately wrong. they aren't necessarily unsaved, just misled. God is infinitely powerful and these views degrade His infinite power and holiness. He is God! there is no comparison to anything, ever. He has complete power over everyone and everything, He is not helpless to "hope" all go to Heaven.

i hope this is helpful, and that it opens your eyes to God's grace.

Answer 10

Dear Tx Girl: Please don't worry about Hell. You must decide - is God a loving God - or not?

If you decide that He is Loving - then, follow through, all the way, with that thought. When you hear others speak of such things as Hell and Damnation - know it is not truth.

The Old Testament mentions this, and so many are schooled in this belief. But the Old Testament is written by Ancient man and is a collection of oral traditions passed from generation to generation for thousands of years! Ancient man views God as a Jealous, Vengeful, and Wrathful God. You must decide. . .Jesus, in the New Testament, says differently. He embodies the Father's characteristics. Is the Father loving or not - to you?

God does not punish His Children for anything. He TEACHES them through His teacher, Jesus, and through His Holy Spirit Who Guides and Comforts.

Heaven is just a name for Home. The Creator and His Kingdom in a continuous Act of Creation.

We are in the Great Separation. But, the Father initiated His Plan for our Return. We are, all, individually pre-destined for salvation (taught to us in the Separation period).

The Holy Spirit, inside each of us in our Higher Mind (or Self) has discussed with each soul when it would be willing to learn, for its salvation, and determine, from a point of Time when measured Time would end for it, and that soul would be willing to be released to revelation and Eternity within the Father again.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit do not hasten you. You have Free Will to determine for yourself when you are willing to begin the Journey to Return. This has taken place within the realm of our souls inside each of us. We have no human conscious awareness of this. But, it has occurred. Each one will Return at an appointed time.

The only ones who shall never Return are those who did not protect their spiritual and mental health and spiritual illness progressed within them until they were demon-ized. Demonic minds do not Return. There is no Hell. We each were Created by the Father, through a Thought He had of us. We are always held in His spirit-mind Thoughts. His Thought of us gives us our life. His Thought of us maintains our Eternal life. There is no Hell or punishment for Demons. God, painlessly and in a nanosecond, drops them from HisThought. They disappear.

Outside of Demon-ism - salvation and Return is pre-destined, or planned for each.