Bible: Where does it say in the bible.............?

Question

Where in the bible does it say that you are a predestined person and it has already been determined if you are going to Heaven or Hell? And it doesnt matter if you believe in God or not it is already predetermined

This is a main thing that the Reformed Baptist believe in

Answer 1

Eph. 1:5 - Paul teaches that God “predestined” us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ. "Predestination" means that God knows what we will do before we do it (it does not mean that God determines what we do; otherwise, we would have no freewill).

Predestination is taken from the Greek word "prooridzo" which means to know or declare in advance by God’s foreknowledge. See, for example, 1 Peter 1:2 where Peter writes about the “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.”

The terms “predestination” and “the elect” always refer to God’s knowledge (not human knowledge) because God is outside of time (and humans cannot predict the future). There are two types of "predestination," to grace and to glory. In this verse, Paul is teaching about predestination to grace, which means becoming a Christian.

1 Pet. 1:1-2 – Paul teaches about being destined by God for obedience to Christ. This is another example of predestination to grace. But there is also predestination to glory.

Rom. 8:29-30 – Paul also writes that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now Paul is writing about predestination to glory, which means not only becoming a faithful Christian during our lives, but persevering to the end by conforming our will to Christ's will.

1 Cor. 15:49 – Paul writes that we are conformed in His image at the resurrection, when we shall bear the image of the man of heaven. These are the people who were predestined to glory.

Rev. 3:5 – Jesus warns that He can blot out the names that are in the book of life. This refers to those currently, not ultimately, justified (those who are predestined to grace, but not to glory).

Eph. 1:5; 1 Peter 1:2; Rom. 8:29-30; 1 Cor. 15:49 - therefore, predestination is either to grace (which we could lose) or to glory (which we cannot lose). As alluded to above, some non-Catholics confuse the definition of "predestination" (which means God knows what we will do before we do it) and "predetermination" (the erroneous belief that God determines what we will do). But God does not author evil. We choose evil by our own freewill.

Ezek. 18:23-24, 32 - God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Our death is our freewill, failing to respond to His grace. God does not predetermine certain people to hell. God also does not predetermine certain "elect" people to heaven. We all, as God's children, have been given the grace we need to be saved, but we can decide to reject God's grace.

2 Peter 3:9 – God is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God wills all to be saved, but our salvation depends on our willingness to repent and receive God’s grace.

Matt. 18:14 - Jesus says it is not the will of the Father that any of the children should perish. But He did not make us robots and respects the freewill He has given us. If we did not have this freewill, we would not be able to love, and if we would not be able to love, we would not have been created in God's image and likeness.

Acts 10:35, 45 - these texts show that non-Christians can also be saved if they fear God, even though they haven't formally accepted Jesus as Savior at an altar call. They just do not have the fullness of the means of salvation.

1 Tim. 2:4 - God desires all men to be saved. But our freewill may choose to reject God's grace. In order for our gift of freewill not to be a sham, God must also give us the freedom to reject Him.

2 Pet. 3:9 - the Lord doesn't wish that any should perish, but come to full repentance.

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Answer 2

The Bible does not teach a predestination to heaven AND hell. This would make God the author of sin, which is not true.

What the Bible does teach is that the entire human race is guilty and stands condemned before God. Therefore we cannot look to him for salvation on our own. Neither can our good works save us, nor can we have merits applied to us in order to avoid hell.

Therefore, in this "totally depraved" state, it takes a loving God to save us from what would otherwise be certain destruction. And if God can be the one to choose us rather than the other way around, then he can do so at any time, which explains the verse about choosing us in him before the foundations of the world.

This makes your last statement a non sequitur if those who are predestined WILL believe in him because of the work the Holy Spirit has done in their hearts. It does not follow that a believer would not want to believe. Salvation is a good thing.

Answer 3

HELP FOR STUDYING THE BIBLE

Epostle11 had a very good explanation.

The problem with denominations is that they just about all have at least one error in their doctrine (some have more) that doesn't quite correspond with the WHOLE message in the Gospel. Those people who branched off from one denomination did so because of one or two issues and they made that their tenet for wanting to start a new church. (By the way, the "church" is not a building or a denomination. The church that the New Testament talks about was the Body of Believers-we are the Body of Christ.) They were really adamant about their beliefs, so the new church body is strong in those initial areas of doctrine, but they may lack wisdom or understanding on other areas. Or they just adopt another denomination's views without studying the Bible for themselves. This has led to so much strife and contention between believers. (Satan has to love that.)

The most important thing for us to do as individuals is to study the Bible for ourselves. Do NOT believe what someone tells you about God's Word-even if they are from your denomination. Seek the answers yourself (just like you're doing here). But don't just read these posts and form your personal beliefs on this subject. You need to read these verses that are quoted on this answer board for yourself. Anyone can misquote or misrepresent the Scriptures.

Get yourself a concordance (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance is good). It is in alphabetical order and tells you every time a certain word is used in the Bible (usually based on the King James Bible). Do your own Bible study. For example: For the question you posed above, look up the words "predestination" and "believe". Any other forms of those words will be close to those listings, like "predestined" and "belief", etc. There will be a few words there giving you an idea of what the passage says. But you need to look up those passages and read them. Take notes so you can go back and compare what THE WHOLE BIBLE has to say about that subject.

It is easy to take one Scripture and make a belief system or a doctrine out of it. BUT THAT IS WRONG. Christians live by the whole Bible. Just like taking one year of your life when you really messed up and basing your whole life story on that year would be out of context. Your other years might not have been that bad (or they could have been worse, true). Take the pieces and put them together to make the whole. The more you do this on subjects that interest or confuse you, the better you will get at Bible study. You will learn so much.

P.S. The Strong's Concordance has a section in the back with Hebrew and Greek aids (those are the original languages of the Old and New Testaments, respectively). The words in the front (predestined, belief, etc.) correspond with the Hebrew or Greek (Greek in this case, New Testament) words in the back. You can cross-reference those numbers and find out exactly what that word meant in the original language.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions. There are a lot of ways to study the Bible. This is a good way to do it so that you don't read into the bible what you really want it to say. The bottom line is that you need to learn how so you can know the answers for yourself. There are a lot of people out there who would mislead you on purpose or who would try to persuade you to believe like them. We are supposed to have the Mind of Christ and the best way to get that is to know what HE said about things.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Man was given free will, being created “in God’s image.” (Genesis 1:27) Free will was indispensable if humans were to honor and serve God out of love, not as robots with every movement determined beforehand. Love displayed by intelligent, free creatures would enable God to refute unjust accusations. He says: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.”—Proverbs 27:11.

If God’s servants were predestined—or programmed, so to speak—could not the genuineness of their love for their Creator be called into question? Also, would it not be contrary to God’s impartiality for him to make a predetermined choice of persons destined to glory and happiness without taking their individual merits into account? Moreover, if some receive such preferential treatment, while others are destined to eternal punishment, this would hardly arouse sincere feelings of gratitude in the “elect,” or “chosen ones.”—Genesis 1:27; Job 1:8; Acts 10:34, 35.

Answer 5

Eph 1:4 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:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Answer 6

It doesn't. It would be kind of sad if it were like that. Life wouldn't be worth living. We would just go about our lives in a rather pointless fashion, having nothing to strive for, nothing to look forward to.

Answer 7

I saw this the other day. But we have free will, so we make the choice. God in His wisdom already knows, but we don't.

Answer 8

I read the Bible twice a year and I've never seen such.