Do you believe in predestination?

Question

Do you think God decides before hand who is going to hell and who is going to heaven?
or do you believe that God gave us all free will and that we have the choice whether to accept him or not?

Answer 1

God knows who is going to heaven and hell before hand, but he still allows the choice...the love of a being that isnt forced to love but has the choice to love is far greater than beings that are forced to love

Ecc

Answer 2

Predestination would be a direct denial of the scripture that says "God is no respector of persons." This scripture tells us that God is not partial to anyone over anyone else. To give salvation as a random choice or to disqualify some and allow others to be saved would be unworthy of a Perfect and Holy God.

Perfection means that God makes no mistakes. How could he stoop to partiality which is bias and a human trait? He is far above that, and loves all people the same.

There are scripture texts that would lead some to believe one way and then other texts that would leave some to believe the other way, but all the scriptures combined brings the picture into focus.

The best example of that is a book called "Life in the Son" by a man who was sold on predestination and election until he did the research and totally reversed his position. His name is Robert Shank, and the book he wrote is intricately woven with scripture and explanations of the greek language interpretations. I challenge anyone to refute what he has written. It is an awesome book well worth "studying" if the person will come into the book putting aside all their own views to see if the author has something to offer them.

EDIT: For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." WHOSOEVER MEANS WHOSEOVER - you can't change it no matter how much you want to believe in predestination and election. It would be a crass joke from God to put that word in there as a false promise and then snatch it away from some. God is not in the business of offering false hope. PEOPLE WHO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS TEACHING GET FOREKNOWLEDGE CONFUSED WITH PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.

Answer 3

Religious people must believe in predestination is they believe in an all knowing God. God knows exactly how the events in someones life will be before we are born, so we have no choice. That is the premise behind an all knowing God, God already knows what you will do before you do it, so there is no way to shock him and do something else, since he would know that you were going to try to do that anyway. So, if that is the case, then God having created time and all events in it prior to the beginning of time, then he is a jerk for sending anyone to hell, since he caused them to do those things.
If we have free will and can do things that God does not know about, then he is not all knowing, hence not all powerful. However, to punish an imperfect being for not living up to the standards of a perfect being with the imperfect being having free will is God being a jerk once again.
So what did we learn, that if there is a God, he is a jerk. And that with both cases, Occam razor would find that the lack of a God being the easiest solution.

Answer 4

I believe we have the choice to accept Him or reject Him. The Bible is quite clear that God doesn't pick and choose who goes to Heaven or Hell. See 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise toward us, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

God says we have a choice:

"Choose life, that you might live." (Deuteronomy 30:19)
"“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37; Jesus laments over Jerusalem)

God's salvation is for the whole world, not just for the elect:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
"And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:2)

Now, the Bible does speak of predestination along with free will, and if the Bible speaks of both, then both must be true. So I look at predestination this way: Because we have been saved, we are *now* predestined to go to Heaven. In other words, we're destined for Heaven before we get there. But God gave us a free will. He doesn't drag anyone kicking and screaming into Heaven. Everyone must make the choice of whether to accept Him or reject Him.

Edit: I should also point out that many people confuse predestination and foreknowledge. Yes, it is true that God knows everything that will happen and has happened, but this does not negate the existence of free will. For instance, all of our actions are freely chosen by us. However, God knows which choice we're going to make. God did not force us to make that choice; we made it of our own volition.

Suppose I'm deciding whether to have a chicken sandwich or soup for lunch, and I'm going to choose the sandwich. I still have the free will to choose, God just knows that I'm going to choose the sandwich. He didn't force me to choose it.

Answer 5

If you accept the commonly held assumptions that:

- God created the universe, and
- God created man, and
- God gave man free will, but
- God knows what choices man will make,

then you have to conclude that he knew everything that would ever happen when he created man.

And, with an infinite number of choices to make when he created the universe, he knowingly chose the one way to create the universe that would result in things happening as they have and will happen.

If God set everything in motion in a specific way, and knew how everything would play out as a result, then he predetermined everything. Had he created the universe any differently, things would have happened differently as a result. he knew all his choices, and he knew all the results of those choices, so he made his choices knowingly.

Therefore predestination is the only possible conclusion you can draw, like it or not.

BTW, this is a reason I don't believe in God; there is no way to reconcile al these things.

Answer 6

I believe the predestination verses can be taken at face value from a sovereign God who guides the footsteps of both the regenerate and the unregenerate. They don't have to be twisted around to accommodate our free will. It's the other way around, we need to take a serious look at whether our free will is so precious that we have to weaken God in order to keep it.

Answer 7

I don't believe in predestination. Why would God create something and then make His creation suffer eternal tormetn in the fires of hell?

Answer 8

Yes and no. As a Catholic, I believe God knows who will be damned and who will be saved, because God knows everything past present and future.

However, I do not believe He damns wretches to Hell before they are even born as a strict Calvinist would say. That's sort of a Protestant perversion of the idea of God's sovereignty.

It is clear from Scripture that we choose to serve God....or not and then we are judged at the end for the choices we have made using our free will.

Answer 9

Yes I believe in pre destionation because it is completely biblical. Look at Romans 8 and 9 and Ephesians 1. Also John 6:44 says "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day"

The bible speaks of the "elect" all throughout, and this does not just mean the remnant of Israel, of God's chosen--- this includes ALL people that are to be saved. "First to the jew, than to the gentile" as the Bible says.

The more I study on predestination, the more God shows me and confirms to me in His word that He has chosen us before the foundation of the throne ( Ephesians 1)

Answer 10

every person has a mind to think and chose. i think from reading and learning about the Bible and God that every person has a choice to follow Jesus or not. God knows the future and what it holds that is why he sent his only Son -who is God..so everyone can come to God.

I'm not a believer but this is the conclusion I come to..