I ask simply to see what other Christians think. I am saved, and am convinced of one of these two belief's (which one, I will not say), but I want to hear the voice of American Christian's. So please, enlighten me.
2007-10-19 07:57:03 · 9 answers · asked by Edward Inkling 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
well, honestly, i had never heard of the doctrine of election/predestination until about 7 years ago. Since then, I have really studied on it. Even though I don't completely understand it all, I do believe that the Bible teaches Election/Predestination. Ephesians says we are chosen/elected before the foundation of the Earth.
Jesus said, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39,).
God the Father chose certain individuals to form a Body as a gift to Jesus Christ. Every believer is part of that love gift to Christ—a gift of the Father’s love to His Son.
But we are still supposed to witness because God tells us to, and we still have to make a choice ourselves to follow Christ.
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Grace_to_You/Article.asp?article_id=878
2007-10-19 08:04:22 · answer #1 · answered by Suzi♥Squirrel 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What I believe, and what our Church teaches is hard to wrap your mind around. But I'll give 'er a go...
We all have free-will. We will either choose Christ and are forgiven and saved or not...That being said, God already knew what decision every person would make before the creation of the world. That has to be the case because He says He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He already exists and has always already existed in our future. So He already knows. Many will ask why He would create folks whom He knew would never come to faith. The answer is that then they wouldn't have had a choice, which would pretty much argue against free-will.
2007-10-19 08:09:10 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Pretty straightforward, really. Man starts out as guilty before God, not neutral, not innocent -- otherwise you run into some real conundrums with the age of reason & whether accepting Jesus is a work. Makes baptism a conundrum too.
Anyway, if Man is guilty, then we can have lots of free will, but none of it leads to God. That means God has to do the saving, and by that logic he can elect His own unto that salvation. And if He can do that, then predestination is not too hard to figure.
"God knows but we have free will" is circular thinking UNLESS we are guilty before the Lord, right from the very start.
2007-10-19 12:18:10 · answer #3 · answered by ccrider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is only one thing that is predestined, and that is His Church. He is coming back for the people that have benn through the salvation process in Acts 2:38 and received the Holy Ghost with speaking in tongues. This is how we can become overcomers. This is what God is coming back for.
Free will will determine if we choose to do this, or not.
2007-10-19 08:08:00 · answer #4 · answered by michael m 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Bible teaches that God has predestined all things before the foundation of the world. And, His eternal decree is not conditioned by any act of human will.
However, God's predestination does not preclude human responsibility. On contrary, our actions show forth what God has predestined before the foundation of the world.
Though man has the free will, however its bondage to sin. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, had wholly lost all ability of will to do any spiritual good accompanying salvation.
Though man has free will to choose good or evil, man always chooses what God has predestined.
Judah Iscariot exercised his free will by betraying Jesus to the cross; nevertheless, Judah by his (free will) action fulfilled what God had predestined before the foundation of world; “Jesus the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of world.”
2007-10-19 16:00:50 · answer #5 · answered by Steve 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think in it the two techniques. i think that our lives have been predestined till now we've been born to be a definite way, yet i think that we even have that unfastened will to regulate our destinies. i think of that our predestined lives could be commerce routes of what our lives ought to be or could have been. that's obtrusive that some human beings in this international have taken the incorrect paths have been others have taken that precise direction and crossed those no longer uncomplicated hindrances that have been located precise in front human beings to attempt us.
2016-10-04 04:18:39 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Foreknowledge comes before predestination (Romans 8).
2007-10-19 08:00:41 · answer #7 · answered by Chris 4 · 0⤊ 3⤋
I believe that God predestined some for glory and others for wrath.
2007-10-19 08:04:04 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Here are mine:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-S6YMuFYyaa9ESBoW5DFwEjL_HhqA?p=84
2007-10-19 08:12:47 · answer #9 · answered by cristoiglesia 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋