(Romans 9:15 KJV) For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Who determines whether or not you will enter into the Kingdom of God?
You?
Well, I must confess that I am in a period of flux, religiously speaking, but I would answer with "accepted Christ as my saviour".
You EARNED your salvation by accepting Christ????
Or did you simply confirm your salvation (and your status as one of the elect) when you received Christ?
That doesn't mean that he decided to have mercy on you before you were born, and that nothing you do in the meantime can change it.
Who determines whether or not you will enter into the Kingdom of God?
God.
You?
no
You EARNED your salvation by accepting Christ????
Need to think about it more, but earned is probably not the right word.
Or did you simply confirm your salvation (and your status as one of the elect) when you received Christ?
Not sure... but, I see, and understand the logic and the scripture behind Calvinism. But, I also see scripture and the entire theme of the New Testament that accepting Christ is a choice for you to freely make.
How to reconcile the all knowing God with Free Will? I, and others, reconcile it by not reconciling it i.e. it is a mystery.
Calvinists reconcile it by just saying there is no free will, which I think much of the new testament, as well as human experience, suggests is false. This gets back to an earlier poster who described Calvinism as lazy i.e. rather than accept that something is complex it just crosses out a major theme of the bible.
This is where Calvinists goes off into imaginative LaLa Land. To say that believing is "a work" is ridiculous because the entire New Testament differentiates between the two. Paul in Romans 4:5 writes:
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness".
---worketh not, but believeth ---
Believing is not a work ---- nor is receiving ---- either scripturally or in the real world.