[Salvation]

The main difficulty in the doctrine of predestination is whether God's eternal decision has been taken with or without consideration of human freedom.

In other words, man still has a lot to say (and do) to determine his eternal destination!

[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day Ping!

 

Endometriosis	Causality	Patron Saint
Sacristy	Shrovetide	Predestination

If you aren’t on this Catholic Word of the Day Ping list and would like to be, please send me a FReepmail.

 

[faucetman]

It’s real simple. It’s not a mystery.

God is ALL KNOWING. That means he already knows His sheep, every one. While man has free will, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t know what choices we are going to make. It is not predetermined what each of us will do, it’s just that God knows what it will be. There is a HUGE difference between the two.

God already knows who will be saved and where everyone will spend eternity. If the “mystery” is that because we don’t know the answers to those questions, then I guess that could be considered a mystery.

While none of us will know for certainty until the day comes, we have “faith” that God’s word is true. That Jesus died for our sins, and by accepting Him as did the thief on the cross, His FREE gift of eternal life with Him will be realized. While those who choose to deny Him to the very end, will spend eternity in hell separated from God FOREVER. Our ALL KNOWING God does already know which are which. The first may be last and the last may be first, but He knows ALL His sheep every one.

John 10: 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

John 10:25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all[c]; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

[ScubieNuc]

This "predestination" doctrine gets screwed up by many people, even Calvinists.

It's really not that hard to understand. Read Romans 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 brethern.

The verse tells you whom is "predestined" to be conformed....those whom God knew before hand. If you ask yourself, "who didn't God know before they were born?" you will realize that God knew EVERYONE before they were born, therefore EVERYONE is "predestined" to become children of God.

As it says in John 3:16 "For God so loved THE WORLD..." God loves everyone, not just a select few. God gave every person a chance at a destiny with him, not just a special group. At the final judgement of the damned (as talked about in Revelation) the damned will see that God had provided them a path to him, and they will see all of the opportunities they chose to refuse that path, and they will be justly destroyed in the Lake of Fire (the second death or the death of the soul).

The other way makes no sense. If only certain people are chosen by God before they are born to be with him forever, then what kind of God creates people who will suffer on earth, die, then be destroyed basically because God didn't choose them? That's not justice. That's evil and God is not evil.

[Arthur McGowan]

There are two terms that should never have been invented, because they are totally unnecessary, and cause nothing but mischief: “predestination,” and “conscience.”