Why I Believe Predestination

myself | 2/18/01 | myself

[rwfromkansas]

I hope this is formatted decently. I know some of the long passages have a lot of space between them, but I just did a quick save in HTML format from Microsoft Word of this. It was so long there is no way in heck I would do this by hand. I am posting this in reply to a post about why someone does not believe predestination.

[ccmay]

We have no choice but to believe in free will.

-ccm

[ccmay]

Your God is a demon if he does this.

-ccm

[ccmay]

Not just a demon, but a capricious and miselading demon, an Indian giver, and worthy of no man to be worshipped. The more I think about this the more I am appalled.

-ccm

[rwfromkansas]

Why do you believe free will? Any logic, or just emotion? It appears the latter.

[cinFLA]

and I hope it has made you think.

I will spare you the details of what I think about your ramblings.

[rwfromkansas]

If you are opposed to God's grace in saving people he chooses, when he could have very much let us all burn in hell, goodness....I don't have much to say in reply except God is God and we do not know his ways. The ways of man, the thoughts of man, are not the pure and perfect thoughts and ways of God and whenever something seems bad to us, it serves to glorify Him and is really a good thing in the end.

[rwfromkansas]

Another poster who is only replying with emotion. You dang free willers need to actually use your brain and read your Bible.

[JPR_Boise_ID]

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[rwfromkansas]

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[ThinkDifferent]

You dang free willers need to actually use your brain and read your Bible.

Well, if you're right then we're predestined to believe in free will, so why argue?

I'm with ccmay; any God who creates billions of sentient beings and deliberately condemns all except those he "saves" to eternal suffering is unspeakably evil.

[gcruse]

Homosexual agenda? Care to explain?

[Darheel]

I believe in destiny. But that destiny can only be achieved through skill, fortitude, and luck. Just one chance at greatness is more that any man could ask for. A man's life is the seeking and finding of his fortune.

[Michael Barnes]

I will merely say that I did no read your entire article. I would like to submit this though. If we submit to the will of God, he will show us the path he has laid out for us. I doubt that after banishing a third of his angels he would pre-destine we mortals to an eternity of pain and suffering (Call it lessons learned I guess?). I think it is we who exercise our choice that drive the splint between the Lord and ourselves. The end result is anyone's guess, save one (Three?)

[Semi Civil Servant]

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

If what you say is true, this scripture must mean ALL will come to repentance. (Bin Laden? Hitler?)

There are scriptures which "prove" both free will and predestination. The problem is that they are both true. We just don't have the capacity to understand how that can be.

"Free will" APPEARS to violate the concept of God's sovereignty. That bothers Presbyterians (et al). "Predestination" APPEARS to violate the concept of God's justice. That REALLY bothers most everybody else, as the replys are telling you. In fact, God is both Sovereign and Just and there is no contradiction.

If we can't understand it, that's nothing strange. Quantum mechanics is full of odd, non-intuitive, even contradictory (to us) concepts. We can't even comprehend (or picture) the basic structure of our universe. Our universe "curves in on itself," whatever that means. It is unrealistic to expect tidy, humanly understandable concepts in any explanation of God and his attributes.

[lockeliberty]

Homosexual agenda? Care to explain?

I was wondering about that too. Perhaps it has something to do with the free-will of homosexuals? I would posit to say in regards to homosexual free-will that they are free to choose their decisions but can not choose the consequences of their decisions.

[StDonTheBaptist]

I noticed you left out John 3:16 from your Scripture examples..why is that ?

John 3:16 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.

who•so•ev•er \'hu-se-"we-ver\ pronoun (13c) : whoever
(C)1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

John 3:16 in the Bible is spoken by Jesus Christ. Who would better know the Mind of God than His Son ?

I could post other Scripture about Salvation being available to everyone, and not just some.

If you are not Born Again, God sent His Son to die for you as well. There is room at the Cross for you.

[ShadowAce]

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[Consort]

Predestination and free will; creation and evolution; destiny and karma, etc. and etc. Everything that can possibly happen has happened. It all exists in the timeless Now.

As far as predestination and free will are concerned, we use free will to decide which predetermined events we want to experience in any given lifetime.

[rwfromkansas]

Well, actually, that passage's context is referring to the predestined.

But, you are definitely right that this is something we do not really know a lot about and God is a mystery on this issue to a great extent.