For the last three Sunday mornings, my youth pastor has been giving a mini-series about predestination. We've been looking at different verses and books and videos, trying to figure out the details. We were instructed to chew on it and to challenge each other on what we believe, which left us all with tons of questions. Here's what I've gathered:
God said we were predestined before the beginning of the world. So how did he choose who to save and who to damn to hell? One of the elders in my church said that because he can see into the future, he saw who would become Christians & he predestined them based on their future actions. But then that contradicts grace, because grace means that we can't do anything to deserve it. So if he looked in the future and said "Oh, Katie is going to choose to love me, so I will predestine her to be saved", then that's not true grace, because I had to do something to gain His favor. So does that mean we're all just chosen randomly, and I became a Christian because God predestined me to become a Christian? So God chooses who to save and who to damn. But that isn't fair.
What is fair?
Sending any people at all to heaven isn't fair. We all deserve to go to hell. This morning we looked back on the story of the twins Esau and Jacob in Romans 9:13. The Bible says "Just as it is written: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" Why did Jacob get to be loved and blessed? Why was Esau hated for no reason?! This makes me mad. I think this is unfair. They should both get to be blessed!! In another verse in Romans, Romans 9:11, it says "Yet, before the twins were born of had done anything good or bad- in order that God's purpose in election might stand". They were saved BEFORE they had done anything good or bad. That is grace.
Romans 9:14-16: "What than shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy."
God knows if we will ever accept him or not. But does that influence his decision on who to predestine or not? No! Hooray for grace!
Grace, only grace, can roll my cold heart's stone away!
Which verses in the bible talk about predestination? I didn't think God predestined people to be saved... he gave us free will so we can choose whether or not to accept his gift of salvation. So this is really confusing what you just said... what do you think of predestination? It still seems unclear to me
ReplyDeleteEphesians 1:4-5 (NIV): For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
DeleteEphesians 1:11: In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
Romans 8:30: And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
2 Timothy 1:9: He has saved us and called us to a holy life- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
Just to name a few.
And I don't really know what I think about the specifics of predestination. I do believe in predestination, but after chewing on the things that I've been hearing for the last couple weeks, I think we were predestined, and God didn't take into account whether or not we would accept him in the future. But I don't know. What do you think of predestination?
Esau was hated by God because he didn't honor God. Maybe, we should look back on the word Hate and see what it actually means. Like I believe Esau "despised" God and the word despised means indifferent, disrespectful, etc. I do agree with you, that verse in Romans 8:29 is kind of confusing but I found a website that shares a little about it. Take what you can from it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/foreknew.html
Thanks, that's a really interesting website! I like the different viewpoints it points out. I will look it over and chat about it with my friends and pastor and see what they have to say about it.
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