Just reflecting on a few verses after listening to THIS [62 minutes of very interesting stuff]. Saffron planet tackle head-on the big topic of predestination vs free will. Ordinary people with very real concerns discuss the issues debated endlessly by the Calvinists and Arminianists. Does God just have foreknowledge of who’s going to heaven or is it all carved in stone? How do these issues affect our evangelism? Once saved always saved or lose it if you abuse it? Turn on your brains and join us in this lively chat.
Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Eph 1:5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
Eph 1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Questions that have been brought up:
- In regards to predestination does this limit God’s love of all people in the world. In other words does He love only those He has predestined?
- Is God’s death from some and not for all?
- Can we come up with a balance of God’s sovereignty, God’s love and mercy and God’s foreknowledge… how can we balance that? How do those three strands unite and balance?
- Thinking of the Old Testament where God chose Jacob and hated Esau is that salvific predestination or is that choosing servants for God’s earthly purpose?
- If people don’t have that blessed assurance of salvation is it because they do not understand if the concept of ‘once saved always saved’ and this is why they are being rocked when it comes to difficult doctrines? If they really know that they ARE a child of God then they would be open to all sorts of stimulus and doctrinal debate without having their faith rocked. So, is ‘once saved always saved’ a doctrinal certainty?
- If peoples faith is rocked when debating doctrinal arguments, does this mean that their relationship with God is clothed in uncertainty. If so, does this mean that they may not be saved in the first place?
- If we are rocked then perhaps we need to look at our foundations? Hebrews 6 speaks about certain fundamentals that need to be in place:
- If we have a desire in our heart to know God is that God’s predestined grace upon us?
- How can someone be a child of God and then turn away? Can we judge a child of God by what they once said and did, or by their perseverance of their faith?
Heb 6:1 Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teachings about Christ, let us continue to be carried along to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Filed under: Christianity, Philosophy & Religion, Theology, discernment









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