Predestination
Most of what we know about predestination comes to us in the New Testament.
Romans 8:28 - 30
28:"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
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 brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Verse 28 claims the knowledge of the born-again believer that ALL things work together.....to those who are called according to His purpose.
Verses 29 and 30 tells us that the saved, the true believers were predestinated before they were born to be part of God's chosen family.
Foreknowledge simply means that God knows ahead of time all that is going to take place. Since God exists OUTSIDE THE DIMENSION OF TIME AND SPACE, He has the ability to see the beginning to the end.
Acts 15:18 states; "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world."
If God did not have this ability, then how could the hundreds of prophecies we find in Scripture have come true. Prophecies regarding Israel, Jerusalem, the Birth, Death, Resurrection of Jesus, the end times....all of these prophecies have come to pass because God "sees" the whole panorama of creation, as if sitting in the Goodyear blimp, watching a parade. As onlookers, we stand in one spot and see only what passes if front of us. God sees the "beginning" of the parade, as well as its "end".
On this same line of thinking, since God knows His chosen since before "the world was", He knows who will accept His free offer of salvation, and who won't.
Ephesians 1: 4-5 states: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world....Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."
Again were told that this predestination took place "before the foundation of the world". Since the book of life was completed "before the foundation of the world", those that were predestined, had their names written in the book of life.
1 Peter 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
Here, Peter talks of Christ being foreordained to become the Savior of mankind, to those who believed and accepted His Salvation.
Again, another passage that relates to this foreknowledge is II Timothy 2:19 - "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate."
God looked upon us (the Born-again) with favor, and chose us before time and space, (the world) was created. The fact is, without God's act of electing us to salvation, no one could ever be saved. Left to his own devices, man would not want anything to do with God. Jeremiah 19: 9 backs this up: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it".
When did "Time and Space" begin? Since God created Adam and Eve to be "eternal" beings, IE, living forever, then "time" must have began at the fall. That is when, many believe, "time" actually began. If Adam and Eve were "eternal" beings, they would have no need for "time". At the fall of man, when Adam and Eve broke God's commandment, "time" began; the aging process, both for man and the whole of creation, started at that time. It was before this event that God looked chose His "Elect"; predistined those who were to share in His Kingdom.
Romans 3:11 - There is none that seeketh after God." We didn't seek the Lord, The Lord sought us. It was only after the Holy Spirit started working with our dead spirit, that we came to Him.
Because of the belief in predestination, some have decided that God also predestinates someone to "not get saved", in other words, God predestinates some to hell. Actually, all are lost and bound for hell until one accepts God's free gift of salvation, through faith in the atoning work by His Son on the Cross. God COULD let the whole human race be destroyed in the Lake of Fire, but His wish is that "all would come to redemption".
Some would argue that a "just and fair" God wouldn't allow any to go to hell. That He would choose some to be saved and some to be damned. But what is actually happening here, is not justice, but GRACE. If we all got what we deserved, we ALL would be damned, but through God's GRACE, we are saved, through faith, in Christ's giving of Himself as the ultimate Blood Sacrifice. Don't ever pray for justice....pray for mercy.
All through the Scriptures, we find evidence of God "choosing" one over another. God chose Abel over Cain; Shem over Ham and Japheth to be the blood line through which Messiah would come. God chose Isaac and rejected Ishmael. He made a great nation out of Ishmael's seed, but Isaac was the chosen one to bring in the Hebrew nation, through his son, Jacob, who was chosen over Esau. Out of the millions on earth in Abraham's time, He chose only Abraham to start the whole thing going.
For further evidence of the calling of God, read John 6:44 - "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." Did you catch that? No one can come to Jesus unless the Father calls him, draws him into a desire for Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, even though there is the doctrine of election, that does not mean we have no free will. The Bible says "Whosoever will may come".
H. A. Ironside gave this excellent example of predestination and free-will:
A man walks into a huge room, and there is a door marked "whosoever will may enter". The man has to choose whether or not to enter. He may go into the room, or not, it's his choice.
He decides to enter the room, and much to his surprise, there is a huge banquet table laid out, with name cards at each chair. He looks, and finds a name card with his name on it. He was expected. He then turns and sees written on this side of the door: "For ordained before the world was". You see, God KNEW he was coming, therefore placed his name card at the table. The man didn't know he was going to enter until the choice was given to him.
One may ask, "Why doesn't God just elect everyone to His kingdom?"
One reason is that God wants us to love Him. In order to love Him, we have to have a choice...to love Him or not love Him.
Another question that comes up is, "Why preach at all, why try to win souls to the Lord, if it's already known and planned".
Answer to that one is simply, yes it's known, BUT ONLY TO GOD! We don't know who is elected and who isn't. Our mission was laid out by Christ, to "go into all the world and preach....".
God uses preaching to get the "elect" saved. 1 Corinthians 1:21 states: "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe".
Why does God call some, and not others? II Timothy 1:9 answers that question: Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."
Finally, for what reason has God called ANYONE to His election?
Look again at 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 brethren."
Did you catch it? To be conformed to the image of His Son....Why? "that we might be the firstborn among many brethren."
If you are not positive that you are among the elect, the predestinated of God's Kingdom, I strongly urge you ask yourself the following questions:
Do you desire salvation?
Do you realize that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God?"
Do you realize that without salvation, you will be condemn to an eternity in hell, away from God and all of His riches?
Do you understand that you cannot "save yourself", that no works, no acts, no good deeds are enough to get you into God's presence?
If all your answers are "yes", and you wish to make that commitment to God, simply take the following steps:
1-Acknowledge to God that you are a sinner.
2-Ask Him to forgive you of your sins....all sins, past, present and future.
3-Ask Jesus into your heart, mind, and soul.
4-Accept BY FAITH that He can save you. Romans 10: 9 & 10 states: "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes (un)to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made (un)to salvation." (NKJV)
That's it. Believing BY FAITH that God says it like it is. That there is nothing more that can be done to be Born-again.
Ask God to show you His great plan. It may not happen over night, but rest assured, He will open the doors to you and show you His plan for your life....after all, He had it all worked out before time and space came into existence....and that's a long, long time to be waiting for you....welcome into the Family of God!
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For more information and teaching regarding God's predestination, contact the Christian Jew Foundation, PO Box 345, San Antonio Texas, 78292. Ask for the Booklet "God's Predestination" by Dr. Charles Halff, founder and director.
Or contact their Web site at www.cjf.org