THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT GOD. Have you ever sat down and tried to name all
the attributes of God? Well, that would be a daunting task, for His
attributes are, in my thinking, unlimited. However, there are many
divine attributes of God which we should all be able to name rather quickly:
~ God is Love - (1 John 4:8,16)
~ God is Just - (Deuteronomy 32:4, Isaiah 45:21, Ezekiel 18:9)
~ God is Perfect - (Deuteronomy 32:4, 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 18:30)
~ God cannot lie - (Hebrews 6:18)
~ God never changes - (Malachi 3:6).
And, there are those which we all know from memory:
~God is Omniscient, all knowing - (Isaiah 46:9-10, Psalm 139:1-3, Matthew 10:29-30)
~ God is Omnipotent, all powerful - (Genesis 1:1, Job 42:2, Mark 6:30-44, Mark 4:37-41, Mark 5:35-43, John 11:38-44)
~ God is Omnipresent, all places present - (Psalm 33:13-14, Psalm 139:7-10, Jeremiah 23:24, Proverbs 15:3).
Knowing these things about God, we can deduce that God is Perfect Love and God is Perfect Justice. He has shown that for ". . .God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
We know God's desire for us, "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" (2 Peter 3:9).
And, we know, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Given those Scriptural facts, let's now examine the teaching of Predestination, more specifically Double Predestination. Predestination is the Calvinist/Reform teaching that, before the Creation, God in His Sovereignty "elected" some of His created people to be saved, i.e., the Elect, those to spend eternity in His presence - an eternity full of love, happiness, and joy.
Double Predestination is the other side of the Elect coin which adds the logical and undeniable aspect that all who were not, in preCreation, chosen to be the Elect - have to be those whom God has chosen before the Creation to be condemned to eternal hell. These are called the Reprobate and by the Calvinist/Reform teaching - these folks were condemned to hell before the Creation and will never have an opportunity to believe and follow Christ.
Double Predestination, by its nature, also has to deny that God has given the gift of Free Will to all mankind. Free Will can be defined as the gift which God has given to each of us which allows us to choose to follow Jesus Christ and be saved eternally - or to deny Jesus Christ and be lost eternally. If a person has been chosen by God, before the Creation, to be Reprobate - that would negate any gift of Free Will - for that person CANNOT choose to follow Christ.
Then, there is a softer version of Double Predestination (shall we call it the Soft-Soap Double Predestination?) which teaches that God has indeed, before the Creation, chosen the Elect and the Reprobate. However, in this version, the Elect are chosen and cannot change that fact - but, the Reprobate who were chosen to be lost eternally - can, by using their gift of Free Will still choose to follow Christ and be saved from their predetermined Reprobate state. This sounds to me like some theologians who are not sure - working to create some wiggle room, just in case.
Let's get back to what I believe the Bible really teaches about God. God is Perfect Love and God is Perfect Justice. Those two have to balance one another - for God is not an unbalanced God. In God's Perfect Love, He has decreed that "whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). That "whoever" means . . . well, it means WHOEVER! It does not say, "whoever I previously chose" - or - "whoever is among the Elect." No, it says - whoever, period!
Could we ever call God's Love and Justice perfect, perfectly balanced - if He created billions of human beings just for the purpose of sending them, without an opportunity to be saved - into eternal hell, to spend never ending eternity in great suffering and pain? That is the only way to describe the teaching of Reprobate. And, that is not a God of Perfect Love.
Perfect Love says that He loves every single person He has created, that He wants every person to be saved. But, for love to be perfect, it must be reciprocated. If God loves us and "demands" that we love Him - that is not perfect love. In that scenario we become nothing but people in servitude, a state of being a slave or completely subject to someone more powerful, a state of slavery or bondage.
That is not the kind of love God wants from us. He wants us to love Him as He loves us, freely and with our whole heart. That is why He has given all people the gift of Free Will; which is a part of His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) - that we might choose to love and adore Him, of our own free will and desire.
That is why, after we read 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."
We must then align that with Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
This, then, is a good description of God's love:
1 John 4:7-11, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the paid in full reparation) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
Nowhere in that passage, nor in all the Bible, will we find the teaching of Reprobate - that billions of created beings have been pre-condemned to eternal hell - without any means of following Christ into eternal happiness and joy. That is not a God of Love.
"But, Bill, doesn't Ephesians 1 teach Predestination, that God chose us before the foundation of the world?"
Glad you asked! Let's examine what Paul is teaching in that Scripture passage:
When Paul, in Scripture, tells us "He chose us" - who is the "us" in this passage? The apostle Paul is addressing this letter to the church, i.e., the fellowship, at Ephesus. So, in that context, yes, God had chosen that "us" before the foundation of the world - for those are people who are believers. They are already in the body of Christ, the church. And, all believers are predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ.
How do we know this? Let's look at what Paul wrote in Romans 8:
Key phrases here: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined." We have already agreed that God is Omniscient, all knowing - meaning that He knows all things about us, from the smallest (each hair on our heads) to the largest (who has, or will, become a believer). That is the meaning of "foreknew," i.e., to know something before it happens.
God knows every decision, good or bad, that YOU and I will ever make. And, that includes knowing, foreknowing, if you and I will become believers in this mortal world. For those who do become believers, "He predestined, . . . He also justified; . . . and these He also glorified (or will glorify)."
Yet, for those who do not become believers in this mortal world - they have condemned themselves to eternal hell. They are not "predestined" to hell as reprobates - but, they have condemned themselves to eternal hell by not believing, by grace through faith, in the atoning blood, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven to be our only mediator between us and God. In other words, it is self-condemnation - not predestined condemnation.
These things I firmly believe - for I believe that is what the Bible teaches us. And, this is why it is so important when we visit a new Christian web site, blog, church fellowship, or any other Christian ministry - that we FIRST look at their Statement of Faith. For their Statement of Faith tells us what they believe, and what they believe is what they will teach. So, to avoid being exposed to teachings that are not Biblical - be a Berean (Acts 17:11) as Paul admonishes us - and test what that ministry or person is teaching, i.e., what they declare as their Statement of Faith.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
~ God is Love - (1 John 4:8,16)
~ God is Just - (Deuteronomy 32:4, Isaiah 45:21, Ezekiel 18:9)
~ God is Perfect - (Deuteronomy 32:4, 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 18:30)
~ God cannot lie - (Hebrews 6:18)
~ God never changes - (Malachi 3:6).
And, there are those which we all know from memory:
~God is Omniscient, all knowing - (Isaiah 46:9-10, Psalm 139:1-3, Matthew 10:29-30)
~ God is Omnipotent, all powerful - (Genesis 1:1, Job 42:2, Mark 6:30-44, Mark 4:37-41, Mark 5:35-43, John 11:38-44)
~ God is Omnipresent, all places present - (Psalm 33:13-14, Psalm 139:7-10, Jeremiah 23:24, Proverbs 15:3).
Knowing these things about God, we can deduce that God is Perfect Love and God is Perfect Justice. He has shown that for ". . .God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
We know God's desire for us, "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" (2 Peter 3:9).
And, we know, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Given those Scriptural facts, let's now examine the teaching of Predestination, more specifically Double Predestination. Predestination is the Calvinist/Reform teaching that, before the Creation, God in His Sovereignty "elected" some of His created people to be saved, i.e., the Elect, those to spend eternity in His presence - an eternity full of love, happiness, and joy.
Double Predestination is the other side of the Elect coin which adds the logical and undeniable aspect that all who were not, in preCreation, chosen to be the Elect - have to be those whom God has chosen before the Creation to be condemned to eternal hell. These are called the Reprobate and by the Calvinist/Reform teaching - these folks were condemned to hell before the Creation and will never have an opportunity to believe and follow Christ.
Double Predestination, by its nature, also has to deny that God has given the gift of Free Will to all mankind. Free Will can be defined as the gift which God has given to each of us which allows us to choose to follow Jesus Christ and be saved eternally - or to deny Jesus Christ and be lost eternally. If a person has been chosen by God, before the Creation, to be Reprobate - that would negate any gift of Free Will - for that person CANNOT choose to follow Christ.
Then, there is a softer version of Double Predestination (shall we call it the Soft-Soap Double Predestination?) which teaches that God has indeed, before the Creation, chosen the Elect and the Reprobate. However, in this version, the Elect are chosen and cannot change that fact - but, the Reprobate who were chosen to be lost eternally - can, by using their gift of Free Will still choose to follow Christ and be saved from their predetermined Reprobate state. This sounds to me like some theologians who are not sure - working to create some wiggle room, just in case.
Let's get back to what I believe the Bible really teaches about God. God is Perfect Love and God is Perfect Justice. Those two have to balance one another - for God is not an unbalanced God. In God's Perfect Love, He has decreed that "whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). That "whoever" means . . . well, it means WHOEVER! It does not say, "whoever I previously chose" - or - "whoever is among the Elect." No, it says - whoever, period!
Could we ever call God's Love and Justice perfect, perfectly balanced - if He created billions of human beings just for the purpose of sending them, without an opportunity to be saved - into eternal hell, to spend never ending eternity in great suffering and pain? That is the only way to describe the teaching of Reprobate. And, that is not a God of Perfect Love.
Perfect Love says that He loves every single person He has created, that He wants every person to be saved. But, for love to be perfect, it must be reciprocated. If God loves us and "demands" that we love Him - that is not perfect love. In that scenario we become nothing but people in servitude, a state of being a slave or completely subject to someone more powerful, a state of slavery or bondage.
That is not the kind of love God wants from us. He wants us to love Him as He loves us, freely and with our whole heart. That is why He has given all people the gift of Free Will; which is a part of His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) - that we might choose to love and adore Him, of our own free will and desire.
That is why, after we read 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."
We must then align that with Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
This, then, is a good description of God's love:
1 John 4:7-11, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the paid in full reparation) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
Nowhere in that passage, nor in all the Bible, will we find the teaching of Reprobate - that billions of created beings have been pre-condemned to eternal hell - without any means of following Christ into eternal happiness and joy. That is not a God of Love.
"But, Bill, doesn't Ephesians 1 teach Predestination, that God chose us before the foundation of the world?"
Glad you asked! Let's examine what Paul is teaching in that Scripture passage:
Ephesians 1:4-5, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."
When Paul, in Scripture, tells us "He chose us" - who is the "us" in this passage? The apostle Paul is addressing this letter to the church, i.e., the fellowship, at Ephesus. So, in that context, yes, God had chosen that "us" before the foundation of the world - for those are people who are believers. They are already in the body of Christ, the church. And, all believers are predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ.
How do we know this? Let's look at what Paul wrote in Romans 8:
Romans 8:29-30, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
Key phrases here: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined." We have already agreed that God is Omniscient, all knowing - meaning that He knows all things about us, from the smallest (each hair on our heads) to the largest (who has, or will, become a believer). That is the meaning of "foreknew," i.e., to know something before it happens.
God knows every decision, good or bad, that YOU and I will ever make. And, that includes knowing, foreknowing, if you and I will become believers in this mortal world. For those who do become believers, "He predestined, . . . He also justified; . . . and these He also glorified (or will glorify)."
Yet, for those who do not become believers in this mortal world - they have condemned themselves to eternal hell. They are not "predestined" to hell as reprobates - but, they have condemned themselves to eternal hell by not believing, by grace through faith, in the atoning blood, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven to be our only mediator between us and God. In other words, it is self-condemnation - not predestined condemnation.
These things I firmly believe - for I believe that is what the Bible teaches us. And, this is why it is so important when we visit a new Christian web site, blog, church fellowship, or any other Christian ministry - that we FIRST look at their Statement of Faith. For their Statement of Faith tells us what they believe, and what they believe is what they will teach. So, to avoid being exposed to teachings that are not Biblical - be a Berean (Acts 17:11) as Paul admonishes us - and test what that ministry or person is teaching, i.e., what they declare as their Statement of Faith.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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