Advertisement
Bringing people together in love and faith
My Blog
Blogs > Noah235 > PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH > Aug 27, 2008
PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH
  
SOMETHING TO CHEW OVER FROM THE WORD

I invite all bloggers to read and make a comment on my blog posts. This includes those who agree with me, those who disagree with me and those who are indifferent. The only thing I ask - no, INSIST UPON - is that responses are courteous and respectful. Failure to observe this will result in post deletion and repeated failure will result in your being banned from my blog altogether. In return I will be courteous and respectful back to you even if I disagree very strongly with what you have said.

I prefer you to make short-ish comments and using your own words to express your own opinions. You will of course wish to quote scripture to back up your opinion, but a post consisting of a long list of scriptures, or one which is "cut and pasted" from elsewhere, is almost certain to be deleted.

Peter
Title View |
Posts on 8/27View All
FOREKNOWLEDGE, PREDESTINATION & FREE WILL Aug 27, 2008 2:29 pm
340 Views
Foreknowledge is not the same as predestination. To have foreknowledge means to know that something is going to happen before it does. Since God is OUTSIDE time he is not restricted by time in the way that we are, so he knows about every event in our past, present and future. Predestination means something more: if God predestines something to happen then he not only knows that it WILL happen, but it is HIS unchangeable decision that it happens. There are several scriptures which tell us explicitly some of the things God decided before he even created the world:

"He [Christ] was chosen before the creation of the world" {1 Peter 1v20}
Christ is also referred to as "...the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" {Revelation 13v8}
"He chose us in him before the creation of the world..." {Ephesians 1 v 4}

Thus it is clear that God's plan included the sacrificial death of Christ and the redemption of a people BEFORE the world was even created. Ephesians 1 gives further details of this plan which principally involves Christ and also the 'saints'. We are to be "holy and blameless in his sight" {1v4}, "adopted as his sons" {1v5} with "redemption through his blood" {1v7} and all this is "for the praise of his glory" {1v12}.

This is the big picture. But does it mean we have no choice over whether we become part of this redeemed people or not? Well I am sure that David, Jeremiah and Paul would say it DOES mean that, as the following scriptures indicate:

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" {Psalm 139v16}
God said to Jeremiah "Before you were born I set you apart" {Jeremiah 1v5}
Paul declared that "God...set me apart from birth" {Galatians 1v15} and was quite clear when he said: "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" {Romans 9v18}
Jesus himself told us "You did not choose me, but I chose you..." {John 15v16}

But this is not the full story. Right from the beginning of creation there is evidence that God, who after all created man 'in his own image', has given us the right and the ability {and the responsibility} of making right choices. It is of course impossible to give us the freedom to choose right unless we also have the freedom to choose wrong. Specifically, God told Adam he was "free to eat from any tree in the garden" {Gen 2v16} but at the same time "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" {Gen 2v17}. The rest, as they say, is history!

Although the extent of our free will is necessarily altered as a result of the Fall, God continues to place responsibility on us to make right choices:

"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life..." {Deuteronomy 30v19}
"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..we will serve the Lord" {Joshua 24v15}

John's gospel also hints that a response is required from us as one of the most famous verses in the Bible suggests:

"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" {John 3v16}

Salvation through the Son is an undeserved gift of God's love, grace and mercy, and we can do NOTHING to earn or deserve it, but all presents need to be unwrapped if they are to benefit us. "Believing in him" here represents the unwrapping of the present, and until we exercise faith we do not benefit from Jesus' death.

Paul writes: "Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son" {Romans 8v29} and to my mind this clarifies the uncertainty. God knew in advance who would respond to the gospel, and it was his unchangeable decision {predestination} that those people would become like Jesus.

So my conclusion is that God has a plan for the world, that plan always included the fall and redemption through Jesus Christ. He has a plan for each of our lives, BUT he has given us free will and, although he wants all men to be saved {see 1 Tim 2v4}, some will choose not to accept the salvation that is freely offered out of his love, mercy and grace. I will leave the last word to Paul:

"God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all" {Romans 11v32}

Peter
17 Comments
 

To link to this blog (Noah235) use [blog Noah235] in your messages.
51 M
Guidelines
August 2008
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
          1
1
2
 
3
  		4
  		5
  		6
1
7
  		8
  		9
 
10
  		11
1
12
  		13
  		14
  		15
  		16
1
17
1
18
  		19
1
20
  		21
  		22
  		23
 
24
1
25
  		26
  		27
1
28
  		29
  		30
1
31
  		           

Recent Visitors
VisitorAgeSexDate
fieldlilies 50F11/16
BristerBate 54M11/16
SiennaSun 50F11/16
Louisiana41F11/16
longing4more49F11/14
godlycook 61M11/14
selah6246M11/13
northernlass46F11/13
fireun52M11/5
crlyn52F10/30
Most Recent Comments by Others
PostPosterPost Date
Cats!! What are they good for?longing4moreOct 12 8:00 pm
What's all the fuss about?Noah235Oct 8 6:49 am
LIFE ON MARS? MY REVELATION MOMENTNoah235Oct 6 12:59 am
HOW CAN AN ATHEIST BE A FREETHINKER?Noah235Oct 1 1:13 pm
Law and Grace; Jesus & PaulNoah235Sep 30 10:45 am
Let's take back the moral high ground!anelehSep 26 7:31 pm
Was Darwin a racist Nazi?PrettyLady35Sep 18 4:58 pm
Church of England owes Darwin an apology??Noah235Sep 17 11:00 am
IS "OMG" ACCEPTABLE?Noah235Sep 11 3:22 pm
ONLY JESUS CHRIST IS WORTHY OF OUR TRUSTnorthernlassSep 7 12:13 pm
WAITING ON THE LORD {Updated}clearwatermailSep 4 5:16 pm