Predestination is misunderstood...

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Lafftur

Senior Member
Apr 18, 2017
6,895
3,633
113
Those in him; believers, who make up his body. The church, as a body was pre-destined to a certain fate: conformity to the image of the son of God.

Those who do not believe... have a different destination.

You and I are not pre-destined to be in or out of that body; as we have a choice to believe or not believe.
Yes, you are correct!

There are only 2 choices…

the path of Life which is in Christ alone. Those that choose Jesus Christ and believe in Him for salvation are predestined to receive eternal Life in Jesus Christ.

Those that reject Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord and King by denying and not believing in God’s power of His Blood and Body to save… they are choosing the path that is predestined to end in Death, eternal death.

It is God’s Will that all choose the path of Life but, the choice is ours to make.

God said, “I set before you Life and Death, choose Life.”

With our free will, we make our choice.
 

Lafftur

Senior Member
Apr 18, 2017
6,895
3,633
113
"For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world
to be holy and blameless in His presence." Ephesians 1:4​

Is Moses saved? Yes.....
Is David saved? Yes.....
Is Isaiah saved? Yes....

Were they chosen to be the body of Christ? To be His Church?
No....

God chose us out from all those whom He knew would believe.. All believers throughout all history.
Chose only us for the position of becoming the Bride of Christ.

Those selected ones whom is to be in the Bride of Christ was God's sovereign choice.
God, before the foundation of the world, did not chose for OT believers, but to be His Church.

For Moses the great believer he was will not be in the Bride.

And, John the Baptist? He even confessed that he was not the Bride, as shown in John 3:29!
The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom
waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.
That joy is mine, and it is now complete." John 3:29​

John the Baptist was the friend of the Groom! He was not chosen IN Christ to be His Bride!

We were not predestined for God to make us believe, as some try to tell us we have been.
It does not say that in Ephesians 1:4.

But rather, we have been predestined as to what should become of us after God knew we would believe.

God predetermined that we would all be born during the Church age as to secure our position to be the Bride of Christ!
We are in Christ for all Eternity!

Calvinists did not read Ephesians 1:4 careful enough.

Yes, God sovereignly chose us. But it was not to save us. It was to determine our eternal purpose once we were saved.
We have been chosen in Him because He knew we would want to believe, and wanted us to be the Bride of Christ when we did.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel are going to be the Friend of the Bride Groom.
It was all God's sovereign choice to do as He pleases with those whom He knew would believe.

It just sits right with me being able to see it that way.

grace and peace ....................
This is how I understand the Bride of Christ…

ALL Believers in Jesus Christ are eternally saved, however, not all Believers are the Bride of Christ.

God the Father is choosing a Bride for His Son out of all the Believers.

I believe the 7 letters to the 7 churches are written to the Bride… she MUST overcome.

Much like Navy Seals have to overcome and go through more intense training and equipping than others in the Navy… all are Navy but not all are Navy Seals.
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
But don't you see that those who are not born again cannot discern the gospel (1 Cor 2:14).
Don't you see God enables man to see Him without making him alive by means of His grace? (Rom.1:19) The Gospel deals with right and wrong at it's most basic level so man can understand the Gospel. You don't have to be spiritually alive to know murder, lying and stealing is wrong. You don't need to be spiritually alive to know such actions require punishment, nor do you need to be spiritually alive to know when someone else steps up to bat for you.

Man is a moral creature as well as a spiritual creature. While our core problem is a spiritual issue, God has no trouble using moral issues to speak to man and get him to understand his need of God.

We learn the spiritual significance of the Cross after we are born again.
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
If he died for all mankind, then how do you interpret John 6:36-39?
It's meaning is summed up in verse 40.

John 6:40
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The Father reveals the Son by means of grace and people are believers or they are not. The Son separates the believers from the unbelievers in this world.
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
It seems to me one of the problems is that people think the Cross saves us. It doesn't, leastwise not directly. It deals with the issue of sin which is what prevented God from saving us. He cannot overlook unrighteousness or He would compromise His justice. Once Christ paid the price for our sin, God was free to deal with us according to our positive or negative response on the basis of Justice. This is why Christ could die for all people even though all people are not saved. No longer are people condemned on the basis of Adam's sin but now on the basis of their own unbelief. And before anyone jumps up and wants to say I must mean then we are saved on the basis of our believing, forget it. It is God's determination to save those who believe and is the reason we are saved.
 

vscarrella

New member
Apr 6, 2024
3
2
3
Those in him; believers, who make up his body. The church, as a body was pre-destined to a certain fate: conformity to the image of the son of God.

Those who do not believe... have a different destination.

You and I are not pre-destined to be in or out of that body; as we have a choice to believe or not believe.
Did Judas have a choice when he was in his mother’s womb he was predestined to betray Jesus he had a choice no he didn’t his destiny was already done
 

vscarrella

New member
Apr 6, 2024
3
2
3
Did Judas have a choice when he was in his mother’s womb he was predestined to betray Jesus he had a choice no he didn’t his destiny was already done
Here’s the thing no man come to the father unless the spirit draw him you can’t come on your own I experienced that with my salvation it was all god that did it not me
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
Resurrection is to gain an eternal glorified estate in body and soul.
Made alive or quickened is the biblical term for spiritual life of a believer.
Jesus does use the analogy of a physician who heals those who recognize they need healing.
Romans 6 also uses the analogy of baptism as a picture of our association and interest in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
So it's not either/or, but depends on how the language is employed in scripture.
A person who is already "dead" would not need "to be put to death" in baptism. So men are not spiritually dead before believing in Jesus, but are spiritually sick. They have a compromised life, a debilitated life, they are destined for death, but they are not dead.
You misunderstood my point. Baptism doesn't put someone to death. It is an expression of one's association and interest in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. It is merely symbolic and a public proclamation of their newfound identity in Christ.
So. one is not spiritually dead before believing in Christ and becoming dead with him through faith in His death and resurrection. Otherwise we would not die with Him when we believe.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
Here’s the thing no man come to the father unless the spirit draw him you can’t come on your own I experienced that with my salvation it was all god that did it not me
There is a big difference between "you can’t come on your own" and "it was all God that did it not me."
 

ForestGreenCook

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2018
8,441
1,213
113
Nowhere in that verse does it say the "natural man" cannot [receive] the things of the Spirit.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

That just tells me that you are not reading from the KJV. But the natural man receiverh not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,191
6,607
113
62
So. one is not spiritually dead before believing in Christ and becoming dead with him through faith in His death and resurrection. Otherwise we would not die with Him when we believe.
It's 2 different things. One is actual. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. The other is symbolic. We don't actually die. We merely express our association with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
One is definitely dead before salvation. Otherwise, why would they need to be quickened?
 

ForestGreenCook

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2018
8,441
1,213
113
It's meaning is summed up in verse 40.

John 6:40
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The Father reveals the Son by means of grace and people are believers or they are not. The Son separates the believers from the unbelievers in this world.

If there is a contradiction in the scriptures, then you are not interpreting the scripture correctly. They must all harmonize.

God's elect are his sheep, and only his sheep can hear and understand him (John 10:26-29).
 

maxamir

Active member
Mar 8, 2024
696
86
28
Then you do not believe once you are saved that all sins are forgiven but that after being saved and you sin you must repent of those new sins?
Repentance is not a one-off action but a life of denying one's self and gratefully looking to Christ and submitting to the grace of God which grants sanctification and power over sin.

True love warns those who are not granted repentance and die in their sin that they will indeed perish.
 

maxamir

Active member
Mar 8, 2024
696
86
28
Jesus is speaking about receiving Him. Then and there. Without delay. With the utmost urgency.

Jesus here is commanding everyone to take a bath in His Blood.
These passages have nothing to do with "washing your feet" after having "bathed".
this has nothing to do about bathing but that God is just in His righteous judgement against all evil everywhere and the urgency for men to not interpret His patience against evil as being in anyway a sign of Him not caring about justice which many today fail to learn.

Ecc 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
 

maxamir

Active member
Mar 8, 2024
696
86
28
no people who haven't come to the lord can be ruled by devil.

They hand themself's handed themselves over to the devil, which is why God enslaves people in captivity to his old covenant

Even if scripture says they have been handed over to the devil.

They where still being ruled by devil.

So what difference does it make.

As they where still born in a fallen state.

Able to be ruled by the devil.
all people are born under the curse already handed over to be the devil's children, bearing his evil image in their slavery to sin and Satan which is why the unrighteousness of men demonstrates the righteousness of God (Rom 3:5) in justly handing them over to the evil that they love to their greater condemnation to store wrath for the day of wrath (Rom 2:5).

Rom 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Rom 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Rom 1:27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;