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.
Dec 18, 2023
6,402
406
83
Grace belongs to God and He only gives it to the humble.

Jas_4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."

1Pe_5:5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
oh well tell me how you became humble 🙄
 

brightfame52

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2020
6,334
557
113
you asked what is predestination.

So I asked you if God predestines people to be saved first
Deal with what I posted. Did I use scripture for that ? In fact read all my posts in this thread on predestination, it will reveal what I believe
 
Dec 18, 2023
6,402
406
83
Deal with what I posted. Did I use scripture for that ? In fact read all my posts in this thread on predestination, it will reveal what I believe
I have you said he has predestined some to perish I'm asking did he predestine them to be saved first

It's not a difficult question

Oh and I'm not a robot


Stroll on 😊

 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
I can not agree with you

Jesus said there fathers ate manna and died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

We do not have to keep eating it. if we do. then the bread does not endure forever.

This is just another way of trying to earn ones salvation.
The crowd of 500 kept eating the bread and it kept on lasting. The crowd of 4000 kept eating the bread and it kept lasting.

In John 6, Jesus equated eating the bread with believing Him and His words. Do you think that once we first believe enough to first be regenerated, we can stop believing Jesus and His words but remain in aeonous life, which Jesu defines in John 17:3 as experientially knowing Him and His Father?
Where did Jesus say that all babies go to Heaven? If all babies go to Heaven then God saves by age and not by grace.
God saves by grace through faith. God want all to be saved. He has put away the sins of all through Christ, and is not reckoning anyone's sins to them in this particular new testament period. The only ones who will not be saved are those who actively reject Jesus from being King and saviour over them.

We are born innocent and with an innate participatory knowledge of and an intimate relationship with God, somewhat akin to the babies non-intellectual relationship with its mother. We go astray from that intuitive experience of God as we become exposed to and take on ungodly ideas and attitudes and behaviours from our environment. Neither those who are justified by His death and saved by believing in His life, His resurrection, nor those who are justified by His death but deny His life, His resurrection, did anything to earn the expunging of their sins by the death of Jesus. God did that on His own initiative. But some actively deny Jesus' resurrection and reject Him as King; or some reject God as Lord over them even if they have not heard of Jesus. These earn their own exclusion from God's restored and healed kingdom on earth.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
God is indeed loving, patient and merciful but He is also perfectly holy, hates evil and loves justice so much He killed every man, woman, child and animal in the Flood bar eight and even killed His own Son at the hands of evil men to save those He loves but you do not yet know this God of Holy Scripture and have made a god to suit yourself and unless He grants you grace you are going to be in for a quite a shock when you stand naked before Him.

Psa 50:21 These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.

2Co 5:11a Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
I stand naked before Him every time I have a shower.

I am not unaware of how exhaustive divine determinists demand to be recognised as fellow Christians who preach the same gospel as other Christians, on the basis that we all profess using similar vocabulary, belief in some of the same gospel foundations; but when we disagree with and reject exhaustive divine determinist distinctives, with no reticence, they accuse us of preaching a different accursed gospel and call us heretics. You can't have it both ways, maxamir.
 

Everlasting-Grace

Well-known member
Dec 18, 2021
5,938
1,872
113
The crowd of 500 kept eating the bread and it kept on lasting. The crowd of 4000 kept eating the bread and it kept lasting.

In John 6, Jesus equated eating the bread with believing Him and His words. Do you think that once we first believe enough to first be regenerated, we can stop believing Jesus and His words but remain in aeonous life, which Jesu defines in John 17:3 as experientially knowing Him and His Father?
I believe this

Jesus said whoever eats will never die. I trust him
He said whoever drinks will never thirst. I believe him
He said whoever believes will never die, and will be raised.
He said unlike the food they ate the day before. or the Manna that God gave their fathers. whoever eats that bread will still die. but whoever eats the bread he came to give will live forever.

I also believe what Jesus said in John 3, about how one is born again. He used the example of Moses lifting the serpent. Whoever in faith looked to that serpent lived, Whoever did not died. The people who looked looked because they trusted God. those who did not look had no trust in God. As Jesus also said. whoever believes is not condemned, whoever does not believe is condemned already.

If we look to the cross in faith. we are born again (regenerated) and saved forever. God said we will never die. I trust him.


God saves by grace through faith. God want all to be saved. He has put away the sins of all through Christ, and is not reckoning anyone's sins to them in this particular new testament period.
What?

The only ones who will not be saved are those who actively reject Jesus from being King and saviour over them.
May I ask where you are getting this idea from?

We are born innocent and with an innate participatory knowledge of and an intimate relationship with God, somewhat akin to the babies non-intellectual relationship with its mother.
No we are born dead, under adam.

[quote[We go astray from that intuitive experience of God as we become exposed to and take on ungodly ideas and attitudes and behaviours from our environment. Neither those who are justified by His death and saved by believing in His life, His resurrection, nor those who are justified by His death but deny His life, His resurrection, did anything to earn the expunging of their sins by the death of Jesus. God did that on His own initiative. But some actively deny Jesus' resurrection and reject Him as King; or some reject God as Lord over them even if they have not heard of Jesus. These earn their own exclusion from God's restored and healed kingdom on earth.[/QUOTE]
Again, Where are you getting these ideas from?
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
the reason why it is understood and believed is because of grace.
Grace was the reason you were made able to understand.

God's gentle power (grace) suppressed your depraved flesh, so that your soul was able to see what was needed to become saved.

You were blinded by your flesh which opposes God. Grace subdued your flesh into silence.
Then..... God let your soul to decide what you were to believe.

This same grace is applied to unbelievers flesh at some point.,... and their souls will to reject God... just like Satan and his angels did.

Romans 1:18-25 is a perfect example of how God was working in the unbeliever who would in the end reject God. For it says they reached the point where they knew God and needed to create lies to suppress the truth... God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

You are not a programmable puppet. Calvinism was an attempt to explain things gone bad.

grace and peace ....................
 

brightfame52

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2020
6,334
557
113
Grace was the reason you were made able to understand.

God's gentle power (grace) suppressed your depraved flesh, so that your soul was able to see what was needed to become saved.

You were blinded by your flesh which opposes God. Grace subdued your flesh into silence.
Then..... God let your soul to decide what you were to believe.


This same grace is applied to unbelievers flesh at some point.,... and their souls will to reject God... just like Satan and his angels did.

Romans 1:18-25 is a perfect example of how God was working in the unbeliever who would in the end reject God. For it says they reached the point where they knew God and needed to create lies to suppress the truth... God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

You are not a programmable puppet. Calvinism was an attempt to explain things gone bad.

grace and peace ....................
Exalting the will of man in salvation.

Nothing Gentle about Gods Grace, its omnipotent spiritual power, for it reigns supreme over sin and death. Rom 5:21

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace conquers what Adam and sin and death effected.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
Exalting the will of man in salvation.
You can't think outside of the TULIP box? ......
Not exalting... Giving the soul its proper place.
For it was the soul that was created in the image of God.

The will of man is depraved as long as the flesh holds the ascendancy.

The soul needs to be freed from the depravity ....

Grace conquers what Adam and sin and death effected.
That is what I have been saying, too.

grace and peace ...........
 

brightfame52

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2020
6,334
557
113
You can't think outside of the TULIP box? ......
Not exalting... Giving the soul its proper place.
For it was the soul that was created in the image of God.

The will of man is depraved as long as the flesh holds the ascendancy.

The soul needs to be freed from the depravity ....



That is what I have been saying, too.

grace and peace ...........
No you been exalting the will if man. However Grace reigns through Jesus Christ, all for whom He died receive grace from His Fulness Jn 1:16

16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

You demean grace saying

God's gentle power (grace) suppressed your depraved flesh, so that your soul was able to see what was needed to become saved.

You were blinded by your flesh which opposes God. Grace subdued your flesh into silence.
Then..... God let your soul to decide what you were to believe.
The soul needs to be freed from the depravity ....
Thats what Christ does for them He died for, He sets them free by the New Birth

Jn 8:36


If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

He makes them Free He died for, do you believe that ?
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
your response is incoherent. First you say faith is a gift but somehow faith in the truth is not a gift of grace from God?
Incoherent to you, others understood.

Faith comes from the word. Faith is not simply the work of a man's volition (will). Hebrews tells us faith is assurance and conviction. (Heb.11:1) There is an absolute certainty when one has faith, a certainty you will literally stake your life on. I can say "I believe God cares for me", but it's not till I get in the "sticky" situation do I see whether I truly have faith or whether I am simply relying on the strength of my own will.

Your inability to understand how a man can use His volition to agree with God when shown the truth is most likely why you don't comprehend what I said. You speak as if you are just a puppet, unable to do even the things God created us to do by design. Men can believe whatever they want, but it takes believing the truth in order to have faith. The word is truth and only when it is working in your soul does a man have faith.

Psalm 119:11
Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

You hide the word in your heart by believing on it and keep on believing but it is the word (truth) that has the power of faith, not our willingness to believe. God honours His word and saves the believer. The most power our wills have is to reveal who we are.
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
Thats what Christ does for them He died for, He sets them free by the New Birth

Jn 8:36


If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

He makes them Free He died for, do you believe that ?
If, maybe He will maybe He won't. Christ died for the sin of all men. Maybe they will believe, maybe they won't.

When you finally realise Christ didn't die for only a select group of men and that God gave us our own volition in order to use it and that grace sets our volition free (and please note it is grace that does this, not regeneration), then you will understand what is being said.

God has made salvation conditional, but it is not conditional upon His election, He made it conditional upon believing in Him. It is God who has done this, not men.

John 3:16
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.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
Incoherent to you, others understood.

Faith comes from the word. Faith is not simply the work of a man's volition (will). Hebrews tells us faith is assurance and conviction. (Heb.11:1) There is an absolute certainty when one has faith, a certainty you will literally stake your life on. I can say "I believe God cares for me", but it's not till I get in the "sticky" situation do I see whether I truly have faith or whether I am simply relying on the strength of my own will.

Your inability to understand how a man can use His volition to agree with God when shown the truth is most likely why you don't comprehend what I said. You speak as if you are just a puppet, unable to do even the things God created us to do by design. Men can believe whatever they want, but it takes believing the truth in order to have faith. The word is truth and only when it is working in your soul does a man have faith.

Psalm 119:11
Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

You hide the word in your heart by believing on it and keep on believing but it is the word (truth) that has the power of faith, not our willingness to believe. God honours His word and saves the believer. The most power our wills have is to reveal who we are.

Being a puppet is not humility...
Being a puppet leaves one "empty handed" when it comes to learning to think with God's Word to think for yourself.

In contrast. The humble end up being made more and more (by grace) to become one with God in his thinking.
God wants us to think for ourselves. Think while in union with Him, through sound doctrinal thinking.

Now, we always have Satan's plan.

Satan wants to tell our flesh that how we feel about a matter is right and will provide false doctrine to make it feel justified.
Then... the one who listens to the false teaching? He becomes a "puppet of his flesh." Now functioning in a transformed (religious) state on mind..

Religion is flesh hiding from God in the name of God.

grace and peace .........................
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
Exalting the will of man in salvation.

Nothing Gentle about Gods Grace, its omnipotent spiritual power, for it reigns supreme over sin and death. Rom 5:21

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace conquers what Adam and sin and death effected.
Be that as it may.
Grace power is still gentle.

Now if you are thinking contrary to truth, and fight grace?
Then it seems not to be gentle....
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls." Mattew 11:29​

grace and peace ................
 

maxamir

Active member
Mar 8, 2024
696
86
28
oh well tell me how you became humble 🙄
God showed me who I was compared to Him and not everyone else around me and then showed me the wonder of His sovereign grace found in Christ who suffered, died and rose again to forgive me my sin and grant me eternal life.
 

maxamir

Active member
Mar 8, 2024
696
86
28
The crowd of 500 kept eating the bread and it kept on lasting. The crowd of 4000 kept eating the bread and it kept lasting.

In John 6, Jesus equated eating the bread with believing Him and His words. Do you think that once we first believe enough to first be regenerated, we can stop believing Jesus and His words but remain in aeonous life, which Jesu defines in John 17:3 as experientially knowing Him and His Father?

God saves by grace through faith. God want all to be saved. He has put away the sins of all through Christ, and is not reckoning anyone's sins to them in this particular new testament period. The only ones who will not be saved are those who actively reject Jesus from being King and saviour over them.

We are born innocent and with an innate participatory knowledge of and an intimate relationship with God, somewhat akin to the babies non-intellectual relationship with its mother. We go astray from that intuitive experience of God as we become exposed to and take on ungodly ideas and attitudes and behaviours from our environment. Neither those who are justified by His death and saved by believing in His life, His resurrection, nor those who are justified by His death but deny His life, His resurrection, did anything to earn the expunging of their sins by the death of Jesus. God did that on His own initiative. But some actively deny Jesus' resurrection and reject Him as King; or some reject God as Lord over them even if they have not heard of Jesus. These earn their own exclusion from God's restored and healed kingdom on earth.
thank you for proving that you reject what Scripture says about man and have invented your own religion where man helps God to save him and therefore deny that salvation is of and belongs to the Lord (Jon 2:9, Psa 3:8).
 
Dec 18, 2023
6,402
406
83
God showed me who I was compared to Him and not everyone else around me and then showed me the wonder of His sovereign grace found in Christ who suffered, died and rose again to forgive me my sin and grant me eternal life.
ok well start wishing the same for others then

Because John Calvins say you must only be concerned about the good things God has in-store for you, should not mean you should be more concerned by bad things he has in store for others which you clearly are