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If you use logic and reason you will be able to tell...Do not rely on others to tell you...You will only get confused...However, be prepared to discover things that might not fit with your personality and this is where 'the rubber meets the road'...You either allow yourself to be conformed to the Image of Hawyaw or the Image of Humanism...
The will of God is that all men can be saved , by obedience to the commands of Jesus , that they repent of sin turn from sin Love the Lord and accept Jesus Spirit in their lives .....which give all men the option to believe or not to believe it is His free will to chose ..... So these rules out predestination of a few people Chosen before time by God to be saved only, as the Calvin's doctrines may think , which come from a legalism ideas that reject most ideas of the new covenant though Jesus Christ and His sacrifice from the cross of Calvary were Jesus is not worthy to save everybody who comes to Him.........
Scripture does say that He predestinated the ones He foreknew...
God predestined the saved, His church. Read Ephesians 1 closely. You will see that Paul is talking to people who are saved. It is the saved, the church who are predestined. Also read Romans 8:28-30. Paul is speaking about those WHO LOVE THE LORD. Those are the predestined, the saved, the church, the justified.
God doesn't choose some for heaven and others for hell. People who believe that have not openly and honestly studied the Bible. Not to mention, this goes against the character and attributes of God. God wants all to be saved. He wants all to come to repentance. I don't know about you, but my God is a loving, fair, and just God. Can you magine that He would create someone only to condemn them? What about, "For God so loved the world...." What kind of love is it that creates people for destruction? He gave His son to die for the whole world, not just some people.
Common sense and Bible study will give the answer to your question, that is, if you haven't already been poisoned with the diabolical belief that God predestines some people to heaven, and the rest to an eternity of hell and suffering for something they never had a say in.
We also have the free will to choose. True, God chooses us. He draws us to Him through His word, through the preaching of the gospel. But we also choose to accept or reject Him. So yes, we have free will.
Katie
Rom 9:18 So, then, to whom He desires, He shows mercy. And to whom He desires, He hardens.
Rom 9:19 You will then say to me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?
Rom 9:20 Yes, rather, O man, who are you answering against God? Shall the thing formed say to the One forming it, Why did You make me like this? Isa. 29:16
Rom 9:21 Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, out of the one lump to make one vessel to honor, and one to dishonor? Jer. 18:6
Rom 9:22 But if God, desiring to demonstrate His wrath, and to make His power known, endured in much long-suffering vessels of wrath having been fitted out for destruction,
Rom 9:23 and that He make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy which He before prepared for glory,
Rom 9:24 whom He also called, not only us, of Jews, but also out of nations.
Little confused. Are you saying man doesn't have free will to choose to serve God?
Man does not have free will to choose to serve Hawyaw...This is what Hawyaw Himself states...So, He chooses who He wiill Regenerate unto belief in His Son...And those He will, He hardens in their sins...Paul makes a very clear analogy in Romans 9...You should read it...do not look for answers from man...Reading a verse here and a verse there is not going to build your knowledge of Hawyaw...Choose a Letter, like Romans, and read it through, study it, and ask The Holy Spirit to enlighten you...Tell Him you only want His Truth, not anyone elses...I would pray that on a daily basis...
That is exactly what he is saying, and he is WRONG. Why wouldn't man be able to choose God? Jersey, I also started a thread on this topic yesterday, right after you did. Please read it. We are capable of choosing God. We were born innocent and not totally depraved as some would have you believe.
Calvinism teaches that God chooses some for salvation and others for eternal destruction. They take words like "predestination" and completely misrepresent them.
For example, read Ephesians 1 carefully. Who are the chosen, the predestined that Paul is speaking of in this chapter?
Those who are IN CHRIST are predestined, chosen.
Ephesians 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To God’s holy people in Ephesus,the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hasblessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Now look at Romans 8:1, 28-30
Who are the predestined Paul is speaking of?
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
It is THOSE WHO LOVE HIM who are called. It is THOSE WHO LOVE HIM that God foreknew and predestined.
God never chose some men for salvation, and condemns others to eternal destruction. Our God is a loving, fair and just God.
God gave you the choice to choose or reject Him.
Calvinism teaches that man is born so depraved that he is unable to choose God. This is a lie. We are created in God's image. At some point we turn away from God and become depraved, ridden with sin and guilt, but we are never so totally depraved that we cannot choose God. The Bible doesn't teach such a thing.
Katie
Calvinism does not teach this...The Bible does...You are not using logic and reason when reading...And Calvin does not teach that Hawyaw Predestines some to hell...That is called Hyper-Calvinism or Double-Predestination, an offshoot of Calvinism...Man is unable to choose Hawyaw, This is declared by Hawyaw Himself...
Rom 3:10 according as it has been written, "There is not a righteous one, not even one!"
Rom 3:11 "There is not one understanding; there is not one seeking God."
Rom 3:12 All turned away, they became worthless together, not one is doing goodness, not so much as one!" LXX-Psa. 13:1-3
Rom 3:13 "Their throat is a tomb being opened;" "they used deceit with their tongues; the poison of asps is under their lips;
Rom 3:14 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Rom 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards God; for it is not being subjected to the Law of God, for neither can it be.
1Co 2:14 But a natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Mat 11:27 All things were yielded up to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and the one to whom the Son purposes to reveal Him.
It is all over Scripture, that without the Will of Hawyaw, no one can believe...
Katie, If you are truely intersted in pursuit of knowledge a good book to start from to realise what the Doctrine of Predestination is is a book entitled The Reformed Doctrine Of Predestination by Lorraine Boettner...It is very well written with Logic and reason...I say this because your revealations here of Calvinism are tainted...You can read the PDF book or download it if you wish to add to your Electronic Library if you have one...www.bloomingtonrpchurch.org/refdocpre/predest.pdf
You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Acts 7:51
It doesn't say God makes man resist Him. It is ones own stubborn will, who want to be their own little gods instead.
Rom 9:18 So, then, to whom He desires, He shows mercy. And to whom He desires, He hardens.
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