The Docrine of Predestination

I am writing this in order to clarify some of my earlier posts and some of the Calvinistic views of scripture, and to try to explain the doctrine of predestination to a friend. All men are sinful by nature. (see my post "The Glory of God is made perfect in weakness" for details) God damns men to 'the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth' (aka hell) because of their sin. (He is just in doing so because all men have sinned and the wages of sin is death). This does not imply that man is able to do anything but sin, indeed he is unable. (Man is a slave to sin, in it's total control). Then Christ comes to the world (compromised of all men), not just the Jews, and dies so that whoever believes will not die. This does not mean that we can choose to believe, indeed the Father draws us to belief and to the Son (John 6). This is predestination.

The reason most people don't believe in the Calvinistic view of predestination is because they are at heart prideful. They somehow believe that God owes them something, like the choice to go to heaven. They believe that they have 'Free Will' a doctrine I have not yet found within scripture. They take 'free will' from passages such as 'choose you today who you shall serve' (Joshua 24:15) to mean that they can choose God. This is plainly not so. They say, "no just God could punish a man for something he cannot help but to do (speaking about sinning)' but the truth of the matter is that unrepentant man 'chooses' sin because he is by nature (aka by design aka by predestination) sinful. (Romans 7:5 sets forth flesh and the sinful nature to be synonymous). "The sinful mind is hostile to God" -Romans 8:7

Point blank: God does predestine people to salvation or damnation. Heretics will say all sorts of thing to attack this doctrine such as "John Calvin came up with it, and since it is man made it is not true". They will also claim that the Apostle Paul made it up. The truth of the matter is that God made it up. John 6:44 "No man can come to me, except that the Father which hath sent me draws him.". This is predestination which is taught by the Apostle Paul, and echoed through John Calvin.

Again, many find this hard to swallow and turn their backs on it, leaving Christ and his teachings behind (John 6). These people should read Romans 9:20-21 "But who are you, Oh man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'why did you make me like this'?'. Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?". Also read Daniel 4:5 "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'". Daniel especially addresses this. The peoples of the earth are worthless. God owes you nothing. He can and does do as he pleases and it is not for us to say, 'that is not fair', or 'this is unjust'. To do so is heresy, this is why predestination should be taught as a fundamental principal of the Christian faith. I will write more in the future on how ignoring such doctrinal truths as set forth in the TULIP lead to bad fruits. Until then I hope I have explained predestination to you all in a way that you can understand and use to glorify God.

Soli Deo Gloria