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    His Will vs. Free Will: Predestination in Scripture

    Posted by Christian on May 15, 2009 at 11:10am
    in Torah Studies

    PART 1

    Just by looking at the 4 defining characteristics of the Biblical God of Israel, we can easily conclude that there is no “free will”.

    Omnipresence
    - The term "omnipresent" refers to the ability to be present everywhere at the same time. The Scriptures tell us that God the Father, through His Holy Spirit, maintains a presence in all of His creation

    Omnipotence
    - The term "omnipotence" means having power over all things. No limitation can be placed on this.

    Omniscience
    - To be "omniscient" means that one has total and complete knowledge of all things. No limitation can be placed on this.

    Benevolence
    - To be "Benevolent" means a: marked by or disposed to doing good b: organized for the purpose of doing good
    - Negates “Hell” in the interpretation of eternal punishment


    Nowhere in the Bible is there made any argument for free will - God's total control over all, will and desire, is never questioned.
    God is omnipotent, which means that He can do anything, even do "impossible" things like true love without free will. Free will implies that He does not care - He leaves room for chance, luck and randomness - He leaves a vacuum of power, there is now a place, a vacuum, wherein He is not all-powerful. And since He absolutely is omniscient and knows that free will absolutely EQUALS death because free will absolutely equals sin, and sin are things that are ultimately too imbalanced to maintaining true life, which is spiritual life, that He is condemning all creation to death as though there were no grace.




    PART 2

    Concerning the idea of “Free Will”.
    There are many good, biblical reasons not to entertain this idea, I have to say. It makes God responsible for:
    - absolutely without a doubt knowing that people through free will are going to get themselves into hell
    - absolutely knowing without a doubt that He can not, through and because of, free will, save these people, and yet
    - actively maintaining this "free will" causing him to contradict His promise to save ALL FLESH.

    If taken at face value, the Bible convincingly shows that God the Father is all powerful and that He fully intends to bring His plan to a successful conclusion, despite the best efforts of those in the physical and spiritual realms. Therefore, what we see taking place in the world cannot be God scrambling to make the best of a bad situation, but rather God's original plan unfolding. But, as strange as it seems when viewed logically in the light of Scripture, this obvious conclusion that God the Father is in total control of all things is not acknowledged by most who profess to worship Him.
    The reason most have concluded that God is NOT in absolute control is because they have accepted the idea that He has given His creation "free will." Even if the Eternal Father wants to save all of mankind (I Tim. 2:4), many believe that He can't because they have been taught that God will not force anyone to be saved against their will. Effectively, the common belief is that God has ceded His sovereignty to His creation. Therefore, the creation will determine the outcome of the divine plan, not God.


    Some scripture on free will and destiny:

    1 PETER 1:18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. (NRSV)

    REVELATION 13:8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast — all whose names have not been written in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. (NIV)

    II TIMOTHY 1:8 . . . God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, (ESV)

    ACTS 2:22 "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through Him, just as you yourselves know — 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing Him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles." (NET)




    PART 3


    The replacing of illusion with God's truth shall set you free, and helps many pieces of scripture to line up in accordance and I feel it generally provides a more helpful view of God, since He now truly becomes Omnipresent in every detail, since He is actively bringing about every detail, as He has timelessly foretold and willed from outside of the material world and time-space.


    The Bible plainly teaches that Christ was "PREDESTINED TO BE SLAIN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD".

    Understand this in combination with:

    Romans 11:32
    For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.





    PART 4


    1.Timothy 2:3-4
    3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants* all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

    *It’s his Will


    When the world was imbalanced for sin, living in spiritual death ("death is the wages of sin"), He gave His life and blood and flesh and poured his life-giving spirit unto the world, and signalled the spiritual beginning of the perfecting and resurrecting of mankind into spiritual life and out of spiritual death, by He Himself becoming the "firstborn from among the dead", as was predestined. He is making even all that is uneven, saving all that is unsaved, according to the way it deserves to be saved. He is omnipotent enough to save ALL that He has created and wished for to be perfected and spiritually alive.

    What are the penalties for sin, then? Obviously there are consequences: Hell!
    But it is not permanent!
    Eternal punishment conflicts with God's eternal LOVE, which is much stronger. He has led all into sin, that he may have mercy on all - some directly and quickly, some slower - but the basic tenet of my faith is that He is fair and just - though we may not always understand His judgement and plan, He sees to that the universe is or will come into perfect balance and eradicate all disharmony.

    Romans 11:26
    And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

    Acts 4:27-28 27"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
    28to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

    Romans 8:28-30 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.


    Ephesians 1:4-6
    4For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will— 6to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.

    There's no free will, but there's FREE GRACE.

    Ephesians 1:9-12
    9And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
    11In 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, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.



    The Scriptures tell us this is not easy to understand, but the Spirit lets us understand:

    1.Corinthians 2:6-8 6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.


    You picked a large and controversial topic which I very much doubt we will resolve here since the theologians have been at it for centuries and never arrived at a consensus.

    I have to say that I am not on the same side of the fence as you are in this one - I am not a Calvinist. It's a subject that has occupied me for the past 30 years or so. Philosophically, if what you say is true, then choice is an illusion and Yahweh is playing mind games with us, which I don't believe. There are too many articles I have written on this (which I have yet to catalogue in the Topical Guide) but here are some of them:

    http://www.nccg.org/FAQ247-Predest.html
    http://www.nccg.org/mlt/sermons/3_172.html
    http://www.nccg.org/FAQ192-Agency.html
    http://www.nccg.org/Bible022.html
    http://www.nccg.org/FAQ038-PreExist.html
    http://www.nccg.org/FAQ321-Premortal.html
    http://www.nccg.org/mlt/sermons/3_206.html
    http://www.nccg.org/069Art-EarlyView.html

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