So... you have a problem with the doctrine of predestination, do you? I submit to you that you have no such problem, but that your problem actually exists in not understanding (a) the sovereignty of God and (b) the wickedness of man (including your own heart) correctly. I say this with the utmost confidence because I can produce more than two examples where I will guarantee that you have no problem believing in predestination.
Let us begin.
The thing you need to understand first is that you and I and every other person in this world are dead in trespasses and sins. We are spiritually dead. We are unregenerate, we have a heart of stone, and we hate God with a passion. So, if someone comes along and preaches the Gospel to us, how and where do you figure that we are able, in and of ourselves, to respond to the Gospel of our own accord? It is impossible, as Jesus declared to His disciples (Mark 10:26-27). In order to respond, we need to be made alive, be regenerated, and have a new heart. We cannot do those things to ourselves. We cannot make ourselves alive. We cannot regenerate ourselves. We cannot give ourselves a new heart. So where do you figure that man, in and of himself, is able with "free will" to respond in faith? We cannot! There is no such thing as "free will." Romans 6 informs us that our will, prior to salvation, is slave to sin and the devil. You believe something Scripture does not teach! God must make us alive by regenerating us and giving us a new heart in order for us to even be able to respond to the Gospel, and when He does, we will respond freely because we cannot help it. "All the Father has given to Me will come to me" (John 6:37).
Your feelings are not a determiner of truth; they are merely personal opinion, and your opinion does not matter. What matters is what God has said. The only question you are left with is whether or not you will submit yourself to the reality and truth of the doctrine of God's predestination as it is entirely encompassed, whether you fully understand it or not. Otherwise, you are in rebellion and you have created a god in your own image that is contrary to the God revealed in Scripture. Predestination is taught all throughout Scripture (John 6:37-44; Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:3-6, etc.). If God did not choose to save any of us, then none of us would ever be saved. We hate God so much that we would rather go to hell.
You need to spend time in God's Word, reading, praying, and meditating on what the Scriptures actually say and teach. You need to wrestle with God about this issue and submit your feelings and opinions to the truth of His Word. You need to learn what it means to be sovereign and just how sovereign God is, and you need to learn just how wicked and depraved man is. If you think man is not that bad, you have an unhealthy and unbiblical view of mankind. If you do not think that God can control whatever/whoever He wants, whenever He wants, wherever He wants, however He wants, you have an unhealthy and unbiblical view of the sovereignty of God. To be sovereign means to be in control of everything that is under you and that there is nothing outside of you that can influence or hinder your decisions. It means that everyone and everything answers to you, but that you answer to nothing and no one. I suggest you take a look at Nebuchadnezzar, Jonah, and a whole host of other examples in Scripture.
This verse is true of every person belonging to Jesus Christ: "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6). How do we know this? Because Peter quotes it and applies it to believers; Christians: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe, but they are dead in trespasses and sins, unregenerate, having hearts of stone and hating God. They will never repent and believe because they cannot. The Bible everywhere commands men to repent and believe. The Bible also says that men cannot repent and believe. The Bible never says that men can repent and believe. A command to do something does not necessitate the ability to actually do it, especially when you consider the state they are in: spiritually dead, unregenerate, stone-hearted, haters of God. God must do a work in them first, and then they will repent and believe.
Let us begin.
- The first creatures that God raised up were the angels. He created them as spirits (Psalm 104:1-5). God chose some of the angels to establish them in their state. To establish means to "secure permanently in a secure position or condition." God did this to a percentage of the angels that He had created. He established them and kept them in the state He originally created them. Sinless. He refers to these angels as the "elect angels" (1 Timothy 5:21). But the rest of the angels, a full one-third of them, God left to themselves. He left them to pick and choose and live and do according to their own nature. The non-elect angels fell in sin.
- We see this same reality and truth with regard to the nations. Out of every nation that was in existence, God chose a single nation to be His representative. He left all the other nations to themselves. He left them to pick and choose and live and do according to their own nature. Within His own chosen nation, however, we also see that not everyone was elect. There was always only a remnant (Romans 11:15). The rest were left to themselves and frequently rebelled. Even among the Gentiles there were individuals elected by God according to His own purpose while the whole of Israel was left to themselves (Luke 4:24-27).
- Likewise, when you look at Jacob and Esau, or Joseph and his brothers, or David and his brothers, or many other similar events from Scripture, God always chose contrary to what was acceptable. Esau should have gotten the blessing, but God chose Jacob to receive it. In fact, before they were ever born, God had chosen Jacob and rejected Esau by withholding His love from him (Romans 9:10-13). Joseph and David were the youngest of their brothers and they were chosen in the position and with the blessing of the eldest.
The thing you need to understand first is that you and I and every other person in this world are dead in trespasses and sins. We are spiritually dead. We are unregenerate, we have a heart of stone, and we hate God with a passion. So, if someone comes along and preaches the Gospel to us, how and where do you figure that we are able, in and of ourselves, to respond to the Gospel of our own accord? It is impossible, as Jesus declared to His disciples (Mark 10:26-27). In order to respond, we need to be made alive, be regenerated, and have a new heart. We cannot do those things to ourselves. We cannot make ourselves alive. We cannot regenerate ourselves. We cannot give ourselves a new heart. So where do you figure that man, in and of himself, is able with "free will" to respond in faith? We cannot! There is no such thing as "free will." Romans 6 informs us that our will, prior to salvation, is slave to sin and the devil. You believe something Scripture does not teach! God must make us alive by regenerating us and giving us a new heart in order for us to even be able to respond to the Gospel, and when He does, we will respond freely because we cannot help it. "All the Father has given to Me will come to me" (John 6:37).
Your feelings are not a determiner of truth; they are merely personal opinion, and your opinion does not matter. What matters is what God has said. The only question you are left with is whether or not you will submit yourself to the reality and truth of the doctrine of God's predestination as it is entirely encompassed, whether you fully understand it or not. Otherwise, you are in rebellion and you have created a god in your own image that is contrary to the God revealed in Scripture. Predestination is taught all throughout Scripture (John 6:37-44; Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:3-6, etc.). If God did not choose to save any of us, then none of us would ever be saved. We hate God so much that we would rather go to hell.
You need to spend time in God's Word, reading, praying, and meditating on what the Scriptures actually say and teach. You need to wrestle with God about this issue and submit your feelings and opinions to the truth of His Word. You need to learn what it means to be sovereign and just how sovereign God is, and you need to learn just how wicked and depraved man is. If you think man is not that bad, you have an unhealthy and unbiblical view of mankind. If you do not think that God can control whatever/whoever He wants, whenever He wants, wherever He wants, however He wants, you have an unhealthy and unbiblical view of the sovereignty of God. To be sovereign means to be in control of everything that is under you and that there is nothing outside of you that can influence or hinder your decisions. It means that everyone and everything answers to you, but that you answer to nothing and no one. I suggest you take a look at Nebuchadnezzar, Jonah, and a whole host of other examples in Scripture.
This verse is true of every person belonging to Jesus Christ: "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6). How do we know this? Because Peter quotes it and applies it to believers; Christians: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe, but they are dead in trespasses and sins, unregenerate, having hearts of stone and hating God. They will never repent and believe because they cannot. The Bible everywhere commands men to repent and believe. The Bible also says that men cannot repent and believe. The Bible never says that men can repent and believe. A command to do something does not necessitate the ability to actually do it, especially when you consider the state they are in: spiritually dead, unregenerate, stone-hearted, haters of God. God must do a work in them first, and then they will repent and believe.
"Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps" (Psalm 135:6)Predestination is biblical, whether you fully understand it or not and whether you choose to accept it or not. I encourage you to submit yourself (and your feelings and opinions) to the reality and truth of predestination. After all, the Bible calls predestination loving: "In love He predestined us..." (Ephesians 1:4-5).
"Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'" (Isaiah 46:8-11).