The world is full of unconverted people. Not everybody is an elected official. It's been thrilling to me to hear your answers. In Christ, we can respect one another’s views, hear the issues that we each raise, in humility form our own conclusions, and still love one another as fellow partakers of the mercies of God. Some people have a divine right to sovereignty. Since the blood of Christ covers all sin, and he atoned for the whole world (1 John 2:1-2), then predestination, or election, in the sense of being chosen by God to be his people, applies to everyone through Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10). It's a real love; it's a genuine love; it's a heartfelt compassion. So you'll sin less and feel worse. The answer to all three questions, from a biblical perspective, is Yes, God can. I typed in the search because this is what God has been doing in my life. There is, however, controversy as to the nature of this predestination. So that all of us are born essentially blank slates, and we have—we have the choice. This does not sit well with many Christians. election. There's so many things God commands of us that we simply cannot do, that our entire lives ought to be lived just simply depending on His grace, because that's only the power that supplies the ability to do these things. As Michael Jinkins put it, God the Creator is intimately, passionately involved in creation continuously from beginning to end and at every nanosecond in between…. And this caused paroxysms of fear, heart palpitation, panic attacks; really unbelievable kind of things. And I think Phil was just—, PASTOR JOHNSON: Just to clarify that: The error there I would call equal ultimacy; that God—the idea that some people have is that God appoints some people to heaven, some people to hell, and then He is as active in making those people on their way to hell evil, as He is active in making those people on their way to heaven good. These verses reveal a man that was invited to the wedding feast, which represents salvation and the Kingdom of God. The passages above, Romans 8.28-30 and 1 Peter 1.1-2, provide the missing piece of information. Do you struggle with assurance of your salvation? And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (verses 25-27). And not only And maybe I could just show one passage to shed a little light of the word on it from the teaching of our Lord. God’s sovereign unalterable will of decree is not be confused with his violable will of desire. God is neither threatened by, nor overcome by, human free will and the time and chance he built into his universe. Each time I am strengthening and sharing with our Congregations and Gospel Teams, and in Bible Classes to our people in India. When we say that God is “impassible” (incapable of feeling), we do not mean that God cannot feel. We cannot package him to make him more appealing. Even as it relates to your understanding of the sovereignty of God. in another direction. The English "predestination" is translated from the Greek word proorizo which means 1) to predetermine, decide beforehand; 2) in the NT, of God decreeing from eternity; 3) to foreordain, appoint "PREDESTINATED ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE OF HIM.". And it's not irresistible in the sense that God forces his grace upon us. Has nothing to do with the spirit; has nothing to do with the soul; has nothing to do with God. You will notice that it is not salvation the Holy For example, Abraham was chosen, or elected, by God, as were his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. Every one of them ends with a little phrase in various forms in Verse 6; what the Father did was "to the praise of the glory of His grace," what He did through the Son, Verse 12, was "to the praise of His glory," and Verse 14, what He did through the Spirit was "to the praise of His glory." Those weeks of study were so very meaningful to me !”, “I love to write you as a Nepali Christian, I’m involved in the church planting and training ministry. The “God” of Plato and Aristotle could not change, because for “God” to change would mean that “God” was not already perfect. PASTOR MACARTHUR: You just get saved and glorified. Is such a God, who doesn’t seem to mind “getting his hands dirty,” truly in control? God brought the world into being for the sheer joy of it, redeemed humanity because he loved the people he made, and holds all things, all existence, including yours and mine, in the palm of his hand. Since God is in complete control, then everything must ultimately be caused by God. And again, this all hinges on human choice; we have the choice to be good or evil. Because it's the Spirit of God at work in us who's given as a part of the gift of salvation. God is God; he can do what he, of his own free will, decides to do in accord with who he is. But because of your spiritual maturity, you'll hate sin more. The “God of the TULIP” has to create what amounts to a grand DVD recording of entirely predetermined outcomes and characters who can’t wrestle with him, can’t talk back to him, challenge him, or, conversely, can’t truly love him, except as he has written it all into the script. That's why you preach the sovereignty of God. This article is also available and sold as a booklet. Yet the response of each person is truly theirs, because God’s foreknowledge does not … holy and without blame before him in love." And I think if you say it's Christ's righteousness and not mine, and that you just work out the ramifications of that theology, you're going to understand the sovereignty of God and all these other doctrines as well. That's where Pelagianism starts. I am in the time of making important decisions in my life. ourselves, WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION, TO WIT, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY" (Rom. faith. I was still under this—the reign of decisionism that was going on all around me. And that they needed to be saved, because the Methodist church hadn't saved them. And so the five points really stemmed from the teaching the Arminians. Those people are the elect of God. So God elects those that are saved; those that perish do so without any help from God. SAVIOUR! © 2020 Grace to You. And the dilemma gets bigger. Whichever side you believe, remember that predestination and election are biblical concepts. The entire parable found in Matthew 22:1-14 paints a clearer picture of what is mean by “the elect” or those chosen and predestined for salvation. nothing to do with salvation. The Greek word eklektos appears 22 times in the New Testament. Predestination, on the other hand, can be used more broadly. But, you know, you definitely grow out of that. He knows the number of the stars How many times I wanted to embrace you, but you never allowed me to do that. Then you get the people together, and you whip them into some kind of emotional frenzy; call it worship. The answer is absolutely nothing. THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." No matter where you go, God is sovereign, God's determinative; man is responsible, and man participates with his will. It's a blessing to have him with us tonight. It's in Christ. And at that time I don't think I was really taught a good, sound theology. Now, if you believe that man does, then you have to answer what Dick just brought up: How does a person who doesn't exist birth himself? Are some people predestined to be saved and the rest predestined not to be saved?”, The doctrine of predestination is sometimes referred to as “election,” in the sense that God chooses people for his own purposes. But I also love my wife, and I love her with a totally different quality and intensity of love than the love with which I love you. And it's on the basis of his sin, which hasn't been cared for by Christ, that he's consigned to hell; the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20. He says “For many are called, but few are chosen (eklektos).”. But they came from a church where their families were in leadership in the church, pastoral leadership. Our freedom to be who we are in Christ is not a freedom that we have simply by virtue of existing. That isn't even in the MacArthur Study Bible. PASTOR MACARTHUR: Yes. But the God of the Bible—who in his divine freedom has created a universe that is free, with truly free people—exercises his awesome creativity and genius continually, because, in spite of sinning and rebellious humans, he brings about his purpose for them. They wouldn't deny God's foreknowledge of something. You can't turn God into some cold, unfeeling entity. Help us with that. In the Reformed (Calvinist) camp, predestination includes individuals. And—and so I'm confident in that. And what I want to know is what a person believes is the grounds for his justification: Is it Christ's righteousness, or his own? PASTOR MACARTHUR: The truth of the matter is preaching the sovereignty of God won't save anybody. PASTOR MACARTHUR: I think the fallout of all this, too, is standard, typical American evangelism, which attempts to manipulate the man or the woman, soft-sell the gospel, take the offense out, entertain them, do whatever you need to do, because this is all about getting this person to make a decision. (Eph. Paul speaks of the "elect angels" (1 Timothy 5:21). And how many dead people caused their own resurrection? But that is not the end of the story, even for those who rejected Christ.