Predestination is misunderstood...

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Burn1986

Active member
Mar 4, 2024
918
212
43



"For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world
to be holy and blameless in His presence."


Ephesians 1:4​

It does not say that we were simply chosen by Him.
But, specifically, that we were "chosen in Him."

What does "chosen in Him" mean?

Understanding that phrase is the key to understanding predestination.

grace and peace ..............
Hmm. Some things can only be revealed by God. This is certainly one of those.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,775
407
83
He who eats this vitamin C pill won't get scurvy. Wow! Great! If take one pill I will never suffer from scurvy again!

Really?
In what tense did Jesus shout out? .... "It is finished!"

"Forever!" It stays finished forever! Tetelestai...

Once we take that pill? And, enter into the atonement of the Cross? No sin ever committed after we are saved can cause us to lose our salvation. The work of the Cross remains completed on our behalf for forever!
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,467
451
83
Well.. Satan and his angels knew the Son before they sinned... Just like Adam knew before he sinned.

You have an element of inconsistency while simultaneously giving a sense of reasonableness...
Aeonous life is a kind and quality of life. It is not properly a quantity of life.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,467
451
83
In what tense did Jesus shout out? .... "It is finished!"

"Forever!" It stays finished forever! Tetelestai...

Once we take that pill? And, enter into the atonement of the Cross? No sin ever committed after we are saved can cause us to lose our salvation. The work of the Cross remains completed on our behalf for forever!
Or... Jesus meant that the atonement He was sent to perform was finished; not that the effect of the atonement had been fully applied to all those who would eventually be regenerated and persevere to the end..
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,467
451
83
In what tense did Jesus shout out? .... "It is finished!"

"Forever!" It stays finished forever! Tetelestai...

Once we take that pill? And, enter into the atonement of the Cross? No sin ever committed after we are saved can cause us to lose our salvation. The work of the Cross remains completed on our behalf for forever!
Present perfect. What was "IT"?
 

Everlasting-Grace

Well-known member
Dec 18, 2021
5,843
1,854
113
The bold verbs are all present tense. He does not say -

Whoever ate at some time will never die. I trust him
Whoever drank at some time will never thirst. I believe him
Whoever believed at some time will never die, and will be raised.
Whoever ate at some time that bread will still die. but whoever ate at some time the bread he came to give will live forever.
It does not matter

Again, you are teaching a works based salvation. He is saying to the reader. if you eat this bread, you will never die.

The moment you eat this bread. the result is you will never die.

Of course he is not going to use past tense. Most of them (probably all of them) have not eaten it yet. so he would not say, if you ate this bread.

You are interpreting these present tense verbs as if it were an aorist aspect verbs, which is why you are wrong..
Nice try. But God does not contradict himself.

You said, "I also believe what Jesus said in John 3, about how one is born again. He used the example of Moses lifting the serpent. Whoever in faith looked to that serpent lived, Whoever did not died. The people who looked looked because they trusted God. those who did not look had no trust in God. As Jesus also said. whoever believes is not condemned, whoever does not believe is condemned already.

If we look to the cross in faith. we are born again (regenerated) and saved forever. God said we will never die. I trust him.

The Old Testament passage does not say that after having looked to the bronze snake, if someone was bitten again, they were immune from the poison because they had already looked once before.

You do not get it at all. Your trying to find things that support your legalistic belief system.

He said they lived, Just like jesus said, Whoever believes in him, will never die.

He continues all through the book of John

1. But as many as have RECIEVED HIM to them he gave the right to become Children of God
2. Whoever believes in him will never die, but live forever
3. Whoever sees and believes will never perish but live forever
4. Ask, and he will give us living water flowing to eternal life.
5. The will of God is everyone who sees and believes may have eternal life and passed from judgment to life
We have already been through John 6.

You want people to keep eating this food which endures forever. which basically means, that food does not endure forever. and jesus is a liar

The text implies that whenever, and as many times as, someone was bitten, they needed to look at the bronze serpent. Your text makes my case.
Actually your reading into the text something that is not there. They ALL were bitten, in effect ALL of them were given the death penalty, (they all would have died) They called out for Gods mercy, so God told Moses to lift the serpent. He who looked LIVED (in the perfect tense)

As jesus said in John 3. Whoever believes is not condemned (shall live) whoever does not believe is condemned already

He does not say after one is made alive, they can be condemned again. its not in the text..

The only deadly sin was not looking to the bronze serpent because of not trusting God. That's what I am saying. The only deadly sin for which we forfeit aeonous life with God in the NOW, is refusing to trust God and His appointed King in the NOW.
Paul said to be absent from the body was to be present
John said we have eternal life. and because we know we have it, we can continue to have faith.

You can lose your faith.. You will never lose your sonship. God does not kick people out of his family because they are not perfect.
 

Everlasting-Grace

Well-known member
Dec 18, 2021
5,843
1,854
113
Those who do not believe are condemned already. Why?
Because, they refused at some point the drawing of God that must precede being presented the Gospel.

The Father's drawing must precede the act of regeneration which takes place when the Father will hand those who accept His drawing over to the Son.

So when they do not believe? It indicates that the Father refuses to hand that one over to His Son. God condemned them for refusing.

God's drawing that was resisted took place prior to hearing the Gospel.
When they resolved to reject the process of God's drawing them? They were marked as condemned prior to hearing to believe in Christ.

For the Father draws each and every person in a very personalized way. In a manner which is designed to bring each soul to become wanting to get closer and closer to the beauty of His essence.

grace and peace ..............
do what?
 

brightfame52

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2020
6,268
548
113
If, maybe He will maybe He won't. Christ died for the sin of all men. Maybe they will believe, maybe they won't.

When you finally realise Christ didn't die for only a select group of men and that God gave us our own volition in order to use it and that grace sets our volition free (and please note it is grace that does this, not regeneration), then you will understand what is being said.

God has made salvation conditional, but it is not conditional upon His election, He made it conditional upon believing in Him. It is God who has done this, not men.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Then we dont agree.
 

brightfame52

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2020
6,268
548
113
Be that as it may.
Grace power is still gentle.

Now if you are thinking contrary to truth, and fight grace?
Then it seems not to be gentle....
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls." Mattew 11:29​

grace and peace ................
Nothing about Gods Grace being gentile, its almighty power, it produces saving converting results, in fact its the almighty dynamic why some believe and some dont. Those who believe do so BECAUSE OF GRACE Acts 18:27

27 And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:

You are exalting the will of man, not Grace.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,467
451
83
what he came to do.

It (the plan of salvation) was finished "Paid in full"
Were there aspects of God's plan to redeem creation still yet to be done after Jesus death? If there were, then "IT" is somepart of the plan, and not the whole plan. And we should try to identify what that part of the plan was, and try to avoid assuming things were finished that were not yet finished.
 

Everlasting-Grace

Well-known member
Dec 18, 2021
5,843
1,854
113
Were there aspects of God's plan to redeem creation still yet to be done after Jesus death? If there were, then "IT" is somepart of the plan, and not the whole plan. And we should try to identify what that part of the plan was, and try to avoid assuming things were finished that were not yet finished.
Nope

It was done.

Now the offer is out to all. we just have to recieve it (john 1: 12)
 
Mar 7, 2024
837
63
28
Be careful how you judge... You may be the one you speak against.
God commanded us to judge everyone, according to their fruits. So I must obey the Lord and and correct those who make false statements.
 
Dec 18, 2023
6,402
406
83
God commanded us to judge everyone, according to their fruits. So I must obey the Lord and and correct those who make false statements.
does it not say you will know them by there fruits.

Could this not mean getting to know them Charlie
 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
25,366
13,729
113
God commanded us to judge everyone, according to their fruits. So I must obey the Lord and and correct those who make false statements.
By your logic, I must correct you, because you made a false statement here. Scripture does not say anywhere that you must correct those who make false statements.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
59,815
29,194
113
By your logic, I must correct you, because you made a false statement here. Scripture does not say anywhere that you must correct those who make false statements.
I wonder how much sleep or food any of us would get if we never stopped correcting those we thought were in error LOL! And I am also reminded of the time I came across the official site of the high school which I had attended as a teen to discover somebody there saying I had married and had lived in Kentucky had 4 children but was now dead. When I mentioned those false facts to one of my siblings, she insisted that I must correct the misinformation, but I was just as adamant that I was under no compulsion to do so. Nor did I.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,775
407
83
Aeonous life is a kind and quality of life. It is not properly a quantity of life.
That's your opinion....

Yet, Jesus does both. He wants to grant us life more abundantly. But, not all will mature as to walk into it.
He gives all who believe everlasting life, even if they are losers in their spiritual walk.

Don't confuse the two.

:coffee::coffee::coffee:
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,775
407
83
Or... Jesus meant that the atonement He was sent to perform was finished; not that the effect of the atonement had been fully applied to all those who would eventually be regenerated and persevere to the end..
The atonement that was completed for all.
It needs nothing added to save everyone and anyone who wishes to believe in Christ.
Its stands completed forever and will always be so.

Yet,, even the unbeliever will not have his sins mentioned at the final judgement.
The atonement eliminated the condemnation that comes from being fallen.

The unbeliever will not hear one personal sin being mentioned when he is brought before the Lord.


The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone
where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day
and night forever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged
according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave
up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were
in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and
Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. "
Revelation 20:10-14


Unbelievers will not be condemned according to their sins.
For their sins were already judged on the Cross. The atonement was completed forever!

But, unbelievers will be judged according to their works.
Why?
One work will be sought for in the book and not found.



Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” John 6:28-29​


Not by works,
But one single work.

One specific single work required of God.



:coffee:
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,775
407
83
Nothing about Gods Grace being gentile, its almighty power, it produces saving converting results, in fact its the almighty dynamic why some believe and some dont. Those who believe do so BECAUSE OF GRACE Acts 18:27

27 And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:

You are exalting the will of man, not Grace.

Being almighty does not require intimidation by show of force.
For what can harm the Almighty God?


Nothing about Gods Grace being gentile.




Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.”
And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore
into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord,
but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a
fire, but the Lord was not in the fire;
and after the fire a still small voice."
1 Kings 19:11-12

We have so much to learn .. and, unlearn.


grace and peace .............