Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly
places in Christ, just as He
chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world,
that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love,having predestined us
as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of theglory of His grace,
by which He made us acceptable in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1: 3 -- 6
I
enter into this discussion with some trepidation but not with reservation as
the subject is debated hotly and with great emotion not only among theologians but
among everyday Christians. One such
debate that is can man save himself, by just choosing or is this the
sovereignty of God only? Furthermore, is the question as to whether or not that
man was predestinated to be saved or not saved by God and when did this saving
by God occur, before creation, or sometime after creation, or in time when man
comes to know God and chooses Him. The
opening Scripture sets forth this question due to the fact that Paul has
written that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. This choosing is more than just that we
might someday come to be holy and without blame, rather, Paul says that this
choosing by God is predestination and it is only according to His good pleasure
and will for His glory and His grace.
You might be one of those who have settled to be on one side of this
debate or the other, or one that has dealt many questions in regard to this
doctrine of predestination. So now I
enter into this discussion and the first thing that must be remembered is;
theology is not philosophy. Theology
does not assume to discover truth, or to reconcile what it teaches as true with
other truths. Theology has as its
importance simply to state what God has revealed in His word. Furthermore theology attempts to vindicate
those statements as far as possible to remove misconceptions and
objections. One must come to this study
of theology to speak of the purposes of God and the decrees of God in
such a way as to simply state them as what the Spirit has seen fit to reveal on
that subject. One must ask themselves
this question: "Do I actually believe that the Bible is the Word of God
and truth, or is it in some manner simply a ‘good book’?" Your position on
the Word of God will be determined whether you will accept what God has
revealed to be the truth, even though it is difficult for a finite mind to fully
comprehend the infinite mind of God. We
must understand that the decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to
His counsel of His own will and this for His own glory and that He has
foreordainedwhatever is to come to pass.
Paul in writing to the Ephesians is writing a letter that is in some respects
very profound and difficult of any of his epistles. It certainly is the most spiritual and devout, and is composed in
an exalted and transcendent state of mind, or theology rises into worship, and
meditation into oration.
Let's take time then to examine the word predestination for
there is an ambiguity in the word predestination. He can be said that in the general sense of the word is to be
found a sense of foreordination.
Looking at it in this sentence we found that it has equal reference to
all events in as much as God foreordains what ever comes to pass. Does this mean that God is the author of
everything that occurs due to His pre-determining as though He appointed all
things to occur both good and bad? This is a question among Christians and non-Christians
and you may also be quite quizzical as to what is the correct answer. So let's look at the Greek word that is used
in the above Scripture that we translate as predestination. The Greek word is: προορίας; I find that it
means to limit in advance, that is to predetermined beforehand so in this we
can say that it was ordained or marked out before hand but this does not mean
that the one allowing this is the author of any action. Rather the one who allows for any action is
God and God did all of this for His own glory and will and for His own
purpose. Predestination may be an also
refer to this general purpose of redemption without reference to particular
individuals. God had pre-determined to
reveal His attributes redeeming sinners just as He pre-determined to create the
heavens and the earth to manifest His power, wisdom, and benevolence. In
theology, in general, is to express the purpose of God in relation to the
salvation of individual men. And here
is where people place himself in a hard place in rock in this debate in
regards to predestination and God having the right to ordain what ever occurs
that also includes a selection of one portion of the race to be saved, and
leaving the rest to perish in sin. This
is a foreign to many people and rubs them in a wrong way for they choose to
believe that man can save himself and he has all the right of free will to do
so. This doctrine had its forerunners in such men as Pelagius, who was declared
a heretic, and in others such as Jacobus Arminius, men such as Charles Finney,
Charles Wesley, and many of the current preachers today teaching this doctrine
that God only has predestined or foreordain this right. Is this true? This is the thrust of this portion of our study and since Paul
has written about it from the beginning of his letter is important that we
discuss this doctrine and come to an understanding as to what the Scripture
teaches us about this subject. So
before we go into other verses we need to discuss this subject as it is an
important subject and has been for many years and divisive among Christians.
A man's steps are of the LORD;
how men can
a man
understand his own way?
Proverbs
20: 24
Search the Word of God
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