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ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION
Are Some People Predestined to Hell?
NO! We believe that the Bible teaches EVERYONE who has ever been
born has the chance to be saved if they only would and if they want to! The
only reason some people don’t come to Christ is because they choose not to
and they choose to reject Jesus Christ as Savior!
( Matt. 23:37) O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Anyone who wants to come to Christ can do so because the Holy Spirit
enables every man to come to Christ if they only will!
(John 6:44) No
man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I
will raise him up at the last day.
(John 12:32) And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me.
God is not willing
that any should perish in hell!
(2
Peter 3:9) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Nor does he predestine or elect anybody
to hell! We go to hell because we have chosen to reject Christ as our Savior
during our lifetime. God chose or elected a plan of salvation before He made
the worlds and He decided that everyone who would obey that plan of
salvation and trust Christ as Savior would be saved. God in His
foreknowledge knew ahead of time...before He created the world...who would
trust Christ during their lifetime when they had the chance and who would
no. Those whom He knew would trust Christ when they got the chance during
their lifetime He labeled as the ‘Elect’.
(1 Thess. 1:4) 1:4 Knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God.
(Eph. 1:4) According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love:
Notice it was not that He (forced) these people to trust
Christ..but that
He knew they would when they had the chance to....in His foreknowledge...
1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be
multiplied.
That is different than ‘determining’ or
predestinating it ahead of time, agreed?
To say that God ‘elected’ some people to be saved and gave them the
ability to be saved while ‘passing over’ other people and not giving them
the ability to come to Christ is just NOT taught in my Bible! We believe
Calvinism and TULIP theology is WRONG! Now remember that the word PREDESTINE
when used in the Bible always refers to Christians! It always is used of
people who have already been saved. With this term God is simply saying that
everyone who trusts Christ is PREDESTINED or ‘pre-determined’ by God to be
like Jesus someday! It is going to happen. The more we become like Jesus
during this lifetime in our actions and behavior is called progressive
SANCTIFICATION. This occurs when we study and obey the Bible and allow the
Holy Spirit to mold us. We will eventually be like Jesus completely when we
get to Heaven in our final Glorification.
(Romans 8:29) 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.
In a practical sense during this lifetime, I believe Christ calls
each of us to certain areas of service in certain local churches and I
believe He enables us and ‘gifts ‘ us to do these ministries for Him!
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