Predestination vs. Free Will - Bible Teaching #4
https://youtu.be/9-zoq33NBRs?si=2potwKKFlyBih7Gf
So for this article we will be addressing how to properly view predestination and freewill in the Bible. This is a type of topic that I usually would not get involved in but since it has caused a great many people to view sin lightly, and excuse immoral lives, including myself when I falsely thought I was saved for 10 years of my life; I felt it necessary to address this. I have also found it to be 1 of the core teachings of "once saved always saved" aka "preservation of the saints".
Once again for this article we are using a Thomas Nelson NKJV reference Bible and the New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Red Letter Edition.
As always, pray for discernment and grab your Bible. There is a lot to cover, may God grant you increase and may you accept the Truth.
First question, do we have a choice in our roles in life?
Let me list a few passages and see what we make of them.
Luke 7:30
But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.
Esther 4:14
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Matthew 3:8
and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Luke 19:40
But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Genesis 6:6
And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Hebrews 8:7-8
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
1 Samuel 15:10-35
Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
And he said to him, “Speak on.”
So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you from being king.”
Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”
But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”
Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.
Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously.
And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.
So that was a lot, but definitely not everything on this topic. What do we get from that?
Well, first, you can reject Gods plan for you. Second, if you reject His plan someone else will be raised up to take your place and do what He wants. Third, God has regretted decisions that He has made concerning us because we failed to fulfill what He wanted. Fourth, God does not need you. Fifth, Gods plans and actions have changed, not because His plans are flawed, but because He entrusts perfect plans to imperfect beings.
So if we see now that we have freewill and can do what God wants as well as what He does not want, how does predestination fit in with that?
Well here are some key Scriptures that help point that out.
1 Timothy 2:3-4
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Genesis 22:18
In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.
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.
So God wants all people to be conformed to the image of His son. He wants all to come to a knowledge of the Truth, all to repent, He wants no one to perish. Notice that He sacrificed His son for the WORLD.
So now we need to re-examine a topic.
Ephesians 1:5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Ephesians 1:11
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
These verses similar to several others in the Bible on the surface make it sound like believers are predestined for salvation. Like we are a special group of people separated to God since the beginning, for who can resist Gods will?
Well now lets apply what we just learned.
God wants everyone to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved, it does not say, "just those that I set apart". He wants all to repent and no one to perish, again does not say, "just those that I set apart". Jesus who came from Abraham's lineage who was Abraham's seed, all nations were blessed through Him, again it did not say, "just those that I set apart". Finally, He sacrificed His Son for the WORLD, it does not say, "just those that I set apart". So the only logical conclusion is that all are predestined to receive redemption through Jesus Christ, but as we learned already earlier in this article we have the freewill to reject His predestined plan. God is amazing and will let us choose, question is, will you choose to serve Him or reject Him. God is so amazing that He will give us what we want. Either draw near to Him and He will draw near to you, through cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts, James 4:8; or God will let you live separate from Him, giving you up to a debased mind to do those things that are unfitting, Romans 1:28. The choice is yours.
But God knows all things right?
Where most people get that concept from is Psalm 139. Yes God knows the words on your tongue before you say them, because He knows your past and current thoughts. Your mind thinks the thought before your mouth says the word. When He says He understands your thoughts, it does not say that He knows them already, but that He understands them. Meaning understanding how you got to that thought and why you are thinking them. Like how God was sure that Pharaoh would not let Israel go, not even by a mighty hand in Exodus 3:19. That Hebrew word used when God said "I am sure" was the Hebrew word yada Strong's H3045. It means to know by observing and reflecting, it does not mean to already know the future. God did not already know Pharaoh's future thoughts but God made an inference based on Pharaoh's present and past, thoughts and actions. So once again, God does not already predestine your sin, that is your choice that you are fully responsible for. If you do not obey, quite frankly, you will be replaced.
At first being shown this by the Holy Spirit in Gods Word, it felt weird, like I was disrespecting God and making Him less powerful. But really quite the opposite was taking place. His true omnipotence shows when even with imperfect beings and freewill to follow or reject, He still accomplishes the actions that He desires. May not be through the same people or person that He chose for that action, but it still gets done.
There was a parable that the Lord gave me about this topic.
The Lord is the architect and general contractor. He made the blueprint and He executes the blueprint. As the general contractor the Lord hires the sub-contractors to build what needs to be built. The sub-contractors are Gods predestined servants. He also has an inspector who inspects the work to see if it meets code, the inspector is His Word. What is being built has to meet code or else it can not go on being built, it must be torn down and redone. The blueprint is Gods master plan. But what happens when a sub-contractor does not do what is needed for the job? They show up intoxicated, their work looks sloppy, they miss days of work, they do not meet proposed deadlines. What does the Lord who runs the site do? He fires that sub-contractor and hires another for that task, or you could have 1 sub-contractor that builds multiple parts of the same building. You see what He is building will get done regardless, but will you do the job that you were hired for? Or will you get fired and be replaced by another? God also has a place for lawlessness but woe to those who choose such roles, Matthew 18:7.
If you do not fulfill what He needs, you may even just be replaced by a stone, Matthew 3:8, even though you are a predestined child of Abraham. But thank God for giving fallen and hopeless beings like us a choice to accept to be reconciled back to our Creator and serve him as humble obedient slaves all in the name of Jesus Christ the Savior of this fallen world! Thank you God!
I hope this clears some things up, you are predestined, but it is your choice to follow Gods predestined plan for you or not.
Written with love,
a humble servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, Michael
I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and am willing to discuss any of these topics and more, in great detail. If you would like.
Email:
Michael.servantofchrist@gmail.com
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