A Most Detestable Doctrine
Predestination (Election)
I'm no expert, but it seems that there are Christians (staunch Calvinists) who believe that the ONLY way a person can or will become a Christian is if God has predestined or chosen them to become a Christian, and this predestination was made thousands (millions?) of years before they were even born - and - they have plenty of bible verses in support of this belief.
Those of the Armenian (Free Will) position do themselves a disservice if they dismiss the Calvinistic belief. But the Free Will position is not without biblical support as well, I just don't think that it is nearly as strongly supported in the bible as the predestination position.
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BLDG 28 Church, in the What We Believe section of their website:
God the Father:
By the word of God the Father, and for His pleasure and glory, He supernaturally created everything from nothing. . . . In His incomprehensible grace He loving chose specific individuals to be the objects of His sovereign mercy, sending His Son, out of that Divine love, to redeem His elect people .
God the Son:
Jesus Christ is God. With no beginning and no end, He has always been. Yet, in obedience to His Father, and out of love for His bride (those chosen by the Father), He emptied Himself, and became human, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of a virgin girl.
God the Spirit:
God the Holy Spirit, through the proclamation of the Gospel, convicts the world of sin, regenerates the heart, mind, and will of sinners, and persuades the elect of God to repent of all evil, and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Humanity & Depravity:
Fallen sinners, despite their character, morality, or merits, are lost and without hope, condemned to suffer in endless torment under God’s wrath, unless they are drawn to salvation in Jesus Christ.
Obviously Bldg 28 Church is a church with Calvinist doctrines in their belief statement(s).
Verses used in support of Predestination / Election:
1 Peter 1:2
. . . who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood...
Acts 13:48
When the gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord, and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers.
Romans 8:29-30
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Ephesians 1:4-5
. . . just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will...
John 6:44
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day.
Verses used in support of Free Will:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
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It seems very clear that the (numerous) verses in support of the election / predestination doctrine are in direct conflict with the (few) verses used in support of the free will doctrine.
I came from a very mixed Christian background - being in the military I moved around a lot. I started out completely non denominational in my late teens, then to Independent Fundamentalist Baptist, then to Southern Baptist, then back to IFB, then back to Southern Baptist, then very briefly to Wesleyan before just giving up on the whole church thingy.
I don't believe the IFB churches that I attended were hard-core Calvinistic because I don't remember ever hearing a sermon on election / predestination. I did hear sermons on
once-saved-always-saved (eternal security, or the perseverance of the saints) and that is what I believed (sort of), but I am confident that the IFB churches I attended leaned toward free will when it came to evangelism - leading the lost to Christ. And I think that if a Christian is going to evangelize, they have to be free will leaning. In other words, they have to ignore the very clear bible verses that indicate that God has ALREADY DECIDED who will become Christian and go to heaven and who will not become Christian and go to hell.
Imagine you are a staunch Calvinist and you are talking to a non believer about becoming a Christian - if you are an honest Calvinist, you should start the conversation with "Now just to be clear, you have no choice in the matter - the only way you can become a Christian is if God has ALREADY DECIDED that you will become a Christian. I don't know what God has decided. He may have decided millions of years ago that you are ONE OF THE MANY that He wants to burn in hell for all eternity. Frankly, I couldn't care less whether you become a Christian or not because God has already made up his mind - so - what ever".
Honestly, what I find most detestable about this election / predestination doctrine, is the fact that so many Christians believe this, and in spite of how horrible this belief is, they remain believers and continue to worship their God. Imagine worshiping a god who has, before they were even born, decided who will spend eternity burning in hell, and there is nothing that those people can do about it.
Strange but true: those who have loved God most have loved men least.
~Robert G. Ingersoll
bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com
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