Does the idea of predestination exist in the bible? Yes. Eph. 1:3-6 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[c] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Rom. 8:28-30 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. The controversies over predestination have existed forever. Why? Because as R.C Sproul puts it "It is dangerous to shout where God has whispered". Surrounding the issue of predestination God has whispered. He tells us in the above references that it exists...the idea of predestination is undeniable. He has chosen not to give us the details of how it works exactly...things like does He choose who goes to heaven and hell? If so how is it justified? Etc. The issue of predestination will NEVER be solved. We can talk until we're blue in the face and it will never be solved. Having said that I still believe that it should be a subject for debate and discussion among us...because of the following question: If I am predestined than why should I evangelize, go to church, read the bible, do anything but wallow in my sin and trust that I will go to heaven because I'm "elect"? That is a dangerous question. That question first assumes that predestination is a free ticket to heaven, which it is not. It also disregards the fact that if we are unrepentant of our sin we WILL go to Hell. Salvation requires repentance. If we don't discuss predestination we develop extreme views of it like above. We have to be careful about the things we let ourselves think. If we choose to go against what the bible teaches and argue that there is no predestination we are arguing that God does not know everything and if God does not know everything then there are some things out of his control...things above God and if this were true than our whole world and beliefs start to quickly unravel. Yes, there is such a thing as predestination. So we come to the question does God predestine people to Hell? EDIT:: After more thought and discussion with various members of my family I think that He does pre-destine people to hell. Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. Romans 9:21 -23 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessles of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (By the way thanks to Mrs.Young for pointing me to these verses! : ) ) I was having an issue with the idea that He pre-destines people to hell because I had lost sight of the fact that I am nothing. I am only a lump of clay in the Potters hands and He will do what He wills with me. Our resistance of the idea of Him pre-destining people to hell is partly rooted in our pride and sense of control and importance. Its important to remember that God has the right to do what He pleases with us. I definitely do not know the answer to that question and if you think you do than I take my hat off to you. I know that I have a Savior and his name is Jesus Christ and because of His sacrifice I am saved.
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