Did God predestine ISIS & Boko Haram to rape, torture, kill the Christians?
1) Did God predestine Mohammed to invent the religion of Islam?
2) Did God predestine the Popes and RCC to organize the Inquisitions and torture and kill His Christian Believers?
3) Did God predestine Mafias to commit so many crimes in the world?
4) Did God predestine the Al-Shabab to kill Christian students in Kenya ?
5) Did God predestine 99% of the people not to believe the Gospel and to reject Jesus and thereby to go to the Hell even though He as the Almighty God could make them believe only if He wanted?
My God never did so!
But He foreknew the wickedness of human beings and prepared the Hell for the unbelievers as the sins come from the Unbelief.
I do understand the questions and arguments by the supporters of Predestination Theory and therefore want to answer shortly as follows:
1) John 17: 9, 20
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.</SPAN>
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;</SPAN>
This is the prayer by Jesus for the further protection of His Believers after they believe in Him. This is not the prayer for the salvation of the unbelievers.
Here is the prayer by Jesus for the salvation of the Unbelievers:
Luke 23: 34
34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.</SPAN>
Jesus prayed for the Unbelievers.
There were Priests, High Priests, Soldiers, Pharisees, Sadducees, elders, scribes
But Jesus prayed Father to forgive them all! Though they didn’t know what they were doing.
God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but has everlasting life ( John 3:16)
So, John 17 cannot be the proof that Jesus atoned only for the Elect.
No sin of the world was left unatoned at the Cross.
His Blood paid all the price for all the sins of the world.
2) Why then there are many people who are going to the Hell?
Because they don’t believe what Jesus has done for them at the Cross.
John 16:9
Of sin, because they believe not on me;</SPAN>
Heb 3
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.</SPAN>
Heb 4 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it
It is because of Unbelief!
Faith is the Bridge between the Grace of God and the Sinner.
3) Acts 13:48
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.</SPAN>
On this verse, KJV was leaning onto Predestination theory.
ἀκούοντα</SPAN> δὲ τὰ ἔθνη ἔχαιρον καὶ ἐδόξαζον τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου καὶ ἐπίστευσαν ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον
τάσσω
1. to put in order, to station
1. to place in a certain order, to arrange, to assign a place, to appoint
In other words, as many as were prepared for the eternal life believed.
In other words, as many as were humbled, broken-hearted believed the Gospel.
Bible doesn’t teach the human predestination theology.
4) Ephesians 1
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
God predestined all human race to believe in Jesus.
But only the Believers accept it and confess such predestination by God.
Therefore the Predestination here in Ephesians is the one planned by God indiscriminately applicable to all human beings, which is different from that of Calvinism.
Here are the proof:
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.</SPAN> ( Original Predestination by God)
1 John 2
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.</SPAN> ( Universal Atonement)
I would call Unlimited Atonement at the Cross.
5) Ephesians 2:8
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:</SPAN>
Which is first, Grace or Faith?
Grace is first!
Even before we were born on this earth, 2000 years ago, God showed His Grace thru His Son at the Cross.
If anyone believe it, he or she will be saved by Faith.
Even in that process, the Grace works again because God reacts to the faith of the people and therefore He gives the Holy Spirit to dwell in him or her.
It is a continuous process of interaction and reactions between God and Man.
Faith is the Bridge between the historical fact of Grace at the Cross and the Sinner
6) Does Foreknowledge and Faith mean the works?
Nope! Faith is not a work. Faith is distinguished from Works as we read in Romans 4
Romans 4
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.</SPAN>
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,</SPAN>
Believing is not Work.
( to be continued)
Eliyahu
1) Did God predestine Mohammed to invent the religion of Islam?
2) Did God predestine the Popes and RCC to organize the Inquisitions and torture and kill His Christian Believers?
3) Did God predestine Mafias to commit so many crimes in the world?
4) Did God predestine the Al-Shabab to kill Christian students in Kenya ?
5) Did God predestine 99% of the people not to believe the Gospel and to reject Jesus and thereby to go to the Hell even though He as the Almighty God could make them believe only if He wanted?
My God never did so!
But He foreknew the wickedness of human beings and prepared the Hell for the unbelievers as the sins come from the Unbelief.
I do understand the questions and arguments by the supporters of Predestination Theory and therefore want to answer shortly as follows:
1) John 17: 9, 20
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.</SPAN>
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;</SPAN>
This is the prayer by Jesus for the further protection of His Believers after they believe in Him. This is not the prayer for the salvation of the unbelievers.
Here is the prayer by Jesus for the salvation of the Unbelievers:
Luke 23: 34
34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.</SPAN>
Jesus prayed for the Unbelievers.
There were Priests, High Priests, Soldiers, Pharisees, Sadducees, elders, scribes
But Jesus prayed Father to forgive them all! Though they didn’t know what they were doing.
God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but has everlasting life ( John 3:16)
So, John 17 cannot be the proof that Jesus atoned only for the Elect.
No sin of the world was left unatoned at the Cross.
His Blood paid all the price for all the sins of the world.
2) Why then there are many people who are going to the Hell?
Because they don’t believe what Jesus has done for them at the Cross.
John 16:9
Of sin, because they believe not on me;</SPAN>
Heb 3
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.</SPAN>
Heb 4 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it
It is because of Unbelief!
Faith is the Bridge between the Grace of God and the Sinner.
3) Acts 13:48
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.</SPAN>
On this verse, KJV was leaning onto Predestination theory.
ἀκούοντα</SPAN> δὲ τὰ ἔθνη ἔχαιρον καὶ ἐδόξαζον τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου καὶ ἐπίστευσαν ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον
τάσσω
1. to put in order, to station
1. to place in a certain order, to arrange, to assign a place, to appoint
In other words, as many as were prepared for the eternal life believed.
In other words, as many as were humbled, broken-hearted believed the Gospel.
Bible doesn’t teach the human predestination theology.
4) Ephesians 1
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
God predestined all human race to believe in Jesus.
But only the Believers accept it and confess such predestination by God.
Therefore the Predestination here in Ephesians is the one planned by God indiscriminately applicable to all human beings, which is different from that of Calvinism.
Here are the proof:
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.</SPAN> ( Original Predestination by God)
1 John 2
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.</SPAN> ( Universal Atonement)
I would call Unlimited Atonement at the Cross.
5) Ephesians 2:8
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:</SPAN>
Which is first, Grace or Faith?
Grace is first!
Even before we were born on this earth, 2000 years ago, God showed His Grace thru His Son at the Cross.
If anyone believe it, he or she will be saved by Faith.
Even in that process, the Grace works again because God reacts to the faith of the people and therefore He gives the Holy Spirit to dwell in him or her.
It is a continuous process of interaction and reactions between God and Man.
Faith is the Bridge between the historical fact of Grace at the Cross and the Sinner
6) Does Foreknowledge and Faith mean the works?
Nope! Faith is not a work. Faith is distinguished from Works as we read in Romans 4
Romans 4
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.</SPAN>
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,</SPAN>
Believing is not Work.
( to be continued)
Eliyahu
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