So we were not them, we were different because of the love God had for us before time began, that is when were were called, and that is according to the power of God.
9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
This ones easy[emoji3] my Bible links this verse to Romans 16:25 for context;
Romans 16:25
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.
:26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—
It seems like what we are failing to acknowledge that every person needs salvation and is capable of receiving salvation. Election has been misinterpreted as happening before the foundation of the world making only certain people capable of being saved.
God has always known who He would be able to save but it doesn't say anywhere that He only wrote the elect in the Book of Life and He didn't write the rest of humanity down anywhere. Using the Book of Life as proof that God only WANTS to save some people is an unscriptural assumption that weakens the argument that God is sovereign over our salvation because it contains false assumptions. Get away from saying God only intends/wants to save the Elect and argue that God had to know who He would be able to save since He is omniscient. Through God's omniscience He knew that He would have to pay the blood price for those who BECOME elect and then adopt you into His body. Through God's omniscience He always knew the end state of Satan, hell and death and us. God knew the middle from the beginning and the ending from the middle so He knew it all and there is no way to change it. (if you never were a sinner needing salvation Christ didn't need to die for your sin. Rom 11:7 to obtain election means you didn't have it before)
If Adam and Eve were never forgiven by God someday they will stand before Him in judgment and He will tell them "I never knew you" because their name was in the Book but was blotted out so there won't be a record of them, unless you continue to perpetuate the false assumption that only the Elect are in the Book, not even the founders of humanity.
Arminianism says that names are written in the Book when you are saved which doesn't have a scriptural basis either. The Bible only says names are written the Book before the foundation of the world. The only answer to this theological Dilemma is that the Book of Life contains the names of everyone in creation, and though it's a Book of life, it's a Book of the living creations of God and by default if your name is still in it at the Judgment you have remained one of God's creations.
Knowing that my name is in the Book is another reason I believe in God's sovereignty. If my name is in His Book I can't remove it, it's His Book and only God can erase my name, so unless I sin to the point I am no longer a creation of God and have become a child of Satan and God blots my name from His Book, there is still hope for me, but I believe God has the ultimate choice as to whether my name stays in His Book.
I believe once you are saved the likelihood that you can lose your salvation is nill, almost/nill because I haven't seen a scripture example showing a saved person lost their salvation. The Arminianism Fifth Article of the Remonstrance says it's possible but they haven't shown me anything solid.
I'm it though; I am the only one who believes this way out of both sides of the Calvinist/Arminianism debate, but I pray someday someone else will see the truth in this!
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