Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The Foreknowledge of God Part 2


If the game is rigged, if we already know what the score will be when the referee blows the last whistle, then what’s the point of evangelizing, of preaching the Gospel, of talking to others about Jesus, or a dozen other things we are mandated to do via the Word of God?

Why would Jesus tell us to go and preach the Gospel to the nations when it wouldn’t make a difference either way? Those that are supposed to get in based on the list will get in regardless; those that aren’t meant to get in won’t get in no matter how much preaching they hear. When you boil it down and get to the root of it, that is in fact what we are saying is it not?

Why come together in fellowship, why go to church, why pray, why read the Bible, why do anything to grow in God when God’s going to wave us on through anyway if we were predestined?

If you were predestined, then why pursue godliness, righteousness, holiness, or humility?

Why die to self and live for Him if it matters not how I live, what I do, and how I spend my time?

Relax! You’re going to heaven no matter what; why strive to enter through the narrow gate?

By the same token, if predestination were in fact a reality, you can live a selfless life, be righteous and holy, and still not make it into heaven just because God doesn’t like your face, or the way you chew your nails, the way you slurp your coffee, or some other arbitrary thing.

2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Can that verse really mean what it says? How can predestination be true if God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance? Why should they come to repentance to begin with if they were predestined for heaven or hell and had no say in the matter anyway?

God knew how you would end your journey on the earth before you drew your first breath. Not because He forced you to end the journey in that way, or because He manipulated you in some manner, but because He foreknew you and the decisions you would make.

It is based on this foreknowledge that one’s name is either written in the Book or not written in the Book.

Otherwise, God would be a cruel taskmaster indeed to save only a handful, if it were within His purview to save all.

God knows the end from the beginning, and it is in this according to this foreknowledge that we are elect.

Men have gone, and will continue to go to great lengths to shrug off personal accountability and responsibility. They will butcher and twist the Gospel to appease their own conscience, and pretend the Bible says something it does not just to excuse their refusal to repent before an all knowing God.

Seriously, can you imagine all the martyrs of old, those who were dipped in tar and lit aflame during the time of the Roman purging, or those fed to the wild animals standing before the throne of the Almighty and having half of them, or a quarter of them, or even one of them be told that since they were not predestined, even though they died martyrs’ deaths, they will not enter in?

1 Peter 1:1-2, “Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

May God bless you brother Michael! God is good, righteous and forgiving beyond imagination!

May God bless, protect and save us all! All glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost! Amen! Amen! Amen!

meema said...

I believe the Calvinists have not grasped that God does not function nor is bound by our time, our clocks and calendars. He operates in a realm we cannot understand. It cannot be quantified or measured. There is no beginning, no end, no history, no future for God. Those are concepts humans created in order to keep things within our limited capabilities. To devise a doctrine that locks God into a human understanding is ludicrous at best, blasphemous at worst.

For Him,
Meema

Anonymous said...

Hi. Totally different subject, but maybe not... I was "born and raised" in a independent, Pentecostal church. We believed in, and practiced, the deliverance ministry among ourselves. My view on this ministry FOR Christians has changed. I don't think Christians can harbor demons. I believe we are attacked and can be oppressed from without by demons. I'm sure you know scriptures regarding spiritual warfare. I also think that it is a cop out for dealing with our flesh and SIN. Rom 7 makes this clear...to me anyway. The thing that is a puzzlement to me are the "demon manifestations" that we, xians, displayed..? Not sure where you are on this this subject, but I KNOW you don't shy away from touchy subjects, which I really appreciate about you. Maybe the HS will goad you to comment on this subject. In His Love, Doug MacCallum