Poster:
"What doctrine is more emptying, humbling, and therefore sanctifying than predestination? It lays the axe at the root of all human boasting. In the light of this truth, the most holy believer sees that there is no difference between him and the vilest sinner that crawls the earth, but what the mere grace of God has made." - Octavius Winslow
RIVERFORUM:
Except... it leads to John Calvin exonerating himself for burning alive those who disagree with him theologically, and still expecting the riches of heaven.
The false security of a "chosen one" who can do no deed evil enough to deprive them of grace, and of a "damned one" who can do no act of repentance worthy to allow them to receive the same is a damnable heresy that robs mankind of their free moral agency to choose Christ and follow Him and His doctrine.
If predestination is true, then what value is there in exhorting the chosen to live holy? Or in evangelizing those who are ignorant of the gospel? And what of those who die in that same ignorance?
What Calvin misunderstands is that our first gift as free moral agents in the garden was Choice. God in his wisdom and omniscience had a plan ("Logos" John 1) for both potential futures - if the fruit was not eaten, and then if it was.
In Genesis 18:20-33, we see evidence of Abraham negotiating with God for the lives of the righteous living in Sodom and Gomorrah. God intended to destroy it utterly, but Abraham reasoned with God and God relaxed his decision to allow Lot & Company to escape. This is manifest evidence of the interaction of two free moral agents (God and Man) co-negotiating a potential future based on alternative outcomes.
So what does this mean?
Romans 8:29-30. "29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
The predestination discussed here "is that for those whom God knows will come to faith, his desire is for them to become like Jesus - brothers of Jesus. The question remains? Who is predestined? Those that are called. And who does God call? EVERYONE!
2 Peter 3:9 explicitly declares the will of God toward man regarding man's salvation. "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for ALL to come to repentance."
It is NOT God's will that any perish? Yes. YET...some do! ALL do not actually come to repentance. God has only predestined all for salvation, in that he has created a destiny available to all who CHOOSE to believe it. NOT that the chosen of god, the elect, are specifically chosen and cannot escape the grip of irresistible grace. If grace is IRRESISTIBLE, then by definition it is not GRACE, it is COMPULSION however benevolent. God is not a tyrant with either Grace OR Damnation.
God predestines ALL for salvation and yet some defy that destiny. For, if it is not God's will that we should sin against Him - why DO we?
Judas knew, followed, believed in, and gave his life to Jesus - yet he did not attain salvation.
By his example, we have proof that grace can be resisted! We see Paul "kicking against the pricks" in his resistance to Grace.
How can someone predestined for Salvation, drawn by irresistible grace, with eternal security even sin if CHOICE is not the operative mechanism of their moral agency? Why does God desire that we be conformed to the image of Jesus? So that we might attain our estate and not forfeit it.
A soul - earnestly seeking God, will be sought out directly by the Spirit of God for ministry. He pursues US. Just as he told us in the parable of the Good Shepherd (Matthew 18:12-14) where he leaves the 99 and 9 and goes after the one.
The conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10 is a great example of someone who was outside of the parameters of faith, yet was living godly. God pursued him, and sent to him those who would deliver him and his family into the Truth. Calvinism would have left Cornelius in the dust of the Roman Road because he was not of the "chosen ones" irresistibly drawn to grace and truth.
Yet even for the Jews, God's favor was not a given. Individuals still had to CHOOSE to follow God.
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, CHOOSE you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
It is quite clearly that Calvinism is a naive vestige of Judaism (chosen people), contradicted by Jesus himself made the way open for ALL who believe (choice) and would repent (also a choice).
1 Timothy 4:1 says that in latter times some will actually fall away from the faith proving it is possible to attain salvation and then willfully abandon it.
There is no eternal security this side of heaven. We must ABIDE in Him.
Calvinism has been already laid to waste as a vapid and destructive doctrine.
Thomas Jefferson was chief among their contemporary critics who railed against the hateful intolerance and virulent arrogance of the Presbyterian clergy of his day.
Let us not resurrect from dead bones, bad and unproductive doctrines that ought never to have seen the light of day to begin with.
FEEDBACK - FROM A COMMENTATOR
Nothing is predetermined. God may have an amazing destiny set in place for His people, but the choice is always ours.