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| Family having picnic dinner by the FTZ beach... 2000 |
Did God predestinate
absolutely everything that comes to pass?
The Calvinists and the Reformed insist on the affirmative.
The Calvinists and the Reformed insist on the affirmative.
Just my understanding: The simple answer is "No."
Let me tell you why:
First,
predestination has to do with PEOPLE, not things. People have DESTINY. Things
and events don't have a destiny.
Second, there is
absolutely no necessity for God to pre-determine/ foreordain absolutely
everything that comes to pass. Some believe that for God to be absolutely
sovereign and in control of absolutely everything, He must need to foreordain
absolutely everything that comes to pass. Such an idea actually ATTACKS the true
sovereignty of God.
Third, a truly
sovereign God is still in absolute control without foreordaining any event while letting His creatures to have, and acting with full liberty. That's truly magnified God's sovereignty. It is a weak little god indeed who must need to
foreordain absolutely everything that comes to pass in order to remain in
absolute sovereign control.
Fourth, it renders
the creatures without excuse... they acted freely with full liberty and free
choice... thus none has any ground whatsoever to justify that they acted
because God had fore-ordained their actions!!! Let God be true but every man a
liar.
Fifth, I do believe God has
FORE-ordained ALL THOSE events (eg. Rom 8:28-30) that are directly related to
the eternal salvation of His elect people... those things MUST ABSOLUTELY COME
TO PASS by God actively causing them to happen... otherwise the eternal
salvation of His elect is in jeopardy!!!
That, of course, is an
absolute "no, no."
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Josiah Lau
So, dad, I have a question. Sometimes we might hear Christians talk about "God's plan for you" or something to that effect. Aside from God's plan of salvation, can I understand you to say that God does not predestinate anything else for us? That would include, for example, who one would marry, what career a graduate will go into, and all other miscellaneous things that are not related to salvation?
So, dad, I have a question. Sometimes we might hear Christians talk about "God's plan for you" or something to that effect. Aside from God's plan of salvation, can I understand you to say that God does not predestinate anything else for us? That would include, for example, who one would marry, what career a graduate will go into, and all other miscellaneous things that are not related to salvation?
"God has
someone in mind for you." as a piece of advice to a single man or woman
looking for a godly spouse then would certainly be unfounded.
The question then
begs to be asked: "Does God 'lead' us to take certain actions?" Does
he open doors for us? (In the sense that He provides opportunities/blessings
etc for us.) (My tentative answer is yes.) Yet it remains for us to decide to
enter, right? But God doesn't predestinate in the sense that he forces us to
enter, like puppets.
Please help to
correct my understanding, because I do often hear Christians speak as though
God has a future spouse intended for you, God has a job or a plan intended for
you, etc.
As an offshoot to
that, does God predestinate some people to become pastor-teachers? If not, can
I take the 'God's calling to be a pastor' to be similar to 'God opening a
door'? You can hear the call but you might harden your heart and not respond.
Is that the case?
