Frequently Asked Questions

Our Beliefs

Question:

I have been struggling with the truth about salvation; whether people are predestined and chosen for salvation or whether they have the choice themselves. I figured you could help me out. When I first listened to "Once a Man and Twice a Child (Born Again)" I heard the line 'You were predestined, you are part of God's plan' and I thought you may have believed in predestination. Then, as I listened to it again, I heard the line 'All of the angels rejoice because of your choice' and I figured you must believe that we have free will to choose. Then I thought, "If he believes in free will and sings lyrics about being predestined, then "predestined" must have another meaning". I don't want to make any assumptions. So tell me, what do you believe? Do you think we humans have the choice to choose Jesus, or do you think that it is up to the Lord who is saved? If you believe in free choice please explain to me what Paul means when he talks about predestination in his letters and when he says that the recipients of the letters are chosen. And what does it mean when you say in "Thief in the Night" that Christ will come and take away his chosen, and in "Roaring Lion" when you say that 'we are the chosen from creation'? I don't really believe in either predestination or free will right now. I am in between the two. I thought maybe you could help me since you seem to have a good knowledge of the Bible.

Answer:

This is a deep set of questions that you have asked. These subjects have largely divided the Christian church for years. The main thrust of this argument is found in the common debate between Calvinism and Armenianism. But both of these belief systems are man's interpretation of the Bible, that I believe still fall short of the knowledge of our all knowing Lord. It is always hard when we, in our finite understandings try to interpret God's infinite wisdom.

In your e-mail you wrote "I don't really believe in either predestination or free will right now. I am in between the two." But I do believe in both free will AND predestination. But how each of these apparently contradictory themes work together is a mystery that our earthly minds may never fully comprehend. Again, both are biblical and well documented. While there are many verses that challenge us to choose whom we may serve, believe in Him, and call upon His name, there are also scriptures that state that salvation is of the Lord and that it is the Holy Spirit working in your life that draws you to the Most High God.

Some view predestination as the Lord simply having foreknowledge of the freewill decisions that you will make. I believe that God's role is far greater than this. He is not some helpless God Who's perfect will is decided by those He created--it is clear that He is the Almighty, All Powerful Lord, Who works everything out in accordance with His perfect will, creating some for noble purposes and other for ignoble.

While this enigma is a riddle that we may never solve, it is good that we study it fervently and use our best efforts to know the Lord's heart. I wish that I could help you more on this subject, but perhaps as you continue to learn you can teach me.

The best piece of wisdom that I ever received regarding this dilemma was from one of my instructors at Bible college. He viewed it as a pendulum:

He said that if you swing too far to one side; God controls every thought and decision in our lives and there is no free thought. Before we are born, He arbitrarily decided who would be saved and who would go to hell. With no choice in the matter, we are just pawns in His chess game--destined to do everything that He wills.

But if you swing too far on the other side, we are absolutely free beings, able to choose or lose. God's grace and calling on one's life can be resisted, and the Lord's role in our decisions is only reactionary. God's foreknowledge is of our free will and He caters His will to our desires.

As you can see, both of these views when taken to the extreme are contradictory to the true biblical context of each of the 66 books in the Bible. With this in mind, and since both belief systems have biblical representation, my instructor encouraged us to stay in the middle of the pendulum--not swinging too far to the right or left.

So again, if both doctrines are moderately represented, then they both have to be true and we should trust in them and in the Lord who inspired them. Though we may never figure out this ambiguous paradigm, we must trust that it is true until we get to heaven and completely understand how these complex doctrines are interwoven.

For what it is worth, that is my humble opinion. But search for yourself. I have included various scriptures from a recent key word search of the New Testament that you may fond helpful. As you can see, if you truly look at the context, both arguments are represented:

=================

Rom 9:11-21
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for NOBLE PURPOSES and some for common use?
=================
Keyword Search: Salvation:

Hebrews 2:3
how shall we escape if we ignore such a great SALVATION? This SALVATION, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
=================
Keyword Search: Choose, Choice, Chosen, Chose, Decision, Decide:

Joh 1:12-13
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human DECISION or a husband's will, but born of God.
=================
Act 4:27-28
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had DECIDED beforehand should happen.
=================
Rev 17:14
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, CHOSEN and faithful followers."
=================
1Pe 4:1-3
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans CHOOSE to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
=================
Jam 5:19-20
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
=================
1Pe 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been CHOSEN according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
=================
Jam 4:3-5
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who CHOOSES to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
=================
Jam 2:5
Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God CHOSEN those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
=================
Jam 1:18
He CHOSE to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
=================
2Th 2:10-15
and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God CHOSE you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
=================
1Th 1:4-5
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has CHHOSEN you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.
=================
Col 1:27 To them God has CHOSEN to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
=================
Eph 1:9-11
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also CHOSEN, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
=================
Eph 1:3-6
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he CHOSE us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
=================
Joh 15:14-16
You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not CHOOSE me, but I CHOSE you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
=================
Luk 10:22
"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son CHOOSES to reveal him."
=================
Mar 13:19-20
because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now--and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has CHOSEN, he has shortened them.
=================
Mat 22:14 "For many are invited, but few are CHOSEN."
=================
KeyWord search: Elect, Predestine, Predestined, Forknew, Foreknowledge:

Mat 24:24
For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the ELECT--if that were possible.
=================
Rom 8:28-33
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God FOREKNEW he also PREDESTINED to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
=================
Eph 1:3-6
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he PREDESTINED us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
================
Eph 1:11-13
In him we were also chosen, having been PREDESTINED according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
=================
2Ti 2:10
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the ELECT, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
=================
1Pe 1:2
who have been chosen according to the FOREKNOWLEDGE of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
=================
2Pe 1:10-11
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and ELECTION sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If you wish to discuss this topic, please visit our FORUM.

If you wish to discuss any of these topics, please visit our FORUM.

Do you have a question that is not answered here?
If so, please send it to
and your response may be added to the F.A.Q.