Additional Thoughts on Predestination

#1 Was Paul out of God’s will when he wrote Romans the 9th and 10th chapters? Or was his heart and God’s heart in union?

Rom 9:1-3
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Paul incorporates his own conscience, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ in his testimony desiring Israel’s salvation. God has preserved these Scriptures for us proving Paul and God are together in this desire.

Rom 10:1-4
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, (Unregenerate man can have a “zeal” for God? Yes!) but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Paul wanted his Jewish brethren saved, and Paul’s heart and prayer are in keeping with God’s will and desire. Paul was not out of God’s will! Calvinism is out of God’s will!

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

#2 The subject matter in Romans 9 & 10 is not God choosing some for salvation and rejecting others, but in keeping with the majority of the book of Romans, it teaches that God makes His choices on the basis of FAITH and not WORKS.

Reading Paul’s (and God’s) conclusion and summary of Romans 9 is very helpful in understanding the passage. It presents FAITH in contrast to WORKS as God’s yardstick for His favor. The conclusion:

Rom 9:30-33
What shall we say then? (What is the meaning of this passage?) That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, (works) have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, (works) hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

#3 Let’s take a quick glance at the examples presented in Rom. 9 that supposedly prove God chooses certain ones for salvation and rejects others, and see if that philosophy holds water. It doesn’t!

Rom 9:7
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Was Ishmael (Isaac’s brother) saved? Yes, Ishmael was saved. He was “gathered unto his people” Gen.25:17. He was blessed, Gen. 17:20-21. Is Rom.9:7 referring to Isaac’s personal salvation in contrast to Ishmael’s? Not necessarily, but rather who would carry on the seed.

Rom 9:13
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

This passage is quoted from Malachi centuries after these men lived and is referring to their descendents as nations. Jacob as Israel and Esau as the Edomites. Question: was all Jacob (Israel) saved? No! Were all the Edomites lost? Probably not. God loved the “chosen” nation of Israel, but most of them were lost.

Was Esau himself saved? Probably. He was “blessed” in Hebrews 11:20 “concerning things to come”. He was blessed in Gen. 27:38-40 with wealth and a promise of his descendants eventually “breaking the yoke of his brother” Jacob. God made covenants with Edom that Israel had to honor. Deut.2:4-5. And in Amos 9:11-12 Edom is included with other nations that God described as being, “called by My Name”.

What was it that Esau could not get back even “with tears”? The “blessing” and the “birthright” were lost, but not the ability (or inability) to call on the Lord and be saved. He could “call” and be saved.

Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

On whom does God have mercy? Answer: all that call, all that hunger, all that believe etc.

Isa 66:2
..but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

2 Thess 2:10-13
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth…. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth

We are, “chosen-through-belief ”. This teaches us how we are chosen, not who is chosen.

Rom 9:21-22Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Yes, He does) What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction

The Calvinist would have us believe that God’s will is to make vessels (people) for destruction. This passage does teach that God can do whatever He wants. But His “wants” are expressed toward the lost here with “much longsuffering”. This phrase “longsuffering” proves God wanted them saved, but they chose otherwise. Cain was the first vessel fitted to (or for) destruction. Could he have been saved? Yes!

Gen 4:6-7 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

Could Cain do well? Yes, he could, but he chose sin. God was “longsuffering” with Cain.

#4 Does man have an ‘Old nature”, or is he just man and old nature all in one?

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ:(our old man is crucified with Christ. Rom.6:6) nevertheless I live;(the man himself lives) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (The new man, Christ) and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Man has an old nature, and a believer has a new nature also, but man is not either his old or new nature.

Eph 4:22-24 That ye (The man himself) put off concerning the former conversation the old man, (An act of the will) which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts… And that ye (The man himself) put on the new man, (An act of the will) which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Who “puts on” the new man (new nature)? The saved man himself! Who puts off the old man (nature)? The saved man himself! Now, what can the unsaved man do that his old nature would never do?

Unregenerate (lost) man is capable of “hungering and thirsting” after righteousness, (Matt.5.) of being able to “reason” with God, (Isa.1) of “calling” on Him, (Joel 2) of ‘believing” on Him, (John 6) of having “zeal toward God” (Rom.10) etc. Lost man is not just old nature. He can think, will, desire, hope, and, sad to say, he can also reject truth, reject God and choose death. Man makes choices, but God has predestined the results of man’s choices. I also will choose their delusions Isa 66:4

#5 What did Paul desire and want as an unsaved man?

He wanted to please God. He wanted to obey Him. He wanted to be righteous. He couldn’t accomplish those things on his own, but this was his hearts cry. God’s response to any cry similar is to “bless” them and “fill” them (Matt.5) and enable them.

In Rom.7:7-25 Paul gives his testimony of what it was like as an unregenerate man trying to please God. There are at least five verses in this context that indicate Paul is speaking from the perspective of when he was lost. Let’s look at them:

#a)

Rom 7:10
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

God’s word is not “death” to the believer, it is his life and food. This is what the lost find.

#b)

Rom 7:14
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

No believer is “sold under sin”. This is the condition of the lost.

#c)

Rom 7:18
…for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

The believer has access to victory and can and knows how to find help. The lost cannot “perform”.

#d)

Rom 7:21
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

When a believer wants (wills) to do good, he can: “because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4. If Christians can’t find victory in life’s situations, then we are confessing that Christ is not as “great” as Satan. Victory is our choice. We are “more than conquerors”. Rom.8:37.

#e)

Rom 7:24
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

This is not the cry of a saved man. Believers know who can save them. This is the cry of the lost, and when it is from a broken heart in honesty to God, God: reacts, hears, moves, works, saves, and redeems.

If Romans 7 is merely the battle between a believers old and new nature, (Calvinist position) then the old nature wins every time. Failure is sure. Many Scriptures refuse to allow such mentality. No, Rom.7 is Paul’s own testimony of how he struggled against his own old nature trying to be right with God before he was saved. This account proves to us that unsaved man can want to be right. Can want to please God. Can desire truth. Can turn. Can repent. Can believe. Can exercise his own God given will.

#6 How blind was the blind man in John 9?

John 9:30-33
Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. (This unsaved man can reason and think and, like the rest of the would, knows truth. He “holds the truth”. Rom.1&2)

John 9:35-38
…Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. (An act of the will) And he worshipped him.

And now Christ makes the application of the account proving man’s responsibility before God.

John 9:39-41
And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; (He came to enlighten and give spiritual sight) and that they which see (In a proud way, “willingly ignorant”) might be made blind. (God sends a “strong delusion” and they “believe a lie”. 2 Thes.2) And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: (If you are blind, if you really do not understand, maybe you’re retarded, a baby, blinded etc. then you are not guilty) but now ye say, We see; (By saying “We see”, proves you are guilty. It uncovers your pride) therefore your sin remaineth.

God holds man responsible for the light he has been given, contrary to Extreme Predestination.

James 4:17
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Luke 12:48 For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: