Life Blog

A message I sent to a friend who is quite inclined towards Calvinism. : ) I was recently introduced by a friend to this guy who is new here in Qatar. I invited him to church and it turned out that he was a Primitive Baptist. Primitive Baptists also adhere strongly to the doctrines of Election and Predestination and we had quite a lengthy discussion on this topic already. It is not that I don't adhere to the doctrines of election and predestination, but the differences lie in how we see the manner it was carried out. And it seems to me that the Calvinist view is that the Lord hand picks His sheep. I don't see it that way and I don't think it has Scriptural basis. I believe it is just an assumption from Scripture. How one becomes a sheep I believe is not by hand picking. It is illustrated in the verse below: Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed wit...

By looking at Creation from a bird's eye view, perhaps we can have a hint and understand better the work which God has created. In the beginning God said, Let us make man according to our image. (Gen 1:27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And throughout the Bible, looking from a macro level, we can see that the purpose of God for man was not changed. God has it in His heart to make us like Him. And the things that has happened in the past and those that are happening now and will still happen in the future all add up to that end. But we cannot really say that God has authored everything that takes place because even right now, we know we are free to do whatever we want, and we know that we do it by ourselves only and not by some controlling force from the outside. We can be persuaded and moved by some external forces, but still the decision to act is solely attributed to the individual. God has foreknowle...

I just looked up "foreknowledge" in my e-sword and these 2 verses came up. Act 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 1Pe 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Acts 2:23 clearly speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ and 1Pe 1:2 talks about election. Notice how, that as pertaining to the Lord Jesus it is by the "determinate counsel and foreknowledge." There are two elements, the determinate counsel of God which means His determinate will, and the foreknowledge of God which is God's ability to look into the future. But as pertaining election, it is according to the "foreknowledge" only, without the "determinate counsel" of God. Andrew Wommack explains predestination in this light: ...