My daughter is homeschooled, and as such she is on a bevy of Christian mailing lists. We have receive a publication titled, "PCC Update" from Pensacola Christian College. I know PCC is a good fundamentalist, Arminian school, and I shouldn't be shocked at how they celebrate free will (after all, they are famous for the "Free Will song"), but after reading the following article by the late Pastor Mark G. Cambron, founder of Seaside Mission, I was left with my mouth wide open and my jaw on the floor. If this is a taste of what the students at PCC are exposed to I pity them.
There are many theories today concerning foreknowledge, predestination and election, until the mind of the average Christian is so mixed up he doesn't know what to believe. If we do not get these three doctrines straight, our whole Christian life will be warped, and witnessing to the unsaved will be a lost grace. Let's look at the foreknowledge of God.
FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD
"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" Rom. 8:29. Foreknowledge means to have knowledge of things to be. Foreknowledge is an attribute of God, while predestination and election are acts of God. Only God knows the future. And He does know the future. He wouldn't be God if He didn't, but the fact that he knows who is going to be saved, and who isn't going to be saved, does NOT determine who is going to be saved and who is going to be lost. Someone may ask, "If God does know who is and who isn't going to be saved, how, then, an the sinner get out of it?" Foreknowledge, in Scripture, never determines what is to be - foreknowledge is only the knowledge of things beforehand. It is the same with scientists, they can tell when there is to be an eclipse of the sun or moon; on a certain day, at a certain hour, minute and second; but scientists do not being about the eclipse. God has foreknowledge, and by foreknowledge, he knows the future, but it ends there.
Of course, God knows everything! He knows the number of the hairs on our heads. He knows the number of stars and calls them by name. And God knows the future. Not only that, but God knows what would have happened if things had happened that didn't happen. He knows the results of all possibilities. This is illustrated when David inquired of the Lord concerning his enemy. If he should go to one place, would the enemy be there? God said they would. So David went in another direction. Foreknowledge simply means to possess knowledge of things to be.
PREDESTINATION OF GOD
Here is where many saints falter in their Christian witnessing. They read something in the Word about predestination and then reason that God predestines some people to be saved and some to be lost. That is not the case; predestination is never about the lost man being saved of lost; rather, predestination is about the saved man. We need to read the context where it speak of predestination, to clearly understand that salvation is a personal matter based upon the "whosoever wills."
Predestination is for the saved man. God knows who is going to be saved, and He has predestined certain blessings to those who will be saved by faith. In other words, God draws a circle, figuratively speaking, and says that whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus will get in that circle. So the believer, upon his faith in Christ, steps into the circle. The God says, figuratively speaking, "Whosoever is in that circle by faith, I have predestined them to receive these blessings." These blessing are:
"Conformed to the Image of His Son"
"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" Rom. 8:29. One blessing that God has predestinated for the believer is to be fashioned, made, transformed, transfigured into the likeness of the image of Jesus Christ. The things you may be suffering this moment will (Rom. 8:28) make you more like Jesus. At death or the rapture, we are all going to be changed and be wholly like Christ.
"Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ"
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" Eph. 1:5. The Christian is predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. Again we state - predestination is the predetermined blessings for the saved man and has nothing to do with salvation.
To grasp this great truth, let's explain the meaning of adoption. In America and England, when we adopt a child, we legally take a child of another family and the court makes it our own. But not so with a Jewish family, or with the ancient Roman and Greek family. These simply adopted their own children. Adoption simply means "to declare as a so," or "son placed." Galatians chapter 4 defines the meaning of adoption. It is the time appointed by the father when his boy ceases to be considered a child and becomes a recognized son. According to Jewish custom it is called a BAR MITZVAH - declared to be a Son of the Law, Son of Blessing. The boy becomes of age after his thirteenth birthday, on the day selected by the father. So it is with us: we are children of God, but we are waiting our BAR MITZVAH, our adoption, the time when our Heavenly Father will declare us of age and place us as Sons before the whole universe: "even we ourselves groan within ourselves, WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION, TO WIT, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY" Rom. 8:23. This is one blessing that God has predestined for the saved man, for all who trust Jesus Christ - that we all shall be declared of age and His SONS - at the resurrection!
"Predestined According to the Purpose of Him"
The third blessing for the child of God is that which God has predestinated for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith: "Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ" Eph. 1:11, 12. It is not salvation the Holy Spirit is speaking about, but is for those who are saved. And God had predestinated - that we should be to the praise of His glory.
ELECTION
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" Eph. 1:4.
The New Testament words, "chosen, choose, and election" are the same. The Old Testament word is simply "chosen." From the above Scripture many think God chooses some to be saved and some to be lost. Again, as I pointed out - predestination and election (choosing) have nothing to do with the lost, but are for the saved.
The following Scriptures tell us what the choosing, or election, of God is about: "For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, THAT THE PURPOSE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ELECTION MIGHT STAND, not of works, but of him that calleth); It was said unto her, THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Rom, 9:9-13. At once, we see that election or choosing has to do with service - THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER. It does not say, "The younger shall be saved, and the elder shall be lost." No, but, "the elders shall SERVE the younger." Thus election has to do with service. "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" wasn't said of these two men before they were born, but hundreds of years after they died. God hated the descendants of Esau because of their unbelief, and loved the descendants of Jacob because of their faith.
In John 15, the Lord Jesus said - He had chosen (elected) them disciples. For salvation? No, for service. Even Judas was chosen! For damnation? No, but like Pharoah, who was a fit vessel unto wrath - after being given many chances to believe, he refused, and thus was used for God's purpose.
The prophet Isaiah says that Israel is God's chosen people (Isaiah 41:8). Does this mean that all Jews are saved? No. It simply means that God has chosen Israel for a service. And we know what that service was: to give us the Word of God and to give us the Lord Jesus Christ! Isaiah says that Jesus Christ is the Chosen Servant of God (Isaiah 42:1). Does this mean that God chose the Lord Jesus to be saved? Of course not! For He is the SAVIOUR! But God did choose His Son for service - and that service was to be the Lamb of God who would die for the sins of the world. And He was the obedient Servant, being obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
Back to Ephesians 1:4 - what has God elected or chosen for us, or what has He elected, or chosen us for? Not salvation, but He has chosen us before the foundation of the world (He knew we would believe on His Son) for service - "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."
In conclusion - God does not predestinate or elect men to be saved or lost, but salvation is on the basis of "WHOSOEVER WILL"! - "And the Spirt and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely" Rev. 22:17.
... no, don't get me started!
--"They do err not knowing the scriptures..." nor the Institutes!
Abysmal is just the word for it. This sludge is straight from the Abyss.
you could commit a sin if God is behind it. It was just a metaphor though. Don't go looking at Vegas on the odds of so and so being a real Christian as 30 to 1.)
