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Brian Stansell replied to the topic Friendly debates here! in the forum Fantasy Writers 4 years, 4 months ago
Daeus wrote a great article about depicting violence:
He raises some valid points, so I defer.
I recommend reading 1 John chapter 5 on salvation and the security we have in belief, and the evidence that we who accept Jesus as Savior are children of God.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. [1 John 5:12-13 NLT]
Notice that St, John writes “that you may know you have eternal life”. This is a litmus test of veracity and certitude. God changes a human heart (desire) implanting within it a new nature, that while living we still content with the old desires of the flesh, but we have that new nature that will not allow us to live comfortably with habitual sin.
We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. [1 John 5:18-19 NLT]
The indication is “do not make a practice of sinning” which is making it part of your routine. If you can live comfortably with sin without undergoing God’s discipline, it means you have fooled yourself into thinking you are a legitimate child of God.
For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. [Hebrews 12:6-8 NLT]
The idea of predestination goes to God’s foreknowledge of seeing the whole of human history from beginning to end.
Romans 8:29-30 and Ephesians 1:4-14
These speak of God’s foreknowledge and His sealing of us before we arrived at the choices we made for Him in our time. To say God only limited His offering of Himself as payment for we select few who trust Him, presents a problem. Either Christ died for the whole world as the scriptures say, or He didn’t which throws the whole doctrine of salvation into suspicion.And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. [1 John 2:2 NKJV]
Notice again what St. John is pointing out: “not only for ours only but also for the whole world.” There’s that concept again. Christ died for all of the world, but only those who accept Him by faith, with the assurance of who He is, and the veracity of receiving that new nature, do we find Him meeting us and empowering us to be His legitimate children.God is a just God. He did everything in His power, short of taking away our free will, to make a way to redeem us from the death inheritance we received through Adam.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. [1 Corinthians 15:22 NKJV]As righteousness [leads] to life, So he who pursues evil [pursues it] to his own death. [Proverbs 11:19 NKJV]
Jesus did what no one else in history could do. He was divinely conceived of a virgin, out from under the death curse of Adam. He lived a holy and sinless life, in total obedience to His Father, and He became the doorway, through Himself, to purchase a righteousness for us that we did not deserve, but can only receive by faith in Him.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. [1 Peter 2:24 KJV]
It is the rejection of that astounding and amazing gift of Grace that God’s offers us, that sends humans to Hell.
Is God just? Yes. Does the world who rejects such a gift freely offered to them deserve to live with Him beyond the grave? If He is a just God, by His own definition of justice, then He must grant them the consequence of their free will to reject Him, by giving them eternal separation from Him.
So Erynne and I agree. There can be both predestination AND free will and they are not exclusionary. God’s redemption offer is to all, whether they choose Him or not.












