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lacknothing said,
I do have the same kind of assurance but it is through my repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. Not because I was chosen and didn't have a choice. I was drawn by the Holy Spirit to be saved by the Blood of Jesus but I still had a choice, a free will. Just as Adam had a free will to eat of the Tree of Life. So your saying that God chose for Adam to disobey him and eat of the Tree? He Chose for Adam to fail.
How unfortunate for you: only “some kind” of assurance. Too bad that your assurance only lies in “your” repentance and faith. Does it ever falter? Does it ever slip? Whoops there goes that salvation. Oh, that you would have a faith and repentance that was grounded in the Word of God, in the death, life, and resurrection of Christ himself. If only it could be sure? But, at las its not since it is ONLY grounded in “your” faith and repentance – i.e. thus your very obedience. You still lack something, lacknothing. As Paul says, Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his (2 Tim. 2:19).

Even God does not have free will – i.e. He cannot not sin. Since humankind was created in the image of God you do NOT have free will. Before salvation, a person is dead in trespasses and sin (Eph. 2:1). Dead men don’t choose anything. A man, even God himself, will according to their very nature. Thus, regeneration (at God’s choosing) comes first to enable a person to accept Christ.

No, God did not choose Adam to disobey Him -- as to author sin, however He created Adam knowing that He would fall. Adam chose to sin. God is not the author of sin.

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lacknothing said,

And actually God is an inventor, seeing how an inventor and a creator are pretty much one in the same. They both created (invent) something new.
Creating from nothing is different than inventing from something. Mankind may only create from something previously in existence. God is not bounded by such finite limitations.

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lacknothing said,
I believe that God has the foreknowledge but I can't grasp why he would allow things to happen the way they do if our destiny is already lined out for us. Why would God allow suffering on Earth for his "Elect" if we are "untouchable" as you make them out to be?
Peter said, “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing” (1 Pet. 3:17). Of course, there is also the small matter of our own sin causing us pain -- the wages of sin is still death!! This doesn’t seem to be God’s fault. Then there is the fact that we do not live in a perfect world, but God made it perfect (Gen. 1:31) – oh ya, man messed that up too. And could it be that God allows suffering so we may increase our faith (without tribulation there would be no evidence of faith), increase our compassion for others, or be better able to encourage and help other hurting people (2 Cor. 1:3-5)? Why is it you see God’s methodology as so evil – “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9).

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lacknothing said,

Why would Jesus have to die? If God defines our destiny for us then why did Jesus have to die? If predestination is true then why did God give us Laws? Why? How do you explain things in the Bible like the requirement of blood shed for the forgiveness of sins? Why must there be blood shed for sins if God is just going to pick who goes?
You kind of answered your own question. Because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). Jesus dies because this was God’s plan in eternity (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 5:12 ff). As Luke says, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). Do note here God’s predestination of His son (determinate counsel and foreknowledge) and yet how moral accountability (wicked hands) is still assigned to Jesus’ murderers.

God’s laws are an expression of His very nature and express how we may have communion and a relationship with the One who created us. They are part and parcel of His covenant with His chosen people.

What you fail to see is that God uses secondary causes in carrying out the totality of His will.

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I. God the great Creator of all things doth uphold,[1] direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things,[2] from the greatest even to the least,[3] by his most wise and holy providence,[4] according to his infallible foreknowledge,[5] and the free and immutable counsel of his own will,[6] to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.[7]

1. Neh. 9:6; Psa. 145:14-16; Heb. 1:3
2. Dan. 4:34-35; Psa. 135:6; Acts 17:25-28; Job 34:1-41:34
3. Matt. 6:26-32; 10:29-31
4. Prov. 15:3; I Chr. 16:9; Psa. 104:24; 145;17
5. Acts 15:18; Isa. 42:9; Ezek. 11:5
6. Eph. 1:11; Psa. 33:10-11
7. Isa. 63:14; Eph. 3:10; Rom. 917; Gen. 45:7; Psa. 145:7

II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly;[8] yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.[9]

8. Acts 2:23; see Isa. 14:24, 27
9. Gen 8:22; Jer. 31:35; Isa. 10:6,7; see Exod. 21:13 and Deut. 19:5; I Kings 22:28-34

III. God, in his ordinary providence, maketh use of means,[10] yet is free to work without,[11] above,[12] and against them, at his pleasure.[13]

10. Acts 27:24, 31, 44; Isa. 55:10-11
11. Hosea 1:7; Matt. 4:4; Job 34:20
12. Rom. 4:19-21
13. II Kings 6:6; Dan. 3:27

IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men;[14] and that not by a bare permission,[15] but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding,[16] and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends;[17] yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.[18]

14. Isa. 45:7; Rom. 11:32-34; II Sam. 16:10; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; see II Sam. 24:1 and I Chr. 21:1; I Kings 22:22-23; I Chr. 10:4, 13-14
15. John 12:40; II Thess. 2:11
16. Psa. 76:10; II Kings 19:28
17. Gen. 50:20; Isa. 10:6-7,12-15 (particularly v.12)
18. James 1:13-14, 17; I John 2:16; Psa. 50:21

V. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, his own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled;[19] and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.[20]

19. II Chr. 32:25-26, 31; Deut. 8:2-3, 5; Luke 22:31-32; see II Sam. 24:1, 25
20. II Cor. 12:7-9; see Psa. 73:1-28; 77:1-12; Mark 14: 66-72; John 21:15-19

VI. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden,[21] from them he not only withholdeth his grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts;[22] but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had,[23] and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasions of sin;[24] and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan,[25] whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others.[26]

21. Rom. 1:24, 26, 28; 11:7-8
22. Deut. 29:4; Mark 4:11-12
23. Matt. 13:12; 25:29; see Acts 13:10-11
24. Gen. 4:4; II Kings 8:12-13; see Matt. 26:14-16
25. Psa. 109:6; Luke 22:3; II Thess. 2:10-12
26. Exod. 7:3, 8:15, 32; II Cor. 2:15-16; Isa. 6:9-10, 8:14; I Pet 2:7-8; Acts 28:26-27

VII. As the providence of God doth, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it taketh care of his church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof.[27]

27. I Tim. 4:10; Amos 9:8-9; Matt. 16:18; Rom. 4:28; Isa. 43:3-5, 14

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lacknothing said,
Please give me your definition of the "Church", which is who Paul was talking to in pretty much all of his books.
The visible church and the invisible church differ. The visible church contains members that may or may not be saved and some general statements are made to them in Scripture. However, at other times Paul and others refer to the invisible church – the elect throughout all the ages. A proper understanding of a pericope’s context will reveal which church the author speaks about.

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lacknothing said,

Foreknowledge is true but I'm not sure about Predestination.
<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/rofl.gif" alt="" /> If God has foreknowledge of everything and does not change it is he not in fact predestining it?

I don't have anymore free time today, but I am sure someone is just waiting to raise the staff (Exod. 17). Enjoy <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/hello.gif" alt="" />


Reformed and Always Reforming,