Welcome, cjones! I hope you find your time on the board instructive and encouraging!
You wrote:
I don't understand the concept of predestination. Does it mean that God has already elected those he want to save?
Yes, it does. But before we can understand that, we must see that God is a holy God, we all are by nature rebels against God, and if God did not have an elect, no one would be saved because of our own stubborness of heart.
You wrote:
Is there any point for me in trying to be saved.
Are you saying you are not saved? If not, why not? Please don't think I am contradicting all I just said, but the reason people don't come to Christ does not lie with God, it lies with man. God holds us responsible for our rebellion. When the apostle Peter was asked, "What must I do to be saved?" he didn't say "Nothing, you can do absolutely nothing" (although apart from God we can do nothing). "Rather, Scripture is full of what is required of all of us if we are to be saved (and if we desire to be saved, it is God who has given us that desire):"
Acts 2:21- "And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
John 3
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Romans 10:9- "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Acts 3:19- "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord"
John 6
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Does it mean that no matter what I do or believe, I cannot be saved unless God has already elected me from the foundation of the world? Does it mean I cannot change (in fact even God cannot change his mind since he has already decided on my fate) my eternal state since my fate is already sealed.
As one old preacher put it, the question isn't "Am I elect?" but "Am I a sinner?" The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient to all who come to Him in true, saving faith. Election is not an excuse to not be reconciled to God. There is no one who truly has come to Christ for salvation that has ever been turned away.
