God's True Salvation Plan - Predestination/Election

As you read this blog, I ask that you prayerfully read it with an open mind and heart. I understand God is the only One who can make you understand spiritual truth if it is His will. I cannot force you to learn what is discussed here. Only God can apply His word to your spiritual eyes and ears. My blogs are not meant to condemn, judge or demean anyone so please keep that in mind. I only want to be used faithfully by God in sending out His message about this particular, yet ever-so important topic - salvation.

In Part 1, I basically stated that the "free-will" doctrine is not in the Bible. This could be from "Accepting Christ" to "believing on Him". I've come across people who truly believe they are saved because they have accepted Christ as their Lord and Personal Savior. What this doctrine fails to recognize is God has predestinated (or elected) those He planned to save from before the foundation of the world. This "free-will" doctrine cannot be reconciliated with God's salvation program. Predestination or election is clearly taught in places like:

Ephesians 1:4
"According he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

2 Thessalonians 2:13
"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."

Ephesians 1:11
"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."

Revelation 13:8
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (referring to Satan), whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

Revelation 17:8
"The beast that thou sawest, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that swell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beat that was, and is not, and yet is."

2 Timothy 1:9
"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

Bear in mind, there are many more verses and chapters mentioned in the Bible that solidifes God's true salvation program. Upon request, I can provide more verses or chapters that totally show us God has predestinated those He plans to save way before He created this world.

If you go to church, most likely your pastor has mentioned John 1:12 as the reason why you must accept Christ to be saved. This verse reads:
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

If you remember in Part 1, I've asked several pastors and deacons about the "accepting Christ" doctrine and they basically said the word "receive" pretty much means "accept". This was also the same reason why one particular church changed their program from "accept Christ" to "receive Christ". Anyway, back to John 1:12. Your church or pastor may bring this verse up as a supporting verse to their idea of accepting. However, churches fail to mention the next verse (John 1:13) where it says:

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Again, I truly understand why churches select just those verses that say we can certainly do our part in getting saved. Actually, God wrote about this in various places in the Bible why man has created their own doctrines (or defined as "high places" in many places in the Bible) but this is for another study. We want the assurance that we are truly saved by taking action. Besides, who wants to be uncertain of our salvation? We really believe that since we want to be saved from eternal death, our accepting Christ defeats that. In essence, we are saying "God has presented the gift of salvation by sending His Son to the cross to die for us. And so all I have to do is accept that gift (Christ)." We want to be sure we are saved if the last step to get saved only depends on our action. But this is not possible since we are dead spiritually before we are saved. Only God can "quicken" or make us alive. To explain John 1:13, what God is implying is our wanting to be saved (which is accepting Christ) is our own will, not God's will. Our own will does not save us (again, by accepting Christ). It is God's own will that saves us, not the will of own flesh. We are born again in the spiritual sense by the will of God, not by the will of our flesh. And when we "accept Christ", we do this because it is our own will to be saved or be born-again of the spirit.

If you truly hold this belief of accepting Christ, here's my question to you: Why do you still hold on to this belief when God wrote in the Bible that there is nothing we can do to get ourselves saved? That He has chosen His elect from before the foundations of the world? How can you continue to believe we can get saved by accepting Him when this idea totally violates God's salvation program of predestination?

If your next statement is "But why does God say all I have to do is believe on Him?" or bring up Romans 10:9 (That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved), the answer is, these works cannot save us bu they are the result of Him saving us. Man wants the easy way to salvation, not God's way, because we want to be sure of our salvation. God truly wrote the Bible that can be confusing to the point that we develop our own gospel, and not God's. This is one of the reasons why people say the Bible contradicts itself. God wrote it this way to separate the wheats from the tares and the lamb from the goats. These works of believing and confessing are the result of Him saving us. We then start to think "Because He saved me, I now believe there is only one true and living God. I believe He is the Creator of all things. He paid for my sins from before the foundation of the world."

Furthermore, the idea of "accepting Christ" or any other free-will doctrine is instant gratification. If you remember the story of Esau and Jacob in Genesis 25, God illustrates that only if we can have something right now, we'll do anything to get it. In Esau's case, he was physically hungry and decided to sell his birthright to Jacob for bread and a pottage of lentiles. Esau traded away his birthright for food, which is instant gratification. God wrote this event in the Bible to show us this is man's way - that we want things right now if we just do whatever is required. The birthright here in this story is a spiritual one - remember, God spoke in parables throughout the Bible.

In Part 3, I will continue to talk about why "accepting Christ" is truly a bad doctrine as well as what needs to happen to be saved.