PREDESTINED AFTER CHOOSING SALVATION, PART 1.

I think that believers are predestined after they have chosen salvation. I believe all have a free-will to make their own choices, to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to God. When they have chosen salvation by saying ‘yes’ to God, then they are predestined to become what God has destined them to become, while they learn to yield to God’s will as they are growing from glory to glory! “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3: 18). I believe that even those that backslid will at one point yield to God’s will once again!

According to Millard J. Erickson the antecedent, that is, what goes before to salvation is predestination where “predestination is God’s choice of persons for eternal life or eternal death.”1 Even though I believe in predestination, I do not agree with this definition of predestination. I do not agree that God chooses the persons who are going to eternal life or eternal death, even though being God He probably does have foreknowledge of the choices each individual will make, specially the choice concerning salvation!

According to online source2 ,Calvin believed in unconditional predestination while Armenius believed in predestination( election) based on foreknowledge. Calvin believed God hand selects who is going to be saved, that it does not matter what a person may have to say about it. Some examples that seem to support this view is Nebuchadnezzar who spent seven years as a madman before turning to the Lord; the other is Paul, who was blinded on the road to Damascus and then gets saved. I see these examples as people who were chosen to be saved but it was their own choice to say ‘yes’ to God. They could still have said ‘no’ but of course after what God did in their lives, there was very little chance they would say ‘no’. Armenius acknowledges that the Bible speaks of people being elect . The argument is made that God knew how a person would react to the gospel before it was ever presented to them. I agree with this because it is not a matter of God forcing His will on anyone, but rather God knew they would become saved.

So it could be said that God chose them because of that , but still it was their own choice to choose salvation! I believe that every individual has a free-will. From my own personal experience, I know that there came to a point in my life where the gospel was presented to me after a long night spell, and I had the option to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’; but I chose to say ‘yes’ and it was of my own free-will even though it was hard to resist God’s mercy and love being shown to me! Some will say that God will override human will in all cases if God wills something different. Others say that God gave humans free-will and because He created humans with free-will, He will not override it! I agree with this last view!

NOTES
1 Millard J Erickson, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),920.
2 Mike Stein, “Arminianism vs. Calvinism” http:www.spreadinglight.com/theology/armvscal.html (February 10, 2011),1.