Tuesday, March 01, 2005


Predestination of Babies Posted by Hello

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute! I got a big laugh. Yet,(the baby)is a free agent of being the means to acomplish God's predestination (really providence). Actually, did you know that many confuse, predestination with God's providence? How so, well predestination refers to our final place (destination), pertaining to salvation. Our destination had been pre-planned from all etenity within the Godhead. While providence refers to all our circumstances of life being pre-ordained or pre-planned.Both are planned ahead of time or better yet, out side of time.All for the Glory of God, and for our joy. Praise be is wonderful name.

Daniel

Anonymous said...

Correction -praise be His wonderful name.not is.

Julianne said...

I thought you'd like that after all our talks. :)

Thanks for your reply, Daniel. It is important to understand predestination and providence. It is also important to understand the difference between "free will" and a "free agent."

Many people say that we have "free will," but what they are implying is that we have the ability to choose God and "make a decision for Christ." Romans 3 says that we are dead in our sins and iniquity and that we are unable to do anything which pleases God (and accepting, trusting, and having faith pleases God). Because we are dead in sin, we are unable to respond to God's calling, we are not "free" to choose God. This does not mean we are at our all-time low, it just means we can't do what pleases God. Being dead in our sin makes us only desire things that are not of God. We are free in the sense that we can do anything our nature allows, meaning we can sin in any way we desire. It is God who first opens our eyes and takes out our heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh; a heart willing and able to accept Him. When God changes our nature, when He gives us a new nature, we are then able to see, accept, trust and believe God. Our new nature comes with new desires, we long to please God and obey Him.

Daniel, would you say that being a free agent means we are free to act as our nature allows?

Anonymous said...

How did I know you would say that "it is important to understand the difference between "free will" and a "free agent"? This is true indeed.
To answer your qustion "if I would say that being a free agent means we are free to act as are nature allows"? My answer is yes,but only as much as God permits. That is to say that God restrains sin and evil. So that none sin as much as he possibly can. For God keeps sin and evil abated.
Now about a new nature.Only Jesus Christ alone has two natures.He alone is unique, in that He is thee God-man. When we human beings become born of the Spirit,we become new creatures, not devine beings in any sense.We remain persons with a human nature only.Though the Holy Spirit indwells us,the Holy Spirit remains distint from us. God does not give us a divine nature.God gives us new life to our spiritually dead human nature.Thus we become a spiritually alive human nature, verses the non-believer who has a dead human nature. We are alive unto Christ, while the non-believer is dead to Christ,and alive to sin.Both believer and non-believer have only one nature. And yes, as free agents we act freely within God's boundries.
We always do what seems good to us at the given moment.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. (Philippians 2:13)ESV
So your right God gives us a nature that enables us to please Him. All thanks be to His name.
As for you,you were dead in your transgressions and sins,in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work is now at work in those who are disobedient.All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest,we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us,God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace,expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7) ESV

Daniel

Anonymous said...

Hey Julianne-
My dad's a pastor, but not Presbyterian. He was the pastor of Yreka Berean Church. However the Berean Fellowship of churches is bad news... and I'll leave it at that for now. The Bereans fired him about a month ago, (pissing off the vast majority of the congregation). We are now meeting in the community center under the name Yreka Christian Fellowship. My dad's name is Dan Daniels.