Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the "paradox of free will", whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will...
"Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all. 15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.” 16 So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy. 17 For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, “I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world.” 18 So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.
God's Anger and Mercy
19 But one of you will say to me, “If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?” 20 But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.22 And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction. 23 And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.24 For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles. 25 This is what he says in the book of Hosea:“The people who were not mine I will call ‘My People.’The nation that I did not love I will call ‘My Beloved.’26 And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called the children of the living God.”27 And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: “Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved; 28 for the Lord will quickly settle his full account with the world.” 29 It is as Isaiah had said before, “If the Lord Almighty had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” (Romans 9:14-29).This teaching requires careful analysis with the HolySpirit guide.
Shall we say that God is unjust for some people to have husband immediately after graduation even after being promiscuos in the University while the sincere ones have nobody saying hi not to mention, I want to come and see your parents?
Shall we say that God is unjust to choose Israel only for salvation instead of the whole human race?
Shall we say God is unjust to allow the current presidency to be unleashing his mean fiasco upon Nigerians while Godly people are praying in Nigeria?
Shall we say God is unjust to allow a woman to give birth to Only one male-child and at the finish of house-manship as a medical doctor, that child dies?
We have so many questions.
To ask God if in our own human context, he said "he is just".
However, we have a clear cut confirmation that God is not *UNJUST*
Yes!!!
Let us go through details.
God decided to create man in his own image and likeness exalted mankind above angels.
Lucifer got angry and saw this as unjust while intruding into the choice of God and it made him loose his heavenly position.
If he decided to make lucifer a stone instead of angel or place him above mankind, would he complain? NO!!!
He was busy quarrelling with God's choice of priority.
We say God is unjust to us because of momentary inconveniences we face as human beings, what if God chose to make us sand; are we going to complain?
Not at all!!!
God created man and gave him, dominion over every other thing/being created before man however man did not know who he was as image of God already but yet wants to be wise like God.
Ignorance caused man to fall for the deceit of the devil.We receive the Grace for the knowledge of God's word in our lives right now in replacement for ignorance in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen.
We now know what has been freely given to us in the Holy Spirit because as believers we have the Holy Spirit inside us as individuals (1 Cor. 2:12). Predestination means God has designed all that will manifest in a human being before he was created to become it.
Yes!!!
God created us to love us and not to destroy us.
God created us to serve him and give him glory and not for us to satisfy our own needs without caring to serve him and give him glory.We belong to God for his use and not for our own personal pleasure and achievements on earth as a primary purpose above serving God first(1st) or in our carriers or ministry-anointing or social responsibilities of marrying husband/wife, giving birth to male/female child, having a particular amount of cash in our bank accounts or networth in cash and fixed assets or achieving a political position or heights or making a notorious name or famous achievements in human eyes without serving him and seeking his PRIORITY OVER our own needs/wants.All these things are good in themselves but they cannot save our souls from hell-fire and our own righteousness built outside of faith in Jesus Christ can never please God and will lead any soul to hell-fire no matter your achievements on this earth. Hence we declared God to be unjust because he did not allow us to achieve all these things at our own time.
Remember predestination means God knows all things that will happen to a man/woman before they happen.
God created man to be with him forever as the Holy Bible declared that "God walked with man in the cool of the evening in the Garden" (Genesis).So he predestined man for *an eternal and unbroken relationship.*
But lucifer came with his jealousy and sabotaged this predestined good life for man by God.Then God sort to select one Person(Jesus Christ) in One particular race (Judah) out of the whole human race existing at that time to restore the whole human family back to himself thus "God was in his son Jesus Christ reconciling men to himself and not counting our sins any more but have given us a share in this message of reconciliation" (2 Cor.5:19).
And so "God so much loves the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish in hell-fire but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
" Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son" (John 3:18).
This pathway then lead him to restore the whole human race to his initial purpose for man (RELATIONSHIP) in Christ Jesus.
This is what Jesus said before he achieved this reconciliation between God and man thus " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37).
By predestination in view of the instruction that God gave mankind in Eden, God declared thus "On the day you shall eat of this tree (disobedience to my instruction), you shall die" (Genesis 2:17).
So, death (biological death and eternal damnation) has been prefigured as the reward for disobedience or sin upon mankind if he disobeys thus Paul declared "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) and he actually disobeyed through the deceit of the serpent. so anyone who commits sin in his/her heart or acts-out on sin in the external is also applying for untimely death and eternal damnation.This is what man incured upon himself and the whole lineage of mankind by disobedience yet God who predestined this rule which is secondary to his primary predestination for mankind decided to make sure the primary predestination overrides this secondary predestination caused by disobedience hence he sent his Son as a human being to die in the place of the ordinary human being so that humanity will continue to exist and his relationship with mankind will continue to exist not allowing the jealousy of the devil to OVERRIDE THIS PRIMARY PURPOSE and at the same time fulfill the law/rule/judgment he gave which is "that man must die for disobeying" (Genesis 2:17).
So Jesus Christ died as man to fulfill this law that God decreed by himself hence this confirms the very fact that God is Faithful to his Word no matter the situation.
Jesus Christ fulfilling this law can be seen in these following Scriptures "What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin. 4 God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature." (Romans 8:3-4).
Going further "13 You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins; 14 he canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross.( Colossians 2:13-14.).
This confirms the Words of St. James thus "But Mercy has triumphed over the judgement of our sins" (James 2:13).The Preface of the Holy Eucharistic Prayer puts it thus "In Love, You created man, In justice you condemned him but in Mercy you redeemed Him".
So love of God brought us into creation for a relationship as the primary purpose of God's predestination for man.
But man's sin through the deceit of satan released a secondary predestination which is condemnation.
But to confirm that his original nature is love and his primary purpose for man is superior to punishment he released his mercy.However Scriptures have it that God knew man could disobey and fall away so he has already created a remedy for mankind incase he should fall because man is man who has a weak nature thus Jesus Christ was defined as the Lamb of God who was slaughtered before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:.Infact at Easter Virgil Mass, the Church calls it the *necessary sin of Adam*
Have you heard such statements before *the necessary sin of Adam*?
So that the Mercy of God will be REVEALED!!!
So the mercy of God comes to stop what our sinful nature deserves which is untimely biological death and eternal damnation.
Thus by his death, Jesus Christ has destroyed the death we deserved by the effects of Adam's sin upon us and our own personal sins then he replaced our deserved death with life not any type of life but a life of immortality which cannot be destroyed by devil/demons/sin again through the light of his Gospel (2 Timothy 1:10).
Also the Grace of God comes to release unto us good things we do not deserve because of the effects of Adam's sin upon us and our own personal sins which is called unmerited favors.
Thus "Grace had appeared to us...".
Something that appeared to you is what you do not work for, pray for, labor for or even imagine. A good example is the oxygen you are breathing into your nostrils right now.
Imagine that people breath in oxygen based on their prayer-request to God for oxygen, how many human beings will be alive?
Most of the things we enjoy on this earth were not our prayers or collaboration with Grace and Faith that brought them that is why need to always pray for Grace, unmerited favors from God and appreciate him for his Gracious gifts to us, our families, friends, country, business and the whole world no matter the situation we find ourselves. Because he continues to give them to us without our permission. Knowing what we need most and providing them ahead of us before we even dare to ask, imagine or think hence St. PAUL declared "the power of God at work inside us is more than we can think, pray or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20).
So as we were saying "Grace has appeared to us bringing with it Salvation and this Grace teaches us how to be holy, self-controlled and upright in this generation" (Titus 2:11-12).
Grace is what gives us ability to be holy in this generation, so Grace is not a license to be committing sin anyhow and anywhere then continue to pretend that all is well.
In the city of Sodom and Gomorrha, Lot had 3-daughters who were Virgins. Virginity here is not just I have not had sexual intercourse with a man/woman yet I masturbate, watch pornography, use my hands to be squeezing my genital organs, using sex-toys/candles/cucumber/carrots e.t.c, wearing nude and half-nude clothes, reading pornographic novels/magazines under the disguise that I am preparing how to have sex with my future husband/wife, listening and watching promiscous movies and songs both Nigerian made and foreign ones.
They were Virgins in the Spirit, Soul and Body.
In this generation, my age-mates and your age-mates as well as people facing the same sinful challenges and financial difficulties even emotional drives are living pure and unstained life so I/You have no excuse to submit to any sin at all because Grace is fully available for ME/YOU thus "THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR SIN" (John 15:22). Remember where sin is (1% ability to fornicate) there also Grace abounds much more (100% ability not to fornicate) at the same point in time (Romans 5:20) so all I/You need to do at that point is to *ask the Holy Spirit to help us to stand on the ability of Grace* and pull through such temptations without committing sin hence we should not for any reason create opportunity for temptations to ourselves or for our fellow human beings. The devil is the tempter, do not be an agent of temptation for any reason at all and do not allow anybody to tempt you either.So with Grace and Mercy clearly defined we can be assured to say that everything both what human being defined as Good or bad will surely be turned into good for me or for you through the primary predestination of God for mankind as long as we continue to maintain our faith in Christ Jesus Our Lord!!!
Hence we say " We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.29 Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers. 30 And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them." (Romans 8:28-30).So predestination for each individual soul is *ONLY CORRECT* as long as such a person continues to maintain his faith in Christ Jesus not minding the current difficulties, sorrows and challenges bearing in mind that his predestination in Jesus Christ will surely turn it around for good at God's time.
May the Holy Spirit grow us in Grace and Faith in Jesus Name. Amen.