Predestination? Christians

no, i don't believe in predestination. IMO, it negates free will, which i believe is God-given. I believe God knows what i will choose, but does not change my path, if i choose differently than His will. for me predestination would mean i am or aren't destined for Heaven, with no choice of my own. so, as i understand it, no matter what i did, if i wasn't supposed to go to Heaven, nothing i did would change my course. correct? ( i could be totally off-base with this thought/understanding, i'll admit. maybe someone will enlighten me.)

I believe in predestination in the sense that God knew I would be saved, because He knew I would choose Him. He made me with a plan for my life and He knew I would choose it. So it is cool in that sense, because He did choose me. But Jesus says that He call out to everyone.

There is a great parable in Matthew 22. Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain King who prepared a marriage for His son. He invited people and they didn't come, so He went out and invited everyone, but you had to wear a wedding garment provided by Him to enter in. God invites EVERYONE to come to the Kingdom, but we can't come on our own terms. We need to let Him clothe us in HIS righteousness-- our stinky rags are not good enough.

John Calivin's Predestination is a belief of many denominations. It is a false belief.

In the parable there is a man there at the wedding who was not wearing a wedding garment (which was provided by the grooms father). It would be like going to a wedding wearing your cleaning sweats or jammies. Trying to get into heaven on your own is like not being ready for a fancy event.

When the father saw this person, He said, "So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless.Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast [him] into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' "For many are called, but few are chosen."

So this guest was cast into hell, because He tried to come to God on his own terms. He was invited, but he didn't care about getting ready. The last part about many are called, but few are chosen is important. This guy was invited,

cont.

Cont. The guy was invited, but he didn't obey God but putting on Jesus' righteousness--so he couldn't get in.

Jesus talks about clothing in Revelation 3, "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." Those who overcome, through faith in Him, will enter into heaven and recieve a white garment. Six more times in Revelation it talks about the saints in heaven being clothed in white, and we see Jesus also wearing a robe dipped in blood. He was the sacrifice, we are purified by him. It is quite interesting.

cont.

John 3:16 is so common, but so important. "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."

Whoever believes in God will go to heaven!!! YAY. I think it is important to remember this, because if we believe in predestination 100% then we won't care about other people finding Jesus, and we won't care about pleasing God ourselves (what would it matter if it is already decided).

And, if it was all about predestination, why did so many Christians lay down their lives to spread the gospel. "And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, [fn] Who bring glad tidings of good things!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, who has believed our report?"So then faith [comes] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10

Yes I do :-)

Everyone is pre destined to go to Heaven.. its the choices that they make that can change that.
He desires that ALL shall not perish....

I believe in free will.

My Lord does not want robots who are forced to worship Him.

No pre-destination, we each find our own way to Jesus.

There is a bigger case for predestination in the bible than there is for free will. It would take me forever to copy and paste all the references and so I've located a site that has a list:

http://www.albatrus.org/english/theology/predestination/verses_concerning_predestination.htm

Predestination does not mean predermination. So it's possible for both predestination and free will. It's possible that God predestins people for heaven - but not one is predestined for hell.

There are a couple of schools of thought from a Catholic point of view: Thomas Aquinas said that God can "randomly" select certain people and give them special grace by which they are just plainly bound for heaven. Luis De Molia's idea is basically that God knows who will accept/reject Him from all eternity and so based on His foreknowledge he predestines to Heaven those people who he knows will already accept him. But again, no one is predestined for hell. Both ideas hold that free will is not impaired by God.