Read the will of God vs. will of man. Read the peak of ministry of the word.
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom 8.29). "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied". (1 Peter 1.2). Ergo, predestination is by foreknowledge. God foreknows the choice we would make in His image. He does not pre-make us to choose. "But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him" (John 6.64). To believe or believe not is a choice which God does not premake, but foreknows our choice.
"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let
him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev.
22.17).
Watchman Nee wrote---The reason why Jacob’s brother is not named is because it
is written in the Scriptures, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated” (Rom. 9.13). This is
the marvelous way of God’s election. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Rom. 9.15), thus showing
that the purpose of God according to election “is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy” (Rom. 9.16).
Notwithstanding this sovereign way of God’s election, it is not done casually
but rather according to His “foreknowledge.” For God knows beforehand
who will be willing to accept grace and so be blessed: “the elect . . .
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Peter 1.1,2). First,
foreknowledge; then, election. Due to God’s love for Jacob, his sons became
the twelve tribes of Israel. (Interpreting Matthew, CFP)
According to His foreknowledge God foresaw the rebellion of the
angels and the fall of men; hence He was unable to establish His authority in
angels or in the Adamic race. (Spiritual Authority, CFP).
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate" (Rom. 8.29). Ergo,
predestination is by foreknowledge. The antecedent to predestinating is
foreknowing. God foreknows the choice we would make in His image. He does not
pre-make us to choose. Pre-making (calvinism) is not required, but
just a pride and false work of the unrenewed mind.
"But because the rest of you have forsaken the Lord and his Temple and worship the gods of Fate and Destiny, I will `destine' you to the sword. All of you will bow before the executioner, for when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. You deliberately sinned-before my very eyes-and chose to do what you know I despise." (Isaiah 65.11,12). When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! (Matt. 6.7-8). We ought not need to produce 1001 articles to rationalize ourselves, otherwise we just get further entrenched in deception.
During the first two hundred years after Christ, tens of thousands of believers were martyred at the hands of the Romans throughout the Roman Empire. There are many stories of persecution and martyrdom of brave believers at the hands of the Romans, culled from such sources as John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History. But the persecutions and martyrdoms the believers in the Church have suffered during the centuries thereafter have come mostly at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, and these persecutions were most severe.. There are several more stories of believers having bravely faced terrible persecution and martyrdom, this time at the hands of the Roman Catholic Authorities; these tragic incidents were also observed from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and other sources. The way of the Christians has never been interrupted, despite the terrible circumstances many have endured for the sake of Christ. .However, it also needs to be pointed out that segments of the Protestant Church have not been guiltless in this regard either. The tragic persecution of the dissenter Michael Servetus in Geneva by the followers of John Calvin is but one, albeit extreme, example that quickly comes to mind. In 1553 he was burned at the stake, crying aloud through the flames: “O Jesus, thou Son of the eternal God, have pity on me.” Quoted in Kenneth S. Latourette, A History of Christianity (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953), p. 759.
I know how to help you if you
will try to understand. If you can not understand it is the same as God
hardening the heart of the Pharaoh of you before me for the Pharaoh is already
lost and will get more lost.
You can't say at the same time God saves you but you choose to believe in Him
without identifying proper cause and effect. The cause is not God choosing the
saved before the foundation of the world and making their will choose Him for
that is zombiism, coercion and instrumental value, not an end, but a means to an
end. This is not God of the Bible.
Instead God chooses the saved because He foreknows who will come to Him. Because
God loves our intrinsic value He created in His image, He leaves the sovereign
will of the man to decide to come into God giving him authentic faith at the
instant of initial salvation and increased faith or intermittently resisting His
life as the case may be in the Christian being carnal or spiritual.
If you choose God according to the belief that He chose you because you chose
Him then you are saved. But if you believe that He chose you to choose Him then
that means He also chose other men to go to hell. And this makes the saved men
zombies as well as the unsaved men also zombies. This is not the God of the
Bible.
This is an evil god this god you believe in. Few can appreciate this and stand
up for its truth. I can see if a man is
not saved on this basis.
We can be certain that calvinism is wrong 100% on all five points as well as
those who try to
mingle calvinism with OSAS arminianism like the Baptist denomination.
In John 6:37 ";All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" and "he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father (John 6.65). The Father gives the right for you to come unto Jesus when He made you in His image (Gen. 1.26) and gave you the choice in the Garden of Eden so that when you believe it is because the Father had once done something long before for you to have the wherewithal to choose for or against the risen Lord; and it is this act of creation God were given unto His children to come unto the Father. It is not that the unregenerated are not called for all are called. It is just that not all listen and thus not given unto them to come because, and this is very important, that they choose not. Let us praise God for this spirit of wisdom and revelation!
See page 82-83 of Better Covenant by Watchman Nee below on man's sovereignty and the oh so important choice afforded to the man made in His image; also why tell someone they must be born again in John 3.7 if they are not to choose?
REGENERATION
In order to understand how God puts His laws in us and writes them on our hearts, it is necessary for us to begin with regeneration. For in regeneration the Holy Spirit puts God’s uncreated life into our human spirit. Regeneration is a new thing which happens in the human spirit. It is not a matter of behavior, but a matter of life.
The Creation of Man
To know what regeneration is, we must again go back to the story of the creation of man. “Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2.7). The “breath of life” here refers to the Spirit—the source of life; for the Lord says elsewhere that “it is the spirit that giveth life” (John 6.63a). This is further confirmed in Job: “The breath of the Almighty giveth me life” (33.4b). The Hebrew for the word “life” in “breath of life” is chay and is in the plural. God so breathed that there was produced a twofold life: the spiritual and the soulical. When the inbreathing of God entered man’s body it became the spirit of man; but when the human spirit reacted with the body the soul was produced. This explains the origin of our spiritual and soulical lives. It also clearly shows us that man is tripartite: being spirit, soul, and body. The New Testament also divides man into three parts: “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire” (1 Thess. 5.23b); “even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow...” (Heb. 4.12b).
The body is the site of “world-consciousness”; the soul, of “self-consciousness”; and the spirit, of “God-consciousness.” With its five senses the body gives man various kinds of sensations. Through this physical body man is able to communicate with the outside world. Consequently, it is the place of “world-consciousness.” The soul is comprised of the mind, emotion, will, and so forth; all of these belong to the man himself, being expressions of his personality. Hence it is the place of “self-consciousness.” The spirit has the functions of conscience, intuition, and communion; and by these man comes to know his relationship with God and learns to worship and serve Him. It is therefore the place of “God-consciousness.”
The spirit controls the whole being through the soul. If the spirit desires to act, it communicates its intention to the soul, which in turn will move the body to obey the command of the spirit. According to God’s ordering, the spirit, being the highest part of man, should control the whole being. Nevertheless, the will, being the mainstay of personality, belongs to the soul. This will of man’s soul has a sovereign right to choose the rule of the spirit, the rule of the body, or even the rule of self. In view of such power belonging to the soul—which is also the seat of personality—the Bible calls man “a living soul.”
God’s Purpose in Creating Man
We have repeatedly emphasized that the eternal purpose of God is to give himself to man. He takes pleasure in entering into man and uniting with him so that man may have His life and His nature. After God had created Adam He put him in the garden of Eden. In the midst of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2.9). These two trees were most conspicuous, they could easily attract man’s attention. God gave command to man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2.16-17). Turning it around, this statement meant that the fruit of the tree of life could be eaten. Had man eaten the fruit of the tree of life he would have chosen God, because the tree of life pointed to God. Oh how grand and beautiful is the purpose of the Creator towards man!
Just as man was created by God, so his original life was also given by God. Speaking of man’s originally created life, the Bible indicates that it was upright (Eccles. 7.29) and “very good” (Gen. 1.31). But so far as God’s eternal purpose was concerned, man did not yet have God’s own uncreated life. Hence he must needs choose God and God’s life. [Three different words are used in Greek for “life”: (1) Bios—this points to the fleshly life. The Lord Jesus used this word when He said of the poor widow that she had cast in all the living that she had (Luke 21.4). (2) Psuche—this points to man’s animated life, the natural life of man—which is the soul life. Whenever the Bible mentions man’s life as such, this word is used (Matt. 16.26, Luke 9.24). (3) Zoe—this points to the highest life, the spirit life, God’s uncreated life. The Bible uses this word when it speaks of “eternal life” (John 3.16).] - W.Nee
Troy Brooks