A pastor on television Sunday mornings locally presented his views on “predestination.”
He stated out front and said very clearly that “predestination” does NOT mean that God has already determined which souls are going to end up in heaven and which souls are going to end up in hell. The pastor hit the nail on the head, when he said (I paraphrase from memory), “There is no excuse for someone to say God has already predetermined that my soul is going to hell; so, there is no motivation for me to stop sinning.”
The pastor made it very clear that the word “predestination” is a word used to say that God has “appointed beforehand” a means by which a soul can be saved. He then pointed to the church as an organization that has been “predestined” to be that means. Here, is where I like the boldness of this pastor addressing this subject, but shake my head (“no”), when he is right in general, but wrong in specifics.
According to the Wikipedia article entitled “Predestination,” it defines this as a theological term that means:
“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. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious
determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism.”
The Greek word proorizó is at the root of this intellectual debate. It is found written six times in the New Testament: Acts 4:28; Romans 8:29 and 8:30; 1 Corinthians 2:7; and, Ephesians 1:5 and 11. Strong’s defines this word as meaning, “to predetermine, foreordain,” with its usage also including “mark out beforehand.” The pastor on the television show quoted from these six uses.
What he did not mention is the simple explanation that makes it clear this word’s use comes from Paul, whose life completely changed when he was stricken down after hearing the voice of Jesus (whom there is no record that Saul ever met), asking him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) Why would Yahweh send the soul of His Son to divinely possess Saul (who would choose to change his name to Paul, meaning “Small”), if Yahweh had “predetermined” the outcome of everyone? What would the need be for Saul to change to Paul, if everything was already “predetermined?”
This is where it becomes important to see the truth of “predestination” from a child’s perspective, rather than some big brain twisting of words into untruths and corrupted opinions (“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” – Matthew 11:25). Here, is where I like to see a soul as a little child, sitting on a cloud with the Father next to it (no sex in souls sitting on clouds, which is why “child” is a neuter gender word).
As the child dangles its soul feet over the edge of the cloud, looking down on earth, seeing it like a picture from an Apollo lander moon mission, Yahweh the Father says, “Let me show you your next incarnation into flesh and all the challenges you will face in the coming life you are about to be born into.”
When all these challenges have been seen by the child soul, Yahweh asks, “Do you accept this life?” The child soul always says, “Yessir!” Then, squeezing through the birth canal always has a way of beginning the process of forgetting that scene of the child with Yahweh on the cloud.
The point to be grasped from this is simple: Predestination is NOT Yahweh telling the child soul, “You will fail this test” or “You will pass this test.” That is because “predestination” means a soul is eternal, while a body of flesh is temporal; so, the “predestination” includes the fixed conclusion that a body of flesh will die, releasing the eternal soul back to Yahweh.
This means “predestination” is like a vacation plan.
When you purchase tickets to go some place special, getting to that place depends on following a list of instructions: pack clothes, arrange for pets, plan to park at the airport for an extended trip, get to the terminal and the gate, get a taxi to a hotel, yada yada yada. At any time between the purchase of tickets for a vacation, any number of hurdles can spring up unexpectedly; and, to actually get to one's “predestination,” one must clear the hurdles.
This means the word “predestination” means Yahweh telling the child soul, “You will come back to me for Judgement. That is “predetermined.” For you to have had a successful vacation on earth, in the flesh, I want you to return alongside the soul of My Son Jesus. I want you to return as My Son reborn.”
That is not “predetermined.” That depends completely on free will. All that is “predetermined” is an eternal soul will live a life in a body of flesh, which will certainly die and the soul will then certainly be Judged for how it lives in that body of flesh.
In the Acts 4:28 example of proōrisen being used (the Aorist Indicative Active, third-person singular, as “had determined beforehand”), the verse states: “to do whatever he a hand of you kai he purpose of you had determined beforehand to happen.”
In that, the word kai must be seen as a statement of importance to follow, not as a simple stuttering “and.” One must also realize the Genitive case words that state “of you” (sou) are a statement of possession of one’s soul (“you”). Then, to see “a hand” (cheir) as being a tool that importantly (kai) has “purpose” (boulē) “of you had determined beforehand,” this says Yahweh’s instructions on the cloud promised that Salvation (a return to Him alongside Jesus’ soul) would be for a soul to surrender to His Will and “do whatever he” will have His souls “do,” as “a hand” of Yahweh on the worldly plane. That means sacrifice of oneself unto Him, whereby He will possess that soul and become “of you.” Importantly (kai), the “purpose” of divine possession “of you” is to fulfill that self-will that welcomes the soul “of Jesus” to become the soul “of you” (alongside one’s own soul, within one’s own flesh), as was “determined beforehand,” when a child soul sat on a cloud with Yahweh before birth into a new body of flesh. When that soul welcomes self-sacrifice to serve Yahweh, the presence “of Jesus of you” is “to happen.”
The pastor failed to realize that free will means pastors must lead the lambs to realize they must slaughter themselves in service to Yahweh, to be where the soul of Jesus is resurrected, alongside each sacrificial lamb soul. The church cannot save anyone. A church is nothing more than a building owned by an organization, which has no soul. Thus, a church cannot promote free will to choose to self-sacrifice.
Only a soul that has been reborn as Jesus can preach the truth of the Word, so that brains of flesh can hear the truth and prove that truth to their own souls. A soul that has heard the truth and proved that truth to one’s own soul has faith, which is far beyond being told what to believe, without question.
Only a soul with faith can freely choose to sacrifice one’s own soul unto Yahweh, knowing that Yahweh is the only source of truth. And, as Jesus said, the revealing of truth can only be known by children. The big brains of the wise do nothing but steer souls away from eternal salvation.
Comments