PREDESTINATION
Strong’s definition is “to predetermine, decide beforehand.” Predestination in the Bible is by His foreknowledge, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate” (Romans 8:29). God knows what will happen (foreknowledge) and based upon that He declares what will be, including who will be saved. This does not mean that He makes people to be saved or that He wills people to go to hell, only that He knows the future. As we have memory, God also has knowledge beforehand of what will happen, and is able therefore to declare in advance who will be saved (see 1 Peter 1:2; Acts 2:23; see FOREKNOW).
We know that only a “few” people will be saved (Matthew 7:13–14), but all were born with the opportunity to be saved. But some believe that most people who are born into the world could never be saved. Those with this belief are sometimes called Hyper-Calvinists (also Reformed Theology), though they would only refer to themselves as Calvinists, named after a man in church history. After Bible college, I went one semester to a seminary where professors held this belief, and I heard it often. This name “Calvinist” is sometimes given to a person who believes that the saved have “eternal life” from the moment of salvation, which is taught in the Bible (see ETERNAL LIFE). The point is, that the name can mean different things, and so it can be confusing if one goes only by the name. Instead, we will be looking at the beliefs they teach. Some will also say that if you are not a Calvinist, then you are an Arminian, those who believe one can lose his salvation (See ETERNAL LIFE). Arminianism, named after a man in church history who believed that when you sinned after salvation that God would renege on His promise of eternal life. We should not be calling ourselves a follower of one man or another; we are called Christians in the Bible, followers of Christ (Acts 11:26). From time to time someone will say, “But did you know that in the past there were some good men who believed this?” Yes, and in the past (as well as today) there were more good men who did not believe this. Those I have known who Hyper-Calvinists were, for the most part, good Christians, but error has a price. This is not just a theological argument on who is right or who is wrong; it has greatly affected soul winning and split many Bible colleges. Hyper-Calvinism has five main points, and they are usually outlined as T-U-L-I-P.
“T” = Total depravity. They believe that man is so depraved by his sin nature that he could not, and would not, choose to be saved. However, although man is corrupted by sin, he is not a robot, and has a “will” to choose right, even if he has not the power to fulfill it, but thankfully God has the power to save when we choose His Son. They will often quote Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing,” but will not quote the rest of the verse, “for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” They will quote “being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11). Yes, but again predestination was after “foreknowledge” (see FOREKNOW), it was within God’s will that man have a “will” (Romans 7:18).
First Timothy 2:3–4 says, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Peter 3:9, “But is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” To say that God’s will for all to be saved is not as strong as His will for the elect to be saved, when according to them it depends only on God’s will, would in effect, make God sovereignly frustrated. God’s sovereignty should not be viewed as all or nothing. It would be better stated that within God’s sovereignty, He has chosen that man have a free will. A good verse on the sovereignty of God is Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good…” but this promise has a condition, “to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Man is a sinner, but that does not mean he could not choose to be saved, only that he needs to be saved. God wants all sinners to repent, “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30) and “that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Everyone in the world was given light—not just those who will be saved, but “every man,” including those whose “heart was darkened” because they rejected the light that God gave them. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9; also see Romans 1:19–21 and Psalm 19:1–4). God said all who do not repent will perish (Luke 13:3), but if man is only evil without a will, then man cannot obey any command of God including to repent, thus God would be unjust.
“U” = Unconditional election. According to Hyper-Calvinists, God choosing some to salvation was purely arbitrary, a personal whim, rather than for any reason. This of course would make God a respecter of persons, but the Bible teaches otherwise: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34; Ephesians 6:9; and Romans 2:11). It is true that I did not choose the color of my hair or eyes, or many other such things, but God never asked anyone to repent of these. God never commanded a man to be born in New York, but He “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30).
They believe that because we were chosen to be saved before the world began, that therefore we could not choose to be saved. So there is no condition for being saved, not even making a decision, and those who are saved, are saved because He planned it that way. It is true that salvation is “not of ourselves” and “not of works” (Ephesians 2:8–9), but there is one condition to our salvation, you must accept it. Ephesians 1:4 says, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…” God knew before the foundation of the world who would be “chosen” (saved), but it was based on us being “in him,” so there was a condition. We needed to be in His Son, and God foreknows this (Strong’s definition of foreknowledge is “to have knowledge beforehand”). When someone is chosen (“elected”) for salvation, it is because God knows he will trust Jesus Christ. “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” (1 Peter 1:2; Romans 8:29; Acts 2:23). Predestination was not based upon God’s will, but upon His foreknowledge (see FOREKNOW). For God’s desire is that all would be saved “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God does not go into the supermarket of life and pull off the shelf those He fancies, but offers His Son to all of us and chooses those who will trust His Son.
Romans 9:11–12 says that before Jacob and his brother Esau were born that the “purpose of God according to election might stand…It was said…The elder shall serve the younger.” But the chapter before this already explained “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate” (Romans 8:29). God said what would happen because though as yet they were not born, God knew in advance what would happen. The same principle applies for why God chose Abraham to be so blessed; it was not arbitrary as some have said. “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him” (Genesis 18:19).
Romans 9:13 says, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” This is a quote from Malachi 1:2–4, which was written over a thousand years after Jacob and Esau were born. And the passage is talking about “Israel” (Jacob) and “Edom” (Esau); the Lord hated what Edom had become.
Romans 9:17–18 says that it was God Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart. This can also be found in the book of Exodus where several times it says, “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,” and other times where it says, “Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also.” Pharaoh was a prideful, stubborn idolater who made slaves of the Hebrews, and God allowed him to be on the throne of Egypt for this purpose. And when Pharaoh was about to cave in and his heart was no longer hardened, God hardened it for him, so God could work even greater miracles. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Romans 9:22). God just used a hardhead that He knew would reject Him, and thus got glory from Pharaoh. “For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth” (Romans 9:17; also see Exodus 9:16).
“L” = Limited atonement. They believe that Jesus Christ did not die for everyone, but only the predestinated ones. But Christ did die for everyone, 1 John 2:2 says, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (also see 2 Corinthians 5:15; Hebrews 2:9; 1 Timothy 4:10).
This belief also means God did not love everyone, but only the elect. But in Mark 10:21–22 Jesus had love for a man who rejected Him. And what are we to do with verses that say God loves the world or anyone can be saved? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; also see Isaiah 45:22; Romans 10:9–13; Revelation 22:17, and many others verses that say, “whosoever will.”) But where it says, “For God so loved the world,” they will say this means the elect. And the part of the verse that says “whosoever,” they say this means whosoever is predestinated or elect. They have to constantly say things like this in order to have the Bible say what their dogma teaches. But if God meant it that way, He would have said it that way.
This belief of limited atonement is, in effect, saying that God has limited love and limited grace. But God has more grace than this world has sin. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20). They believe that the blood of Christ was shed only for the elect, and would argue that if it was for the whole world, then much of His blood was wasted because most will not be saved. But Christ’s blood was not rationed out, one drop for two million souls and so forth, but faith in His sacrifice of His shed blood (the same amount of blood), whether for one sinner or “for the sins of the whole world.”
“I” = Irresistible grace, which means that when God wants to save someone, he will not be able to resist, and those who go to hell do so because it was not God’s will for them to be saved. God is sovereign and man has a will; where the two meet will always give rise to debate, but it is not God’s fault that people are not saved. This belief would mean God has predestinated people to hell. They would be quick to deny this, and give an illustration of a man who finds ten rocks but only chooses three of them, and then say that salvation is the same, God only chooses for salvation, not for hell. But if some are chosen for salvation, then the others were in effect not chosen, which of course means they will go to hell.
What about praying for lost people to be saved? What kind of a heartfelt prayer could one have believing, “If God does not want them saved, then I am wasting my time, and if He does want them saved I am still wasting my time because they will be saved anyway.” Paul, however, prayed for the lost to be saved, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Romans 10:1–2; also 1 Timothy 2:1–4).
The Bible says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). But the question is, does God draw a select few, or does He draw all men? There is a principle found in the Bible that God calls, but only a few respond, “for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Christ taught that the drawing of God was to all, but that only a few would respond, they had the opportunity, but they rejected it. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).
And man can resist God’s working: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51; also see Proverbs 1:24–25; Genesis 6:3; and Hebrews 12:15). “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him” (Luke 7:30). In Matthew 23:37, Jesus wanted people to be saved, but they refused to turn to Him. He “would” that they would come to Him, but they “would not.” Proverbs 1:24 says, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.” Is it God’s will that we sin? Yet we all have, and every time we sin, we resist the will of God in our lives.
Their idea of the sovereignty of God reduces man to a robot without any will of his own. For them it is not just that God knows what will happen, but that He makes it happen; not just that God has the possibility to exercise complete control over His universe and our lives, but that He does, always and without exception. The obvious problem with this is that it would make God the author or ultimate cause of sin. Though they deny this, they have a hard time trying to explain it, for they believe nothing happens unless God wants it to.
“P” = Perseverance of the saints. That those who persevere unto the end of their life are the ones who are elect. This is supposed to be saying that those who are saved have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). It is true that the saved “have” in present tense “everlasting life” (see ETERNAL LIFE), and we are not kept by our power but “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation…” (1 Peter 1:5). My problem with this point is the terminology they use. We do not persevere in connection with salvation, we “hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Salvation has already happened for those who have trusted Christ. I understand that Hyper-Calvinists do not believe in good works to save, but to use such a word as “perseverance” would indicate effort or works on our part. In Matthew 24:13 Christ said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” This was spoken to those who will live during the great tribulation period. The word “end” in this verse does not refer to the end of one’s life but to the “end of the world” see Matthew 24:3, 6, 14 (also see ETERNAL LIFE).
One test of any doctrine is:
Does it help those who believe in it?
I heard a seminary professor say that he wanted his daughters to go to heaven but he was not sure if they were “elect,” and therefore it would not be possible for them to be saved. I wanted to blurt out, “Why don’t you just win them to Christ and they will be elect?” Which comes to my last point: What effect does this doctrine have on those who believe it?
“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein” (Hebrews 13:9). If it is not of God, it does “not profited.” If you ask them what benefit is there in believing this, they will usually respond by saying, “It’s the truth,” but people on both sides of any argument believe their side is right. But the question remains, how does it profit Christians? If someone believes there is a hell, he is much more likely to get saved and also be concerned about his loved ones and friends getting saved; but if he does not believe, then “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.”
Things that are believed have an effect on us, for good if true, and for harm if false. For 40 years I have been asking those who believe this belief, what profit is there in it? The only real answer I have received in all this time was that they say it takes away all pride from man, as he has nothing to do with it, but salvation is already “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Besides, people can have pride about anything including saying, “I’m elect.” One Christian I knew who came out of hyper-Calvinism told me it appealed to his intellectual pride.
Even those who believe in this doctrine already know there are possible problems (sometimes serious problems) associated with it. It has split more Bible colleges than any teaching I know of. It is also used by many (not all) as an excuse for not winning souls. After all, if God wants to save them, they will be saved even if I do nothing, and if God does not choose them for salvation, then according to their belief, no matter what I do they will not be saved.
Strong’s definition is “to predetermine, decide beforehand.” Predestination in the Bible is by His foreknowledge, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate” (Romans 8:29). God knows what will happen (foreknowledge) and based upon that He declares what will be, including who will be saved. This does not mean that He makes people to be saved or that He wills people to go to hell, only that He knows the future. As we have memory, God also has knowledge beforehand of what will happen, and is able therefore to declare in advance who will be saved (see 1 Peter 1:2; Acts 2:23; see FOREKNOW).
We know that only a “few” people will be saved (Matthew 7:13–14), but all were born with the opportunity to be saved. But some believe that most people who are born into the world could never be saved. Those with this belief are sometimes called Hyper-Calvinists (also Reformed Theology), though they would only refer to themselves as Calvinists, named after a man in church history. After Bible college, I went one semester to a seminary where professors held this belief, and I heard it often. This name “Calvinist” is sometimes given to a person who believes that the saved have “eternal life” from the moment of salvation, which is taught in the Bible (see ETERNAL LIFE). The point is, that the name can mean different things, and so it can be confusing if one goes only by the name. Instead, we will be looking at the beliefs they teach. Some will also say that if you are not a Calvinist, then you are an Arminian, those who believe one can lose his salvation (See ETERNAL LIFE). Arminianism, named after a man in church history who believed that when you sinned after salvation that God would renege on His promise of eternal life. We should not be calling ourselves a follower of one man or another; we are called Christians in the Bible, followers of Christ (Acts 11:26). From time to time someone will say, “But did you know that in the past there were some good men who believed this?” Yes, and in the past (as well as today) there were more good men who did not believe this. Those I have known who Hyper-Calvinists were, for the most part, good Christians, but error has a price. This is not just a theological argument on who is right or who is wrong; it has greatly affected soul winning and split many Bible colleges. Hyper-Calvinism has five main points, and they are usually outlined as T-U-L-I-P.
“T” = Total depravity. They believe that man is so depraved by his sin nature that he could not, and would not, choose to be saved. However, although man is corrupted by sin, he is not a robot, and has a “will” to choose right, even if he has not the power to fulfill it, but thankfully God has the power to save when we choose His Son. They will often quote Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing,” but will not quote the rest of the verse, “for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” They will quote “being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11). Yes, but again predestination was after “foreknowledge” (see FOREKNOW), it was within God’s will that man have a “will” (Romans 7:18).
First Timothy 2:3–4 says, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Peter 3:9, “But is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” To say that God’s will for all to be saved is not as strong as His will for the elect to be saved, when according to them it depends only on God’s will, would in effect, make God sovereignly frustrated. God’s sovereignty should not be viewed as all or nothing. It would be better stated that within God’s sovereignty, He has chosen that man have a free will. A good verse on the sovereignty of God is Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good…” but this promise has a condition, “to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Man is a sinner, but that does not mean he could not choose to be saved, only that he needs to be saved. God wants all sinners to repent, “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30) and “that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Everyone in the world was given light—not just those who will be saved, but “every man,” including those whose “heart was darkened” because they rejected the light that God gave them. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9; also see Romans 1:19–21 and Psalm 19:1–4). God said all who do not repent will perish (Luke 13:3), but if man is only evil without a will, then man cannot obey any command of God including to repent, thus God would be unjust.
“U” = Unconditional election. According to Hyper-Calvinists, God choosing some to salvation was purely arbitrary, a personal whim, rather than for any reason. This of course would make God a respecter of persons, but the Bible teaches otherwise: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34; Ephesians 6:9; and Romans 2:11). It is true that I did not choose the color of my hair or eyes, or many other such things, but God never asked anyone to repent of these. God never commanded a man to be born in New York, but He “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30).
They believe that because we were chosen to be saved before the world began, that therefore we could not choose to be saved. So there is no condition for being saved, not even making a decision, and those who are saved, are saved because He planned it that way. It is true that salvation is “not of ourselves” and “not of works” (Ephesians 2:8–9), but there is one condition to our salvation, you must accept it. Ephesians 1:4 says, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…” God knew before the foundation of the world who would be “chosen” (saved), but it was based on us being “in him,” so there was a condition. We needed to be in His Son, and God foreknows this (Strong’s definition of foreknowledge is “to have knowledge beforehand”). When someone is chosen (“elected”) for salvation, it is because God knows he will trust Jesus Christ. “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” (1 Peter 1:2; Romans 8:29; Acts 2:23). Predestination was not based upon God’s will, but upon His foreknowledge (see FOREKNOW). For God’s desire is that all would be saved “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God does not go into the supermarket of life and pull off the shelf those He fancies, but offers His Son to all of us and chooses those who will trust His Son.
Romans 9:11–12 says that before Jacob and his brother Esau were born that the “purpose of God according to election might stand…It was said…The elder shall serve the younger.” But the chapter before this already explained “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate” (Romans 8:29). God said what would happen because though as yet they were not born, God knew in advance what would happen. The same principle applies for why God chose Abraham to be so blessed; it was not arbitrary as some have said. “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him” (Genesis 18:19).
Romans 9:13 says, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” This is a quote from Malachi 1:2–4, which was written over a thousand years after Jacob and Esau were born. And the passage is talking about “Israel” (Jacob) and “Edom” (Esau); the Lord hated what Edom had become.
Romans 9:17–18 says that it was God Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart. This can also be found in the book of Exodus where several times it says, “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,” and other times where it says, “Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also.” Pharaoh was a prideful, stubborn idolater who made slaves of the Hebrews, and God allowed him to be on the throne of Egypt for this purpose. And when Pharaoh was about to cave in and his heart was no longer hardened, God hardened it for him, so God could work even greater miracles. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Romans 9:22). God just used a hardhead that He knew would reject Him, and thus got glory from Pharaoh. “For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth” (Romans 9:17; also see Exodus 9:16).
“L” = Limited atonement. They believe that Jesus Christ did not die for everyone, but only the predestinated ones. But Christ did die for everyone, 1 John 2:2 says, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (also see 2 Corinthians 5:15; Hebrews 2:9; 1 Timothy 4:10).
This belief also means God did not love everyone, but only the elect. But in Mark 10:21–22 Jesus had love for a man who rejected Him. And what are we to do with verses that say God loves the world or anyone can be saved? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; also see Isaiah 45:22; Romans 10:9–13; Revelation 22:17, and many others verses that say, “whosoever will.”) But where it says, “For God so loved the world,” they will say this means the elect. And the part of the verse that says “whosoever,” they say this means whosoever is predestinated or elect. They have to constantly say things like this in order to have the Bible say what their dogma teaches. But if God meant it that way, He would have said it that way.
This belief of limited atonement is, in effect, saying that God has limited love and limited grace. But God has more grace than this world has sin. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20). They believe that the blood of Christ was shed only for the elect, and would argue that if it was for the whole world, then much of His blood was wasted because most will not be saved. But Christ’s blood was not rationed out, one drop for two million souls and so forth, but faith in His sacrifice of His shed blood (the same amount of blood), whether for one sinner or “for the sins of the whole world.”
“I” = Irresistible grace, which means that when God wants to save someone, he will not be able to resist, and those who go to hell do so because it was not God’s will for them to be saved. God is sovereign and man has a will; where the two meet will always give rise to debate, but it is not God’s fault that people are not saved. This belief would mean God has predestinated people to hell. They would be quick to deny this, and give an illustration of a man who finds ten rocks but only chooses three of them, and then say that salvation is the same, God only chooses for salvation, not for hell. But if some are chosen for salvation, then the others were in effect not chosen, which of course means they will go to hell.
What about praying for lost people to be saved? What kind of a heartfelt prayer could one have believing, “If God does not want them saved, then I am wasting my time, and if He does want them saved I am still wasting my time because they will be saved anyway.” Paul, however, prayed for the lost to be saved, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Romans 10:1–2; also 1 Timothy 2:1–4).
The Bible says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). But the question is, does God draw a select few, or does He draw all men? There is a principle found in the Bible that God calls, but only a few respond, “for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Christ taught that the drawing of God was to all, but that only a few would respond, they had the opportunity, but they rejected it. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).
And man can resist God’s working: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51; also see Proverbs 1:24–25; Genesis 6:3; and Hebrews 12:15). “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him” (Luke 7:30). In Matthew 23:37, Jesus wanted people to be saved, but they refused to turn to Him. He “would” that they would come to Him, but they “would not.” Proverbs 1:24 says, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.” Is it God’s will that we sin? Yet we all have, and every time we sin, we resist the will of God in our lives.
Their idea of the sovereignty of God reduces man to a robot without any will of his own. For them it is not just that God knows what will happen, but that He makes it happen; not just that God has the possibility to exercise complete control over His universe and our lives, but that He does, always and without exception. The obvious problem with this is that it would make God the author or ultimate cause of sin. Though they deny this, they have a hard time trying to explain it, for they believe nothing happens unless God wants it to.
“P” = Perseverance of the saints. That those who persevere unto the end of their life are the ones who are elect. This is supposed to be saying that those who are saved have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). It is true that the saved “have” in present tense “everlasting life” (see ETERNAL LIFE), and we are not kept by our power but “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation…” (1 Peter 1:5). My problem with this point is the terminology they use. We do not persevere in connection with salvation, we “hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Salvation has already happened for those who have trusted Christ. I understand that Hyper-Calvinists do not believe in good works to save, but to use such a word as “perseverance” would indicate effort or works on our part. In Matthew 24:13 Christ said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” This was spoken to those who will live during the great tribulation period. The word “end” in this verse does not refer to the end of one’s life but to the “end of the world” see Matthew 24:3, 6, 14 (also see ETERNAL LIFE).
One test of any doctrine is:
Does it help those who believe in it?
I heard a seminary professor say that he wanted his daughters to go to heaven but he was not sure if they were “elect,” and therefore it would not be possible for them to be saved. I wanted to blurt out, “Why don’t you just win them to Christ and they will be elect?” Which comes to my last point: What effect does this doctrine have on those who believe it?
“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein” (Hebrews 13:9). If it is not of God, it does “not profited.” If you ask them what benefit is there in believing this, they will usually respond by saying, “It’s the truth,” but people on both sides of any argument believe their side is right. But the question remains, how does it profit Christians? If someone believes there is a hell, he is much more likely to get saved and also be concerned about his loved ones and friends getting saved; but if he does not believe, then “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.”
Things that are believed have an effect on us, for good if true, and for harm if false. For 40 years I have been asking those who believe this belief, what profit is there in it? The only real answer I have received in all this time was that they say it takes away all pride from man, as he has nothing to do with it, but salvation is already “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Besides, people can have pride about anything including saying, “I’m elect.” One Christian I knew who came out of hyper-Calvinism told me it appealed to his intellectual pride.
Even those who believe in this doctrine already know there are possible problems (sometimes serious problems) associated with it. It has split more Bible colleges than any teaching I know of. It is also used by many (not all) as an excuse for not winning souls. After all, if God wants to save them, they will be saved even if I do nothing, and if God does not choose them for salvation, then according to their belief, no matter what I do they will not be saved.
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Our newest book!
GOD & SPIES
GM Matheny was a US Navy saturation diver on the nuclear submarine USS Halibut. Involved in "Operation Ivy Bells". America’s most important and most dangerous of the Cold War clandestine operations. If you like good old fashioned American bravado, espionage and American history, you will enjoy this book.
Based on True Events -The Mount Everest of Spy Missions
Firsthand account of history's greatest intelligence coup. Operation Ivy Bells was not a onetime intercept of foreign intelligence, but an ongoing operation of multiple Soviet military channels, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, which lasted for years! Another reason for the high interest in our operation was the audacious nature in which it was done—with not one person risking his neck but a whole crew of a nuclear submarine.
How did I end up as a navy diver, four hundred feet down in a frigid Russian sea? After making my dad totally disgusted with me, I set out to make him happy. “Honour thy father” - I struggled with a decision to serve God. “Lord, I will give my life to you and serve you if you let me make this dive.” But I had the impression He only wanted to know one thing: “What if I do not let you? Will you serve me anyway?”
BOOK EXCERPT "The tenders in the dive chamber who are bringing in Red Diver’s umbilical cable, unexpectedly have his cable ripped out of their hands! One of the tenders says, “What’s going on?” Matheny’s fins have landed back onto the first leg of the DSRV, which keeps him from sliding back any farther. He then pulls toward him about 30 feet of his umbilical cord and makes a dash for the next leg coming down from the DSRV. He makes it, but the red light shining in Matheny’s face is reminding him he is running out of time. From his position, he can see the light shining down in the water from the entry point back into the dive chamber. He positions himself to push off the last leg of the DSRV so he can enter the dive chamber. Then unexplainably he is again jerked backward with another sharp pull! This time his face mask slams into the leg of the DSRV. Matheny hurriedly makes a grab for this leg clinging to it."
Paperback 273 pages, $12.90 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1075452430
Kindle $6.30 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TCSLFWR
What others are saying.
Pastor Marvin McKenzie (February 7, 2018)
“Garry Matheny is a friend and a fellow preacher. Prior to his salvation he served in the Navy as an elite saturation diver. He was involved in one of America’s most important and dangerous clandestine operations."
"Garry does a marvelous job of weaving recently declassified information regarding the operation, the record of an intelligence analyst spending the rest of his life in prison for selling the details of this operation to the Russians and his own eyewitness account of the operation itself."
"If you like good old fashioned American bravado, espionage and history, you will enjoy this book.”
David Meyer (February 26, 2018)
“I could not stop reading once I started. This book is for anyone that likes stories about submarines, divers, spies and or scripture. It’s all there in this interesting book.”
Amazon Customer (March 5, 2018)
“The flow of logic of the whole episode was great. Once I started reading it I couldn't stop.”
GOD & SPIES
GM Matheny was a US Navy saturation diver on the nuclear submarine USS Halibut. Involved in "Operation Ivy Bells". America’s most important and most dangerous of the Cold War clandestine operations. If you like good old fashioned American bravado, espionage and American history, you will enjoy this book.
Based on True Events -The Mount Everest of Spy Missions
Firsthand account of history's greatest intelligence coup. Operation Ivy Bells was not a onetime intercept of foreign intelligence, but an ongoing operation of multiple Soviet military channels, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, which lasted for years! Another reason for the high interest in our operation was the audacious nature in which it was done—with not one person risking his neck but a whole crew of a nuclear submarine.
How did I end up as a navy diver, four hundred feet down in a frigid Russian sea? After making my dad totally disgusted with me, I set out to make him happy. “Honour thy father” - I struggled with a decision to serve God. “Lord, I will give my life to you and serve you if you let me make this dive.” But I had the impression He only wanted to know one thing: “What if I do not let you? Will you serve me anyway?”
BOOK EXCERPT "The tenders in the dive chamber who are bringing in Red Diver’s umbilical cable, unexpectedly have his cable ripped out of their hands! One of the tenders says, “What’s going on?” Matheny’s fins have landed back onto the first leg of the DSRV, which keeps him from sliding back any farther. He then pulls toward him about 30 feet of his umbilical cord and makes a dash for the next leg coming down from the DSRV. He makes it, but the red light shining in Matheny’s face is reminding him he is running out of time. From his position, he can see the light shining down in the water from the entry point back into the dive chamber. He positions himself to push off the last leg of the DSRV so he can enter the dive chamber. Then unexplainably he is again jerked backward with another sharp pull! This time his face mask slams into the leg of the DSRV. Matheny hurriedly makes a grab for this leg clinging to it."
Paperback 273 pages, $12.90 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1075452430
Kindle $6.30 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TCSLFWR
What others are saying.
Pastor Marvin McKenzie (February 7, 2018)
“Garry Matheny is a friend and a fellow preacher. Prior to his salvation he served in the Navy as an elite saturation diver. He was involved in one of America’s most important and dangerous clandestine operations."
"Garry does a marvelous job of weaving recently declassified information regarding the operation, the record of an intelligence analyst spending the rest of his life in prison for selling the details of this operation to the Russians and his own eyewitness account of the operation itself."
"If you like good old fashioned American bravado, espionage and history, you will enjoy this book.”
David Meyer (February 26, 2018)
“I could not stop reading once I started. This book is for anyone that likes stories about submarines, divers, spies and or scripture. It’s all there in this interesting book.”
Amazon Customer (March 5, 2018)
“The flow of logic of the whole episode was great. Once I started reading it I couldn't stop.”