|
Other scriptures on drawing: | |
| John 20: 31 | But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name. |
| Acts 26: 17-18 | (Spoken to Paul) Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto Whom I now send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. |
| Heb. 7: 19 | For the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we DRAW NIGH unto God. |
| Acts 17: 31 | Because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath GIVEN ASSURANCE unto ALL MEN, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. |
| Romans 10: 21 | But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. |
While it would seem that the scriptures in supporting free choice should make a clear case for the views of Free Choice, some may be puzzled by a few of the Bible passages presented by Sovereignty followers. The 9th chapter of Romans is relied upon the most by this doctrine although it is difficult to find any comfort for that belief there with the Bible principle of free choice as a guideline. Beginning with verse 11:
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to selection might stand, not of works but of Him that calleth; it was said unto her, the older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid."
The point made here is that even before the two were born God chose Jacob and therefore Jacob was predestinated, and that this means that God chose Jacob and hated Esau for some unknown reason originating before birth. "The reason God hated Esau BEFORE he was born was because He knew what kind of a man he would be AFTER he was born." Also the verse is used to prove that God does not love the whole world. Most Christians realize that the word "hate" in the Bible is not always used rigidly and at times as in this instance, means to "love less." Also in Luke 14: 26 where Jesus says that no man can be His disciple unless he hates his father, mother, wife, children, and brothers and sisters. Surely all Christians understand that to mean that these are to be loved less than Jesus.
To proceed with Romans 9: The 14th verse shows that if God had not had a reason for hating Esau, He (God) would be unrighteous. This reason was that Esau despised his birthright and of course to spurn such a great position displeased God. It could have been Abraham, Isaac and Esau. (instead of Jacob) Our birthright is the right to believe into life eternal by our own free will. We can sprun that birthright by denying that we have a responsibility to exercise faith voluntarily, by free choice. Rom. 9: 15: (a denial that He is unrighteous) "For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." All through the Bible it tells EXACTLY upon whom He will have compassion and mercy. Namely, upon ALL those who by their own free will believe and obey and accept Him.
Romans 9:
16
So then it (mercy) is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth
Mercy." Man can not "will"mercy, which is the subject being
considered here. But man CAN will to believe God and obtain
mercy. The decision lies in the soul, and the soul is neither
inhibited from believing nor induced TO
believe.
Verse
17
"For
the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee......" This does not mean that he CREATED thee
for this purpose but that He raised him up in earthly
power in Egypt for His own purposes.
Verse
18
"Therefore
hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He
hardeneth." Certainly He hardened Pharaoh's heart, but He already
knew the state of that heart and that it was wicked. Pharoah had
already said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice, to let Israel
go? I know not the Lord." As in Romans 1: 18: "For the Wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold
the truth in unrighteousness. Rom 1: 28:
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave
them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
convenient." Thus He dealt with Pharaoh.
Verse
21
"Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor,
and another unto dishonor." Yes we are all made of the same lump (All from Adam,
since the flood) and some end up as honourable and some as dishonourable;
but by their own free choice. The conclusion of the chapter is as
follows:
Verse
30
"What shall we say
then? That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, have
attained unto righteousness, even the righteousness which is Faith.
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not
attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they
sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone; as it is written, Behold I lay in
Sion in stumbling stone a rock of offense: and WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH on Him
shall not be ashamed." Again by observing the two principles of free
choice and foreknowledge of God there is nothing at all in the Chapter to
support Sovereignty, although nearly all of the claims are made from
Romans 9.
Acts 13: 48 is often quoted by Fatalists as proving beyond all doubt the validity of "Sovereignty." "And when the Gentiles heard this they works glad and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." This verse presents no problem whatever for the views of Free Choice. Certainly these Gentiles were predestinated. They were predestinated before they were born for something they did AFTER they were born. Namely, they believed. By foreknowledge, God saw these Gentiles believing long before they were born and so He predestinated them. Just as simple as that. But when it is claimed that they believed because they were predestinated to believe a multitude of complex and involved speculations are required to make it seem to hold up.
This brings up another facet of predestination little touched on. That is, What is the purpose of predestination? Well here is one purpose which surely affects a great many persons including the writer. How many multiplied thousands of Christian can say, "If I had died before the age of 18 or 20 I would be in a sinners grave today headed straight for hell." How wonderful it is that God can know "the thoughts and intents of our Hearts" so minutely and know the "end from the beginning" that he can know who are going to accept His gift of eternal life. And knowing this You are predestinated. And if you are predestinated you can not possibly die until you meet the condition required for your salvation. Your guardian angel will see to that.
A question frequently asked is, How can you have free choice if you are predestinated? The answer is that you can not have free choice with predestination as defined by "Sovereignty." But free choice and predestination are entirely Compatible under the principle of election by the foreknowledge of God. This is the only way free choice and predestination can be reconciled. Free choice and predestination are both plainly taught by the Bible, and support each other, whereas free choice and Sovereignty can not live together.
|
SERPENT SEED |
Since present teaching interweaves the "seed of the Serpent" with the subject of predestination this question can not be avoided. Breifly this theory is that those descended from the Serpent are the predestinated "lost" and those who are from Adam are the predestinated "saved;" that is, the predestinated sons of God being from the Godly line. Remember there are two Serpents One is the devil. The other is the "most subtle of all the beasts of the field." We are dealing with the beast of the field.
In the era before the flood the line from Adam is referred to as the "sons of God" while the line from Cain is called "Men." When the sons of God began to intermarry with the daughters of "Man" and wickedness increased on the earth, God brought the flood and saved only Noah, his three sons and their respective four wives. The theory goes that the two lines became intermingled before the flood in such a way that the physical seed of the Serpent, the father of Cain was carried over in the ark and therefore this Serpent's seed is physically present with us in the world today and that predestination is based upon whether or not you are "Serpent's Seed".
In the first place at the time of the flood we are dealing only with the four men and four women on the ark and not with the whole population of the earth at that time. Genesis 5 carefully traces the pedigree of Noah and his three sons direct to Adam. Physical seed resides only in the man and not the woman. Therefore it is scripturally dishonest to say that the seed of the Serpent came over in the ark. Satan has no physical seed. But he does have spiritual Seed of the Serpent?"
Also there has been a teaching that one of the wives on the ark (or perhaps more) was pregnant before entering, by one of the descendants of Cain. It is surprising how many believe this fable, By referring to Gen. chapters 7 and 8 it will be seen that the ark was closed and on the waters formore than one year. In fact one year and 27 days. This Bible fact explodes this theory, since there were no births on the ark. Also I Peter 3: 20 says there were only eight souls saved in the flood.
In further effort to show Serpent's seed still exists, the Genes theory is brought forward. This is briefly that during the period of intermingling before the flood, of the two lines, that the genes were somehow transformed into seed and that thus the pure Adamic seed has been mingled with the Serpent's Seed. It is said that the extra large men of our day are really offshoots of the giants from the era before the flood. It would be interesting as to what explanation there could be of pygmies. The process by which genes are transformed into seed is rather hazy, to say the least.
It is known that genes are present in both men and women. But only men have the seed. Only the male can transmit life. No amount of scientific words or human reasoning can change genes into seed. In addition there is the problem to prove that these genes of the women are Serpent's genes. The Bible doesn't bother to record the pedigrees of women. Genes can not be too important. Anyway to assume that any of these four women on the ark were from the Cain line in unprovable. It would be more reasonable to assume that since the husbands were all straight from Adam the wives were also. However we are not confined to speculation on the matter as Genesis 6: 9 answers the question with finality. "These are the generations of Noah; Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." A man's generations are his progeny. It therefore means that the GENEALOGY of his generations was PERFECT. It can not mean that their lives were perfect because nobody including Noah has had a perfect life. It has to mean that the pedigree of his descendants was perfect and that there was no contamination with the line of Cain or the Serpent by physical inheritance. In other words every last vestige of the Serpent was wiped out in the flood. If any of the wives were from the Cain line Noah's grandchildren would not have a perfect pedigree; so the wives pedigrees had to be from the Godly line exclusively as were their husbands !
| Acts 17: 26: says "And (GOD) hath made of ONE BLOOD ALL nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." The Serpent was a beast and had a beast's blood. If all the dwell on the face of the earth have ONE BLOOD how can anyone have TWO BLOODS. (In Acts 17: 26: some revisions of the King James delete the word "blood". This is probably correct as the word may have been added to clarify since it does not change the meaning either way. However with the word blood deleted the verse is even stronger as confirming that we all came from one man, Adam. If we all come from Adam, how can anyone come from the Serpent? |
Also in Genesis 9: 19, "These are three sons of Noah, (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) and OF THEM was the whole earth overspread." Therefore none of Cain's seed had any part in overspreading the earth with people.
Also Genesis 10: 32 says, "These are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations in their nations, and by these (and not by Cain's seed) were the nations divided in the earth after the flood." There is just so much solid scripture which proves that not one shred of the physical seed of Cain or the Serpent survived the flood.
In addition to the complete and detailed pedigree of Noah and His three sons in Genesis chapter 5, Chronicles 1: 1-4, gives it in simplified form, thus: Adam, Sheth, Enoch, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jerad, Henoch (Enoch), Methusalah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth." After the flood no other existed except in the last named four direct descendents of Adam. Therefore every human being since the flood was in the loins of Adam and not of Cain or the Serpent. How, then, can we be so dishonest as to say that the physical seed of the Serpent. How, then, can we be so dishonest as to say that the physical seed of the Serpent is walking the earth today? This false idea that those who are the direct descendants of Adam are the predestinated can not be true because we are all the direct descendants of Adam. That is exactly what the Bible says. When this false doctrine called Sovereignty is joined with the error that the physical seed is still with us since the flood, we have a decitful and dangerous mixture of a doctrine which has never been encountered in other ages. Sad to say thisis the doctrine that is being taught and many illusterious Serpent Seed preachers and circuit riders carry bags full of pictures and chips of stones and paper cuttings to prove this but never refer to the Bible. Be on the Worde of God.
Just what is the purpose of such a teaching? When we examin it closely we find that the real intent is to try to prove that the individual has no control over his own destiny and that he is irresistibly either lost or saved. It is true that God foreknows the final decision of each individual. But that does not mean that God compels the individual to make that decision. Fatalists claim that God does compel that decision and exactly at this point is where the false conception of predestination centers. Webster's unabridged defines foreknowledge:" to know what is going to take place before it happens."
The real purpose of this end-time mixture of errors is to convience the unsaved that the die was cast efore his birth and there is not one thing he can do about it but submit to his fate, since only those with the right ancestors, or who for some unknown reason, were chosen for heaven, will make it. The real true and well known reason is that it is for those who accept by their own free will the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ as their salvation.
We know that the great majority of persons will not be saved. But still they have the full opportunity. John 3: 18 says that "he that believeth not is condemned already." So we are born into the world condemned and remain so until we believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, It is as though we are born in a deep pit from which it is mpossible to escape without God's help. But God has placed a nice ladder there in the pit in the person of Jesus who is continually urging us to climb up out of that pit of condemnation on the provided ladder. But the Devil is there also and urging us not to do so. Most persons are listening to Satan as he discourages and ridicules. Let us not help Satan in his work by preaching, "No, brother, this ladder is not for everybody. You might be one of the descendants of the Serpent, and if so the ladder is not for you", Or, "Be careful brother, sister, God has decided for some unknown reason that most people do not have the right even to try to climb out on that ladder, the ladder is not for everybody you know."
It is quite true that God foresee who will and who will not be saved but that is a far cry from saying that He has decreed that some persons will not even have a chance to be saved, as Fatalism claims. The truth is that the free-will decision of every person AFTER HE IS BORN is the exact basis by which God predestinates. The fact that God foresees what is going to happen does not in any way interfere with the perfect freedom of the individual to choose. That is the opposite of the teaching of Fatalism which makes God a respector of persons and this God denies over and over.
Certainly it is true that the names that were written on the Book of Life were written before the foundation of the world. It was written before you were born. But why was it written there? Because of what you did about it in your life-time; that had to be after you were born. The infinite God who knows the end from the beginning foresaw your believing faith and wrote it there. It was your own voluntary choice that made salvation effective for you and for WHOSOEVER WILL.
Many times I have heared preachers pointint out that Eve left her husband and went for a walking alone where Serpent "beguiled" her or had sexual intercourse with Eve but to my surprise Gen. 3: 6 clearly says "She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat." Can you imagine how great preachers go blind. Can such an act happen in front of the husband, Son of God.
The disobedience of the commandment of God not to touch the tree of knowledge of good and evil brought death (Separation) but obedience would have brought "Life". Abraham believed God and it was counted as "righteousness". It is not sexual act. Gen 4th Chapter 1st verse says Adam knew Eve his wife and brought forth Cain and Able to disbelieve God's Word you become the "Serpent Seed" -- Unbeliever. If sex was sin God would not have told them to multiply and replenish the earth. Also when the Lord in Gen. 4: 7 tells Can "If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted." It does not mean that Cain took the fruit of the ground without his knowledge. He knew that blood should be spilt but to do that he has to go to his brother for the sheep, so pride and jealousy prevented him doing God's commandment and he used his own thinking through the five senses. Whereby he did not do well. People make themselves Serpent Seed "Beast" by allowing the five senses to overcome and disobey the commandments of God which is faith the sixth sense. We can go on adding more points to this but I am sure we are clear now.
There in conclusion we can say that we ALL are the offspring of Adam only and that all are equally included under sin from Adam and nobody is born saved or predetermined to BE saved. It is up to each one individually. There is no such thing as physical Serpent's Seed in the wholr today.
A current teaching of Matt. 13: 38-39 that the tares are the actual physical children of the wicked one (meaning the beast Serpent) is based on the belief that the seed of Cain survived the flood. According to the Bible this is a complete impossibility.
The chief mistake presently being made is confusing physical "seed" with spiritual seed. The predestinated are the spiritual seed of Abraham since God, seeing ahead close those who believe as Abraham did. Then God predestinated them because they believed. This is definitely spiritual seed and has nothing to do with physical seed since this eligibility to be spiritual seed is for the "whole world." There is much talk today about being born "SEED" meaning physical seed; those who by genalogy or ancestry inherit the right to eternal life. This won't fit with the Bible. The difference between being born saved or lost and of being born with the opportunity to BE saved is like the difference between heaven and hell.
In concluding I repeat, that nothing said here is in any way intended to reflect on anybody. If what has been said is not the truth, I stand ready and willing to be corrected by teh Bible. My only desire in this last day is to know only what is the pure truth of God. Comments for or against these are welcome.
| Acts 10: 34, 35 | Then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: v35 But in every nation he THAT FEARETH HIM and worketh righteousness, IS ACCEPTED with Him. |
| Rev. 22: 17 | 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. |