These ideas I am about to present are not meant to answer every objection to the idea of predestination or election, but to explore some thoughts on the subject. I am one who spent the first ten years of his Christianity considering the concept of predestination or election to be ridiculous. But having gone through a paradigm shift, the result of much struggling with my thoughts.  I want to share some of those thoughts with you regarding this subject.

I cannot think of any other single word that when spoken in most modern Christian circles will be met with more objection, and ridicule than the word predestination. Modern Christianity has somehow associated this word with the most backward of thinking. The reasons this idea is rejected lie in two areas of thought that are seen and believed by most Christians to be self evident biblical truths. The first one is the idea or belief that man does and must have a free will, and any idea that implies that man is not in complete control of his eternal destiny by virtue of his free will is automatically thrown out. The other one is the idea that God is so loving of a being, and loves mankind to such a degree that He would never will or predestine any person to an eternity of punishment. These are powerful propositions, and vast numbers of modern Christians believe, teach, and preach these ideas as eternal Biblical truths. Many of them passionately argue against anyone or anything that seems to challenge this paradigm. And I understand this because I was one of them for many years of my Christian experience. But ultimately my belief that the bible is inspired by God, that the authors of the bible actually meant to say specific things under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and that these specific things they meant to say are the true meaning of scripture, fueled my desire to pursue biblical truth, and ushered in a shift in my world view.

I am not now going to attempt to show you using what I would call sound biblical interpretational skills, why I have come to believe in this great doctrine of election. There are many more brilliant men than I who can do this. But instead I would like to share with you some thoughts I have wrestled with in reckoning with the problems that the modern view of the will of man and the Character of God present when approaching the doctrine of election or predestination.

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