Understood…
the thing that must always be kept in mind is that there are two perspectives in this. God’s and ours.
From God’s perspective predestination can make sense. God know all and has planned all…So far so good…
From our perspective it is merely a waste of energy. We do NOT know all, least of all the mind of God. The whole thing is little more than an acedemic excersize with no practical application (except possibly negatively) to living the life of a Christian.
I don’t mean to get down on you Timonator. I understnad that some wish to try to understand this, but we can’t…Not from this side of the veil.
Now - if someone could provide me with some reason why we should, could, or need to understand predestination, perhaps I would change my mind. but frankly, it has no bearing
on how I live my life, or how I seek to encourage others, or how I seek to spread the
Good News of God.
Peace
James
Tim,
I have also put lots of time into this as well, so after careful examination of scripture and as much discernment as I can muster with His grace, I agree with James but expound a little;
We as Catholics typically and historically defend our notion of free will and accomplished works as a means to salvation, however, just like predestination can be misunderstood and used for a one sided gospel, so can we by virtue of giving ourselves credit, over do it.
Predestination is not a protestant idea, it’s Gods word that we’re reading. Through his word, it’s revealed to us that those of us in the end that he predestined, will be in union with him through Christ. Who is that, no one on earth knows, even a Calvanist will admit to that one. So the fact that God knows is enough for us that the message Paul writes to us accomplishes it’s goal. The end result is our hope, and in hope we are to live the Gospel, which by the way, unless you’re completely hard hearted, it’s pretty tough to miss the obvious. That is through Christ’s love and accomplished works, we then as servants are compelled to work for him in love. His people (the poor, the destitute, the lonely, the
sick, the widows, and brokenhearted and I could go on forever considering the state of our world today), see Christ’s love in us. That’s how his church perpetuates throughout the ages and is precisely who the Catholic church throughout history in the face of persecution either by others or of it’s circumstance and poor judgement, rages back and flourishes beyond measure. I realized this after reading “A concise history of the Catholic Church”. Take a look at Revelation 19:8, “to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteousness deeds of the saints”
We are those saints and a righteous deed to me is pretty clear, again not in obligation but in charity. That deep seated love for Christ in reverence for his accomplished work and that we would be among that elect that already was (in His view).
The Protestant view of once saved always saved and irresistible grace reduces God. Our
God reigns, which means to me have some respect for creation (in his likeness and
image). Man turns away from God of his own accord, they acknowledge that, therefore a will exists. Man can be blotted out from the book of life. The parable of the Great Feast to me clearly shows that those that were invited and had an excuse, were called but resisted.
I feel that incorporating the whole Gospel into our lives increases our faith as well as gives us hope by grace. The Holy Spirit works to reveal Gods will to us through prayer which leads us to charity. Then am I righteous by faith? Do I believe in his accomplished work? Am I an adopted child of Jesus Christ? Is God’s good pleasure and will fully realized in his individual creation that hears his call and carries out his Son’s instructions with genuine and unselfish motives? The Holy Spirit reveals these answers to you alone. The Church is my framework that I utilize to achieve the fullness of His desires. One, because the riches of his grace is poured out through the sacraments, and two because by faith, there is more of the truth revealed in His church than I can acquire alone. The church irradiates with love in it’s non-perfect human way and it’s perfection in that it was instituted by Christ.
Blessings, Shaun
