Ok so I didn’t know if you just wanted my opinion in an overview or the real meaty stuff

so I’ll give you what I think and you can do what you want with it.
The teaching of predestination is as old as time but was formed into a theory and first
taught by a guy named John Calvin in the early16th century. The teachings of Calvin were
debated by a guy named Arminius in the late 16th early 17th century. So back then you had
the Calvinist and the Armenians. Calvinist wholeheartedly believed in predestination.
Armenians believe the opposite but that’s not really that important at this point.
Calvin’s teachings on predestination were formed into (what I believe is only a theory)
called the TULIP theology. Total Depravity: Unconditional Election: Limited
Atonement: Irresistible Grace: Perseverance of the Saints: I will briefly explain although,
as you will see, I am not good at being brief.
REMEMBER this is Calvin’s theology on predestination (the belief that humans were
created, some, ‘elected’ or predestined to salvation, some dammed to hell from birth.
This is predestination theology and NOT what the Bible says.)
Total Depravity: Calvin writes; “Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all
ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man being
altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to
convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.” Meaning, Man is totally corrupt and
dead in his sin so that he cannot even respond to the gospel unless God sovereignly
enables him, which only happens if he is one of the elect or predestined.
By the way I will show you what the Bible has to say about each one of these points later.
Unconditional Election: Calvin said; “Predestination we call the decree of God, by which
He has determined in Himself, what He would have to become of every individual of
mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny: but eternal life is
foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others” (Institutes of the Christian
Religion, Book III, chap. 21). Calvin emphasized his belief in sovereign reprobation as
follows: “[God] devotes to destruction whom he pleases … they are predestinated to
eternal death without any demerit of their own, merely by his sovereign will. … he orders
all things by his counsel and decree in such a manner, that some men are born devoted
from the womb to certain death, that his name by glorified in their destruction. ... God
chooses whom he will as his children … while he rejects and reprobates others”
(Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, chap. 23). This basically means God
unconditionally and “sovereignly” elects or predetermines who will be saved and this
election or predestination has nothing to do with anything the sinner does, including
exercising faith in the gospel.
Limited Atonement: Calvin Said “When it appears that when the doctrine of salvation is
offered to all for their effectual benefit, it is a corrupt prostitution of that which is
declared to be reserved particularly for the children of the church” (Institutes, Book III,
chap. 22). Basicaly meaning The death of Christ was only for those God has sovereignly
elected. He denounced the universal offer of the Gospel.
Irresistible Grace: Calvin taught “This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace
alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until,
being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this
call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it. Others, not elected, although
they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations
of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved...”
basicaly he is saying that God’s call to the elect is effectual and cannot be resisted.
Perseverance of the Saints: he also taught “Those whom God hath accepted in the
Beloved, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never totally nor finally fall away from the
state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall through
neglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and
comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they
shall be renewed again unto repentance, and be kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation” (Abstract of Principles, 1858). Which simply means those who are
predestined and have been regenerated will continue in the faith.

There are allot of people who believe this theology. I believe that these teaching are not
theology at all but philosophy but I will not bore you with that. if you are still reading this
I would rather give answers to the basic teaching.

First – the Total Depravity: of humans; The Bible in fact does teach that humans are
morally corrupt and dead in sins –
Romans 3:10 – 18 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none
that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way,
they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their
throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps
[is] under their lips: Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet [are] swift
to shed blood: Destruction and misery [are] in their ways: And the way of peace have
they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
1 Cor. 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.

However. You will never find a verse in the Bible that even remotely states that a person
is so dead in sin that he cannot of his own free will repent of that sin and be saved. In
fact, the bible DOES tell us that God enables men to respond, giving them light –
John 1:9 [That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
–
Talking about Jesus of course. It also clearly states that God draws us in –
John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me.
And that He convicts us - Jn. 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
God call us through the gospel - Mk. 16:15-16 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. –
and commands us to repent - And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent: ( one of my favorite verses by the way ,for
allot of reasons)
God also asks us to believe, of our own free will, on Christ - Acts 16:31 And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
So in my opinon, in order for there to be such a thing as predestination we would have to
be so dead in sin that we could not accept Christ’ forgiveness for that sin which I believe
I have proven the Bible says, in fact commands us to do.

Next there is Unconditional Election: this is a big one because it sort of negates the fact
that we have to have faith. While it is a fact that we are not saved by any work that we
could do, we are in fact saved by faith, our faith. The belief and trust that Christ died for
our sins and that we must accept his payment for that sin and accept the forgiveness that
comes with it. I do want to address this briefly, but as you can see I can not be brief.
Anyway, we saw in point one that Calvin believe that a man is dead in sin, in this point
he teaches that faith is not the Cause of salvation but the RESULT if it. The Bible clearly
states otherwise

- John 3: 1 – 16 1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a uler of the
Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God
be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb,
and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of
the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto
thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one
that is born of the Spirit. 9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things
be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not
these things? 11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that
we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12If I have told you earthly things, and ye
believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13And no man hath
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which
is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

In verse 1-8 Jesus teaches Nicodemus that he must be born again or he cannot see the
kingdom of God. In verse 9, Nicodemus asks Jesus how this can be. In verse 10-21, Jesus
answers this question and explains how a man is born again, and the answer is that he is
born again by believing verse 14 – 16. When the Bible says the sinner is dead in
trespasses and sins it means that he is separated from God because of sin. To take this
analogy beyond the actual teaching of the Bible and to give it other meanings, such as to
reason that since the sinner is dead in sins he must not be able to believe, is clearly NOT
what the Bible says.
There is a direct order to salvation - Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye
believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.

the order of salvation is clear - Acts 16:30-31 30And brought them out, and said, Sirs,
what must I do to be saved? 31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved, and thy house.

Note that the jailer was not born again when he asked what he must do to be saved, and
Paul replied that he must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously Paul knew that the
man could do exactly that and that by believing he would be born again.

Some more verses on the order of salvation - Eph. 2:8-9 -- “For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man
should boast.” We are saved by our own faith in the promise of God.

So what does 2 Thess. 2:13 mean, when it says we are chosen to salvation? - But we are
bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and
belief of the truth:

We just talked about how belief of the truth or faith in Gods promise precedes salvation
At the same time, from God’s perspective the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of
the truth occur simultaneously. Though we are saved through faith, that faith in the
context of the Spirit of God drawing and convicting and finally regenerating and
sanctifying. It would therefore be humanly impossible to separate the “belief of the truth”
from the “sanctification of the Spirit.” Putting these together I conclude that this one
verse is not speaking in a time line sort of way however it is the word of God and is true.
I believe they go together.

Calvin’s teaching of Limited Atonement is a relatively easy one to refute. To be

predestined would mean that some are chosen and the rest are not. There are so many
ALL verses in the Bible I’m not sure where to start.

The Bible says that God loves ALL (the world) people. John 3:16 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.

God has commanded that the gospel be preached to EVERY person. Mrk 16:15 And he
said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

God wants to have mercy upon ALL people. Romans 11:32 For God hath concluded
them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

God desires to reconcile the WORLD to Himself - 2 Cor. 5:19 To wit, that God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
The promise of faith by Jesus is for ALL people -Gal. 3:22 But the scripture hath
concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe.
Jesus was a ransom for ALL people - 1 Tim. 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be
testified in due time.
Jesus tasted death for EVERY men - Heb. 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he
by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

that death, by the way, was separation form God the father, which for Jesus was the
ultimate humiliation.
Jesus bought even unsaved false teachers who hated Him - 2 Pet. 2:1 But there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and
bring upon themselves swift destruction.
God desires ALL people to be saved- 2 Pet. 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Jesus provided propitiation for all men. The Bible Actualy says the WHOLE world - 1 Jn.
2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of]
the whole world.
The iniquity of ‘US ALL’ was laid on Jesus - Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all.

So the Bible couldn’t be more clear that all, every person in the whole world, is loved by
God and that it is his will and desire that we come to him.

Calvin also taught that the saved were predestined to salvation because of Irresistible
Grace. Meaning that God called or predestined certain people that he wanted and they did
not have a choice. In the following verses the Bible tells us about people that God
continually called but they did not acknowledge his call and they did that clearly by their
own choice.

Gen. 4:6-7 -- “And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy
countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
God called to Cain and urged him not to act on the jealous anger that was burning in his
heart, and yet Cain resisted God’s will and murdered his brother. God gave Cain a clear
choice. There is nothing in this verse that would make me think for one minute that God
had predetermined that Cain become a murderer.

From the beginig God wanted to save Isreal - Rom. 10:21 -- “But to Israel he saith, All
day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” This
verse says that God wanted to save Israel and continually reached out to them, but God’s
salvation was resisted and rejected.

Look at Israel in Jesus’ time - Matt. 23:37 -- “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest
the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not!” John 5:40 “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
in these verse it’s clear that the sovereign will of Jesus, who desired to save Israel
throughout her history and who often sent His prophets to her, was refused by them.

what about people today ? - 2 Cor. 4:3-4 -- “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them.”
These verses tell us that men are blinded because of their own unbelief and they are lost
because they reject the gospel.

It is God’s will to save every sinner - 1 Tim. 2:3-4 Who will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.; 2 Pet. 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

but people can definitely chose not to listen to Him. Even in the future, people will be
dammed not because they were predestined to be, but because they resisted by choice the
truth that was given to them. 2 Thess. 2:10-12 -- “And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.”

So to be predestined, we would have to not be able to resist. If God wanted us to be

saved we would not be able to resist. These verses clearly state what the Bible says about
the Fact that Humans can and have throughout History, resist Gods calling by their own
choice.

I highly doubt that you are still reading this but if you are I will tell you that there are
things that are above me and I am not fully studied on. As far as I have studied I cant
really find a problem with the teaching of the perseverance of the saints Perhaps I don’t
fully understand it. I do believe in eternal security, that is to say that I believe that once
your saved you are always a child of God and can never be anything other than that. How
you live for him …well… that is your choice! That is another huge topic we could talk
about later if you want to.

Again, there are some things that I am not completely clear on and I do believe that we
will have to wait until we get to heaven to find out why or how God does these things. I
do not believe that the Bible contradicts itself. I do know that I am a person of limited
knowledge capacity trying to understand a god of unlimited knowledge. This is what I am
saying - Consider Acts 13:48 and Acts 13:46
Verse 48 is one they will always go to: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed.”
The Calvinist says, “See, here is a plain statement that those who believe are those who
are sovereignly ordained to believe.” The problem is that the word “sovereignly” is added
to what this verse actually states and Calvinist doctrine is read into the verse to make it
say, “...as many as were sovereignly and arbitrarily elected believed.” Any possibility
that God’s foreknowledge would allow freedom of choice is entirely discounted, but
there is nothing in the verse itself that says that.

Also, in verse 46 we see a different story. “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said,
It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye
put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles.”
these verses say that salvation is associated with man’s response to the gospel. According
to the plain teaching of this verse, these Jews did not go to Hell because they were not
part of the elect or because they were predestined to, but simply because they refused to
believe. They damned themselves. Paul told them that God wanted to give them
everlasting life and they rejected it.

Consider John 6:37 and John 6:40

Again, John 6:37 is a favorite Calvinist verse. “All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
The Calvinist finds the doctrine of Sovereign Election and Irresistible Grace here. The
problem is that if “irresistible grace” is taught in this passage, it is for all who believe on
Christ and not merely for a special few who were sovereignly pre-elected to be saved.
This verse does not say that God has sovereignly pre-chosen only some for salvation and
that it is those pre-chosen ones that are given to Christ. One must read all of that into the
verse. It simply says that all that the Father gives will come to Christ. The question is
this: “Who is it that the Father gives to Jesus?”
That question is answered plainly in this passage only three verses later: “And this is the
will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may
have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:40). (Of course the
Calvinist argues that it is only the elect who can “see the Son,” but you would have to
read that into the verse.)
In verse 40 we see that the sovereign will of God is that each and every sinner that
believes on Christ will be saved. Here the sovereign will of God is to allow men a choice
in salvation, and allot of other verses agree.

Consider John 6:44 and John 12:32

John 6:44 is another Calvinist proof text. “No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The Calvinist finds sovereign election and irresistible grace here.
Yet John 12:32 says, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Here we see that Jesus draws all men.
How can these seemingly contradictory things be reconciled? Calvinism doesn’t have the
answer, because its proposed solution ignores or twists too many clear Scriptures.
I don’t believe that I can understand these things here on earth. We should simply let
them stand and not try to force them into a perfectly formed theological system. God
truly elects and man truly chooses. God elects and yet every man is urged to be saved and
every man can be saved. God elects and yet sent His Son to die for the whole world. God
elects and yet does not want any sinner to perish.
All are equally true and Scriptural, so let them ALL stand and do not try to reconcile that
which the Bible itself does not reconcile and which therefore cannot be reconciled into a
neat theological package in this here on earth.

So anyway if you actually read all of this I would be amazed but you would certainly be
educated on the belief that humans are predestined by God for eternity. If you have any
other questions please don’t hesitate to ask me. I do like to do this sort of thing. All in all
I hope this answered some of your questions. I apologize about the readability, I was
more focused on the content than where a comma or capital letter should be. : - )