On Prayer

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 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. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (I Tim. 2:1-6). This is an article about the hotly debated topic of predestination. I would like for you to note the words "all men" in regard to who the apostle instructed us to pray and make intercession for. Next note the words "all men" in regard to who it is that it's God's will to save. Then don't miss how that the apostle said that Christ "gave himself a ransom for ALL." Again, that means "all men" or all of mankind. Next I would like to confirm the statement from the last verse by another passage: "And [Christ] is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (I Jn. 2:2). So once more we see that Jesus died at Calvary to pay the price for all sins of all men in "the whole world," as it is written. But I still want to hear it from the man who did die for the sins of the world, so let's look at this statement by Jesus: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die" (Jn. 12:32,33). Jesus couldn't have been more clear in saying that he would "draw all men" unto himself because of his death on the cross. So while it is true that Jesus said in another place, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him," it is also clear that "all men" is who the Father draws to him (Jn. 6:44). The scriptures we have seen here show us clearly that it is the will of "the Father which sent [Jesus]" to save all men, and that is why Jesus died for all men, and why he WILL draw all men unto himself; because he paid that monumental cost for all men. I could write a book here rebutting all of the scriptures that appear to be saying only some are chosen before the world began, to be the elect of God and thereby inherit eternal life, and that everyone else was foreordained to damnation. But the scriptures I have used are enough of a book to say the whole thing. I could also go on and on with scripture explaining how that mindset changes the nature of God from being truly benevolent to being partly benevolent and partly, or largely I should say, hard core and downright nasty.

The belief that you are simply what you are, and will be what you will be, because it was 'given to you' to be that way before the world began; produces two distinct mindsets. The one is an elitist mentality that makes us feel very 'special' about ourselves, and that everyone else is just desolate and pitiful. The other mode of thinking in that doctrine is one of, "Oh God, I'm just doomed!" And I've got news for you, those two mindsets are just two sides of the same coin, and that coin is the spirit of that faulty predestination doctrine. You see, that doctrine sets no one free from anything because it is not the truth. So those who believe that faulty way of thinking are going to be subject to both sides of that unstable coin, and are going to be unstable as a result. The truth is that the faulty predestination doctrine that I've described here robs the believer of the full knowledge and faith of God's nature of total and absolute good. If we can be made to question whether God is always intending good for us because he is always good, or whether he's 'setting us up' because maybe we're one of the bad guys; then it chips away at our hope. That's a real problem because if we need anything in this torn and desolate world, it's hope. Not to mention that hope is what saves us, according to the scriptures (Rom. 8:24,25; I Pet. 1:13). Of course on the other side of that coin, if we can be made to believe that we are the elect, and that many others may not be, then we aren't going to be very motivated to make "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks... for all men," as our first text verse instructs us to do. Not only so, but that way of thinking cultivates a judgmental spirit toward others who we may suspect are 'just not the elect.' The truth is what we have seen consistently from the scriptures, and that is that Christ died for all men and therefore it is the will of God to save all men. We have also seen that God is drawing all men unto Christ, so anyone who misses out will just be someone who turns the drawing away and doesn't follow it. The last point I will make is that after following the drawing from God to believe on Christ and be born again, which is to say be baptized BY Christ with the holy Ghost; God continues to draw us till the end of our lives. So just being born again does not make us the elect, but rather continuing to follow the same drawing of God till the end is what will save us. The scriptures declares the same: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14).

In fact the Bible is even more specific on that point: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall" (II Pet. 1:10). To clarify this point even further Jesus gave us this narrative about believers in the end time: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Mat. 24:12,13). Make no mistake, Jesus was referring to "the love of God [that] is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost," in saying that "the love of many shall wax cold." That means that those believers did not follow the drawing of God's love till the end, were not "led by the Spirit of God" till the end, and did not "make [their] calling and election sure" till the end. But if that isn't enough evidence on that, then take a look at this: "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (II Pet. 20,21). There can be no mistaking the message in that passage. So the truth of the matter is that it is 'set in stone' with God that we will be saved, and only our discontinuance in following his drawing can alter that. Yet the better news is that if we have fallen to the wayside, the drawing of God's absolute goodwill in and through Christ is still there for us to get back to. God and his Son will always feel toward us the same love and goodwill that sent Jesus to the cross, and as long as we are willing to believe that his death is bigger than any of our wrongs, there is always an assurance of hope, regardless of how far we have fallen. You might like to go over the text passages at the top of the article again. If you do you will see that they are all stand alone scriptures that say the same exact thing, and that thing is that God is willing to save all men because he respects the price that his Son paid that much. It's all up to every one of us to believe and receive his grace toward us, and not turn it away. Good news? I think so. Therein also is the true fear of God. There simply will be no excuses on judgment day. Amen.