Q23. Foreknowledge

[Pastor Ralph]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God’s foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

[Irmela]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2)

I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God's foreknowledge working alongside His ability to predestine?

If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

God sees the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end.  He also knows how we will use what we have in hand to complete a necessary task etc.  It is only by His grace that we can accomplish the task and He knows beforehand if we will make use of that grace or neglect it.  At the same time it is by faith we are making use of time and doing things without having a full picture of what it will end up like.

I think by trying to explain it one just talks in circles.  Then again if one truly understood everything 100 percent, surely then God would not be God. 

I praise Him for Who He is and am grateful for the grace He has given so freely and one can do things knowing   full well that He knows the end from the beginning,   Everything is safe and secure in His Hand.

[Krissi]

At this point, I simply look away when I read accounts of, or debates about, predestination and freewill. I don't understand it. I don't think I ever will.

What I want to know is if God answers my prayers for the salvation of others. Will He change His mind?  Does he bend His ear toward me and grant my desire that my father, for example, who is now very elderly and dying, accepts Him before his near death? If our "fate" is set in stone, predetermined before we are born, then why evangelize ... why struggle to tell people about Him? Why preach the good news?

I want to know if God answers prayers for the salvation of others. 

[Jen]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God’s foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

It is a mystery and if it weren't  a mystery it wouldn't be  be a mystery.

I can see God's foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine but how I don't know.  He knows everything ahead of time and He works all into His plan.  Nothing surprises Him.  It does me but not Him.  That is why He is the God He is, working wonders.

My sister in law entered into eternity this morning.  I never heard her talk much about the Bible except that she read it once.  Do I know where she is? No.  However I trust that He has answered our prayers and I believe she is with the Lord now. I trust that since He is not willing that anyone should perish that I can trust Him in this and love Him in this.  As to what is foreknowledge and what is predestination I do not know right now.  We are very tired and confused as often when things don't work out the way you expect or plan.  I just know I have trusted Him for many years and through many tears.  I believe I married into this family for a reason and I am trying right now to be comfort to my husband.  To think about this other stuff is for God and for me to do what He puts in front of me.

Like I said I feel confused and tired today. 

.God Bless!

Jen

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God"

Keep on praying!  He will make it clear in His time and He does hear our prayers.

Praise you Jesus!!

 

[Guitar Jim]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God’s foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

 

I've struggled with trying to understand predestination and God's foreknowledge for as long as I've been a Christian. OK, God knows ahead of time who will accept Jesus as their Saviour, and then after they become Christians, the good works they will perform in His Name. That's a kinda paraphrase of how predestination and foreknowledge are supposed to work in a Christian's life, right? As I understand it from my own experience, that's the working theory.

Life has dealt me many crushing blows. For starters we need to look at my childhood. I had an abusive father who would use any excuse to inflict pain upon me right from infancy through to when he discovered that he could no longer hurt me, in my early teens. Those thousands of beatings . . I kid you not. at every evening meal he'd punch me in the head just for burping during the meal; an involuntary biological process that all humans do, no matter how cultured they try to be. I suffered awful indigestion from trying to hold in the burps, and eventually just stoically accepted them rather than endure hours of indigestion trying to avoid them . . caused me to suffer what is known as "footballer's migraine", or continual concussion caused by  repeated blows to the head from which the sufferer could not recover from one hit to the next due to the frequency of the trauma. I didn't eat my greens from age five. What I remember to be the moment in my life that actually started it was when I puked at the dinner table from choking on a bean string. It got stuck in my throat and made me gag till I puked. Whether my father hit me for that I don't remember, but at that very moment the biggest fear in my life became puking from eating greens. I became so pathologically afraid of eating vegetables that I would endure beating after beating rather that eat the veges and risk the consequences my phobia had me believe would occur. For the most part, my parents just didn't put vegetables on my plate, but every now and then they would. I wasn't allowed to eat the food I did like, the meat and potatoes, until I'd eaten the food I didn't like, the peas or beans, and the pumpkin. Despite my trying to explain that the vegetables were gonna make me sick, my father took great delight in beating about the head and body until I hit the floor, then putting the slippers into me while I was on the floor. Then I'd be told to leave the table (or the floor beside the table, more likely) and go to my room. To add to that, a few minutes later my father would come into my room and give me an even more brutal beating to "give me something to cry about". About the worst example of that treatment happened on my ninth birthday. We got home from Sunday School and Mum had prepared a roast chicken for lunch for my birthday. Sadly, she'd put peas and pumpkin on my plate. When I started pushing them aside she told me to eat them first, then I'd appreciate the roast chicken and roast potato all the more after eating what I didn't like. But it was more than not wanting to eat what I didn't like. In my mind I'd be risking illness if I ate them. Anyway I received the customary punch in the head and got sent to my room with no lunch. A couple of hours later Mum came in and asked me if I was hungry. I said yes. She said she'd warmed up my lunch if I wanted to eat it so it began a second time. I started to cut up a piece of roast potato and she stopped me from doing that and told me to eat some pumpkin instead. I hesitated, hoping she'd relent, but no. Then my father came up the back stairs and asked if I was eating my vegetables. When Mum said no, he flew into a rage, raced over to where I was sitting at the table, grabbed me by the ears, and pushed my face into my food. Then he repeatedly bashed my face into the table many times. After that he grabbed me by the head and proceeded to drag me downstairs, bashing my head into the railing all the way down. Once downstairs he punched the daylights out of me with blows to my head and body until I went down. Then he began to kick me to my body over and over for some time, until my mother came downstairs and begged him to stop before he killed me! He said he wanted to kill me because he hated my guts and didn't even care if he got jailed for doing it. "At least I'll be alive and he'll be dead!!" That was far from being the first time I'd heard him say those words. It was almost like his mantra! Anyway, Mum dragged him off me and told him to go for a walk down to the park to cool down. I saw my chance and ran for my life under the house, right up to where the house was only just off the ground. We lived on a sloping block. I hoped and prayed he wouldn't be able to reach me up there. Mum began talking to me through the battens, telling me that this was the first argument she ans dad had ever had, and that it was my fault for not eating my veges. She coaxed me out and told me to just stay in my room for the rest of the day and night. So I got no dinner, and no presents for my birthday either, making it the worst birthday ever.

So why do I relate this tale? Well . . a few months prior to this all happening we'd had an evangelist come to our church for the combined Boys and Girls Brigade monthly Sunday evening service. He preached the Gospel and I quietly, under my breath, repeated the prayer he'd asked us to pray. I was too scared to even put my hand up when he asked for those who'd prayed the sinner's prayer, and I realise that may have been a mistake. But I'd accepted Jesus to live in my heart just the same, and I felt the tingle, the quickening, that one gets when they fell the Holy Spirit's presence come into their lives. Even before turning nine years old I was very aware that Jesus' Spirit was indwelling me. I was careful not to cuss, even in my mind, and to not tell a lie, and in general live a life worthy of God's calling. Then my birthday from hell happened. From that day, when I realised my father just may have killed me if not for my mother's intervention . . the ONLY time she ever intervened before or since that say I might add . . I'd had a deathly fear of him and began to hate him.
Now, I didn't want to grieve the Holy Spirit, but I really wanted to cuss my guts out at my father for being the monster that he surely was. So I asked Jesus to leave my heart so I wouldn't upset him by using foul language. Then I let loose with every cuss word I knew, venting my spleen against my father for not only that beating, but for all the hundreds of beatings he'd inflicted upon my head and body since before I could even remember! Many beatings were done in public, when something would set him off and he'd fly into a rage and flog me in front of everyone at the park, the beach, the shopping center, anywhere at all really. People would try to talk him down, to make him stop, but he'd bellow at them to mind their own business and let him "beat this b*****d to death because he hated me enough to kill me." After a few days had passed I humbly and repentantly asked Jesus to come back into my heart, but this time I felt no quickening, no feeling at all that could give me an assurance that I was a Christian once more.

So, my question is this . . Many are called, but few are chosen. That verse has been screaming in my brain for sixty years! Here's the rub:
I went to Church, Sunday School, Christian Endeavour, Boys Brigade, everything that was on at our church. But I felt like the outsider looking in. Then in January 1971 my friend and I joined the Baptist Youth Fellowship Rock Choir. It was a sincere attempt to try and make the most reformed denomination around appear more hip and appealing to teenagers. I had long hair, a weightlifters build, a singing voice as good as Art Garfunkel, and was generally viewed as being cool, so the folks in charge of BYF thought it'd be a good idea to use me as an example of being a Christian and still being cool. Of course they didn't ask me if that was OK with me. You see, any time anyone asked me how long I'd been a Christian, I'd tell 'em "about six months". One of the older teenagers (I was just shy of 17 at the time) on the BYF Easter camp in 1971 took me aside on the Saturday night and asked me directly if I was really a Christian. I told him not really. So he asked me if I wanted to become a Christian and I said yes. So he led me to Jesus right there, outside our hut at the camp. He told me there'd be a Gospel service the following night and that I should go forward when the invitation was given and explain that he'd led me to Christ the previous evening. So I went forward, and the group of counsellors saw me do that and figured I'd come to help with the counselling, so they sent me back to be with my friends because they had things covered there. So, again, I didn't get counselling. In fact I never had counselling right up until eleven years later when I'd been an apostate for ten years, and bumped into another guy from the old BYF who was now a Reverend, and he lovingly led me back out of the cold to become a full-on Christian. He held the counselling classes himself and made sure all us newbies received God-given counselling. He and I became firm friends from that time on.

But I never felt any callings on my heart to undertake any kind of ministry. I had always lifted weights and by this time I'd become a competitive Powerlifter. My Pastor asked me to participate in a Christian Sportsperson service in which he interviewed me and I did a brief strength demonstration along with that. That actually opened the door for me to be kinda accepted by the church body which was nice. Then came the requests to coach one of the soccer teams, which I declined because I didn't know the first thing about soccer! I had to explain to them that I needed to train in the evenings because I worked full time as a truck driver through the day. I made no secret of the fact that I was a Christian when I went to Powerlifting and I did my utmost, with God's help, to live an upright life. But my witnessing was brought undone when the president of Powerlifting in my state, and a very close friend of mine, was found out to be a paedophile by his wife. He'd been interfering with their three-year-old daughter!! Even though his wife promised not to reveal that to any of us, he quickly realised that I'd figure things out in no time because I had this whole father-confessor thing happening, and his wife had come back to Christ after her hubby and I became friends and she and my wife became close as well. So he came up with a cover story to deflect any heat he may have drawn if anyone found out his wife had licked him out for incest. The story went that I'd recruited his wife to an extremist Christian cult, and when he wouldn't convert, the cult made up the paedophile-incest story to keep him from contacting her and their daughter, and that I was in on all that. Every friend I had in Powerlifting shunned me for "breaking up their leader's marriage". There went eleven years of Christian witnessing down the gurgler. His wife is still the only person I've led to Christ.

Every time I get something good going, it gets derailed . . no, no derailed so much as completely and utterly destroyed. In 1997 my job and career as a truck driver got finished when I tore some tendons in my gear-jammin' arm. But that opened the door for me to use my considerable skill as a Blues-Rock guitarist to forge a new career. After intense counselling from the associate Pastor at Church, I felt I was doing God's Will and so I threw myself into that and worked in the music industry full-time for 25 years. But after 23 years my bad back decided to let me down completely and utterly, and I was unable to keep gigging full time. The only gigs I was able to do were the Biker gigs, where the guys would help me with my gear, loading in and out. But even that was taken from me in 2021 when my hands stopped working properly, making it impossible for me to play guitar worth spit. There is no cure for that and nowadays I just mope around my apartment waiting to die.

Many are called, but few are chosen. I was just starting to make headway into the dark Godless world of the biker community when this final unbearable blow hit me. Now my mantle has been taken by another guy, a phony friend who back-stabbed me when my wife and I split up; a man with a tiny fraction of the talent I had is now doing ALL the gigs I'd be doing if I was still whole. But I'm seriously broken and an atheist has taken over my job. The devil is behind all this, as he undoubtedly was behind everything that has prevented me from serving Christ. I was bullied out of an education at high school and after 18 months of that I finally snapped under the strain of it and put the leaders of the two gangs responsible for the bullying in hospital, to make it stop. So, no witnessing possible at school. At every job I worked things invariably went sideways and I was marginalised to the point where no witnessing was possible at work. In the music industry I rose to the top as far as raw talent went, and was demonised by the evil people who run the industry so as to prevent me from making any headway at all. Their increasingly sinister lies they told to stop me from getting hired eventually escalated to them calling me a sexual deviant and a rapist!! Of course nothing was ever written down; it was all verbal, and I can never prove any of it. The pub manager who told me all the things they were saying has moved interstate and out of the hotel industry, so no one can attest to anything. So no witnessing possible as a musician.

So here I am at 69 years old. Nothing to show for 50 years of being a Christian, to some extent or other, but the last 40 years I've never fallen away.
Many are called, but few are chosen. Could it be that I was called, but missed the cut? Could my not being chosen be the reason I've never had victory in my life? Could that rash decision when I was nine have killed off my chances?

[Irmela]

Dear Guitar Jim,  Praying for you, that God's peace and love will fill your heart and life.   His instruction given in THE LORD'S PRAYER is ".   .   .  forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us'.   This includes all that your father said and did to you.  Plus all the rest.  May you experience and offer God's grace in this situation.  May you find healing in your brokenness.

Dear Jen,  may you experience God's calm and comfort in your pain also.  Praying for you

 

[t-c]

This is truly a divine mystery of God that will probably remain a mystery this side of heaven. 
That being said, God sees the beginning and the end of time as well as everything in between. He already knows what is going to happen in the future. Everything, including whether or not you or I make a decision, (faith/heart) to accept and follow Christ. Even  though I make a profession of faith, God and God alone  transforms me from dead to sin to alive in Christ. 
That is God’s foreknowledge.

God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Timothy 2:4  The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 For God so loved the world…  This is God’s predestination for all mankind. He chooses everyone to be saved, they a predestined for salvation but we must turn away from sin and put our faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ. God decides whether we are saved, not us. We can’t choose the time and date of our salvation;  people can’t say that I’m going to wait until I’m older to accept Christ; it may never happen. The time is now!

God discerns in us when our hearts are broken to sin and we are trusting, relying and clinging to Jesus. He calls us all to salvation but know in advance who will answer His calling.

 

[Lottie]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God's foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination? God alone knew beforehand who would respond to Him and who would not. The ones that He knew would respond to Him are the ones He chose. Not based on our good works but on whose heart was softened and ready to accept Jesus as Lord. For clearly it is the Spirit who draws people to God. And God knew beforehand who would come and who would resist. Faith alone is involved in the determination. God knew who would have faith and believe before it even happened. He wants all people to be saved but some will choose not to come to Him. Clearly man has free will to choose life or death and they cannot be forced to come.

 

[Rolande]

Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

“Foreknow” is God’s determination from eternity to bring certain ones into a special relationship with Himself. This is not simple advance knowledge. This knowledge should also not be understood in the sense of “being acquainted with,” but in the sense of “bringing into a special relation with”. Foreknowledge is God’s determination from eternity to bring certain ones into a special relationship with Himself.

“Predestinate” literally means “to mark off or choose before.” God chooses those He knows will participate in His plan of salvation and extends it to all who respond in faith. The doctrine of predestination in Scripture relates to the foreknowledge of God.

Eph. 1:5: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”.

Predestination is especially noticeable in the conversion of the apostle Paul. Since he was a blasphemer and persecutor of the church, some Christians had a difficult time believing Paul could be saved even after he so testified. Still, knowing what was ahead and how Paul would respond, God chose him as Apostle to the Gentiles.

When we understand that God has chosen and predestined us, we should also realize we have been ordained to good works, to bear fruit and to become like Jesus.

We see from this scripture, that this predestination did not overrule our will. What this is really saying, is that God knew from even before you were born, how you would choose. God has foreknowledge of all happenings, not only in my life and yours, but he knows everything from the beginning of time to the end of time.

This is because of His foreknowledge. It is predestined, because He foreknew your decision. Jesus’ crucifixion was planned from the foundation of the earth. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus paid for you and me to be adopted into the family with His precious blood at Calvary. We are part of the family of God, because our elder brother (God’s only begotten Son), purchased our right to be called God’s sons.

Romans 8:30 “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

In 2 Timothy 1:9 we read:

2 Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called [us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,”

“Called”: The calling (of 8:28), is pre-temporal; it occurred before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4). The calling here is temporal and refers to the effectual communication of the gospel, resulting in salvation.

“Justified” indicates being declared righteous. It signifies the believer’s judicial standing before God. There is no just cause in man to warrant justification. This unmerited favor is bestowed through the redemption paid by Jesus Christ on the cross. The redeemed sinner is released on the basis of the ransom’s having been paid.

“Glorified”: Glorification is God’s doing. While God’s foreknowledge and predestination take place in eternity, and while God’s calling and justification are realized in history, God’s glorifying is yet future. It is as certain, however, as the previous works. Hence glorified is in the past tense. From God’s point of view it is already accomplished.

The plan was set at the foundation of the world. Man could not be saved by his own deeds, he must have a Savior. That Savior we must have is Jesus Christ our Lord. We do know that God’s call for many of His ministers was a call before they were even born, like John the Baptist.

John the Baptist’s entire life (even before birth), was planned of God. Read the account of John the Baptist’s birth (in Luke chapter 1). This does not mean that John had no Choice. He could have refused, but he didn’t. God knew he would carry out God’s purpose in his life. Obedience to God’s will in our life will bring peace in our life too.

Most people today take their call to serve God far too lightly. It is serious business to answer God’s call and serve God. We must first be able to say “not my will be done, but thine O Lord” and then say, “Here am I Lord, send me”.

[Rob Mc.]

On 2/18/2023 at 4:07 PM, Jen said:

My sister in law entered into eternity this morning.  I never heard her talk much about the Bible except that she read it once.  Do I know where she is? No.  However I trust that He has answered our prayers and I believe she is with the Lord now. I trust that since He is not willing that anyone should perish that I can trust Him in this and love Him in this.  As to what is foreknowledge and what is predestination I do not know right now.  We are very tired and confused as often when things don't work out the way you expect or plan.  I just know I have trusted Him for many years and through many tears.  I believe I married into this family for a reason and I am trying right now to be comfort to my husband.  To think about this other stuff is for God and for me to do what He puts in front of me.

Jen,  I was saddened to read this segment of your post.  I, too will pray for your sister-in-law, and your family.  May God hold your husband in his comfort as he deals with this loss.

[Rob Mc.]

I think that the verse in Acts that you shared, "All who were appointed for eternal life believed." (Acts 13:48b) really gets to the crux of the issue.  “Appointed” sort of combines the two key terms you are asking about: foreknowledge and predestine.

When someone is appointed to a position, the appointment is usually based on some pre-known characteristics or traits that the person has.  The organization or person making the appointment has foreknowledge about the candidate, and the candidate learned some particular skills that help him be a viable candidate for the appointment (predestination, of a sort).

God created everything.  He wants mankind to rule over creation.  That takes a wide range of skills, attitudes, and emotional stability.  One (Human) person could not be God’s appointee to manage his world.  He needs many, many people from each generation to take on the leadership roles that were/are needed.

 So, in the beginning, along with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Solomon, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the other generational leaders, you and I were also selected to be here, in this place, at this time, to take on our part.  (Including you GUITAR JIM !!  I cannot tell you why he brought you through the life you had, but your story will have the ending that only God can give it.  Hold fast to your faith (with all you have).  God loves you, he will reward you more than you can imagine, and it will be for all eternity.  No suffering, no head pains, no self doubt, no heavy lifting.  Just LOVE...)

God’s grace brought us to Him when He called.  Our faith, which He preordained in us, causes us to believe.  We fight our free will and the pull of the flesh to remain His, and we can do it because His grace renews in us day after day.  We also have an advocate in the Holy Spirit to help us, and our High Priest, Jesus in whose name we can pray. 

[hanks]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) 
I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God's foreknowledge working alongside His ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?
I don’t think it is God’s foreknowledge of our actions that saves us or condemns us. It is not God looking ahead of time and seeing if we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord or not. To me God is sovereign and He chooses, in accordance with His pleasure and will (Eph 1:5), to save some. Most importantly this is not about who will believe or not. It is not based on something we do or will do, but on why some believe and others not. Some believe because they have been chosen, predestined according to God’s plan (Eph 1:11), and are saved. Since we are all sinners, all that we deserve is death (Rom 6:23). Yet in His love and mercy God saves some, those He saves receive grace and the unsaved receive justice – no one receives injustice. All those God predestined will be saved because they are the ones God the Father gives to His Son Jesus (John 6:37). This is all done by God’s grace, tons of grace! I can only speak from personal experience. The moment I was regenerated and received faith, I had to make the decision to trust in Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I clearly remember this (1982). It took me quite a few moments to react. I’m forever grateful that I made the right decision. I mention this to emphasize that I was not dragged or forced to do this. Having been saved was the start of my long journey of doing good works by imitating our Lord Jesus. Gradually the fruit of the Spirit became more and more visible. Thank You Lord! 
 

[BoazNigel]

This is a complex issue - & a 'mystery'!

If we could fully understand we would be equal to God ... WE ARE NOT!!

Suffice to say we live in a finite world & God dwells in 'eternity living outside our 'space-time continuum' but reaching in & interacting with us

How it all fits together is a 'mystery' & there are aspects & times we have to say with Abraham "Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?" (Gen 18:25b, NLT)

[Katy]

God knows everything that happens in this world, He predetermines things that happen to us. Just how He does this or the part foreknowledge plays in this is not clear, it has not been revealed to us. Deuteronomy 29v29 The secret things belong to the Lord Our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of the law. There is a definite link between foreknowledge and predestination, we see this in Roman8v 29. Paul tells us in Romans 11 v5 that we are chosen by grace. It is by God’s grace we are chosen not by anything we have done. We need to have faith in God before we can be saved. Is this the foreknowledge that God has? That He knows who will choose to accept Him and believe in Him. I don’t know very much about this subject as it is not something that overly concerns me. As long as I believe in God and what Jesus has done for me, I have repented from my sin and I am daily following Jesus as well as I can. Then I trust Jesus for everything. Genesis 18v25. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? 

[haar]

Q. 23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God's foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

For me, I always wonder that if one cannot come to Christ until the Father gives him, or draws/ enable him, then why will it be my fault if I did not accept Christ.

Please find below my references quoted from Pastor Raplph’s message above:

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44)

"No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." (John 6:65)

"No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Luke 10:22)

……..I personally want God to enable me to have faith in Jesus and sincerely need the grace of God to understand all these teaching.

[lighthouse2014]

I believe every person in human kind has at one time or other has the opportunity to believe and come to faith in the true God. In predestination God knows who the believers are, but being a just and righteous God he gives everyone the opportunity to believe or reject Him.

Coming to faith in Jesus, God gives us his grace of salvation, in turn our good works testify of our faith.         

[Zanele Tlhakanelo]

When the Word of God says He is Omniscient, it means He knows everything. God says in Jeremiah 29 verse 11  "For I know the plans I have for you", God knew us before we were even formed formed in our mothers' wombs and sanctified us. God predestined us and foreknew everything about. His Word says God knows out thoughts and this basically translates that there is nothing that can be hidden to Him. God allows us to make mistakes but knows that we will come back to Him when the odds are against us. He knows are intents and therefore, we cannot deceive Him and pretend to be righteous. It is only through Grace that we are saved. God is faithful and always gives us the opportunity to repent.

Faith is us believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and when we serve God's people we are doing not only doing that unto men but  unto God as well. We are not buying faith through our works but we are showing our gratitude to God through our works.

 

[Debra Grant]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God’s foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

1. God knew who would be willing to obey him and who would not. He gives us all a chance and we have the authority to take it or not. He knew who would need strong encouragement to receive his grace. He knew those that would waste their time and life on damage. He called those who would do his will and predestine them to live holy and encourage others as they do his will.

2. We must believe and have faith that God sent his only be gotten son down here on earth for us to be saved by grace because we did not earn or deserve it. It is not by good works that we do, but having a will to obey he predestined what would be best in our life.

[Dixter Kaluba]

I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God's foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine?

God predestine our salvation based on his foreknowledge of our faith. God lays his plan for our salvation, but it will take an individual's faith to move to receive his grace in order to gain our salvation

If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

Faith is the recognition of the influence of God's action in our  lives. Once we recognise his influence, we commit ourselves to good works as a way of expressing our faith in God.

 

[JOLLAM BANDA]

Our God is a sovereign God. His ability to predestine us is because of his grace and not foreknowledge of how good we would be. Our works of righteousness do not count in His choosing of us. We are chosen because of his grace and not our works. God foresees our faith in Christ, which is also given to us by God by grace. Those chosen by God through faith in Jesus Christ are also given the ability, by the grace of God, to do good works. Even the goods works are a gift from God by his grace.

[pickledilly]

I believe that God predestined the outcome for all who respond to the gift of redemption with faith and, conversely, the outcome for all who reject that gift of grace. As Alpha and Omega, God has full omniscience and foreknowledge of the entire timeline of humanity’s existence past, present, and future. He knows reality before it becomes real. With that knowledge, He foreordained these resulting outcomes of the 2 choices every person must decide between. But I don’t find anything in Scripture to say that He forces either choice on anyone through His knowledge or predestination of the outcome of that choice.

It certainly is a profound mystery to us, but what I can understand from 1Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9b is that God longs that all people would come to repentance and be saved. He doesn’t create anyone apart from His desire that each be saved from sin’s consequences. Ezekiel 18:23,32; and 33:11 describe His heartbreak over the spiritual death of every person who does not turn to Him. He is always at work through His Spirit to draw people to Him. Every person has the responsibility to willingly respond to His calling with faith in His grace. That choice of authentic faith is then followed by growing into and living out the good works of the new life in Christ that He predestined and intends for His children on our new journey through this life.

There are so many concepts here that relate to each other and have connections that I don’t pretend to have one nice, tidy answer. I simply trust the Lord’s expressed desire that all would be saved and continue to pray for those who haven’t yet responded to His grace.

KRISSI, I want to offer encouragement for your statement I want to know if God answers prayers for the salvation of others.  1Timothy2:1,3-4 holds an answer for us.  Paul urged believers to pray for all people with supplications and intercessions.  He said "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".  Keep praying!

[Old Jerry]

I haven’t given this much thought. It is in the bible so it must be true. How He does it I have no idea. It is God’s grace and the faith that God gave me that makes me do good works and this is all fit into this predestination.

[Lisa Wolf]

Q23. (Romans 8:28-30; 1 Peter 1:1-2) I realize that this is a mystery, but how do you see God’s foreknowledge working alongside his ability to predestine? If all this is by grace, how might faith and/or good works fit into this predestination?

 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8

 

To God’s elect, exiles scattered... who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:  Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1 Peter 1

The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in each Christian is bringing about God's ultimate plan.  Scripture tells us that God wills all men to come to know Him.  "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) When we decide to place our faith in God, He is free to work in us to have divine appointments with others who will or do share the same faith. Once during college the Spirit prompted me, 'Go tell that person standing there about Jesus' I froze. I stood there. I did not move.  And while frozen there, another person I knew to be a Christian, walked up and started talking with the person.  God showed me  in that incident that He is working with me or in spite of me.  His will is sovereign. Foreknowledge and predestination.  Was that person to decide for Christ that day?