Religion - Free will? Once saved always saved?
Last night at our weekly bible study, we got into a pretty good discussion about two different things.
1. Do we as humans have free will, knowing that God knows everything including every little detail of our lives from beginning to end?
2. If you were saved at a point in time, is it possible to walk away from Christ? If so...then were you ever "truly" saved in the first place?
Our group could not agree one way or the other. If you would like to weigh in on this, please feel free to post your opinion in the comments section. You may post your comment anonymously.
posted by Dante @ 11:25 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Word... God's knowledge of the outcome of our lives is not a predetermining factor in the outcome. That's just God's nature... he knows all. He has a definate path the He desires us to take, and if we stay attuned perfectly to His will, then we would follow that path exactly because we chose to follow His lead. Adversely, we can also choose to not follow His lead. He still knows the results of our decisions either way, but does not mandate our personal choice.
God did not create man so that man would turn his back on God. He created us to have constand communion with Him. But, He gave us the choice to choose that forbidden fruit and have our eyes opened to the pain and suffering, the chaos that exists in contrast to the innocence and perfection. That was not His plan, nor His will, but it was His desire to allow us to use our minds, and make our own choices. This actually leads us to a whole slew of topics including, but not limited to the nature of prayer, the tendency for order to spiral into chaos, the question as to whether or not we can reclaim God's path if we have strayed from it, and how specific God's path is for our lives in the first place. We can discuss those if anyone desires to.
As for question number two... In order for one to be saved in the first place, one must choose God's grace. If once we are saved then, we are unable to walk away (the once saved always saved arguement), then we have lost our free will. Why would we not still be able to exercise free will and choose to walk away from Christ if we were allowed to choose Him at first? Well, that's not the case, our free will exists from the moment we are born, until the moment we are judged. If our free will ceased to exist when we first choose to follow Christ, then we would no longer sin because we would only do the will of God. Obviously, we sin, regardless of the status of our salvation, thus our free will remains.
As for the matter of being "truly" saved in the first place, Revelation is clear that we can be blotted out of the book of life for taking the mark of the best. In order to be blotted out of the book, we must have first been in the book. How do you get in the book?... by accepting Christ as Lord. Revelation 3:5 states that he who overcomes (and lives according to God's will) will not be blotted out of the Lamb's book of life. Therefore, in order to maintain salvation, we must live according to God's will. So, we can accept salvation at any point in our life, but it may be easier to walk away from it than is commonly thought. Not to say that God is trying to shun us and damn us to hell, but we can easily choose to walk according to our own will, and in doing so be constantly outside of His.
Two key examples of this are David and Solomon. David messed up a lot... A LOT. But, at the end of his life, he was considered to be a man after God's own heart. In all of his sin, David still chose to return to, and confess his sin to God; David still chose to surrender himself to God. Solomon on the other hand walked with God, tried to do things he though God would want, but after time because prideful and followed his own path, and at the end of his life, there is no indication that he had remaind with God, or that he was to be judged as being righteous.
In closing, we have a choice; we have free will. We are able to make the choice to follow God's path for our lives, or to fall into our own path. God will know the outcome of our life either way. He knows how He wants it to end, and how it actually will end. What matters most is that we make a conscious effort to try and make sure that we influence people to end up where his path does when they are judged.
1. We have total free will.
2. God knows the outcome of all of our choices, so our lives are pre-destined.
God is a God of dualities, get used to it. He is both just and vengance, he is both love and condemnation.
"And we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose. 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. 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" (Romans 8:28-30),
Paul shows us that all God foreknew will be called,
justified and glorified. Beginning back in God's foreknowledge and reaching out beyond time to final glorification, Paul plainly says that not a single one whom God foreknew would be saved, will ever fail to reach final glorification.
Therefore apostasy is impossible.
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