re: United Methodist Church special session this week

quote:

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Also, if you believe God knows all, then he can’t learn. He therefore could not learn of your choice to follow him. He already knew. Therefore, the choice necessarily has to be preordained.

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That's conflating foreknowledge (knowing who would accept and who would reject) with predestination. That's what Calvin does in his teachings (especially in the areas of Limited Atonement and Irresistible Grace). Whereas traditional theology teaches that though God does know who will accept and who will reject His Gift, he does not force anyone to do so, so if they reject they are condemned by their own actions.

In fact, if God has already decided who's in and who's out, then according to 2 Peter 3:9 (not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance), then the logical conclusion is that He will save everyone. But we know universal salvation isn't true since when the Book of Life is opened, Revelation 20:15 says that whosoever isn't found in the Book of Life is cast into the Lake of Fire (Hell).

Nor is its variant, post-mortem salvation, an option either. Hebrews 9:27 teaches that we are appointed once to die, and after that the judgment. Nothing about a do-over there.