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NASB | Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 1:4 just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love |
Subject: Predestination |
Bible Note: "So what is the danger of believing one is either destined to salvation or to hell and has not choice in the matter?" None, if it is the truth. The danger would be in not giving the complete truth regarding assurance and justification by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Just because the truth requires some explanation does not make it any less the truth. To substitute what is more simple (or what is false) for the sake of ease of understanding is to dilute the gospel, and to misrepresent God. Incidentally, the doctrine of assurance of salvation (eternal security, perseverance of the saints, once saved always saved, or however you want to put it) is by no means a "Baptist"-only doctrine. With all due respect, I have seen a great number of people in your particular tradition who are nothing more than Pharisees, trying to earn heaven by their works; or worse, people who place undue importance on sign gifts as THE distinguishing mark of the "true Christian." You are a hypocrite by accusing others of following teachings that have no Scriptural basis. My wife grew up in such theological circles as you, and I can tell you dozens of stories of complete dishonor and disobedience to God by people who placed the teachings of men over the commandments of God. And then we can stop talking about those in leadership positions in these churches and move onto the rest of the congregation. The bottom line is that everyone would be very well-served by taking a good, long look at church history. An immense amount of the kookiness we see in American evangelicalism today would be remedied by closely examining the origins of such traditions. What we see today has all been done before, with different names and different saints being raised up to defend the truth of God's Word against such false traditions that crop up over and over again. --Joe! |