Monday, April 5, 2010

Predestined VS Chosen

Today was our second Bible Study. (I'll tell you about part one later because this sessions is still fresh). The topic at hand was predestined vs chosen and our main text of study came again from Ephesians. My view of these two words were so simple. I thought of the definition of the two words and came up with my conclusion to distinguish the two from each other.

The word "chosen" means to be selected from several and "predestined" means to destine in advance. To someone else's knowledge they believe these words were in essence the same. But to me, many are chosen and only one is predestined. Then the story of how Jesus got his disciples. They were all chosen and NOT predestined. Jesus walked along the streets and picked up men who came across his path. They were chosen, then asked, then made a decision.Something on the inside compelled them to go with Jesus. It was simply a choice for them to follow Christ. Another example was us. Yes, US! I believe every person on this Earth was chosen by God but not everyone chose to follow. Our destiny, God's predestination of our lives is what brought us to Christ. Destiny is something that is to be fulfilled where as a choice is not. Again, if we look at the Bible, Jesus was predestined and not chosen. God had it so Jesus died for our sins. He made it so Judas betrayed Jesus. Fulfillment.

So how do you distinguish predestine and chosen?