Answers | To Your Questions About the Bible, Theology and Christian Living

There is a teaching that some people are predestined for heaven and others predestined for hell. Doesn’t man have free will?

Here’s the short answer. Jesus died for everyone. God desires all to be saved. No one is predestined to heaven or hell. Everyone has a choice (free will) to accept or reject Christ.

Now here’s some detail.

The Assemblies of God has a position paper called “The Security of the Believer.” The following section addresses this issue:

Salvation is available for every man (2 Peter 3:9; John 3:16; Romans 10:11-13).

Two questions may be asked: “Are some predestined to be saved and others to be lost?” and, “Who are the elect?” The answer is clear when it is recognized that the message of the gospel is one of “whosoever will.” No one reading the New Testament can miss the impact of this great truth.

However, in Romans 9-11 there are some statements that seem to imply that man’s free will is excluded in the matter of the believer’s salvation and that God in His choice of the elect exercises His divine sovereignty entirely apart from man’s volition. For example:

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)…Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated…. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy…. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth (Romans 9:11, 13, 15, 16, 18).

When this passage is considered in the light of all that God’s Word teaches concerning election, however, it is evident that man’s will is involved in his election. Jacob was chosen before having done good or evil, but God’s choice was on the basis of what He foreknew Jacob would do.

This truth is brought out in Peter’s letter to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” These believers were recognized to be “elect according to the foreknowledge of God” (1 Peter 1:1, 2).

This same truth is stated in Romans 8:29. Paul wrote, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

God determined beforehand the conditions on which He would show mercy. And on the basis of His foreknowledge believers are chosen in Christ (Ephesians 1:4). Thus God in His sovereignty has provided the plan of salvation whereby all can be saved. In this plan man’s will is taken into consideration. Salvation is available to “whosoever will.”

The paper also says, “The General Council of the Assemblies of God believes in the sovereignty and divine prerogative of God untainted by arbitrariness or caprice. It also believes in the free will and responsibility of man.”

Man has free will and God desires to save everyone. Though He has foreknowledge of the choices each individual will make, He does not predetermine those decisions.

Read the entire position paper here.

Ken Horn

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Is salvation once saved, forever saved, or can a once-saved person be lost?

The Security of the Believer

In view of the Biblical teaching that the security of the believer depends on a living relationship with Christ (John 15:6), in view of the Bible’s call to a life of holiness (1 Peter 1:16; Hebrews 12:14); in view of the clear teaching that a man may have his part taken out of the Book of Life (Revelation 22:19); and in view of the fact that one who believes for a while can fall away (Luke 8:13); The General Council of the Assemblies of God disapproves of the unconditional security position which holds that it is impossible for a person once saved to be lost.

…

Four points need to be emphasized:

1. Salvation is available for every man (2 Peter 3:9; John 3:16; Romans 10:11-13).

2. Salvation is received and kept by faith (Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:38; 1 Peter 1:5; Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:20, 21).

3. Continued sin will adversely affect the believer’s faith (1 John 1:8; 3:8; Romans 3:5-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 3:12-14; 12:1).

4. The believer’s salvation is forfeited by rejecting Christ (John 17:12; Hebrews 10:38; 1 Timothy 4:1; 5:12, 15; 1 John 5:16; 2 Peter 2:20; Hebrews 10:26, 27; 6:4-6).

From the Assemblies of God position paper “The Security of the Believer.” Read the entire paper here, on ag.org.

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The second coming of Jesus Christ has been preached as imminent for a long time. Why is it taking so long?

Where is this coming He promised? Everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. If that is what you think when you hear mention of Christ’s return to snatch away His people, be careful. Peter predicted last-day scoffers, following their own evil desires, would be saying just that (2 Peter 3:3-4).

Yet, with the many centuries since the promise was given (Acts 1:11), it is natural to wonder if such a supernatural intervention will actually take place.

Count on it. It is going to happen. The Bible is full of references to this glorious event, the blessed hope of every believer (Titus 2:13). However, don’t be misled by our human way of counting time. The average human lifetime is 70-80 years. But some life forms live fewer years than humans and some much longer. God’s lifetime is forever, without beginning or end. As Psalm 90:4 says, “A thousand years in [God’s] sight are like a day that has just gone by” (NIV). So it has been just “a couple of days” since the promise was given to first-century Christians.

But why might Christ delay His return even for another instant? Several reasons come to mind:

1. He is giving our generation a chance to repent and receive His salvation.

2. He is testing the strength of our faith and commitment.

3. He is giving the church opportunity to evangelize the lost.

4. His delay encourages us to work faithfully, as though death is yet in the future, but to be ready for His coming at any time.

God is not willing that any should perish or experience spiritual death. His delay is not slowness in fulfilling His promise (2 Peter 3:9). He is preparing His bride “to present her … as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).

Our natural minds tend to be concerned about the millions since the first century who have lived on earth without accepting Christ as their Savior. And we should have a burden for the lost of our day. But we should be even more concerned about becoming the holy and blameless bride of Christ without wrinkle or blemish. Christ tarries now so we may have opportunity to become that prepared and perfect bride.

As God’s children, our earthly lives will end in one of two ways: by death or via the Rapture. A faithful elderly Christian woman left detailed instructions for her funeral. But at the end of the note she wrote, “Prefer to go in the Rapture.”

Are you ready for either departure route?

Zenas J. Bicket

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With so many religions in the world, how can you say that Christianity is the only way? Isn’t Buddha as good as Christ? Isn’t it the height of arrogance to claim that the only way people can come into right relationship with God is through Jesus?

At first blush, the answer would seem to be yes. After all, there are sincere, moral, deity-fearing people in every religion of the world. Why must Christians think that their religion alone is right? Why not follow the teaching of traditional Judaism that the righteous of every nation — not just Israel — have a place in the world to come?

Actually, it’s no more arrogant for Christians to say that Jesus is the only way to God than it is for others to say that Jesus is just one way among many — thereby declaring the belief of more than one billion Christians to be wrong.

The real question is: On what basis can we claim that Christianity alone brings people into right relationship with God? The answer is simple: Only the gospel provides a true antidote to the problem of sin.

Generally speaking, all religions recognize that human beings have somehow fallen short and become alienated from the godhead (singular or plural). The problem is how to receive forgiveness of sin and become reconciled with an offended or distant godhead.

We must therefore ask on what basis the deity offers forgiveness. Muslims and Jews do their best and hope for mercy. Hindus patiently bear their lot, hoping for a better life next time around. Buddhists seek for an ultimate nirvana. But none of these faiths provides a definite and certain answer.

What separates Christianity from every other religion is not so much the moral teaching of Jesus, or even the moral example of Jesus, but rather the fact that Jesus, the divine Son, took our place. He paid the penalty for our sins, thereby satisfying the justice of God and securing eternal salvation for all who believe.

If there had been any other way for mankind to be forgiven, Jesus would not have died. It is this fact alone — the necessary sacrificial death of the Son of God on the cross — that separates Christianity from all other religions. None of these religions have at their foundation a divine act that is unique and comprehensive for all people.

That’s why Jesus gave us the mandate to go into the whole world and declare the good news of His death and resurrection. And good news it is. No other religion in the world has its equal.

Michael L. Brown

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