Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jdd@db.toronto.edu (John DiMarco) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Predestination Message-ID:Date: 17 Aug 89 07:45:34 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 22 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu We cannot be reconciled to God by ourselves. Clearly God must save us. Hence our salvation is up to him. God wants all people to be saved, but clearly he does not give the same amount of grace (unmerited favour) to everybody. Does everyone have Christ appear to him on the road, like Paul? Does everyone see Christ in the flesh, like the Apostles? Clearly God does more to save some people than he does to save others. I believe that God offers every person sufficient grace for salvation. Nothing else is consistent with God's mercy, justice, and love. But not every person receives the same amount of grace. God goes to great lengths to bring some people to salvation, but seems to allow others to go their own way. God predestines his elect by giving them great gifts of his grace. Only those whom God has chosen receive these graces. But nowhere in scripture does it say that God predestines some to receive no grace at all; i.e. to perish in hellfire. He does harden hearts, but he doesn't petrify them. John --- John DiMarco INTERNET: jdd@db.toronto.edu or jdd@db.utoronto.ca BITNET: jdd%db.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net UUCP: {uunet!utai,watmath!utai,decvax!utcsri}!db!jdd