Predestination?

Calvinists believe in predestination; I, however, do not. Predestination is the belief that God foreordained only a few select souls to salvation and everyone else to damnation. First of all, God created everyone and I do not think that he would create souls and not provide a way for them to reach salvation.

I believe that every event is either divinely caused or divinely permitted. God either causes it to happen, or he allows it to happen. Our own evil is not something that God causes or something that he predetermines. God is omniscient. He knows exactly how each person will react in every situation. He gives us free will to decide to do good or to do evil. Because he is all-knowing, yet gives us free will anyway, he is permitting evil to occur when we make that decision to do evil. At the same time, God's foreknowledge of evil caused him to create the ability to overcome evil in all of us.

God made salvation available to all of us. He already knows who will accept his salvation and who will not. But he did not make that decision. We make the decision to accept or deny the love that God has for us and wants to share with us for all eternity.

This concept may be difficult to grasp for some because we as humans have a finite mind and we are trying to understand an infinite God. I doubt anyone will ever completely understand God and his awesomeness because of how powerful he is.