January 14, 2017
Hello John Wesley members and friends,
This is, hopefully, the first of several brief thoughts I want to share with you.
What follows are my thoughts on Romans 8:29. Predestination is a concept that many people have questions about. What does it mean? Is it fair? Predestination means God knows what you (and all people) will decide to do before you decide to do it, it's a concept closely associated with salvation, that is, whether you will accept salvation through Jesus Christ? Those who argue that the concept of predestination isn't fair do so because they aren't comfortable with the idea of an all knowing and all powerful God. They aren't comfortable with the idea that anyone, including a deity, is greater (more knowledgeable and powerful) than they are. When you accept that time as you know it is a human convention, and you accept that in the divine realm, past, present, and future are simultaneous, the concept of predestination makes sense and the question of fairness goes out the window. Though you exercised choice, God still knows what you will decide before you decide to do it because time for you and time for God are two entirely different concepts.
Just Thinking,
Pastor Woods-Barrant