January 2023
Beloved Brethren & Friends
We get to hear many pastors & religious leaders speak about “free will” & how they believe every single person in the world has the free will to come to God if he so decides to do so.
I am sharing a number of passages for you to read in prayer & allow the Word of God to lead your thoughts in this issue, as it is vital that we set our faith in the Word of God, & not in the ideas of men.
I will not go into the Old Testament Scriptures for the sake of making this shorter, but it is obvious that it was God who chose every single one of the Patriarchs, Prophets, & especially the nation of Israel, & as God points out to them, it was not because of their good works, it was because He wanted it so, read Deuteronomy 9:4-8, 14:2 to see what I mean.
John the Apostle wrote…
Jn 15:16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.
Pastors usually say that in that passage Jesus is referring only to the twelve apostles. But we also read...
Jn 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Jesus talking to the religious Jewish leaders of his day...
Jn 8:42-47 Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love Me, for I went forth and came from God; for I did not come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My Word. You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God's Words. Therefore you do not hear them because you are not of God.
Jn 10:25-30 Jesus answered them, I told you and you did not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you did not believe because you are not of My sheep. As I said to you, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never ever perish, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one!
In the book of Revelation John writes…
Rev 21:27 And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defiles, or any making an abomination or a lie; but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
In the writings of the apostle Matthew we find the following explanation given by Jesus to the disciples...
Mat 13:10-17 And the disciples said to Him, Why do You speak to them in parables? He answered and said to them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whoever does not have, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not; nor do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which said, "By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive; for this people's heart has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear what you hear, and have not heard them.
Then we find this explained parable in the same chapter...
Mat 13:37-43 He answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom; but the darnel are the sons of the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the Devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the darnel are gathered and burned in the fire, so it shall be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send out His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous shall shine out like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
More specific teachings...
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Here it is my opinion that the "few chosen" took the call seriously & obeyed it, while the "many" who weren't chosen didn't think the call was that important & ignored it, not knowing the importance of God's call.
Then in the Gospel of Mark...
Mar 13:20 And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, whom He has chosen, He has shortened the days.
So a couple of verse later on we see that “the elect”, those He has chosen are the ones taken in the Rapture …
Mar 13:27 And then He shall send His angels and shall gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven.
So far we read from the books of John, Matthew, & Mark.
Let’s see what Luke has to say, in both his gospel & in the book of Acts...
Luk 8:9-10 And His disciples asked Him, saying, What might this parable be? And He said, To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others I speak in parables, so that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand.
That is clear enough, right?
Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night to Him, though He has been long-suffering over them?
So God will avenge who? His own elect!
Luk 24:44-45 And He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms about Me. And He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
It is obvious that the writer wants to help us see that if the Lord would not have opened their minds they would not have understood.
Now in the book of Acts…
Paul & Barnabas as they were preaching in Antioch, they gather many people from the city &…
Act 13:48 And hearing, the gentiles rejoiced and glorified the Word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Then for example…
Act 16:14 A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.
Would she have listened to Paul unless the Lord opened her heart? No, that’s why God did open her heart so she would be saved.
Then…
Act 18:9-10 The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”
see… God had many of his people in that city whom God wanted Paul to go & reach with the Gospel.
Reading the letters from the apostle Paul whom he himself proclaims to have been chosen by God, I will only pick some of his teachings on this subject, as he writes about it more than anyone else.
In many of his epistles he starts like this… Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God
Gal 1:15-16 But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace,
to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.
Paul makes sure that all the churches he writes to understand that the are called of God...
1Co 1:1-2 Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called out with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
Eph 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has made us accepted in the One having been loved.
Rom 8:28-30 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers. But whom He predestinated, these He also called; and whom He called, those He also justified. And whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Rom 9:18-23 Therefore He has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens. You will then say to me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will? No, but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, Why have you made me this way? Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor? What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared to glory.
Since Paul writes so extensively about God’s calling if you want to you can look up 1 Thessalonians 1:4, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Titus 1:1, 2 Timothy 2:10, 2 Timothy 1:9: Colossians 3:12
But the apostle Peter also makes it clear
1Pe 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers who are scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
2Pe 1:10 Therefore, brothers, rather be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall.
Now mentions of those who belong to the enemy…
2Pe 2:12 But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,
Jud 1:4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Rev 13:8 And all dwelling on the earth will worship it, those whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world.
Rev 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend out of the abyss and go into perdition. And those dwelling on the earth will marvel, those whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
We can only thank our Heavenly Father for making us us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of his beloved Son; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins; Col 1:12-14 Hallelujah!!!
This is where "free will" comes in, as Sons and Daughters of the Most High, each one of us chooses how much we will give to our God; because as God's people we have the responsibility to reach out to those Sons of God who are still lost in the world, deceived by the enemy. So you decide how much of your time you will spend with God, renewing your mind through reading and meditating on His Word, in prayer seeking Him, so that you can fulfill His Will for your life; the more you renounce your way of being and the material things you may be attached to, the more you will receive from God in return in this life so that you can walk with all power in the Holy Spirit, Mark 10:29-30. Or you can choose instead to spend your time on social media, internet, TV, and other things, which in the end will only leave you empty, unfulfilled and frustrated.
This will make the difference in the rewards we receive...
1Co 3:13-15 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
Rev 22:12 “Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.
Dan 12:3 Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the expanse. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever.
Every one of those lost souls that we reach with the Gospel will be points in our recompense in the Kingdom of God to come.
Blessings ... Alejandro.
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Blessings in Jesus Name..!!!
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