Destined
Dear Eugene, Once a friend said to me, "Ever since the pastor in my previous church told me about the doctrine of 'predestination,' I found myself not telling the gospel to people as much as before, sometimes not at all. I think, Well, if God has done his choosing already, maybe things are just gonna be what and how they are gonna be..." I stared him in the eyes and said, "Let's say this together: Get thee behind me, satanic doctrine! Whatever takes us away from doing God's will is not from Him. I am not saying the doctrine is from the Satan, far from it; it is how the Satan has twisted it out of shape to work against God--and we allowed it! Talk about choosing: we have to make a choice to let the Satan do that to the doctrine and do its evil will to us. We haven't been faithful in learning the historical context/burden of the doctrine's formulation, which is convoluted and still continual. We want to use it as if we are the one...