Chosen But Free

I agree with the perspective of Geisler about the human responsibility and the ability to make free choices were apart of God’s plan for human beings. From reading the account of the Fall of Man, I believe that God gave Adam the decision to obey or disobey His command not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I still believe that God gives man the responsibility to respond to the salvation that He made available through His son Jesus (pp.14). I believe that God does know what is going to happen and can do whatever He pleases. I believe also that God loves the whole world and wishes that all might be saved. Christ died for all of humankind and God is trying to save everyone from hell. The Bible mentions this in John 3:16, “[f]or God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
I agree with Geisler that human beings are spiritually dead in that they have no spiritual life. The image of God lingers in man which gives humankind the ability to response to His gift of salvation. God, according to the author, created human beings with free will knowing that they could possibly rebel against Him. From my own private reading of the Bible, I do believe that God still gives people the option to believe in Him or to reject Him. Even though Jesus died for all of human beings that does not automatically make everyone saved and people still have to respond to the truth of the gospel. I think this perspective accurately represents the nature of God as holy, justice, and merciful. Although humankind deserved to be punished for our rebellion against God, He decided to make away out of sin by sending His son to earth to die for human beings.

I disagree with the extreme Calvinist view that God is not really all loving since I do believe that God loves the world. I do not define the word love by any official dictionary but I define the word love according to 1 Corinthians 13. I believe that He demonstrate His love for us by being patient, kind, justice, and forgiving to all of mankind. He provides a way for us to escape the punishment of sin for everyone that believes in His son. I do not believe in TULIP and by saying that God limits His atonement; extreme Calvinism is basically saying that He only loves the elect. Lastly, I want to talk about if it is possible to lose your salvation that the author of the book mentions in the last chapter. I do not believe that you can lose you salvation if you are really saved since the Bible says that nothing can take you from the hand of God. Therefore, I think that you can only “lose” your salvation if you did not truly believe in the first place. I enjoyed reading several of the author’s views and it helped me to explore what I believed about predestination and other issues dealing Christianity.