ellauri092.html on line 257: Methodism has traditionally align itself with Arminian doctrinal positions, with very few exceptions and very little debate. Most Methodists believe in prevenient grace, and reject predestination, perseverance of the saints, and so on.
ellauri117.html on line 648: predestination (Noun) "The doctrine that everything has been foreordained by a God or by fate", or
ellauri155.html on line 676: Election and predestination and are both biblical teachings. The English “predestination” is translated from the Greek word proorizo which means 1) to predetermine, decide beforehand; 2) in the NT, of God decreeing from eternity; 3) to foreordain, appoint beforehand. Predestination, then, is the biblical teaching that God predestines certain events and people to accomplish what He so desires. The word proorizo occurs six times in the New Testament, each time demonstrating that God is the one who is foreordaining and bringing about certain events. The word chorizo only occurs in the Mexican translation (not shown here):
ellauri155.html on line 685: You must also note that God predestines people such as Paul and his friends in Rom. 8:30, and Eph. 1:5, 11. There is, however, controversy as to the nature of this predestination. In the Reformed (Calvinist) camp, predestination includes individuals. In other words, the Reformed doctrine of predestination is that God predestines whom He wants to be saved and that without this predestination, none would be saved. The non-Reformed camp states that God predestines people to salvation, but that these people freely choose to follow God on their own. In other words, in the non-Reformed perspective, God is reacting to the will of individuals and predestining them only because they choose God, whereby contrast the Reformed position states that people choose God only because He has first predestined them. I must say that the non-reformed position 2) sounds like gobbledygook. Either you get predestined or you don´t, what the fuck. Who was it that thought predestination and free will were compatible, was it Hume? Yes it was! The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy paper on this topic is so wordy that it needed translating into Basic English.
ellauri155.html on line 750: By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.
ellauri155.html on line 756: Calvin then goes on to speak of a deeper dimension of predestination, that in the Old Testament we see a more special election still of God saving certain ones out of the nation of Israel. Calvin says that his readers must see how “the grace of God was displayed in a more special form, when of the same family of Abraham God rejected some.” He then refers to Malachi 1:2-3 which explicitly states, “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.”
ellauri155.html on line 757: Finally, Calvin comes into the New Testament and shows how the Apostle Paul in Romans quotes this very text from Malachi to substantiate predestination. He quotes from Romans 9:15, itself another quote from the Old Testament: “For he (the Lord) saith to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’” Why it´s always this damned Paul! I bet he had a drooping mouth like Jürgen Habermas. Calvin then later asks,
ellauri155.html on line 763: Calvin was far more careful with this doctrine than his critics were and are. Calvin understood men would react strongly against predestination. “The human mind, when it hears this doctrine, cannot restrain its petulance, but boils and rages as if aroused by the sound of a trumpet.” People who hear the teaching of predestination rarely remain unaffected by it. Their hearts too become enflamed, either with these teachings or against them. Calvin offers caution in the wrongful handling of this doctrine.
ellauri155.html on line 771: “When they inquire into predestination, let then remember that they are penetrating into the recesses of the divine wisdom, where he who rushes forward securely and confidently, instead of satisfying his curiosity will enter in (an) inextricable labyrinth.”
ellauri155.html on line 777: “Let it, therefore, be our first principle that to desire any other knowledge of predestination than that which is expounded by the word of God, is to be no less infatuated (or crazed) than to walk where there is no path, or to seek light in darkness.”
ellauri155.html on line 783: Calvin even demonstrated his commitment to this truth in his placement of his teaching on predestination in The Institutes. In the final edition, he moved his section on predestination from the beginning of his work to a place following his teaching on redemption, in effect suggesting “that predestination is a doctrine best understood by believers after they come to know the redemptive work of Jesus Christ applied by the Holy Spirit.”
ellauri155.html on line 789: Another argument which they employ to overthrow predestination is that if it stand, all care and study of well doing must cease. For what man can hear (say they) that life and death are fixed by an eternal and immutable decree of God, without immediately concluding that it is of no consequence how he acts, since no work of his can either hinder or further the predestination of God?
ellauri155.html on line 791: What was Calvin’s answer? He reminds his readers what the predestinated are predestined to do! He points out what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 1:4, where he reminds us that the end for which we are elected is “that we should be holy, and without blame before him.” “If the end of election is holiness of life, it ought to arouse and stimulate us strenuously to aspire to it, instead of serving as a pretext for sloth.” He develops how predestination should lead us to fear God all the more, and consequently should both comfort us and spur us on even in the worst of times to greater holiness.
ellauri155.html on line 806: In this letter, we see Calvin using predestination as a “doctrine of comfort.” Listen to how Calvin then uses the doctrine of predestination to minister to this grieving father.
ellauri219.html on line 585: To a large degree, "Pelagianism" was defined by its opponent Augustine, and exact definitions remain elusive. Although Pelagianism had considerable support in the contemporary Christian world, especially among the Roman elite and monks, it was attacked by Augustine and his supporters, who had opposing views on grace, predestination and free will. Augustine proved victorious in the Pelagian controversy; Pelagianism was decisively condemned at the 418 Council of Carthage and is still regarded as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.

Burn in hell Pelagius, go jump in the fiery lake! Vitun humanisti!15