Is our religion predestined?

Question:

Is our religion predestined? Is it known from the beginning what is our religion at our birth, what we will do during life, according to the saying: “Whatever happens all happens as it should”, especially if we think at the followers that will pay for the deeds of their ancestors up to the fourth generation according to the Bible? What is the fault of the children who are born in other religions, as Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. What is the chance for them to come to the real faith – the Christian Orthodox, since they are educated  in the religion they have been born?

God is omniscient

God knows all things. He knows the past, the present and the future regarding every man and every event. Because He knows the things before, and because God knew from the beginning all those who will choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved:

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:4–6)(NASB)

Even before the foundation of the world God knew if you accept to repent and become His child by faith in the Lord Jesus or not. But the choice is yours.

God offered and respects the freedom of man to choose

Even if He has the power to impose us, or to influence the choices, God doesn’t choose for us. This means that every man is fully responsible for the choices he makes and he will rejoice of the reward or will bear grave consequences. God gave the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross to be a sacrifice for the salvation of all people, but the choice is theirs, as it is written:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16–18)(NASB)

Have you believed in the Lord Jesus with all your heart to be saved?

God offers the chance of salvation to every man

It is true that children bear the consequences of the sins of their parents, but in all cases, God offers to all people the chance to be saved, as it it written in the verse from above, that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” And the Bible also says:

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)(NASB)

The Gospel is shared with all people on earth

One of the questions of the reader is how those who were born sharing other faith can become Christians. They can and many did. I know many people who were Hindoos, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, but they listened to the message of the Gospel when it was shared with them, believed in the Lord Jesus with all their heart and were saved. Even in those Muslim countries, where people who preach the Gospel are threatened with death, God makes the message of the Gospel to be spread with power. Once I was in an Arabian country, where I found out about someone who came to Christ and they searched to kill him. It is interesting that I entered the house of a representative of the government and he, using the parabolic antenna, was watching a Christian channel and was listening to a sermon. In Iran it is forbidden to have parabolic antennas, but people put them under roofs and all have the possibility to listen to the message about the salvation who is in Christ. Then, what great chances offers Internet, that is used in every country. A great number of Christian missionaries preach the message in the whole world, and they are threatened with death daily. We live the times that were described by Jesus Christ so:

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (The Gospel of Matthew 24:14)(NASB)

It doesn’t matter the religion you have been born in, since that religion is not according to the Word and will of God and doesn’t lead you to the salvation of your soul. If the religion of your parents is not according to the teaching of God’s Word, it is worthless, because it doesn’t lead to salvation, but impedes you. Every man is called by God to choose the truth and the life and each one is responsible for the choices he/she makes. What choice have you made concerning the salvation of your soul?

Translated by Felicia Djugostran