{"id":83209,"date":"2012-05-17T11:01:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T09:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moldovacrestina.md\/predestination-free-will-compatible"},"modified":"2017-05-27T08:38:44","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T06:38:44","slug":"predestination-free-will-compatible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moldovacrestina.md\/en\/predestination-free-will-compatible\/","title":{"rendered":"How do predestination and free will work together?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Question:<\/p>\n

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How can free will exist if predestination exists, if everything is already determined by the time we are formed in our mothers\u2019 wombs?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I would like to take a look at a portion of the Apostle Paul\u2019s epistle to the Ephesians so that we can understand this concepts of free will and predestination and how they work together. How can man have free will if God is sovereign, especially in the area of man\u2019s salvation? Here is how the epistle begins:<\/p>\n

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1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus : 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation -having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God\u2019s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From this text, we have several affirmations about God:<\/p>\n