We believe that the Bible teaches EVERYONE who has ever been born has the chance to be saved if they only would and if they want to! The only reason some people don’t come to Christ is because they choose not to and they choose to reject Jesus Christ as Saviour! (Matt. 23:37) Anyone who wants to come to Christ can do so because the Holy Spirit enables every man to come to Christ if they only will (John 6:44; John 12:32). God is not willing that any should perish in hell (2 Peter 3:9) nor does he predestine or elect anybody to hell! We go to hell because we have chosen to reject Christ as our Saviour during our lifetime. God chose or elected a plan of salvation before He made the worlds and He decided that everyone who would obey that plan of salvation and trust Christ as Saviour would be saved. God in His foreknowledge knew ahead of time...before He created the world...who would trust Christ during their lifetime when they had the chance and who would no. Those whom He knew would trust Christ when they got the chance during their lifetime He labeled as the ‘Elect’ (Ephesians 1:4, I Thess 1:4). Notice it was not that He (forced) these people to trust Christ..but that He knew they would when they had the chance to....in His foreknowledge...That is different than ‘determining’ or predestinating it ahead of time, agreed?

To say that God ‘elected’ some people to be saved and gave them the ability to be saved while ‘passing over’ other people and not giving them the ability to come to Christ is just NOT taught in my Bible! We believe Calvinism and TULIP theology is WRONG! Now remember that the word PREDESTINE when used in the Bible always refers to Christians! It always is used of people who have already been saved. With this term God is simply saying that everyone who trusts Christ is PREDESTINED or ‘pre-determined’ by God to be like Jesus someday! It is going to happen. The more we become like Jesus during this lifetime in our actions and behavior is called progressive SANCTIFICATION. This occurs when we study and obey the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to mold us. We will eventually be like Jesus completely when we get to Heaven in our final Glorification. (Romans 8:29) In a practical sense during this lifetime, I believe Christ calls each of us to certain areas of service in certain local churches and I believe He enables us and ‘gifts ‘ us to do these ministries for Him!

(For a closer look at TULIP theology of Calvinism and why we believe all 5 points of TULIP are wrong...click to BIBLE QUESTIONS on this website and look at the question “Election and Predestination”)