Originally Posted by KentDMc
If it seems to me that if the elect are predetermined, there is hardly a need for sharing the gospel message. Consider this illustration.

Let’s say that I'm a minister and I received a phone call from a friend who's father is about to die and has never heard the gospel. Why can't I respond by saying "Don't worry, if he is one of the elect he'll go to heaven anyway. If he's not, I would just be wasting my breath."
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The simple answer is: God ordains the means as well as the end. One of the means is the preaching of the Gospel. Men are not given a prior and especially not an infallible knowledge of who God in His infinite love and mercy has predestined to be saved in Christ. What we have been told and thus know is that ALL; men, women and children are born guilty before God and are sinners by nature. Thus, ALL are in need of hearing the Gospel, repenting of their sins and believing savingly upon the Lord Christ.

The Highway website (see the link on the bottom of the forum) has over 1600 books, articles and sermons covering most of the subjects you probably are interested in knowing about. There is an entire section devoted to just Predestination, which you can access by clicking HERE. And perhaps one of the more salient articles which deals with your question is this one: Objections: Answered by Loraine Boettner.

We will be more than happy to try and answer any/all of your questions. But I would ask that you don't dump a whole bunch of them on us all at once. It makes it far too difficult to follow a discussion on several subjects brought up in one thread, if you know what I mean. wink So, let's keep this one focused on predestination as much as possible. bigglasses

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simul iustus et peccator

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