Dear Pilgrim,

IRT:
"For if, as you are wanting to argue, that God "foreknew", i.e., somehow observed Saul humble himself and repent, thus moving God to choose him, then to what was Saul chosen? Was he chosen to a "possibility salvation" wherein there was no sure end? Was he chosen to an infallible salvation? If the former is true, then it cannot be said that God "foreknew" anything at all. For what is it that God could possibly know until Saul had lived his entire life and made all the myriad decisions he would during that life? If the latter is true, again using your "reasoning", i.e., God's choosing included a sure end, which was Saul's eternal salvation, then every thing and decision that Saul/Paul was to make throughout his life was immutable. In short, he couldn't have chosen anything but to humble himself, repent and persevere to the end. There could be no possibility of him falling away and being damned."

There is only one kind of salvation, conditional. I do not doubt that God knows every facet of my life from beginning to end, but just because He knows my end, whether I followed Him or not, does not mean that He predetermined it.

If my line of reasoning is what has failed, then why, as I pointed out elsewhere, does Romans 11 obviously support what I say? Rome and most Protestant denominations also believe in the Trinity (I assume you do as well), United Pentacostals use this as "evidence" against all other denominations. I frankly don't care who believes what, I simply believe what is written.

In Christ,
Josh