Issued: 6/17/24

“Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what He has made crooked?“

Ecclesiastes 7:13

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

   In Biblical, Judeo-Christian doctrine, there is no premeditated predestination. In Romans 9:14-33 Paul was not suggesting that Father pre-doomed men He had made ‘crooked’ and never had a chance to behave against type. If Father‘s stated objective in Romans 9:33 was that “[anyone] who believes in him [Jesus↔Acts 4:11] will never be put to shame,” it follows that faith, however ‘crooked’ anyone might be, was the ‘game changer’; and that only the ‘crooked’ who chose not to believe would not be covered by Father‘s guarantee. Jesus corroborated as much in Luke 5:32, John 14:23-27, 15:23; as well as intimating, as did the Apostles, that all men always had the opportunity to side with Father or not (Matthew 13:24-30; 2Peter 3:9).

   In a Gospel where salvation is predicated on a personal and freely-made choice to believe/obey (Mark 9:23; John 5:24, 12:44), the notion of an impartial and just God depriving some people of that choice will not do; thus the simple point Ecclesiastes 7:13 makes is that whatever Father decides cannot be countermanded (Numbers 23:19↔Daniel 4:35; Isaiah 45:9↔Romans 9:20). As far as human beings are concerned, Father did not predestine anyone to be moral or immoral: As Ecclesiastes 7:29 bears witness, He—through proxy Creator Son (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-3)—made humankind upright; but their intentions, freely and willfully made in opposition to Father‘s will, led them to pursue “many evil schemes.” Viewed like this, ‘crookedness’ is a human choice which, if so desired, can be resisted and overcome.

   Before proceeding, please keep in mind the following:

1) ‘Crookedness’ = sinfulness.

2) We must further consider that the soul—the divine, life spark (Genesis 2:7; John 6:63)—and mortal flesh are in opposition to each other; so that even if the soul yearns for Father, the flesh seeks to undermine that yearning (Romans 7:21-25). This tells us that the soul Father made retains some of its divine nature yet needs the Holy Spirit‘s ‘assist’ to overcome a sinfulness that was not pre-ordained (Romans 8:26-27; Galatians 5:17). Praying for that ‘assist’ involves choice as well.

3) Divine grace is the only factor beyond human choice.

The Genesis of Human Sinfulness

   Let us go back to the creation of he who is the genesis of all sinfulness: Satan, unnamed in the Bible despite Isaiah 14:12’s appellation, Lucifer, which has nothing to do with the planet Venus and all to do with the fact that Satan is being likened—as angels are in Scripture—to a celestial body; but more suggestively, identified as the “son of the dawn.” Now, what true star rises every dawn? The Sun, the descriptor Jesus chose to call himself in Revelation 22:16; and whose “light” Peter encourages us to strive for in our hearts and minds (2Peter 1:19↔Proverbs 4:18). So what is Isaiah 14:12 really suggesting? That whereas Son had been the “Light” created by Father (Genesis 1:3; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-3), Satan was the “Darkness” Yahweh Son called into existence [↔Colossians 1:16];¹ conceived good in the mold of Son (Genesis 1:4), but in time devolving into Son‘s antithesis while disguising himself as a being of light (2Corinthians 11:14).

   Which is Ezekiel 28:12-15’s argument: “You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty…You were in Eden, the garden of God…You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I [Son] ordained you. You were on [Father‘s] holy mount [↔Isaiah 14:13-14]; you walked among the fiery stones [angels↔Hebrews 1:7]. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.” So there was a time when Satan was not evil; only when his own splendor fueled the desire to supplant Son as Father‘s proxy ruler and seek regime change by conscripting an angelic following [↔Job 4:18; Ezekiel 28:16-18; Jude 1:6], Satan’s original goodness devolved into chosen wickedness.

   We surmise, then, that as Satan was given free will to act as he pleased, the frustration of not being able to wield absolute power devolved into a hatred for humankind (Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5; Zechariah 3:1; Revelation 12:10) which his superior, Yahweh Son (Hebrews 1:6), had embraced as brothers (Hebrews 2:11-13) and considered his equals (Luke 6:40). Satan was not predestined to hate mankind: It was a choice he nurtured and practiced whenever given the chance (Exodus 12:12-13,23;
1Chronicles 21:1,14-16↔Ezekiel 21:3,11,12↔Revelation 6:8; Isaiah 14:5-6,16-17,20). Even Jesus called his number: “He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).

   Likewise Son was given free will to act, yet his choice was to remain true and faithful to creatures conceived in love and goodness but led astray by Satan. On occasion even he displayed an inclination to deploy the nuclear option against men (Genesis 6:6-7; Jonah 3:1-4), but backed down when
witnessing behaviors worthy of forgiveness (Genesis 6:8; Jonah 3:5-10). Son was not predestined to act as he did: He acted as he chose to in accordance to his nature; and though foreknowing he would be crucified for the sake of others, it was a fate he undertook willingly in the joyous expectation of every bounty Father would accrue on him and his followers (Hebrews 12:2).

   Next came the progenitors of men, a great deal of whom make it possible for Satan to turn the world into the cemetery it is.² Man and Woman were conceived innocent and good (Genesis 1:26-31, 2:25); had everything handed them in a silver platter with only one proviso: Not to eat for the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis 2:17, 3:3). This very prohibition proves the contention that neither Man nor Woman were predestined to obey or disobey but given free will to make decisions. Only after they chose to alienate Father by disobeying Son‘s command (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:2-3,6) did the possibility of damnation arise; a fate—at least for them and humankind—that could always be averted through personal choices like repentance and atonement. But never to be the case for fearless, proud Satan [↔Job 41:33-34; Ezekiel 21:10,13] and his angelic/human minions, whose choices until their incineration at Armageddon are to reject/undermine both Father‘s and Son‘s objectives (Psalms 2:1-3; Luke 10:16; Revelation 9:20-21).

   After their eviction from Eden, which resulted in their being banished into our world (John 12:31↔1John 5:19; Romans 5:14-21), Adam and Eve appear to have rejected Yahweh, given that Genesis 4:26 tells us that only after Seth engendered Enos, “men began to call on Yahweh’s name.” Whether Adam and Eve remained alienated from/reconciled with Father is a moot point; nevertheless, as far as Abel was concerned, a connection of sorts existed, since Abel understood the dynamics of animal sacrifices centuries before their codification into Mosaic Law (Genesis 4:4↔Exodus 34:19). This intel he surely must have gotten from the perennial intermediary between Father and men: Yahweh Son/Jesus (1Timothy 2:5↔Hebrews 13:8).

   Similarly, when Cain chose to kill Abel, it was not because Yahweh had made him evil [Cain had options (Genesis 4:7)], but like his parents, he gave in to Satan’s prodding. Instead of murdering the brother who showed him reconciliation with Father was possible, Cain could have asked Abel for a sheep to sacrifice. It all sounds simplistic but these are the foundations of Christian doctrine: Jesus, too, was killed by his ‘brothers’ out of envy (Matthew 27:18), having shown Jewish priests their form of worship was spiritually bankrupt; so it was easier to get rid of Jesus than change entrenched mindsets and preferred lifestyles. In Hebrews 12:24 Paul clearly drew parallels between Jesus’ blood and Abel’s [↔Genesis 4:10] in relation to their galvanizing effect on Father.

   By the time of Genesis 6:5 [↔Ecclesiastes 9:3], “Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.” Again, the human inclination to sin had not been part of proxy Creator Son‘s endowments, since not only had he called everything he had done “very good” (Genesis 1:31), but wielding perfect Father‘s creative powers, Son had no means of calling imperfect creatures into being—let alone those made in his and Father‘s images (Genesis 1:26). It bears mentioning that the egregious sin mentioned in Genesis 6:5, rampant promiscuity (Genesis 6:1), is equally pandemic in our apostate times and showing no signs of abating—which bears out Genesis 6:5’s assessment about the “continual” darkness inside human hearts [↔Matthew 6:22-23; John 3:19-20].

The Human Dogma of Predestination

   With their opinions on predestination, Augustine of Hippo and John Calvin threw a monkey wrench into Christian doctrine. The notion of an arbitrary God cherry-picking those to be saved and those to be damned is one of Satan’s bull’s-eye darts [↔Ephesians 6:16] propagandized by neo-Christians of all ages. Augustine and Calvin were two of them; but there are lots more quite venerated/canonized in their respective denominations. As Jesus and the Apostles warned us, the enemies of the faithful are amongst family/congregations/fellow citizens (Matthew 10:21,36; Mark 6:4; Luke 12:53; 2Peter 2:12-15; 1John 2:19; 2John 1:10-11; 3John 1:9-10↔Matthew 23:6).

   But then neither Augustine nor Calvin came up with predestination: Essenes, Gnostics and Manichaeans taught it; as possibly did preceding generations amongst which Satan insinuated the concept to be passed on. With precedents like Genesis 9:19, 10:1,5,25,32, it is easy to understand why every nation on earth has their version of the Flood, however different from the Biblical narrative, passed on orally/changed to succeeding generations; and why in Jude 1:14-15, the Holy Spirit (2Peter 1:20-21) tells us that from Enoch on, Jesus and his Last Judgment were being preached, so that the notion of a judge of all flesh chastising his enemies became enshrined throughout world religions.

   Furthermore, the history of warfare show us how conquering nations imported from/enforced upon their victims religious beliefs useful to nationalistic agendas; and how the Israelite cult of a queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44) possibly evolved out of Great Mother worships pandemic in the Middle East and “land of Egypt”—one of Scripture’s symbols for Satan’s realm, the world at large [↔Ezekiel 29:3-4↔Job 41:1-2↔Revelation 20:2 / Ezekiel 32:2↔Daniel 7:7-8,21,23-24↔Revelation 13:1-7 / Ezekiel 29:5, 32:5↔Jeremiah 25:33↔Revelation 19:17-21].³ The Great Mother Cult endures to this day in Roman Catholic Mariology.

   Following the Pelagian controversy in 412 CE, Augustine argued that faith was a gift from Father rather than a human choice; despite the fact that Abraham, the proverbial father of faith, had unilaterally and of his own volition made such a choice credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6↔Galatians 3:5-9). And every single one of Paul’s “great cloud of witnesses” found Father‘s favor on the merits of choosing faith, even when the promised Kingdom failed to materialize in their lifetimes (Zechariah 8:9-10; Hebrews 11:6-40, 12:1). If as Paul argued faith comes through hearing (Romans 10:17),⁴ who listened despite the fact that Father did not force, predispose, or deprived anyone of his/her rightful choice to believe or disbelieve? The righteous who chose to and the unrighteous who chose not to.

   Calvin came up with predestination labels like “unconditional election” and “reprobation,” which are meaningless but useful as identifiers of sorts. Given that Father gave men a free will to side or not with Him (Ezekiel 33:11), He is entitled to embrace—albeit not unconditionally—an ‘election’ of obedient followers (Proverbs 8:17; 1Samuel 2:30) and to reject disobedient ‘reprobates’ (Ezra 8:22)—certainly the way all human beings deal with supporters and opponents. So let us not hold Father to a different standard: The fact that so much of Christian doctrine is patterned after men’s way of doing things [trial by jury a notable example↔Matthew 19:28; 1Corinthians 6:3; Revelation 20:4] is His way of showing us how hypocritical we can be when men, unlike Him, fudge principles championed to be absolute.

   In Calvin’s view the “reprobate” were predestined to miss the divine boat; as such, they were never even meant to board it; which turns Jesus’ mission into a sham: While he had to die to give the whole of mankind a shot at salvation (John 3:16-17), Calvin would have us believe that Father‘s plan of salvation and Jesus’ sacrifice were stacked on the side of cherry-picked believers while damning the rest. The whole progression from Old Testament, ethnic elitism (Deuteronomy 7:6) to universal inclusion of Jews and Gentiles in Jesus (Jeremiah 3:18; 50:4-5; Ezekiel 37:19-22; John 10:16; Acts 10:34-35; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 1:3-10) sailed over Calvin’s head. For it was clear that back then, only Israelites had been ‘chosen’ (Deuteronomy 7:6-7; Amos 3:2), presupposing that every other nation did not pass muster with Yahweh unless they submitted to Jews; otherwise, they were to be eliminated (Deuteronomy 20:10-15). And here again those defaulting nations had not been predestined to destruction: They were given an option where only their willful refusal to comply sealed their undoing [shadow]. Come Jesus, the way to salvation or damnation [substance] became human choices (Matthew 7:13-14, 10:37; Acts 5:29; Romans 6:16; Galatians 1:10; James 4:4).

Paul’s ‘Predestination’ Argument

   We now come to the crux of this discussion: Paul’s extended argument in Romans 9:14-33, especially verses 19-22, where it is stated that Father prepared/made/fitted “some vessels of wrath for destruction.” The error here is quoting out of context; but let us not fixate on Paul’s seemingly ‘apologetic’ bent regarding creatures’ inability to question the designs of their Maker—something that has become stock and parcel with apologists of all ages trying to make Father look ‘good.’

   Guess what? Father could not care less what any of us past, present, or future might think of Him: He rubs our noses in the fact that He will always do what He wishes unopposed and unchallenged (Job 12:16-25, 40:2; Isaiah 43:13, 45:6-7, 46:10; Daniel 4:35; 1Corinthians 10:22). But then, no one subscribing to the delusion human beings are in control of their destinies likes to have his/her ego so unceremoniously punctured. Be that as it may, when powers that be would bend us to their will/agendas, the majority of us join the bandwagon out of subservience/convenience/complicity/fear, even when being led into traps where bailing out is no longer an option (Romans 6:16; 2Peter 2:19). Why do we do it? Because they can vent their displeasure on us: If provoked, the powers that be are not loathe to steamroll non-compliers. But with Father better odds may be up for grabs: His mercy can be counted on in hopes of getting a break [↔2Samuel 24:10-14; Jonah 3:9]—a boon which ironically not always works for the better: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil“ (Ecclesiastes 8:11↔Psalms 14:1-3; Zephaniah 1:12).

   So what was Paul’s point in Romans 9? That given the inevitable human corruption post-Eden, Father would make the best of an intolerable situation; withholding punishing “vessels of wrath” until the one and only time in history He would do so: At Armageddon (Deuteronomy 32:35; Hebrews 10:27,31; 2Peter 2:6, 3:5-7; Revelation 20:9). This mindset is the one Paul referred to in Acts 17:30-31; which characteristic of Father‘s “inscrutable mind” (Romans 11:33-34) served a variety of purposes, ranging from perfecting Jesus and his Church through suffering/persecutions (Hebrews 2:10,14, 12:5-10), to establishing patent proof of evildoers’ guilt [↔Ecclesiastes 12:14; Matthew 12:37; Revelation 20-12↔Daniel 7:10], to giving men more time to come to their senses (1Timothy 2:4; 2Peter 3:9). On Judgment Day, victims will face their victimizers and every person who has ever lived will know the role he/she played encouraging faith or actively opposing it. This awareness is the gist of 1Timothy 5:24; and however much in life evildoers get away with their deeds, when they burn they will understand why (Proverbs 5:11-13).

Timetables and Objectives

   Let us now put all these things in perspective, being imaginative enough to go back to pre-Creation timelessness when Father conceived a redemptive plan necessary to undo Satan’s work at Eden. Being All-Knowing, Father foreknew what lay ahead for mankind; and could foresee who in the course of history would or would not embrace faith. Let us call ‘X’ all those who would and ‘Y’ all those who would not. In all the ages they lived, ‘X’ would qualify for salvation; whereas ‘Y’ would not—a state of affairs extending to end-times (Revelation 9:20-21). Once Son entered the picture, and Father appointed him proxy Creator/God over all things [Creator: John 1:2-3↔John 17:5↔Colossians 1:16↔Hebrews 1:2-3 / God: Matthew 28:18; 1Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 1:18, 3:7↔Isaiah 22:22], Son was made privy to whom would or would not meet Father‘s standards, whose names and deeds Son recorded in books serving as a corpus juris to be consulted on Judgment Day [↔Exodus 17:14, 32:32-33; Psalms 69:28; Isaiah 4:3; Ezekiel 13:9; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12↔Daniel 7:10).

   We are not being told that Father ‘eeny-meeny-miny-moed’ who would be saved or damned, but that such choices were based on historical behaviors He vetted. For example, we ought all agree that Hitler and Stalin will burn at Armageddon; but Father did not force them to behave as do all of Satan’s children, who do so because they want to (John 8:44). So if in the context of Paul’s argument, Father pre-slated Hitler and Stalin for the bonfire, it was on the evidence of their willful genocides, which Father tolerated (Romans 9:22) until the moment He would exact punishment for them (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 9:23).

   We must further consider that some of those to be saved were egregious transgressors willing to change their ways [↔Isaiah 1:16-18; Revelation 7:9,13-14]—Jesus’ objective; and that some of those to be damned may have been converts who betrayed their vows [↔Matthew 7:22-23]; as were Judas, Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10), Alexander the coppersmith (1Timothy 4:14-15), and those who forewarned (1Samuel 2:30; Ezra 8:22) did not keep faith with Father (Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:38; 2Peter 2:19-22). But so committed is Father to the idea of being propitious to men (Jeremiah 29:11; Revelation 21:4) that even those who by nature act according to His wishes yet are not cognizant of His laws are justified by the Christian morality guiding their reasonings/behaviors (Romans 2:14-16↔Acts 10:34-35).

   Consequently, nobody so vetted is predestined to be damned or saved; though here we must consider other factors, especially divine grace. Even if all men have fallen short of God (Romans 3:23), for “there is no righteous, not even one“ (Romans 3:10↔Ecclesiastes 7:20; Mark 10:18), Jesus nevertheless differentiated between “righteous” and sinners (Luke 5:32); so in some capacity, those “righteous” were worthy of mitigating factors even though technically as sinful as the rest. And we find the same notion in Psalms 50:5 and Daniel 7:21↔Revelation 13:17, though here they are called “holy ones.” Granting that “holy” does not imply halos orbiting over heads, it does refer to people who made a choice to separate themselves from worldly pursuits (Matthew 19:29; 2Timothy 2:4; 1John 2:15-16); and because of it re-fashioned themselves as instruments in Jesus’ conceptual body/Church to bring his endeavor to success—Paul’s arguments in 2Corinthians 8:11-12 and 2Timothy 2:20-21. On those grounds, Father judged them to be “vessels of mercy.”

   Still, there are other Scriptural verses suggesting the ‘vetting’ takes place in the mother’s womb.  In terms of “vessels of mercy,” Psalms 22:9-10, 71:6 and 139:13-16, especially verse 139:16: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”; and in terms of “vessels of wrath,” Psalms 58:3: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.” For an All-Knowing God, it makes sense Father would have known righteous from unrighteous irrespective of timelines, the intel He must have given Jesus; for Jesus “knew all people [and] did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person” (John 2:24-25). This foreknowledge on Jesus’ part was evident concerning Judas’ betrayal before it took place (John 13:11, 6:64), even in his choice of Paul to be his emissary before the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). And Paul was hip to this: “But when God, Who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16).

   We will wrap things up in Part(b).

¹ Please pay attention to detail: Genesis 1:3: Father calls Son [“Light”↔John 1:9-11, 8:12] into existence (Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14). Genesis 1:4: Father determines “Light” to be good, but is not identified as the creator of “Darkness,” only as their “Separator.” Who then created “Darkness”? At this juncture only three Beings are accounted for, Father and Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2) and just-created Son (Genesis 1:3). We are then told that through Son everything in the universe was made, which presupposes that Father endowed him with powers to do so (John 1:3↔Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2); and since Father could not have personally been involved in the creation of anyone/anything with the potential to become evil, only proxy Creator Son could have called Satan [“Darkness”] into being.

² Scripture calls him “Death” (Revelation 6:8, 20:4) and his empire “realm of death” (Hebrews 2:14↔Isaiah Isaiah 14:6,16-17,20) with good reason.

³ Please note that all the Ezekiel verses are linked to end-times events (Ezekiel 30:3, 32:7-8↔Isaiah 13:9-13↔Revelation 16:18-20↔Amos 5:18, 8:8-9↔Luke 21:25-27).

⁴ One of the human senses, to be sure, but also literally a human choice with consequences, as argued in Nehemiah 9:30, Ezekiel 3:7, Zechariah 7:11-12, Matthew 13:15, Hebrews 12:25, 1John 4:5-6, and others.