This is a rebuttal to the 14th alleged Bible contradiction

Question #14: Is there such a thing as predestination?

Evans treats the notion of predestination as the exact opposite of free will. In other
words, if there is predestination then there is no such thing as free will, and
vice versa. I do not believe that.

These are the verses Evans presented to make his claim.

In the 'no' category, we have

Joshua 24:15, Revelation 22:17

and in the 'yes' category, we have

John 6:44, Romans 9:9-24.

Note: If I find verses to be repetitive, I may decide not to quote them.

My standard prefacing comments:

God's dealing with Mankind has been chopped up into various dispensations,
starting with that of Adam, then to Noah, then to Abraham, then to Moses,
then to Jesus (who gave us the Church Age), then to the Millennial Reign
of Christ, etc. The moral constraints that God places on the people of the
earth are primarily dictated by the dispensation the individuals were born
within and their undefiled consciences.
The Bible reveals the big doctrines of God progressively over time,
such as heaven, hell, angels, devils, salvation, the Messiah, etc. As a
consequence, the verses in the back of the Bible (i.e., the Gospels on)
tend to be more authoritative than those in the beginning of the Bible.
As a corollary to this, often part of the revelation given to the prophet
will not make any sense to the prophet or even to the people of his own
generation. In my novels I refer to these verses as 'praega talleas' or
hidden gems, not capable of being appreciated or even understood until
centuries or even millenia later.
Not all verses are equally authoritative. What Jesus said trumps every
other writing in the Bible.
Not all people are equally equal. Jesus Christ is not just another man
among the billions of people. Jesus, not you or me, is God in the flesh.
In the Church Age, the true followers of Jesus, by the grace of God, are
partakers of the divine nature [2 Peter 1:4], but they are not themselves
divine. See also Galatians 5:16.
Just because a certain action or claim is recorded about someone in the
Bible, doesn't mean that God approved of it. They may even be sincere
and still get it wrong. Remember Job's friends who came to Job to
commiserate with him and later to advise him on righteousness and the
nature of God? They assumed that they were acting as the oracles of God,
but God gave them a stern rebuke for their errors. But even if God did
not approve of some claim or action, that does not mean that the Bible
specifically condemned it in the attending verses.
My favorite way to attempt to resolve controversial doctrines or claims is
to collect all verses on the matter and then consisticize them so as to reduce
the number of apparent contradictions, if there are any. Like it or not, the
Bible has to be interpreted by the Bible.
I am not a Christian apologist. It may take twenty years of hard study
to be good at Christian apologetics, and I'm too old to start education for
that now. I'm just a Christian who has had to deal with some of these
hard questions on my own.

On the No side:

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom
ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on
the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
-- Joshua 24:15

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely. -- Revelation 22:17

On the Yes side:

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:
and I will raise him up at the last day. -- John 6:44

For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall
have a son. 10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one,
even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her,
The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that sheweth mercy. 17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this
same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and
that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18 Therefore hath he
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 19 Thou
wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his
will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath
not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour, and another unto dishonour? 22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath,
and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even
us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
-- Romans 9:9-24

My answer

To me, there are three kinds of predestination:

The predestination of God's over-arching plan for the creation of Mankind,
and after Mankind's fall from grace, the restoration of those who are willing
to obey God: this plan being revealed from Genesis to Revelation. The role
of Jesus Christ playing a prominent role, of course: The Lamb of God being
slain from the foundation of the world [Revelation 13:8].
The predestination of God's calling to mankind to be saved, but people
have the free will to accept or to reject the light God gave him or her. Each of
us is predestined either be saved or lost. There is no soul annihilation.
The predestination of God's choices for special people in history and
in the Bible.

So, in the first point, we're talking about the Big Picture of God's plan of salvation,
starting with the cursing of the earth, then the slow revelation of the messiah,
which became Jesus Christ, and then the return of Jesus to rule for a thousand years
at the end of the Great Tribulation, and then for the last rebels, both human and
demonic, to be placed in their final abode, the Lake of Fire. Lastly, the few remaining
people -- those that are saved -- will enter into the new earth and new Jerusalem.

To the second point, we are predestined to diligently seek after God that we should
find Him, and be saved. Depending on the dispensation we are in, we are accountable
to its rules and to our own consciences. But whether we follow this universal calling
to repentence to salvation is up to each of us.

To the last notion of predestination, certain individuals and certain people have
special callings and/or functions in life.

Now to the specifics:

Joshua 24:15 -- this tells me that God predestined Joshua to succeed Moses,
but it also tells me that people have free will. So, choose wisely, people,
as though your eternal life depends on it.

Revelation 22:1-6 -- These verses describe the blessed earth the saved will inherit.

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: -- Revelation 22:3

I interpret the verses from Revelation 22:15-21 as God's last attempt in the common
era for Jesus to make a direct appeal to the peoples of the earth to consider their
errant ways and to come to Him while there is yet time.

15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17 And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And
let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book. 20 He which testifieth these
things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
-- Revelation 22:15-21

Evans says that Revelation 22:13 is a verse that supports the doctrine of free will,
and I agree with him on that, though there are better verses that can be used for
that purpose. In fact, I am a firm supporter of free will, against all of its ememies,
including Reformed 'Believers' (heretics) and atheistic determinists. But this
reply of mine is focused on predestination, not on free will. By the way, just in
case it hasn't been made clear, I believe in both predestination (many kinds of it,
in fact) and in free will.

In Matthew 22, Jesus gave us the parable of the King's servants going out into the
realm to tell those that were invited to the marriage banquet that they are to come
now. But they all chose not to attend and gave flippant excuses why they would not
attend. At this point in the parable I want to abruptly interrupt it to make this claim:
Those that were invited were on a 'people who are predestined to be invited' list. But
by the god-like power of their own free will, they rejected that predestination and
went their own way.

John 6:44 -- In the Book of John, Jesus often emphasized that He was there on earth
to do the will of His Father and to say whatsoever things the Father told Him to say.
This verse is just one of many verses that He does that. But Jesus Himself also said:

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. -- John 12:32

Well, Jesus was lifted up on the Cross. And the author of the Book of John said
of Jesus, the Light that shined into the darkness:

That [Jesus] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. -- John 1:9

Yes, those that choose Jesus do so because they are first drawn of the Father, but
all men are drawn of the Father. But to be saved, you have to act on the message
you received of the Father. Having done so, to love mercy, justice, honesty, truth,
and kindness, you then know when you hear the words of Jesus Christ that He
is truly the messiah sent from God. The snag in this whole thing is that most people
do not want to listen to the voice of the Father calling them to salvation. They have
already conflicting plans they have set out for their own lives, and becoming a
Christian will only get in the way of those plans.

Postulate 1) The Father calls (draws) all people to salvation in Jesus.
Postulate 2) Only some people will respond positively to salvation in Jesus.
Conclusion) All who come to Jesus were drawn to Jesus of the Father.
Conclusion restated) No man can come to Jesus, except the Father which hath
sent Jesus draw him.

When Evans claims on the basis of John 6:44, that those who are saved, are saved
without their consent (no free will involved) he is mistaken. All John 6:44 tells
us is that, prior to salvation in Jesus, it is necessary for the Father to draw a
person to Him. However, this verse all by itself does not provide sufficiency, as well,
for one to be saved.

Jesus had a habit of making statements that the unwary might rashly formulate
a fallacious conclusion from. Such as, Why callest thou me good; there is
none good but God. [paraphrased from Matthew 19:17] It sounds like Jesus
claimed that He is not God by claiming that He is not good. But He didn't
actually claim that He is not good. Remember that Jesus claimed in another place,
"I am the Good Shepherd." [John 10:14]

If you, the reader, believes that Once Saved, Always Saved, may God have mercy
on your soul.

Question 15: Will the dead be resurrected?

Absolutely YES: There will be a universal resurrection of all souls, saved and unsaved.
And, up against the many New Testament verses that declare this resurrection, Mr.
Evans counters with Ecclesiastes and Job. Let's look at Ecclesiastes 3:19-20

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing
befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one
breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
-- Ecclesiastes 3:19-20.

Now, I don't know about the resurrection of animals, but this couple of verses
does not tell us that there is no resurrection of people. In fact, it only
repeats what we were told way back in Genesis:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto
the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return.
-- Genesis 3:19.

Job is interesting:

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to
the grave shall come up no more. -- Job 7:9.

I don't think that Job, at this miserable time of his life, was acting as a prophet in making
this utterance. Instead, I think he was acting as a confused and frustrated man, trying to
figure out why his world fell apart for no apparent reason. But even at that, Job had
his better moments:

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in
my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
-- Job 19:25-27.

Now, that seems to me that Job was expecting to be resurrected from his dead body
and made anew in the latter day.

Question 16: Is lying wrong?

Remember this: The righteous are mindful of the poor and help them; the wicked do not! (Proverbs 29:7)

You either get control of your lusts and feelings of entitlements or they will get control of you. -- Ilfinor