Predestination is the act by which God supposedly foreordained everything that would happen. The concept of “What is to be will be” isn’t according to the Word of God. Why pray, fast if change is impossible? God does not predestine one soul to salvation and another to damnation.

Foreordained: Divine intent; determining of the divine one, and intent by God.

Predetermine: To determine, to decide beforehand.

The Lord has worked with man, but He cannot determine everything for him. Had man stayed with God it would be a different situation; but he left God, and the mistakes he has made, the sorrow those mistakes have caused, are not the fault of God. The devil and man will have to shoulder the blame; God will see to it that they do.

In the sixteenth century John Calvin put forth this rotten, damnable doctrine of predestination for the souls of mankind. Calvinism, the religious system of John Calvin and his followers, emphasizes predestination and declares salvation is solely by God’s grace, and individuals have no choice in the matter. If God through His grace decides you will go to Heaven, you will. If He decides you are not going to Heaven, you will go to hell—according to Calvin. He claimed that every soul is predestined before birth for either Heaven or hell and that soul cannot change its destiny. Calvin was overbearing and dogmatic; his views on predestination pathetic, destructive, wrong, absolutely not of God. The spirit of demonic powers, seducing spirits, took him over and the devil was able to bring forth a devilish, rotten doctrine. God doesn’t operate the way Calvin claimed.

The Word of God shoots down the false doctrine of Calvinism. Jesus invites, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mark 8:34). Whosoever will come, can come to Jesus.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (II Timothy 2:15). Many have not learned how to divide the Word of truth.

Salvation for All

The lie of all lies came from the devil himself when he told Eve she surely wouldn’t die if she disobeyed God, that she could sin and get by. The second biggest lie is that many people, even before they are born, are destined for hell, that they can never be saved, are damned in their mothers’ wombs. No wonder God wants us to reason with Him. The call to repentance from Calvary is to all, I say again, a call to the world—God so loved the world.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God loved the world; He loved everyone. Whosoever believes in Jesus will have everlasting life. Salvation is offered to all; they can choose Heaven or they can choose hell, but they are not predestined for one place or the other. No one is predestined to die with damnation in his soul even though he desires God.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Corinthians 5:17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). God has a message for everyone; no one is passed by. A call to go to Heaven, a Calvary call, rings forth from the Bride throughout the whole earth in this last hour.

Jesus said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (Mark 16:15,16). To all people this Gospel must be preached. Why should it be preached to every creature if half of them are damned before they are born? And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come (Matthew 24:14). The Lord wants all to have a chance. With great gladness we can shout to the inhabitants of the earth: Call upon Him! He’ll hear you!

Confess your sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). This verse is for everyone, not just a special few. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins (Acts 10:43).

Isaiah said, His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:4,5). Salvation was foreordained when it became apparent that sin had entered mankind.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17). Does that sound like predestination, like damnation for some and salvation for others?

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18). The Lord said that he who believeth not on Him is condemned; being condemned means you are damned. The choice, I say again, of whether to accept or reject the Lord Jesus Christ is left up to the individual. Everyone in order to have salvation will have to accept the true Jesus, not false doctrine. Some ministers say that any God will do. It’s a lie of the devil. Only one way leads to Heaven, one Foundation—Jesus. No way into Heaven exists without Him.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live (John 11:25).

God Predestined the Choice of Holiness

It is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy (I Peter 1:16). God has predestined holiness for all His people. He said His people would be a holy people, and that can’t be changed. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God (Deuteronomy 14:2).

God has also predestined the Bride to be a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). The requirements for the Bride, the Glorious Church, cannot be changed, but everyone has the choice of being part of that church. Nothing the devil will do can change that scripture. The devil, however, has influenced many preachers to ignore this passage and replace it with a false doctrine. They claim holy living is not possible, that no one can live holy. Unholy preachers say no one can live free from sin—and they practice what they preach. The devil has deceived them into really believing they are going to Heaven. Holy preachers preach holiness.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified (Romans 8:29,30). God called everyone to repentance, predestined man to live holy, but it’s a holiness that man must accept. The choice is up to man; he can rebel against that holy life if he chooses. However, without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Only people made holy by the blood of the Lamb will be part of this Glorious Church.

God Did Not Know Man Would Sin

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 1:31,26,27; 2:7). For the very first time, a living soul was put into a man. Adam was created to be eternal, to never die. The soul that came from God will never die.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:16,17). If God had predestined man to sin, if He knew they were going to sin, He would not have worked the way we read of here. He wouldn’t have made a holy man and woman or given them a soul, a part of Him that would never be able to die. God is love; He didn’t plan a civilization to be destroyed through judgment because of sin, because of people living like the devil. God hates sin.

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever (Genesis 3:22). When sin entered the hearts of Adam and Eve, God drove them out of the Garden of Eden so they wouldn’t eat of the tree of life. Even in their evil condition, had they gotten to the tree of life, they would have lived forever in the flesh.

All the evil, devil-possessed people that ever were born would still be alive today had man eaten of the tree of life. It would be hell on Earth. Who would want to be here? All the sick, the heart patients, cancer victims and others suffering and unable to die would live here in agony forever. People so ill come to the place they welcome death. Death can be a great gateway into either Heaven or hell. It’s foolish for people to think death is an escape from torment if they don’t have God in their hearts; death would only usher them into greater torment in hell.

God hadn’t known Adam and Eve would sin, I say again; He didn’t want to know. Giving Adam and Eve free choice, He trusted them to love and obey Him always. He did not look into their future.

God doesn’t look into man’s future; He told me that would not be trusting man. When souls kneel at the altar, God never checks before He saves them whether they will continue with Him, nor does He know beforehand what people will do with His blessings. He said if you confess your sins, He will forgive. He refuses to look into your tomorrow and make what you are going to do a condition of forgiveness. God told me He wants man and woman to trust Him one hundred percent, and He couldn’t have asked for that trust unless He put that kind of trust in them. He trusted man and woman to not sin. He gave them all the power they needed to keep out of sin, and He has furnished us all the power we need to not sin. The Lord lets us know that those who commit sine are of the devil.

When God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden because of sin, he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). Had God known Adam and Eve were going to sin, He wouldn’t have put the tree of life in the Garden in the first place.

What kind of God would predestine people for hell with no chance for escape? Adam and Eve had a choice. Did God go to all the trouble to make a sinless Adam and Eve—telling them they could eat of all the fruit of the Garden but one, that if they ate of that they would surely die—and still expect them to eat and die? Of course not. He loved to come down and walk and talk with Adam and Eve; He had made them for His honor and glory, in His own image. God created everything beautiful for them. The Garden was going to be their home. Their children would have gone outside Eden to live—had man not sinned. Paradise extended outside Eden, too, before the fall. God said to replenish the earth, not the Garden. So we know He planned children.

Does it make sense to think God did all that when their destiny to fall, to sin, was sealed? Some Christians become angry to hear that God did not know man would sin. If God knew it, He would have to take the blame for all sin in the world, for the mess in Genesis that man and the devil made; but God is not to blame, and He won’t take the blame. Did God make a man and woman predestined to go to hell so that His own Son would have to die for their redemption? Absolutely not. What kind of a God would do something like that? What kind of a God would will into being this sinful civilization we live in? Did He will man to sin before the flood and then kill him for it? God would never do that; He is a God of love and compassion.

Everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Hell originally was made for Lucifer and the fallen angels, but when man sinned, hell was changed: Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure (Isaiah 5:14). God didn’t predestine hell. Not until the devil and his angels fell did hell come into existence. God didn’t know Adam and Eve would fall; the love in Him didn’t want to know anything bad about the man and woman He had made. He loved them with perfect love. No one wants to think bad about those he or she loves with a perfect love. Real love is like that.

God works night and day with souls, goes through much suffering because of their sins. Why would He predestine such agony for Himself? He did not.

If we couldn’t change things, if everything were set, then there would be no need to fast or pray. But Jesus Himself prayed and fasted. He told the disciples when they were unable to deliver a devil-possessed boy: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21).

God Repented

Because of sin, God determined to destroy every living thing. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them (Genesis 6:6,7). Did God predestine this? Could man not help himself no matter how much he prayed? When God saw the sin on Earth, He planned to destroy all living things. He doesn’t say what He doesn’t mean.

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth…GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart (Genesis 6:1,5,6). Had God predestined man to sin, then why would God have repented? He should have been pleased that man had taken to sin so readily. Had He known all along that man would sin and He made them anyway, He would not have been grieved. He would have expected it. God does not take the responsibility for man’s fall. He is grieved to see His own image covered with sin, to see an eternal part of Himself damned.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8). One family got God’s attention; one family was living right. God decided He couldn’t destroy them, and so He waited one hundred twenty years while they built an ark. That’s how much God wants to save every family on Earth that will serve Him. He proved His love for each family that recognizes Him, includes and respects Him. That’s why it’s so important for parents to teach their children to respect and honor God. When God makes a promise, it is fulfilled according to how the person responds to that promise. If faith wavers, let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord (James 1:7).

Abraham, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise (Hebrews 6:15). In Psalms, we read, I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry (Psalm 40:1). If you don’t wait patiently, God is not obligated to fulfill the promise.

God isn’t “playing church” today, and He wasn’t playing back then. God would not have looked into man’s future and still gone ahead with His creation plan. He did not see all the sin and chaos man would cause, or that He would have to destroy thousands and start over with the eight souls of the Noah family.

God told Noah after the flood waters had receded: And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations (Genesis 9:11,12). Why, if God were predestinating man to be destroyed again, why did He make a covenant with them? God said, I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth (verse 13).

God made a covenant with the earth as well as with man. Regardless of what man would do in the future, God would keep that promise. The next time God destroys the earth it will be by fire, not water.

This covenant does not interfere with souls, with their free choice. God didn’t say He would not destroy mankind with water if they wouldn’t sin. He didn’t take sin into consideration. Not one soul was damned because of God’s covenant. When it comes to a soul, God will not predestine a soul to be damned.

People are born into the world with a chance to find God, but they can trample the blood of Jesus underfoot until the grace of God does not work for them and they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. The Lord will pronounce judgment of damnation upon them. It’s a damnation they will bring upon themselves. They have free choice. The voice of God still rings out down through all these ages: The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). That has never been changed and it never will be changed.

Getting Ahead of God

God did not predestine the tower of Babel we read about in Genesis 11. He didn’t predestine Abraham and Hagar’s union or the nation that had its beginnings with the birth of Ishmael. God didn’t plan a nation other than the one that would come from the son of Abraham and Sarah. God is innocent of the trouble on Earth that people blame God for. He is innocent. God didn’t plan this trouble; He didn’t have anything to do with it. God told Abraham He would give him an heir, and that heir was to be Isaac.

The angel of the Lord said to Hagar, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction (Genesis 16:11). The angel of the Lord didn’t tell her this because it was God’s plan, because God predestined it, but because He had compassion on Hagar. She was told that her son would be a wild man—not that his mind would be wild—he would grow up in the wilderness. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer (Genesis 21:20).

Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac, married Rebekah. And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob (Genesis 25:21-26). God told Rebekah that the older son would serve the younger, but Rebekah ran ahead of God, bringing sorrow and heartache, almost destroying Jacob completely. Suffering because of the deceit his mother had planted in his heart, Jacob fled from home and was gone twenty years. God did not will Jacob to leave his mother and father. His grandmother Sarah had gotten ahead of God by suggesting that Abraham have a child by Hagar, and now Rebekah got ahead of God concerning her sons. Deceit runs in families like diseases. If not killed out it just continues.

Did God foreordain Jacob’s heartaches and troubles? No. When man lies, deceives and gets ahead of God, all too often God is blamed for the results.

Did God predestine the Israelites to wander forty years in the wilderness? No. He had planned to take them to the promised land of Canaan in about eleven days, but their disobedience and rebellion against Him made that plan fail.

Joseph Forgave Much

Joseph, Jacob’s son, reaped the family’s deceit. His jealous brothers put him in a pit, and then sold him into slavery, telling their father he was killed by an animal. Joseph’s beautiful coat of many colors, smeared with the blood of an animal, was shown to Jacob for proof. A young lad taken from a pit, frightened to death, was to live out the rest of his days in a foreign land. He would not see his father or his brother Benjamin for years. Joseph longed for his grief-stricken father who thought he was dead.

God did not plan for Joseph to be sold into slavery as the means of saving his family in time of great famine. God had another plan to provide for the family. No doubt in that plan He would have used Joseph in a special way, for Joseph had the Spirit of the living God in him. He was humble and he yielded to the Lord, to the love and the Spirit of God. He had meekness and forgiveness like Jesus had.

Joseph became second to Pharaoh in power and, during seven years of plenty, set in motion a plan throughout all Egypt that would save enough food to sustain Egypt through seven years of famine. When the famine bore down heavily on Joseph’s family back home, his brothers came to Egypt to buy food, and Joseph tested them. Benjamin wasn’t with them, and Joseph wanted to know if they would mistreat his younger brother, too. He demanded that the brothers bring Benjamin with them the next time they returned for more food.

Joseph, finally reunited with Benjamin, gave him special attention and showed him great love. His other brothers did not know what to make of it all. They had wanted to keep Benjamin hidden, safe, and were willing to give up anything but Benjamin. Remembering how their father grieved when he thought Joseph was dead, they thought if anything were to happen to Benjamin it would kill their father. They told Jacob that the Egyptian ruler wanted their youngest brother, and Jacob thought he couldn’t give him up. Jacob could give up the other sons, but not the youngest.

Many people have a little “Benjamin” of some kind hidden away. It may not be a son or daughter, but they hold on to something they love better than they love God.

Do you have a Benjamin you can’t give up? Is something more dear to your heart than doing the whole will of God? For you to fail to do the whole will of God you have to be separated from the love of God. In the perfect love of God you do the perfect will of God.

When their father died, Joseph’s brothers were afraid Joseph would seek revenge for the cruel way they had treated him, but Joseph told them to fear not. But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them (Genesis 50:20,21).

Man caused Joseph’s hardships, but God worked them out for good because Joseph was obedient to God’s purpose. People may mean to harm you, but that doesn’t mean God planned it. It was man’s doing. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). When you are in God’s divine will, He will work good out for you and for Him. People think God predestined all the sorrow, all that heartache of Joseph. No, a million times no. Joseph was a prince of a boy. God had given him visions, dreams, when he was very young. God would have used him without all the trials he had to endure because of deceit in the family, not in him.

God wants you to know He’ll work with you the best He can, but He’ll work with you in the grace of God only. Outside of grace, He won’t touch you. This is a grace dispensation. You have free choice. It’s time to decide you want the divine will of God, to know that all things work together for good for them who are the called of God and walk according to His purpose, His will. Then He works everything out. He worked good out for Joseph, but it came the hardest kind of way.

So many times we have to suffer because we won’t go by God’s plan. We have our own opinions. “I don’t believe God will work like that,” or “I don’t believe this will work.” It isn’t a matter of what we think will work or won’t work; it’s a matter of what God has said.

God knew Joseph wanted the will of the Lord, but he couldn’t have the perfect will because the ones he was closest to threw him out of that will. They sold him into bondage—they did it. That is the reason you can’t let people who would get you out of God’s will have power over you. You can’t let a husband or a wife take you out of the will of God, not children or anyone else. If you do allow it, you will suffer, suffer.

Many parents, husbands and wives are suffering because they gave over to their loved ones rather than to God’s will. God still is with them, but where are those families today? Where are the children? Some are lost and undone without God. Will they ever come in? God will do His best, but when parents fail, don’t cooperate with God, the family doesn’t cooperate, loved ones are lost. You can believe with all your heart they will come to God, but they may not. Not even God can make people come to Him against their will. God could kill them, but that would just put them in hell. He could bring all kinds of judgment, but even then, others might get in the way; instead of praying for their souls, they would plead with God to lift Hs hand of judgment so loved ones won’t suffer.

I believe in praying for the soul’s salvation first of all. If people don’t give their souls to God, why pray for them to be healed? God is working, dealing, seeking, but many just won’t let God work.

Although they know all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, some people think nothing bad will ever happen to them. They think wrongly. They have not studied to divide the Holy Scriptures the way the Bible teaches.

Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah brought problems and sorrow on their heads that would not have been had they trusted God to fulfill what He said. How many times have you failed to trust God’s promises, to not wait for God?

Deceit can be traced on down throughout the book of Genesis. People blame God for it all, and it was not His fault. God did not predestine it.

The Different Worlds of the Bible

Many different worlds are spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. We read of the old world and the world of the ungodly in II Peter 2:5: [God] spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (II Peter 3:6). The old world perished, and only eight souls survived.

In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began (Titus 1:2). If this were before the world which we think of—the earth, the heavens that God created in the beginning—to whom did God make this promise of eternal life? There were no people on the earth before it was created. Titus, in this verse, is speaking of the world of redemption, salvation, deliverance of captives in sin. After the fall of man, redemption was foreordained and promised to mankind. Man and woman could be redeemed.

The precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you (I Peter 1:19,20). The world this scripture refers to is the world of the foundation of redemption. Before Jesus came, before the Jesus dispensation, He was foreordained to be the foundation of redemption.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Jesus, the Lamb, was not slain before the earth was created but from the foundation of the Christian world.

We as children of God enter and live in a new world, the new and living way of redemption through the blood of Jesus. We are not of the old world of sin even as Jesus is not of it. Hebrews 10:20 talks of this new and living way: By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. This is the new world. Jesus came and made a new and living way possible. Unbelievable, and yet Jesus did it for us. He is the incredible Christ. The human mind can’t comprehend such love, such deliverance, such help, such willingness to suffer to pay the price that we could have this new world.

There are two worlds of people today: those in God’s righteous world and those in the ungodly world of the devil who still talk like the old world, act like it. Many have never gotten out of the old world and into the new and living way.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 3:11). This again is the foundation of the Christian world. Not making a distinction between the different worlds has caused people to go into false doctrine.

For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak (Hebrews 2:5). There is a world to come.

Jesus praying for His disciples said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (John 17:15,16). They were not of the sin-world, but of the world of the new and living way through Christ Jesus.

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3). This verse is speaking of the finished work of the foundation of the Gospel. Jesus, I say again, is that foundation. The work of redemption leads us into that rest called Heaven. The world of redemption began with Jesus.

Prehistoric World

Lucifer, once in Heaven with God, once beautiful, was perfect in all his ways until iniquity was found in him. When he gave over to sin, he caused rebellion in Heaven and caused a third of the angels to fall from grace with him. Prior to their reaching to the point of no return, God had worked with them, trying to save them, to deliver them before it was too late. But there was no help because they didn’t want help. The angels chose to go with Lucifer, and Lucifer became the god of darkness.

God cast them out of Heaven to prehistoric Earth, a place beautiful and flourishing with exotic life. But with the arrival of Lucifer and the fallen angels, that beauty was wiped out. The earth became dark, empty of life. Death was king. The earth remained in that state millions of years until the creation of man and the renewal of life on Earth, life in a different form than before.

Prehistoric creatures have nothing to do with our period of time beginning with Adam. Some people use the existence of prehistoric creatures to try to prove the Bible wrong. They misinterpret the Holy Scripture. No doubt millions of years elapsed between the first and second verses of Genesis when the Lord decided He would have paradise on Earth again. People have their own opinions, interpreting the Bible their way rather than allowing the Holy Spirit teach them the truths of God.

The cave men did not have living souls; they were not made in the image of God. If they had possessed souls, God would not have destroyed them, wiped them out of existence. A price would had to have been paid for their redemption. Jesus died for one world, this world. For God so loved this world of people that He gave Jesus. He made that sacrifice only once. Jesus did not die in prehistoric times to save the cave men.

Satan, an Angel of Light

Did God predestine Lucifer and the angels to sin? Absolutely not! Lucifer, once known in Heaven for his beautiful light, was cast into darkness when he rebelled against God.

The name Lucifer means light; He had much light, the brightest light of any of the angels, I’m sure. He took pride in that light, but today he shines out a false light. For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14). The devil counterfeits the light of the Lord. I’ve seen it, compared it to Christ in His glorified state. Without the Holy Spirit’s discerning, one cannot detect the difference. We must have the Lord’s Spirit to let us know what is dealing with us, must live in the Spirit so that we will not be deceived.

Many have been deceived, misled because they thought an angel had come to them, and it was Lucifer himself with his false light. He is breathtaking to behold when you don’t know who he is and don’t realize his lights are phony. He seemingly has counterfeited the very dress of Jesus in His glorified state. It’s amazing to me.

I had seen Jesus in His glorified state, and then the Lord brought Lucifer to me, allowed him to come without telling me he was the devil. At first I thought I was seeing a real angel of the lord, the most unusual angel I had ever seen. In later comparing the vision to Christ in His glorified form, I came to the conclusion that Lucifer has counterfeited the dress and lights of Jesus. Only the devil would dare do such a thing, fooling so many, many people; it is amazing!

The Unforgivable Sin

Only one sin carries no forgiveness. Jesus said, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come (Matthew 12:31,32). Every sin except the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost can be forgiven among men, not just a certain class, not just a certain people, but everyone.

A Permissible and a Divine Will

God has a permissible will and a divine will. In the divine will of God, you will die the very moment that God plans for you to go to Heaven.

It should not hurt your faith when a person dies in the divine will of God, at the time God calls. It certainly doesn’t hurt God’s faith. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Only by way of the Rapture can anyone escape death. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live (John 11:25). This is the divine promise of God.

In the permissible will of God, you may die years ahead of time. He has control only when a soul has put itself in the divine will of God. In the permissible will, God does not have full control. Cancer eating the life out of a body is called God’s way. It is not. Thinking cancer is the will of God robs people of God’s divine love, and they turn against God. God did not predestine cancer. If you walk with God, healing is promised, there is healing help, healing greatness, healing faith, healing balm, how beautiful is the healing of the Lord!

God Is Married to the Backslider

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:26). If man were predestined to go to either Heaven or hell, this kind of scripture would not be in the Bible. A backslider who comes back to God must repent and start over; he cannot be just renewed in the Spirit. The sacrifice of Jesus for those who once were saved but then willfully sinned will be of no effect until they repent and do their first works over. This verse does not mean a backslider can never get back to God. The Bible says the Lord is married to the backslider, working to restore him to salvation as long as there is a thread for God to work with. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you (Jeremiah 3:14).

When I was a little boy, a backslidden woman knocked on our door one Sunday morning. Tears streamed down her cheeks. I’ll never forget how pathetic she was. She couldn’t read or write, but she had a little Testament open, her finger on this scripture in Hebrews 10:26. Her people, lost and undone without God, were fighting the God she served. They hated the baptism in the Holy Spirit, telling her that she could never get back to God, never have the baptism in the Holy Ghost. She was one of the most miserable souls I had ever seen. I can picture her in my mind’s eye yet today. Dad began to explain the scripture to her. “No, it doesn’t mean you can never be saved,” he told her. She went to church that very night, got back to God, received the baptism in the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance. She let out a shout of victory; she had won. This is but one example of how the devil will twist the Scripture in people’s minds. We must be aware of all of this, careful.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). He is the door; anyone who tries to reach the Father any other way but through Jesus will fail. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture (John 10:7-9). Jesus is the door to life, the door to Heaven’s blessings. He is the door to love, peace, joy, the door to all goodness. If you are trying to get into Heaven with sin in your heart, you are a robber and thief searching for a side door. There are no side doors to Glory. The only way to get to Heaven is through one door, through Jesus. Praise God for the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! Jesus takes away the sins of everyone who wants Him in his or her heart.

All God’s Promises Are Conditional

All of God’s promises are conditional. Salvation is conditional: if you sin, you lose it. You can backslide, I say again. After you find the Lord, you will go to Heaven no matter what you do…? It’s a lie of the devil, damnable false doctrine that has destroyed countless lives. Many believe that because they found Jesus years ago, they can sin and still go to Heaven. They are wrong. Once in grace, always in grace, I repeat, is a doctrine of the devil. If you sin willfully there is no more sacrifice; Jesus is no longer your High Priest, your sacrifice. You have rendered His blood void for you. You cannot be renewed, for no longer is anything renewable in you. You are degraded in sin the way you were before you were saved the first time. Now you can only repent and do your first works over. You have to start all over at the bottom.

God is interested in helping man in whatever is wholesome, clean, pure and good. At one time He told Moses He was going to destroy all the Israelites, and Moses knew He meant it. Moses pleaded with God: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written (Exodus 32:31,32). Take my name out of your book, Moses was saying; I don’t want any honor, glory or reward. The Lord has the names of His children in the book of rewards—the book Moses was speaking of—as well as the book of life.

Paul bore a great burden for his people. He wrote, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9:2,3). Paul didn’t wish his soul to be damned; he didn’t mean to give up Heaven, and neither did Moses. Paul meant he would have given up the great and mighty blessings of God for the time being if it meant his brethren would come to the Lord. Both Paul and Moses knew too much about God to give Heaven away. There are more ways than one to be accursed. Paul proved he meant that he said because no one suffered more for the sake of Christ.

God’s Left Hand of Judgment

God doesn’t deal in predestination for the soul, I say again. Not at all. God will not accept that accusation. Predestination for the soul is a lie of the devil. God did not make all this mess with humanity; He did not plan it. He did not know what would happen. He had power to know, and He had power to not know. Who are you to say God should have known what would happen to man? Who are you to tell God what to do, what He should have done and what He should not have done? Who would dare criticize his Maker? Who would dare accuse the Almighty? If you want to stir up God, accuse Him.

You brought many sorrows upon you, saith the Lord, because you have bypassed God. You have not done the will of God, and you have gone off on byways. Then you say, “Why God?” You’ve run ahead of God or lagged behind, done things you knew were not right and then blamed God. “God, why did you do this? Why did you do that?” God wants you to know that you have to pay if you bypass His will.

God is coming so close to judgment today that His mercy isn’t moving as forcefully as it once did. We’re coming now to the end, and God is lifting up His left hand of judgment as well as His right hand of mercy, bringing judgment, individual judgments and sweeping judgments throughout the whole earth. The disease AIDS is a judgment of God that affects not only the guilty but the innocent as well. People spit in the eye of God, live in fornication and adultery, flaunt themselves before God, cause damnation to come upon themselves, and now they and others are suffering. Does God still love them? He doesn’t love their sins, but He loves their souls. He will not only save but He will heal those who yield to Him.

God has sent different plagues; God cursed, for example, the earth with insects that man cannot get rid of. People have died because of poisons meant for destructive insects. Since God brought the curse, insects abound no matter what man does.

God will take the responsibility for what He has done, but God said man and the devil brought most of man’s troubles on himself, and He did the best He could the little He had to work with. You needn’t blame God for the disobedience, sins, failures in your life; blame yourself and the devil—but mostly you. The devil cannot make you do anything you don’t want to. You can come to Jesus; you have strength to overcome the devil, strength and power to trample him underfoot through the blood of Jesus.

Blaming God lessens your chance of ever coming to Him. If the devil can get you to blame God for your place in life, then he knows you’re in great trouble with God. People who take their own paths, do their own thing, sin against God and then ask God why He let them get in trouble put themselves out of reach of His help. Had they not failed God, they would not be in that condition.

God Is Calling You

The Lord walked with Adam and Eve in a paradise here on Earth as long as they were obedient to Him. God walked with Enoch and then took him home. He evidently couldn’t find any other members of the family to walk with, so He took just one. Later He found Elijah. Elijah, thinking no one was left to serve God but him, would have missed being raptured had the Lord granted his despondent prayer to die when he was under the juniper tree. Without the knowledge of God, you are liable to say anything to Him. That’s the reason it’s essential to have His knowledge, His wisdom, and to know how to use them.

Predestination of a soul—God doesn’t have anything to do with it, saith the Lord. It’s man and the devil. You have a chance no matter who you are or what you have done: you can be saved today. The Lord is calling you. If you don’t have Jesus in your heart, pray with me now: Oh, God, I have sinned. I am so sorry that I sinned against you. But I have come home. I’m going to serve you, Lord, the rest of my life. I believe the blood of Jesus washes away all of my sins, all of my sins. Come on in, Jesus! Come on into my heart.

If you meant that prayer, He has come. Start reading your Bible, praying, looking to God. Walk with God, and God will walk with you. Live in the truth and you will find God every day that you have left on planet Earth. He is always in the truth, and He cries for you to come to the truth. Know the truth and be free.

Now that you have received Jesus into your heart, you can with all confidence cry, “Oh, God, you saved my soul, now heal my body!” Just as He saved the soul, that power is moving now to heal your body. I am not a healer; I’m a believer. If you have heart trouble, cancer, no matter what is wrong with you, God is the healer. Believe God and get ready for a miracle. You who need healing, let me pray for you: God wants to make you whole. Lord, I come against their diseases. I come against their afflictions. In the name of Jesus it comes from the gift of miracles, the gifts of healing; your power flows like a mighty river. Heal, heal in the name of Jesus. Heal in the mighty name of the Lord!

Remember, just as you cried for God to save your soul and He answered that cry, He is more than ready to answer your cry for healing. For I am the Lord that healeth thee (Exodus 15:26). He is the healing, saving Christ, and He loves you.

So you see from this study that God does not predestine a soul to go to Heaven or hell when that soul is born. Everyone has choice: they can accept the Lord or reject Him. Jesus came and brought the great invitation: Whosoever will, let him come!