The World and the Word

                                                         The Wheat and the Chaff

In Matthew 13:1-23, Jesus preached about both predestination and free will. Many believe the one excludes the other, but actually, both happen at the same time. Every decision made in a moment affects both an eternal past and an eternal future. Every righteous decision made in a moment interlocked with every other righteous decision ever made creates an eternal and infinite mosaic which only God can see. God creates this mosaic. God creates it from every righteous decision ever made which are like pieces of cloth of different colors and shapes which He adds to an infinite quilt which is the mosaic. In order to do this, God waits for every righteous decision to be made. God eventually purges all evil decisions from His mosaic..

Jesus preached that some are able to hear and believe the Word of God but most are not able. That which Jesus taught comports with the teaching of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:14-24. God creates every human in His image, but most with a diminished image and some with a strong image. Those with a strong image tend to be able to believe in Christ and become saved by grace, whereas those with a weak image tend to become hardened like Pharaoh. As Proverbs 16:4 teaches, people with diminished souls and spirits often attempt to fill their emptiness with evil actions. God holds the right to create human systems as He wills, but humans remain responsible for their own choices.

Because of free will, some people who tend to be evil nevertheless are able to hear God's Word, believe in Christ and become saved by grace. One such person was the Apostle Paul who met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Acts 9:1-8. Others may possess a strong spirit, but nevertheless, never choose to believe in Christ. Jesus chose only disciples with strong spirits who were able to believe in Him as their Savior. Judas Iscariot had a strong spirit or he would not have followed Jesus as long as he did, and yet, he finally rejected faith in Christ. But in the end of the world, God will rescue that which is left of the good spirit and soul of even Judas Iscariot from the flames of Hell where he probably now resides. Matthew 26:50. Regardless of the evil choices that humans make, Almighty God is able to eventually purge all evil choices from that eternal and beautiful mosaic that He is in the process of creating.

God creates people with weak and strong spirits to test His Almighty Love. Satan seeks to use evil to annul the good spirits that God has put into every human to cause God to lose something He has created, and thereby, prove that God's Love can fail, gain an advantage over God so that he can eventually murder Him. Isaiah 14:12-17. But Ecclesiastes 3:14 proves that God can never lose anything He has ever created, and I Corinthians 13:8 proves that His Love can never fail. Romans 11:36 proves that God will recover absolutely everything He has ever created, and Revelation 21:5 proves that He will recreate everything He ever created after purging it of all sin and evil.

When the Devil attacks humans with weak spirits, God holds the right to exert extra power to protect them even though He may temporarily lose them to one of the regions of death. When the Devil attacks humans who are saved by grace, God causes their faith to hold up against the Devil even though they may temporarily backslide. God will prove that every human will return of their own free will to faith in Him no matter what the Devil may do to them. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. The book of Job is all about this very process. God is able to add every righteous choice that every human image of God in them ever makes to His infinite and beautiful mosaic that He is in the process of creating and which He has already finished. Predestination and free will work together while God is in the process of creating, but at the same time, He has already finished His entire creation. Hebrews 4:3; Romans 11:29; Isaiah 48:6-7; Revelation 21:5.