Enter the Elephant in the Room - Ephesians 1

Okay, so here is the concept that divides denominations, churches, factions within churches and one thing that we at ANC have agreed we can differ on, and it not effect the way we do church, the way we do live missionally and the way we love God and others.

Predestination/Foreknowledge/Election – Paul introduces to this concept in this letter….he actually may have hit on it in Galatians….but Ephesians is so laced with it, I think we cant not mention it, especially for those who haven’t though through this concept.

In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – Ephesians 1:5

The problem a lot of people have with this concept is that they feel God plays Puppetmaster, pulling all the strings and they have no Free Will. While others rest in the fact that God is Sovereign and nothing escapes him, or he knows the beginning from the end. He sees the last days and has set his plan in motion from “in the beginning”.

Where the argument gets sticky is the realization that if God chooses his “elect”, then he also chooses to not elect some too….and that God cannot be that mean, that unfair.

What we have to remember is that God is more just than fair….life is not fair….but God is still just in that.
Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? Romans 9:21
The following verse gives great light to the Romans verse.
You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?- Isaiah 29:16
So basically…..we who are made, how can we question how God made us, how he chooses to make some of his pots for noble purposes and some for ignoble…the word is also SHARD (for the trash heap).

It’s been my belief that God somehow allows us freewill within his foreknowledge. A theologian once said….that if I somehow had foreknowledge of where I was I going to die….I just would never go there. God doesn’t operate this way. He is bigger than this. Therefore, I don’t have an issue knowing God knew we would be believers from before he laid the foundation of the earth…but some people do, some Christians do.

Is it fair? I am still struggling to understand why things happen, and we will probably never understand earthquakes in Haiti, Hitler, World Trade Center Bombings and Tsunamis, but know this….in all these horrible events, God was glorified.
Was it fair that Jesus had to step out of heaven, put on skin, walk this earth and be put to death for us?

This is merely the beginning of a discussion that is maybe better suited for the back patio…and I am open to that. I just wanted to recognize this concept without ignoring it. Discuss.