Predestination V

A YouTube channel named Soteriology 101 seems to have a major axe to grind with Calvinistic predestination.  They produce numerous videos *exposing* the *errors* of Calvinism and the doctrine of predestination.  

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A recent video titled Ephesians 2:8 De-Calvinized (almost as if to suggest de-lousing, LOL!) concerned the meaning of the scripture:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

If we take the verse simply as it reads in English, we can see why a *Free Willer* would be so alarmed as to need to de-louse, I mean, de-Calvinize it.  If we understand, in English, the verse to say what it means and mean what it says, then, of course, there is no such thing as *Free Will.*  Salvation is purely a gift of God, no part of salvation, grace, faith, none of it, is generated or activated by man's *Free Will.* Every component of salvation is given by God as a gift.  

Well, of course it is not that simple.  Paul did not write Ephesians 2:8 in English, he wrote it in Greek.  I'm not a Greek scholar.  There are lots of Greek scholars.  It is a point of contention among scholars as to what the "that" in the above quoted scripture refers to.  The hot topic in particular being: does the "that" refer to faith?  If so, if faith is a gift of God, then man of his own *Free Will* cannot produce saving faith.  What does the verse in Greek teach?  Alas, as I said, there are many Greek scholars, and thus opinion is divided.  Don't trust me, check for yourselves on the internets, there are *scholars* aplenty who will conclude both for or against the idea that it is God who provides saving faith.

The narrator of the Soteriology 101 video states: "No one lacks what is necessary for their salvation.  God is not withholding the necessary gift of faith from some people leaving them without hope of salvation.  Paul taught us that those who perish only perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved (II Thess 2:10)."

The narrator then posits as one of the *proofs* that man's *Free Will* must be the source of saving faith these verses from I Timothy:

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

We are to left to conclude, apparently, (it is not explicitly stated, the video ends after the reading of the above verses) that if God wanted all men to be saved, He wouldn't withhold from some of them the ability to respond to the gospel with saving faith.

But the verse certainly does not prove men have *Free Will* to respond to the gospel with faith.  

If we interpret the above verses as the *Free Willers* interpret it:

God wants all people to be saved, God provides everything necessary for salvation to all people.

But if this is the correct interpretation it means God, the Supreme Wisdom of All That Is, willingly devised a plan of salvation that would frustrate His own will.

I'm not going to make that accusation against God.

God, the Supreme Wisdom of All That Is, knew before the foundation of the world exactly what His plan of salvation would lead to.  It would be exactly as His Son described it:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

[A more reasonable interpretation of the verses from I Timothy is that if they teach anything at all they teach universal salvation.  That in this Age only a few will find The Way, but that God will, of HIS will, at some New Age, provide everyone with saving faith and bring everyone to salvation.  This is a decidedly minority view, of course.  Universal salvation is on the very farthest fringe of contemporary Christianity.  But it is still far more reasonable than the *Free Willers* belief that God, the Supreme Wisdom of All That Is, willingly devised a plan of salvation that would frustrate His own will.]