Are our entire lives predestined?
Predestination (as a doctrine in Christian theology) the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others. It has been particularly associated with the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo and of Calvin.
I've probably commented on this already, and without reviewing what i said, let me offer a view.
Early on there was Origen, who was considered mainstream orthodox before the ideas of Augustine began to be favored. Origen talked about a universal salvation, arguing, if it is the will of God that all be saved, then all will be saved. To accommodate this, Origen flirted with the idea of re-incarnation. If you shut down the opportunity to continue learning, via extra enfleshments, or any other time or way to learn, then you can more easily promote the concept of heaven for some, and hell for others as a motivational tool, mainly for statecraft.
I'm of the belief that this IS hell and therefor, any proposition regarding salvation must involve escape from hell. The question is, is escape for all, or is escape for a few? Is hell something that will continue on forever, or is hell something that God intends to shut down forever?
I'm of the belief that hell is pre-destined to be SHUT DOWN after a mass exodus.
But to shut it down you first have to understand what it even is, what makes it tick, and most importantly, what is to be saved.
I'm of the belief that there is only one thing being saved, not many.
The many things in hell derive from the one thing. Save the one thing, and you save THE ONLY THING WORTH SAVING.
The only thing worth saving is the truth. If Christ is the truth, then the only thing worth saving is Christ.
Only to the extent that the damned identify with Christ, and get on board that which is being saved, do they have a chance at exodus.
The salvation of Christ is pre-destined, meaning, nothing can stop it. It could also mean it has already been accomplished outside of the time matrix. Continued experience within the time matrix depends upon the response and cooperation of the damned, whether they will AGREE to the salvation, or maintain their psychological foothold in some kind of underworld.
Calvin, standing in hell, warning about a future hell, blaspheming any good God who has nothing to do with hell, either to make it, or to send anything there. The irony. The swift justice.
Calvin did not understand what hell even was, and so, lacked the credentials to promote it in the name of God. Likewise, Calvin did not understand salvation, and so, lacked the credentials to help anyone escape hell.
Calvin is what happens when put your faith in an idol, in this case, A BOOK, and try to makes sense of what is nonsensical in the first place. Augustine also had a problem with his basic premises. And lacking a solid foundation, built a philosophical house of cards.
It's really all about allegiance. You will never get the truth from anyone allied with hell. The day you buy into the idea that a good God made this world and called it "good", that is the day you swear an other to the continuation of hell.
Hell, rather, is made by hellions and their philosophical forefathers. The chief philosophical forefather is the proverbial "prodigal son". The prodigal son is a reference to a rogue idea in the mind of Christ that wanders far away from it's homeland. The philosophy of the prodigal son manifests as all that is called physical and/or "material", as in, "a material world". It is this rogue philosophy that makes hell, and then, makes hell a HOME.
In this version of cause and effect, a good God has nothing to do with the living conditions of the rogue element. A good father only wants the son back. The good father does not want or need the rogue philosophy and all of the strange material oddities it gave birth to.
Christians like Calvin would not accept just how strange and odd is the material existence of man.
The philosophical father of man reaches back to the idea of being special. An entire world is built upon that idea, after first rejecting the truth.
The truth is, nothing and no one are special. In hell, everyone and everything is special. This is really what it means to give allegiance to hell. This is all you have to do. This is why we are "here", or at least, it's why we have this experience.
But despite material implications, all material is still subject to mental power, itself being the brainchild of mental power.
As such, salvation is an entirely psychological process, at the end of which, all material manifestations disappear, back to where they came from, from nothing and from nowhere.
And that is the end of hell.
Folks like Calvin and Augustine, having given their allegiance to hell, perpetuate hell for themselves and any mind that will believe them. They never disowned what it is that makes man and man's experience: the desire to be special.
From special we derive all differences of any kind. There are endless differences between things and beings, each difference making each thing special. This is the basis of all inequality.
Calvin and Augustine promoted an unequal relationship between God and man, or at least, an unequal relationship between God and the thing that is being saved. After salvation, both Calvin and Augustine expected unequal relationships to continue forever. And in this way, they betrayed their allegiances, and allied themselves with all that is unequal, and as such, all that is iniquitous.
"All men were born equal" is a noble statement, and good for any nation, in hell, to be founded upon.
But no, men are not born equal.
If this is true in any way, it must reference a time BEFORE any men were ever born.
I'm of the belief that yes, all men share a far distant history, when all were equal. But that would have to be a time BEFORE the rogue philosophy of the proverbial prodigal son causes a powerful mind to wander into unreality.
So, it is equality that is being saved.
For this reason, Jesus did not think it unusual or robbery to be equal to God.
Again, this is a matter of allegiance. Are you free to think yourself equal to God, or not? If you do not feel free to do so, then, perhaps, you are not free, and you have not accepted the truth.
