The individual who attempts to hold on to both Christ and the world in the present hour will experience confusion and much pain, and may lose his soul.

Thine they were,

The above statement, "thine they were," suggests to us that part of mankind belongs to the Father in a special way. Abraham, and those who are called in Abraham including every person on earth who is "in Christ," belonged to God originally.

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) (Romans 9:11)

And again:

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:13)

The reason we Christian teachers have, in some instances, discarded the major scriptural doctrine of Divine election, is that the spirit of Antichrist, of Laodicea, of humanism, of the "rights of people," is abiding in us. As soon as this satanic thinking is cast out of us we will be able to see what the Scripture reveals concerning predestination and election.

Some may ask, "What is the use of our doing anything if God already has determined what will happen to each individual? Who is able to resist God?"

Our problem here is one of ignorance and rebellion. The Scriptures inform us that God works in terms of foreknowledge and election. The Scriptures teach us also that each person on the earth may repent and turn to Christ and that it is God's will for him or her to do so at once.

"But," we may protest, "we cannot understand how these two truths are reconciled." Here is the actual problem. We are so proud in our rebellious minds we will not accept a doctrine until we think we understand it.

God's ways are as high above our thinking as the heavens are high above the earth. Our mortal mind is an enemy of the Lord. If God says a thing is true, it is true. A Divine truth is not affected by our ability to understand it.

Spiritual truths and spiritual realities exist in eternity. They proceed from the mind of God. Our pitiful brains are able to glean only grains of understanding from the universal barns of God's infinite wisdom. If we could understand God we could control God.

Will we maintain that we shall not accept what God has stated because we do not understand how God can be righteous and yet act in the manner in which He does? Some people today will not receive Christ as their Savior and Lord because they cannot understand why God would allow war and famine to exist in the world.

To maintain such foolish and ignorant criticism of the God of Heaven is nothing more than an evidence we are of Antichrist, that we are in rebellion against the Lord God our Creator.

To be continued.