My daughter had to read Chosen by God written by RC Sproul. Since she would be asking questions, I decided to read the book before her so that I could be prepared. I did not realize how much I would enjoy it and get into it.
It is not what you would call a "pleasure book". You don't just pick it up and think that you will have a good rest by the fire. It is a book that could cause confusion, deep thought, and even a fight or two. The topic it addresses is predestination.
Predestination is the thought that God has chosen you before you were even born. Now, there are variations of that thought that Mr. Sproul discusses in his book. This topic has caused many a fight in Christian and even non-Christian circles. It can get a discussion going and can get it heated just as fast.
Before reading this book, my thoughts on the subject was that since God knows our hearts and since He exists outside our dimensions, He can see ahead and knows whether or not we will accept Him and acts accordingly. Mr. Sproul takes a different stance. He feels that God decides ahead of time who will accept Him and those and only those He calls and they will answer.
I was not too sure how to take much of this as I read it. But in several sections, he was able to give me food for thought. The verses he pulled seemed to support his stance. Being a dedicated student of the Bible, I looked up the verses myself, read the passages before and and after, and even checked various translations. They still seemed to support His stance.
In this work, Mr. Sproul also gets more into the Calvinistic view and discusses the acronym "TULIP". I had heard about it before, but never really fully understood it. He really laid it out plainly and explained it very well. I learned a lot from that section.
One of the things I enjoyed about his work was that he discusses the other views on predestination. I got a better understanding of them all and got a deeper look at free will. When it came to my stance, I actually read it a couple of times to understand why he believed that stance was wrong.
I'm not perfect, and I'm still learning. Just because I was taught something does not make it completely right. I need to get the full story and decide for myself. Even the Apostle Paul said that we were to test our believes to make sure that man-made ones have not crept in and tradition has not taken over the basic believes.
My husband is the one I turn to much of the time to ask the deep questions since he has attended seminary. We had several discussions that were very educational. I learned a lot. When I was done, I actually wanted to re-read the book to get deeper into and chew on it some more.
In the end, where did I end up? Did Mr. Sproul change my stance? Not really. I'm not saying that I'm still right and he is wrong. But I am thinking more on the subject of predestination than I ever have. In that regard, I would say that Mr. Sproul was successful. Predestination is not a subject I run from now. It is something I want to dig into and learn more about. But as my loving husband says, "In the end it is all in God's hands anyway."
Thank you Mr. Sproul for an excellent book and some thought-provoking topics.
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