Hello,<\/p>\n
I hope you are doing well. I’m reaching out just to say thank you.<\/p>\n
I’ve been a born-again believer living in a Buddhist country for several years now, and I spend a lot of my time studying the Bible. Today was the third time I’ve gone through the Gospel of John, and when I reached John 6:65, I noticed something I had never seen in all these years.<\/p>\n
Everything I saw here pointed toward predestination, but deep in my heart, something didn’t feel right about it. I spent days searching for answers, going through my commentaries, reading online resources, trying to understand that verse. Yet nothing truly satisfied my heart. It felt like something was still missing.<\/p>\n
Finally, I stopped trying to figure it out on my own. I sat down and prayed, asking the Lord, “Please help me understand what You mean here.”<\/p>\n
About five minutes later (I’m not lying), I came across your Bible study on that very verse. I cannot fully explain it, but I was literally shaking while reading it. What may seem like a small thing to others meant so much to me, because for me, this question touches the very heart of the gospel, especially since I have many unbelieving family members whom I love and pray for every day.<\/p>\n
In that moment, I truly felt that the Lord led me to your teaching. I just want you to know that your work is not in vain. Even here, God is using it to help someone understand His Word more clearly.<\/p>\n
Thank you, thank you, and thank you.<\/p>\n\t
I’m glad that you are finding the studies useful.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, I hope you are doing well. I’m reaching out just to say thank you. I’ve been a born-again believer living in a Buddhist country for several years now, and I spend a lot of my time studying the Bible. Today was the third time I’ve gone through the Gospel of John, and when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[127,562],"class_list":["post-94375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-about-this-site","tag-predestination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37783,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/calvinism-and-the-great-commission\/","url_meta":{"origin":94375,"position":0},"title":"Calvinism and the Great Commission","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Jackson John Calvin (1509-64) was a religious reformer and theologian. The basic premise of his theology was the absolute sovereignty (right to reign) of God, out of which evolved his misguided theory of \"predestination.\" The Swiss reformer believed that human \"free will\" was destroyed by man's \"original sin\";\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69853,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/predestination\/","url_meta":{"origin":94375,"position":1},"title":"Predestination","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kyle Campbell Are some people predestined to be saved while others are predestined to be lost? If this is true, would it make any difference for one to do right if he is predestinated to be lost? Predestination is definitely a Bible topic, but not in the way that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8369,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-predestination-and-free-will\/","url_meta":{"origin":94375,"position":2},"title":"What do you think about predestination and free-will?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am having a hard time with predestination. What I mean is, I see choice throughout the whole Bible; yet I see other stuff predetermined, such as certain events, kingdoms predicted to fall or the rebuilding of the temple. In Revelation there are people would not turn back to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40106,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-john-665-teach-predestination\/","url_meta":{"origin":94375,"position":3},"title":"Doesn’t John 6:65 teach predestination?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am still struggling a bit with the topic of predestination and, at least from the NIV translation I am reading, John 6:65 seems to point toward predestination. What do you think it means? Answer: \"And He said, \"Therefore I have said to you that no one can come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14518,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-gods-foreknowledge-only-apply-to-groups\/","url_meta":{"origin":94375,"position":4},"title":"Does God’s foreknowledge only apply to groups?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read your article on the subject of predestination and foreknowledge. I very well understood the difficulties and struggle of trying to explain subjects like these and wish to appreciate your efforts I just want you to look at Acts 13:48 and Ephesians 2:10. I will like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14521,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-explain-foreknew-and-predestined-to-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":94375,"position":5},"title":"Could you explain “foreknew” and “predestined” to me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have struggled for years with the \"foreknew\" and \"predestined\" parts. I believe the Bible 100% and actually understand what is being said; however, there is something I can't quite get. Maybe I can ask my question this way: I am blessed with two grandsons. God knew from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}