Predestined election and free-will choice are not in conflict in the biblical narrative stories of faith…because election and choice are fused together in the storylines…using the different reality equations of the timeless existence of God…and our dimensions of time and space.
In my opinion therefore…this resolves the seeming theological dispute between the scriptures that alternately support predestination, foreordination, election, free-will choice, the universal outreach of salvation, and the numerous (13) “whosoever’s” in the New Testament…all blended together into a harmonious synthesis…bringing together two entirely different roles…of God and of people…set within the two entirely different time-frame realities…of timelessness in the Spirit featuring the divine foresight of God…and humans within the earthly fourth dimension of time spread-out over the here-and-now.
I believe this method of biblical interpretation…derived from the narrative stories of faith…makes the case for the eternal security of salvation from the side…the viewpoint…the perspective of a timeless God having divine foresight.
God’s promise of eternal life is true and eternally unchangeable at the precise moment of the occurrence of the believer’s new birth in the Spirit…because this promise of God occurs on both the timeless side…of God…and also spread-out within our dimension of time (Heb. 11:1)…yet both simultaneously at the same moment in time…in heaven and on earth.
This I believe is what I experienced during the first few weeks following becoming a born-again Christian at age 18…many years ago now.
My spirit rejoiced in a supernatural way with “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8) that it had received eternal life…the angels in heaven rejoicing along with me (Lk. 15:7) which would not have been the case if salvation is contingent…if salvation can be lost over the course of a God-composed life-script that has the final outcome in doubt…as if God is limited by our dimension of time…which He created…rather than having the timeless foresight we can recognize in scripture…played-out in the biblical narrative stories of faith…wherein the people of faith are successful overcomers without exception.
This I believe is what Paul is describing in 2 Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13-14…a timeless God who knows the ends from the beginnings (Isa. 46:9-10)…and can seal our eternal security at the start of our salvation because He already sees what we cannot yet see…the end-point of our God-composed and God-assisted…journey of faith.
The biblical narrative stories of faith are controlling here…have the final say…in resolving the issue of the eternal security of Spirit-born salvation.
Biblical narrative stories of faith…that could not plausibly come out of worldly conventional normalcy and thinking…as human literary fiction…and that have positive outcomes requiring timeless foresight on the part of the non-fiction script-writer God…makes the argument from the biblical narrative stories of faith…that our salvation is eternally secure.
This gives today’s Christian the assurance to be able to step-out into their own unique God-composed journey of faith life-script…and make the mistakes we are bound to make…without jeopardizing our eternal salvation…our born-again status.
This also again makes the argument for the divine origin of the Bible…in the supernaturally blended mixture of conflicting realities coming from two different time-frames…that only God could resolve…that only God would even know about…and far too complex and unconventional to be the product of human literary imagination.
If God is operating from the direction of timeless foresight in terms of predestination and election…and believers are living in the fourth dimension of time which enables the free-will choice to engage with God in a Hebrews 11:1 journey of faith spread-out over some interval of time…this not only clarifies what today’s Christians are supposed to be doing in terms of seeking-out God and pursuing our individual callings…but also gives perspective in recognizing the enormous amount of thought and work that God put into the universe…to be able to provide us with a journey of faith discovery into the knowledge of good and evil…spread-out over time…that can be experienced through specific events and circumstances in a physical environment.
I include this brief argument for eternal security because confidence upfront in our salvation is essential for end-times Christians entering into the type of adventures of faith depicted in the Bible…that make up the apologetic and inspirational case for the divine origin of the Bible…being articulated and advocated in this book (Daniel 12:1, 10; Mt. 24:21-24).
The Cross in the Christian Life 