You had been debating a straw man all along Renninks. Because that is not my position and understanding of scriptures.
My understanding is that God created anew a people to be His people whom He had chosen for salvation from among the kind of Adam, whom He foreknew and also predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
What is there is a new creation, being born again, being created anew, being born of God, through the working of the Holy Spirit, of them whom God had chosen for salvation. His choosing or election is based not on any conditions he had given man to comply, but is based on His whole being (wisdom, omniscience, sovereignty, etc., etc.), and according to His will and purpose. There is nothing there as of an irresistible predestination for salvation and an irresistible predestination to sin. Man was not created predestined to sin. Man, in Adam, was created sinless. Adam sinned and brought upon mankind the penalty of death.
Renniks: And yes, the true Christian is destined to be conformed to Christ's image, but not irresistibly.
What God had predestined, is what will surely happen. In other words, the Christian is destined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And that is beyond the power of any man nor of the genuine Christian, to stop from happening, nor to change. Along the way, the Christian can resist the transformation work of God. But at the end of the day, God, as He is infinitely able, will accomplish and bring to pass what he had predestined.
Renniks: But back to the tares, perhaps you missed the part where they are blamed for thier actions? They were not irresistibly caused to be tares, that was thier choice.
No, sir. Why, do you expect of the tares (the bad seeds so to speak, who are sons of the wicked), that they turn out to be good seeds and bear fruit as those of the wheat? The parable does not say any of that nor hints any of that. No. You ought to stick to what Jesus said in the parable and not bring any of what you believe to get what truth the parable have to give and to tell to us.
In the parable, you will understand when Jesus told His servants who, upon knowing that there were tares growing along side the wheat, suggested to Him that they gather the tares, saying to them "No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Jesus was not that at all alarmed or worried of what may happen to what He sowed because of the tares planted by the devil. Are you worried because the wheat may become tares? Or are you concerned that the tares will become wheat? Well, Jesus was not.
Now do you expect the tares to bear fruit as those of the wheat? No. Their actions will be exposed at the harvest, that is of course, wickedness, for they are the sons of the wicked one.
Tong
R0129
