Predestination

Last month we discussed Freewill here, here and here. We did not as of yet bring Predestination into the fray. I think it is time to do so. Though one may discuss Free Will sans Predestination, I do not think the opposite is true.

What does the concept entail exactly and why is there such a fuss over it?
John 13, Jesus says, "I know whom I have chosen." Well, then, do I have a choice in where I go, finally?

As far as Predestination goes, I think, there is a great misunderstanding - but anyone who thinks they do in fact understand it, I can guarantee doesn't. God is incomprehensible save for what He chooses to reveal to us. So what makes us think there are aspects of His universe that we could (or even should) try to grasp? More about that in a moment.

I agree with Justin Staller,

"Jesus' messages regarding the salvation of Israel and the salvation of individuals were inextricably linked because both types of salvation depended on each other,"

because they are indeed inextricably linked. I am not entirely sure there is a distinction. Esp. in the Jewish mind, Israel as a nation has almost always been talked as though one person, but so each person makes the body and, a finger here is just as important to me as a toe there. But they are still my one body.

Thats a little simplistic, sure, but we tend to think too much of ourselves, and take our own honor a little too seriously. Let us think in terms of the family or the body, each part, each person is important and loved and needed, but we are still part of a whole, full thing. God holds each of us as more precious than the other? Does that make sense? In the form that each is made in His Image, even then a Trinity - each Personal Being, One Whole God, One. So I think it is with Israel - the Israel of OT and NT. God's family.

Secondly, as to how He has chosen us, called us forth from the fray, pruned and plucked, selected the best fruit from His orchard. Is the answer not in that image? Does the farmer not plant the whole orchard, and prune it accordingly, it grows of its own freewill and He yet picks the ripest and best. Just this farmer isn't bound by time. He sees which fruit is good before it ever blossoms on the branch, or before the tree was ever planted.

God is the Creator of all. Time is one of the things He created, so I find it very very unlikely, indeed impossible, for Him to be bound by it Himself. That is why He is the Unchanging God - time doesn't affect Him. He Is, Was and Ever Shall Be. Baruch Shem.

CS Lewis put it soberly when he said time was like a piece of paper with many lines, our lives, branching out beginning to end, crisscrossing each other countless times. We each may choose how we twist or go, God may choose to place blessings here or there according to prayers or His own Will; always blessings (though you may perhaps view them as curses, I doubt He does).
God can see the whole sheet with all the lines fully drawn and may choose which line suits His purposes best, prophets and the common man or woman, because He can see the entirety of it, but it is you who chooses the path you take.

Now, back to the "parts of Creation we could or should try to understand." I answer this, after the rant: Why are we worried about what happens to others or even our selves? What is that to us? "Follow me," He says. No matter where it may lead.
"Safe? Course He's not safe. But He's good. He's the King, I tell you!"

'Trivial or terrible
the demands made may be,
yet you, Follow me.'