What I believe? Hmm.
Election, predestination, salvation, damnation; all of these living words have a theme that they operate by, in, and through--take out one portion and you also lose the truth. Our 'lives' and our 'being' is in The Word and The Word in us, in our Spirit, by His Spirit, and His Power, and His Glory. He is the King and the Kingdom and He is also our very lives. The Word lives in Spirit, His, and ours, and our Spirit gives life to The Word that gives life to our Spirit, inside and outside.
What is doctrine even, in the first place? What is it for? To cause suffering? To prevent suffering? To expose darkness that lurks in the hearts of men? To teach men of the light of life, which is the truth?
Doctrine.. our lives, our very being exists in word and in spirit, in spirit and in word, we in the word and the word in us; take away language from man and he will find another form of word, he will seek it even if he is not aware that he is seeking it. Even as man has a spirit as God has given him, he will look for His Spirit. However, our lives are inseparable from those whom we love! Who would dare take us from them or them from us? Indeed, Word, Spirit, and Love; how else would God, being God, be able to divide the waters from the waters except He built the firmament with love to hold all that is in heaven and all that is in earth together, not being moved from its place? He is God, of course He loves what He makes and He has both loved us and shown us what love is in plain sight.
Now, to answer your question. It's simple really. I looked at the John Wesley and read some about him and his positions on salvation and election.
What good father will chastise his son, and give to him a beating for unacceptable behavior, and then not reward his son when his son has corrected himself and shows that he has learned to do what is right? What good father will not reward his son who does wrong, when his son stops doing wrong, and does those things that are good? How then is he a good father, if he does not show his son that correction is for his sake and comes of love and not from hate? Who will not love their son, showing their son plainly their love for them, in bad, and in good, that their love is pure and not selfish?
Election?
Predestination?
Salvation?
Damnation?
Scriptures are full of simple concepts and complex circumstances making simple complex and complex simple or simple simple and complex complex and this depends on the heart and the spirit of the one reading the words in the book--in the first place, the book is about God and His person, but it is also about His love. See this, that God teaching man of Himself would be without meaning were it not about His love, for His love is His person and His Spirit. He indeed loves us whom He made, and so much.. but look also how High He is, He is the Most High and God; if knowledge of Him, the Most High, is His righteousness, then a just heart and just spirit are needed to learn of His just heart and His just Spirit, except for one principle: God cannot sin and He hates wickedness, and now we can move on to the words that I questioned above.
Election is indicative of separateness, or plainly spoken, division. Righteous; wicked--Happy; sad--Loving; hating.
Predestination is indicative of divine delegation and ordainment.
Salvation is indicative of those who need right now.
Damnation is indicative of those who already perished but not for goodness sake.
Election is subjective, even as predestination is subjective; neither is without the other, for even as a happy person can be a sad person, an elect person can be a person who chose to be predestined and a predestined person can be a person who chose be elect, I mean, come on, it's a circle. Literally.
Here is a lesson, even as the whole of the scriptures is a lesson:
If I say I am of the elect, then how am I elect? I have already separated my spirit from the ones that I love by eating my own lie; that lie is this: I am elect.
Here is the truth: I am not elect. Neither am I predestined. YOU decide this, and YOU give these power by the principles and understanding which uphold the meaning and truth of the words in YOUR spirit. Election and predestination are not used in the scriptures for these reasons; they do not indicate my abasement or my exaltation, but Yours. See, it is not a title for this life, but for the end of our life in this life; whether we loved as we are loved, or hated as we have been hated. When some has perished another often looks. Even without exact terminology, most people know who was good and did good and who was bad and did bad, and so we can see with certain clarity who was elect for adoption and who was predestined for destruction, but this applies to those who have been given that life with that freedom and those circumstances to make either good and proper choices or terrible ones--again we, being You and Me in this discussion know that our blessedness is greater than many in the world by the grace of our birthright and position in the world, but thank God we know that we are more blessed, and thank God that we can step down from Heaven for those who have not been given our grace, otherwise there would be no hope at all for mankind, ever.
Jesus taught all of those things that will lead those who seek Him and His Father's face to love, understanding of love, and knowledge of perfect love, so that, so that, so that we, being me, and you, might love even as we are loved, that we might choose love over hate, light over darkness, always.
I cannot be elect because I chose to be elect; I am elect if God says so, otherwise how can it be so?
There is not a child in this world that is born condemned or saved, but when that child becomes a man or a woman and makes decisions, freely, that is when they chose whether they will KILL or SAVE those around them, to fight for the love of hate or for the love of love.
We have been given the choice to love or to hate. I mean, honestly, could the scriptures be anymore simple than they are? I either hate you and everyone else or I love you and everyone else, and if I am selective about who I hate and who I love, then I am unjust with the ones I love and wicked with the ones I hate: righteousness is of the tree of love and it is life, and its judgements are not vain but loving and long suffering. Can a King who Himself chooses whom the ACCEPTABLE and UNACCEPTABLE will be discern what makes them acceptable or unacceptable, which is whether they do good or they do bad by their own spirits, or because He simply chose so, because He like one group of people more than the other group of people? That is neither election or predestination; it is discrimination that is not righteous, and so we know by this that election and predestination are not decreed by God, but by man. However, the divider of the two is quite literally love and hate, the elect of God will love and show it plainly, and the predestined of God will hate and show it plainly.
Lastly, I would also note this because it is important:
I will not deny that God Himself may have some beings, being more than their vessels from birth, sent by Himself as His Servants (quite literally) which are neither elect nor predestined, but are pre-existing and sent for an exact purpose or manifestation, which is not the same as the freewill given to us.
