Are we predestined to have children?

[FullOfQuestions123]

Are we predestined to have children? Are children predestined to be born to certain people? 

[Michael37]

13 hours ago, FullOfQuestions123 said:

Are we predestined to have children? Are children predestined to be born to certain people? 

Hi FullOfQuestions, 

Firstly welcome to Worthy Christian Forums.

Secondly on the subject of predestination there are many theories and opinions, so don't expect to get an answer that everyone agrees on.

Thirdly let me state that the Biblical meaning of predestination, often referred to as Divine Predestination or Predetermination, is not the same as the pagan or worldly meaning which is a sort of fatalism that insists everything about life is decided in advance and some force has already decreed what happens and makes sure it does regardless of attempts to avoid such a phenomenon.   

Now here are my notes on the subject in question 

I regularly use a four dimensional framework to describe the interactions between God and man, and I believe God has created us with a dimension of freewill which He wants us to exercise in harmony with His Will, including the conceiving and raising of children.

1. Foreknowledge - God always knows everything, if He doesn't then He isn't God.

    

2. Predestination - God predestines elements of existence, such as the Laws of Nature, the criteria for salvation, and the outcome of Judgment Day.

    

3. Freewill - God calls everyone to repentance and actively works on our freewill to lead us to repentance from dead works and to faith towards Him.

    

4. Divine Intervention - God knows those who are His and does whatever He wills to do according to His wisdom, mercy, and grace. 

    

None of these is mutually exclusive of the others, and in His eternal foreknowledge God is always intimately acquainted with all those who will eventually populate heaven, and has predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. The point where I part company with so-called Calvinistic predestination is when it claims the only reason people become born-again Bible-believing followers of Christ is because this was forced upon them against their will.  One ridiculous claim of hyper-Calvinists is that a person can jump off a cliff shouting, "Curse God for creating me thus!", and still get to heaven because God has predestined them to.

 

Being dead in trespasses and sins does not mean an incapacity to hear the word of God, but without it leading us to faith we are actually children of wrath...so much for unchangeable predestination there...while fortuitously the Word of God is living and active, in essence irresistible grace is only irresistible to those who don’t resist it, having no will or desire to resist it as evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives. 

 

Eph 2:1  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
Eph 2:2  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Eph 2:3  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph 2:6  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9  not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Just like Jeremiah)

 

Blessings from Michael37.

[Neighbor]

16 hours ago, FullOfQuestions123 said:

Are we predestined to have children? Are children predestined to be born to certain people? 

We? Well obviously all do not have children so no "we" are not predestined to have children.

Does God know of all children, and are all predestined as well as known  or foreknown to Him?

What does the Bible indicate may be the case? Does the Bible state regarding at least those that will be with Him for eternity to come, at 1 Peter 1? Does it not open with confirmation?

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you."

There is more throughout the Bible old and new testaments that confirms God  not only foreknows from before the beginning but that he also elects, predestining each that is created from before the creation itself.