IF YOU’RE BORN TO HANG (FATALISM, PREDESTINATION) PART 1

Note: this was first posted on www.thepastorsite.com Oct 22,2025 and a MORE forthcoming on “losing one’s salvation in this Hot Topic:

ATTENTION: PDF BIBLE STUDY For this super hot topic is UPCOMING For a love offering of any amount (Thursday PM or sooner). right here

Servant leaderhood: Eventually you will stumble across a various and AMAZING human belief subculture. We’ll trying to discuss this from the BIBLE perspective, but while we’re at work on it, I’ll post this Life Eyewitness teaser:

 PART 1

IF YOU’RE TO BORN TO  HANG (PREDESTINATION AND RESIGNED FATALISM)

Dedicated to one of my memorable favorite , major personas, the late “Grandpa Jim” (where ever he may be) “If you’re born to hang, you’ll never drown!”

(C) 2025 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved

My departed father-in-law, a huge, mentally tough, self-raised former “Gyrene” (his word for Marine), also railroad worker WHO at one point brought his Marine blanket  to show me, which I envisioned still  might have  the sands of Iwo Jima on it. He was loud and gruff and had many tattoos and smoked, He wore his favorite tee shirts around the house with the sleeves rolled up and the cigarette packaged folded in. For he was the complete opposite of my careful, silent, much happier pastor father.

Afterwards I understood him, as I got to know him and enjoy him as well deeply as respect him, for  I understood where he had come up  from—how he was raised by a single mom who worked very hard and had to release him to the streets to figure life out due to her hard work ethic. In his right, we want to see him as loving, giving, and also (even brutally honest), for he had done well with himself and was a great, respectful, non-meddling, dear father-in-law.

However, he was not interested in being saved, which I understood due to the dreary spirit of anti-Christian religion where he lived and the narrow-minded, depicted people who named themselves as “saved Christians.” I took a big liking to him once I got past the mentally tough and LOUD first veneer, for he was not mean or attacking but was very forthright and would say things out loud, in public, that I and all of his family,  felt were  far too conspicuous, vocal. However,  he was a person of Truth—also relatable and and kind..Perhaps  he could be a bit of a handful (bombastic personality) however, he not a dominating giant ego, nor angry, and he was giving and generous with his family, just more brusque and loud than I was accustomed to. And he could and enjoy life…and also a terrific grandfather and non meddling father in law!

I took count of the witty, repeated sayings that he would comment LOUDLY and ADAMANTLY (to my and the others in the family’s deep chagrin, for it turned out that as he had served America by going to World War II, he had picked up a fungus in one or maybe both of his ears, which made him hard of hearing). I enjoyed him, as he was very witty, and I recall three statements he repeated often in private but also in public. I will mention three of the four, for the fourth might be considered racist.

1. “He (she, they) are not wrapped too tight!”

2. “If you are born to hang, you’ll never drown.”

3. (Would be viewed as racist.)

4. (He said to back then when I was thinner (granting me favor with teasing smile) “You’re so skinny that soon you’ll   have to drink muddy water to keep people from seeing through you!”

I will address #2 (fatalism) in the following article. I want to theologically and Bible Scripture discuss the following

1. The Lambs Book Life (people are into due to God’s heart desire, yet them free will and they can get their names blotted) this does apply to the innocent children, mentally deficient or ones who God’s can still “realize him’ around the globe (due to Holy Spirit) without hearing the name of Christ” (yes, this is not autocratic steel dogma, but a submitted ministry Selah and logic)

LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE, THE BIBLE

VS PREDESTINATION, CALVINISM & FATALISM

With all of the well known theology out of the way, I prefer to go directly to the Bible:

More will follow in depth: this is the First Part

The point this person makes is The Lamb’s Book of Life real factor (I have a Ministry AI and I on this https://www.ministryaiandi.com (for B.R. (Binge Reading) Scholarly Idea Resource) If you flip to that site, it is listed in the TOP FAVORITE ARTICLE .. on the right hand site

The Lamb’s Book of Life Bible Research WITH “Can I lose my salvation’ Bible scriptures

https://ministryaiandi.com/2025/08/28/curious-about-the-lambs-book-of-life/

A PAUSE TO HONOR: I never would have realized that there is a Lamb’s Book. of Life that is deep important, had I not volunteered to serve in a Wednesday Night Missionettes Class because my children were young, and the leader mentioned it. And I thought “WHERE HAS THIS BEEN?” I’d never ever heard about it. And my own pastor father or anyone after even mentioned it… and  that caused my theological deep curiosity to  grew!’ Swift Creek Baptist Church, the pastor at that time.

Now we truly begin:

PASTOR COMMENTARY: THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE & GOD’S JUST MERCY

 1. The Lamb’s Book of Life — Heaven’s Record of Relationship

Respected pastors and teachers, the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27) is not a static list of pre-chosen elect but a living register of those who have responded to God’s redeeming invitation through the Blood of Christ.
From Exodus 32:33 to Revelation 3:5, God consistently links this Book with human response — repentance, obedience, and abiding relationship.

This is apostle T’s big ministry POINT:

Every human born is written into life (Psalm 139:16; 69:28). Yet Scripture shows names can be blotted out — not by divine cruelty, but by persistent rejection of the Light they have received (John 3:19–21). Thus, this Book reveals both God’s sovereignty and human stewardship of choice.

BIG KEY MAIN POINT:

2. The Misreading of Ephesians 1 — Not “Unfair Predestination”

Ephesians 1:4-5 says,

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…”

The Greek phrase en autō (“in Him”) is crucial. God predestined the plan — that all who are in Christ would be conformed to His image — not that individuals would be arbitrarily selected while others were eternally doomed.
 ++ Paul’s focus is corporate destiny, not fatalistic exclusion.

++Thus, election in Scripture is not favoritism but foreknowledge (prognōsis, 1 Peter 1:2). God foresaw those whose hearts would yield to truth and love (Romans 8:29). Predestination, then, secures the path, not the puppet.

 3. The Justice of God and the Heart of Choice

From Genesis onward, God gives humanity the dignity of choice:

“I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

This divine appeal rings through the ages — it presupposes freedom.
To claim that millions are predestined to damnation contradicts the revealed nature of God, who is love (1 John 4:8) and is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).
Hell, then, is not the result of divine bias but of human hardening.

TD aside: “As some have it before now, “the choice to go to Hell for Eternity is not due to God sending them, but to their choices  to avoid Him, to please themselves and to go their OWN way, not his as expressly taught in His Holy Bible Scriptures. (again this does mean innocent children, mentally deficient or persons who never heard of Christ’s saving Name or salvation call.

4. The Innocent, the Unreached, and the Mentally Deficient

Pastors, we must also affirm what both Scripture and God’s nature imply:

• Innocent Children — Jesus said,“Of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).
  Those who die before moral accountability remain within the Book of Life, covered by Christ’s atonement (Romans 5:18). Their names are not blotted out because they have not consciously rejected God.

• The Mentally Impaired — The Judge of all the earth shall do right (Genesis 18:25).
  God weighs the heart and capacity, not intellectual understanding (1 Samuel 16:7).

• Those Who Never Heard — Paul acknowledges in Romans 2:14-16 that those without the Law are judged by the law written in their hearts.
  Creation itself testifies of God’s invisible power and deity (Romans 1:19-20).
  Christ’s atonement is vast enough to reach where human missionaries cannot go.
  Each will be measured by light received and heart response.

Thus, no one is lost because God willed it — but because they persistently resist the grace extended to them in whatever form God reveals Himself

 5. The Pastoral Charge — Teaching Predestination Without Fatalism

As shepherds, we must preserve both pillars:

• God’s sovereignty — nothing escapes His plan.

• Human responsibility — love demands freedom.

To preach one without the other distorts the character of God and produces either pride (in the “elect”) or despair (in the “excluded”).
The Lamb’s Book of Life calls us to reverent humility — salvation is both a gift and a stewardship.

Let us remind our congregations that the same Christ who said,

“Whosoever will, let him come” (Revelation 22:17),
also said,
“He that overcometh… I will not blot out his name from the book of life” (Revelation 3:5).

6. Closing Reflection

“The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

— Psalm 145:9

Salvation’s story is not one of divine unfairness, but of invitation, mercy, and holy accountability.
The Book of Life records not a list of pre-chosen favorites, but the ongoing love story of the Redeemer and the redeemed — written in the Lamb’s blood and opened in eternity.

© 2025 Taveau D’Arcy Ministries  in conjunction with AI
“They also lead who do not blindly follow.” -T. D’Arcy very first social media comment 2012 DFW