The Folly of Exclusively Regarding Predestination

worlddic.com

Romans 8:30

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified…

Did you ever hear of a certain Ludovic, an Italian philosopher, who had imbibed the idea of predestination to the exclusion of every other truth? He could see nothing but fate, and thought religious activity useless. A physician who attended him during his sickness, a godly man, desiring to convince him of his error, said to him as he stood by his bedside, "I shall not send you any medicine, I shall not attend to you; in fact, I shall not call any more, because if you are to live you will live, and if you are to die you will die; and therefore it is of no use my attending to you" He went his way, but in the watches of the night, Ludovic, who had been the slave of a notion, turned it over and saw the folly of it: he saw that there were other truths besides predestination, and he acted like a sane man. As God accomplishes the healing of the sick by the use of medicines, He usually accomplishes also the saving of souls by the means of grace; and as I, not knowing whether I am elected to be healed or not, yet go to the physician, so I, not knowing whether I am elect to be saved or not, yet will go to Jesus as He bids me go, and put my trust in Him, and I hope I shall be accepted in Him.

worlddic.com