Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 6
Using the “free cruise packet” and the course syllabus, he portrays predestination as a prepared destiny that still requires cooperation, directions, and boundaries (“you can’t start a campfire in your room”). If that model is right, what would “not cooperating with the predestined plan” look like in real Christian life—subtly, not just in obvious scandal?
Another way to ask: If God has a “prepared plan” but we still have to cooperate, what are subtle ways Christians don’t cooperate? What does that look like in everyday life, not just big public sins?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
In his model, “not cooperating” looks like ignoring the provided “directions” of obedience and Spirit-led living—staying passive, sluggish, or undisciplined while still wanting the benefits. It can be subtle: refusing the small practices and boundaries that make holiness possible.
- Cruise analogy: the trip is planned and paid, but “you still have to follow the directions… go to the events… you can’t just do anything.”
- Syllabus analogy: students failed not mainly from inability, but because “they didn’t follow my tips for memorizing,” despite having weekly verse cards.
- He says God “bent over backwards… to make it as easy as possible,” but “that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any part to play.”
- Clement: the kingdom doesn’t belong to “sleepers and sluggards… the violent take it by force,” meaning persevering earnestness.
- He frames grace as training action: grace urges us to “deny ungodliness,” not merely claim salvation.