Ephesians 1:3-14 [NASB]
3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, [that is,] the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God's own] possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:3-14 [I included the whole paragraph to avoid chopping up Paul's thought] states "
chose in him before the foundation of the world" and describes us as "
predestined" twice in that paragraph. It deserves at least SOME explanation if you are going to take a sharpie to it with a blanket "taint so" and pit scripture against scripture.
Just as Romans 16:7 deserves some explanation if one is going to deny a temporal element. Lutherans would offer their battle cry of 'Mystery' to explain the things of God and we baptists tend to throw ourselves on "Already and not yet". Both you Free Will-ers and Presbytyrians are free to seek your own answers, but "taint so" is a poor response to an honest scriptural challenge.
