Foreordination - Ephesians 1:1-6

1:1-6 - Paul introduces himself as “as apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,” and acknowledges his audience to be “the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” He blesses them with “grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” He blesses God “who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Interestingly, Paul says that those who receive the gospel in this life were “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,” and uses words like “predestined” and “adoption.” Now I get the whole concept of “adoption” into the family of God through the gospel, but I was under the impression that we’ve been promised that all of God’s children would have an equal opportunity to receive the gospel, so it seems contradictory to say that those who have received the gospel were ordained to do so, unless we were all foreordained for it. Maybe he’s talking about those who would receive it in this life, that would make sense because most people will not have the opportunity to have the gospel in their mortal lifetime, so if they are able to have it in this life, there might be some responsibilities that go into it for which foreordination might have been helpful. But then again, I don’t really understand the concept of foreordination, because weren’t we all meant for greatness? Is foreordination just a blessing that everyone received in the premortal life advising us and giving us individual gifts that we’d need for this life? I guess that would make sense. The IM notes, “Foreordained blessings are not unconditionally guaranteed but are dependent upon the righteous exercise of agency in this life.” This is an interesting concept because it’s like patriarchal blessings, the blessings aren’t a guarantee because if you choose not to stay in the gospel, then you’re not forced to accept those blessings. But it kind of begs the question, if God knows all thing, He knows what you’ll do, what you’ll struggle with, etc. He knows who you are and how you’ve suffered. So I guess one issue that I’ve never understood is does any blessings like Patriarchal or foreordination, etc. only give guidance on how to get through all your problems “perfectly”? Or does it also have guidance in there for what to do when you leave the church and find yourself struggling? Once you go against the guidance in one part, does that make the rest of it invalid? It’s kind of a complex concept, I’m going to have to think about it.