In the SciFi movie, “The minority Report”, precrime tools preempt and prosecute crimes based on what would have happened. It meant that a man could think of his brother, "I am going to kill you", which doesn't mean that at all, and end up being imprisoned for thinking that without having done any wrong at all. Well, at least the system weeded out serious threats.
In distinguishing between Cain and Abel, or Jacob and Esau, God was potentially as preemptive. There was no yardstick to determine who was in or out, yet Cain and Esau failed.
In hindsight, we see that God got it right. Many have been part of similar pairings, where a common moment (a father, life or a shared crisis), led one into a deeper faith but drove the other away. The Apostle Paul was a rabid intellectual dissenter to Christianity, as was Christopher Hitchens, but Paul found Jesus and grew in faith, whilst Chris sadly died of his excesses - although I think he softened towards the end.
Similarly, God saw beyond the big mistakes made by David, to the heart of a man who wept over his faults and agonized over his spiritual heritage, whilst his king, Saul, kept regressing to the end of his days.
Religion majors on appearances, but God sees the heart, and the elusive quality that will get it and stick with it. Teach-ability, humility and hunger are helpful factors, but psychology speaks of the “Aha” moments, where souls so grasp the seriousness and preciousness of such things, that they end up fighting through every inch of their lives to distance themselves from the past, whilst taking God's kingdom by force.
About Peter’s Aha moment, Jesus said, “what I build on that grasp, not even the gates of hell will resist”. This is about character and how we respond to God, not Calvinistic predestination, which I reject.
(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com
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