Question:  Why does the AV7 Cordial Invitation indicate that to join God's family is a choice?  Doesn't that concept conflict with the doctrine of predestination?

Answer:  The doctrine of predestination is a belief that everyone is predestined by God to either be "saved to Heaven" or to be "lost and condemned to Hell" for all eternity before they are born.  That point of view comes from a system of belief called "Calvinism."

One alternate point of view called "Arminianism" holds that every human being has a "free will" choice to either accept God's offer of eternal life or to reject it.  Following is a brief explanation of each of these opposing points of view:

Armenianism declares that salvation is accomplished only by God who takes the initiative to draw every person to Himself and that Jesus' atoning death and resurrection were for every living human being to have the opportunity to receive salvation.  However, each individual person must choose to either accept the free gift of salvation that God has offered, or reject His offer.  God alone makes salvation possible, and He makes salvation available to everyone.

There is nothing that anyone can do to earn salvation.  It is given by God's grace alone, and it is never attained by good works that anyone does.

However, God's provision of salvation is consumated only when individuals exercise their free will to choose to accept God's offer of grace.

Calvinism declares that salvation is accomplished by God alone, but Calvinism asserts that God has predestined every individual to be either saved or be condemned for all eternity from before each person was even born.  And Calvinism argues that there is no such thing as "free will."

Calvinism claims that God has chosen certain people to be saved from before the world was created and Jesus' death and resurrection were provided only for those predestinated few to be saved.

The Holy Spirit makes Christ's death effective by bringing those "elect" (chosen few) to faith and repentance; thereby causing them to willingly obey the gospel.  The entire process, called election, redemption, and regeneration, is the work of God alone and by grace alone, and there is nothing that any individual who was chosen (predestined by God) to be saved can do to lose that salvation.

Calvinism also asserts that there is nothing that anyone who was chosen (predestined by God) to not be saved but to be condemned, can do to attain God's gift of grace if they were not predestined to receive it from before they were born.