As multiple of the TULIP points rely upon predestination as a basis I've decided to do a couple post on predestination.

First i'll began with more of a logic based argument.

The Bible says that man is totally depraved, that is, man is completely evil, and unable to save himself. Here is my link back to my Total Depravity post, but here are some other verses as well.  Gen 6:9, Ps. 7:11, 10:41, 51:5, Rom 3:10-18, 5:10, 12, 6:23, 8:5-8, 14:23, 1 cor 2:12, Eph 2:1-3, 5, Col 1:21-22. This list comes from my churches statement of faith, and a few of the verses I don't think directly apply to total depravity, but I decided to include them because they apparently think they do. Also, a few of those verses (Rom 8:7b for example) also directly speak to election or predestination.

So on the basis that man is totally evil, and cannot save himself, how in the world can I save myself if I am unable to, and utterly unwilling to seek after good? Somewhat of a trite, and often used analogy is how can a dead man open a present? (Based of off the often used salvation as a gift analogy) Looking at Romans 3, it is said that NO man seeks after God. (10,11) So if we don't seek God, how can we seek, and receive salvation if we don't want it? Psalm 10:4 also speaks to this. 1 Cor 2:14 says that the ways of God are foolish to natural man. So why would I chase after something that I see as foolish?  The second part of that verse says that even if man wanted to look into the ways of God, he cannot understand them. This is because to understand God, one needs a spiritual understanding, which can only come from an external force, not from ourselves before regeneration.

So basically to sum up, man is totally depraved, unable to seek after God, and have no desire to, and even if we wanted to, His ways are beyond our comprehension.

My 2nd post is going to be a list of the exact verses that speak to Predestination.