Predestination ?
Is it a truth or a mislead doctrine? What does it mean?
Thank you for taking a moment to review this study in Gods word. We love you as brothers and sisters in Christ. Before we get started talking about Predestination we should cover some ground work.
- Please read the full chapters not just the referenced verse’s so you can determine the authors context.
- This is a HARD TOPIC and one could see it in a light of cynicism I.E. if GOD already determined my salvation why should I try? If his chosen are already determined why do his will to spread Gods word? All of this is an understandable response, but ultimately is a doubt of GOD’s sovereignty. We will try to cover each question in entirety and back it by scripture in context. Please open your heart and decide for yourself. Its your relationship with God and must be personal.
Lets first take a look at what scripture says that points one to a view of Predestination
Chosen? Elect? (is it possible to choose yourself?)
(Eph. 1:3-6 NKJ) 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 should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
How could GOD chose us before the foundation of the world unless he already knew everything you would do? How could you be saved before the world was formed?
(Eph. 1:11 NKJ) In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will
Why are we predestined? For his purpose.
(Jn. 17:12 NKJ) 12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Jesus when speaking to the father says i have kept all of those whom he was given none are lost except Judas as planned..
(1 Pet. 1:2 NKJ) 2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
(1 Pet. 1:2 NIV) 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Chosen by GOD ahead of time to be obedient to Christ and sprinkled with his blood.
(1 Thess. 1:4 NIV) 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you,
Chosen by GOD ahead of time to be obedient to Christ and sprinkled with his blood.
(Rom. 11:26-29 NKJ) 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” 28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
So here Israel are enemies of the Gospel yet beloved because of election.This verse ends saying the calling of God is irrevocable. Did they then have Predestined Salvation?
Condemned?
(Prov. 16:4 NKJ) 4 The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
The wicked planned fall and destruction?
(Mal. 1:2-3 NKJ) 2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say,`In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved; 3 But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.”
Esau hated from birth?
(Rom. 9:11-18 NKJ) 1 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Esau and Pharaoh planned for destruction before inception?
Before Birth
(Gal. 1:15-16 NKJ) 15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles,
Paul says he was separated to be an apostle from his mothers womb
(Jer. 1:5 NKJ) 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Here God explains to Jerimiah he not only knew him before he was born but already designated him as a Prophet. How could GOD know he wouldnt be like Balaam?
To Condemnation
(Jude 1:4 NKJ) 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Jude 1:4 NIV) For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
In this verse Marked Out is προγεγραμμένοι which literally means written about. So here we have multiple MEN already set aside for condemnation prophesied long prior
(Rev. 17:8 NKJ) 8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Some peoples names were not written in the book of life before the world was mad and others were? How could GOD decipher this unless he had complete knowledge and sovereignty?
(1 Pet. 2:8 NKJ) NKJ 1 Peter 2:8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
(1 Pet. 2:8 NIV) NIV 1 Peter 2:8 and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message– which is also what they were destined for.
Already set apart to stumble? God knew they would miss Jesus’s salvation
Now lets look at scripture that oppose the idea of Predestination, Free Will
(2 Pet. 3:9 NKJ) 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
(Rom. 9:22-24 NKJ) 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
If its Gods will that all should come to repentance doesn’t he have the power to make it happen? Unless we have free will, but if we have free will how can we be Predestined and already set apart. Just a thought maybe it means God had to predestine some to fail for others to be saved. Which goes back to Romans Chapter 9