This is a follow-up question to one our earlier answers to Tough Questions From Christian Teens. I’m glad we can have these kinds of ongoing discussions about things that teens (and adults) struggle with today.
You can link to other tough questions and answers here.
I have heard or been warned not to explain predestination simply by stating God’s omniscience. Essentially, they say that predestination is in fact, appointing some for destruction and some for salvation. You seem to have a view that deemphasizes the ‘appointing some for destruction aspect of this continuum; that you maybe take a more centrist view on this aspect of reformed or Calvinist theology?
Thanks for your question! I agree that stating God’s Omniscience is not an adequate explanation of something as precious and deep as ‘predestination.’
Lots of different views on predestination, as you know. I think what Luther and Calvin and others did in the Reformation and decades leading up to it was attempt to right a sinking ship. The captains of the ship at the time rejected the attempt and the Reformation became a different kind of movement. The ‘Reformed’ Church attempted to go in a more biblical direction at the beginning.
The ‘five solas’ are a good example of what the reformers attempted to do. The fact that the Church (catholic/universal) had lost sight of those five basic doctrines of Christianity shows just how far off course they had gone. The great movements of Christianity return to those five basics: By Grace alone, By Faith alone, In Christ alone, According to Scripture alone, For God’s Glory alone. It’s on that basis we should come to any doctrine (teaching) of the Church.
I see Scripture teaching that God chooses His people – election (select out from). I have found that to be an unpopular subject in many churches, but to deny its reality and clarity in God’s Word is to close one’s eyes as they thumb through the pages of the Bible. It’s mentioned and emphasized there so many times and in so many ways.
When did God choose His people? From before the foundation of the world, from before the beginning of time. In other words, from eternity God chose those who would be His. Question is how He made that choice. Did He choose based on what we would choose?
I think it’s more than that because God is Sovereign. He doesn’t wait on His creatures to see what they will choose, God made His moves long before they made their choice. God had a good reason for choosing those who would be His. Those reasons are hidden within God. Whatever God’s reasons, they are certainly fair and just because they come from His eternal moral character, which is fair and just.
Does predestination mean that people who would like to become Christians but aren’t predestined can’t be saved? That doesn’t seem to square with what Jesus and His apostles preached. I think people who aren’t predestined won’t have an interest in salvation, but we don’t know who they are in this world. We go out and preach the Gospel to every person we can find. That’s our calling.
Jesus helps us understand how people will respond to the Gospel with His parable of the Sower. We know that many people will reject the Gospel, but we don’t stop sowing the Word in the world because of that. We know that some “like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” When we see that we know they are God’s elect and that God predestined them to salvation. Producing a crop, being fruitful, and continuing in the faith is mentioned so many times in the Gospels and apostolic letters.
I don’t know whether ‘centrist’ is the right word for where I am on predestination, but I would agree to being ‘careful’ in the way I approach it. I can reveal (preach/teach) what God reveals, but I am cautious in areas where there is some hiddenness on God’s part.
Paul wrote in Romans 8 that God’s predestination came from His foreknowledge – “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” So, the key to understanding predestination (being marked out beforehand) is understanding foreknowledge (to know beforehand).
I believe everything in God’s plan of salvation was worked out and known beforehand in eternity. I believe He chose (selected) those who would be saved and those who wouldn’t be saved from eternity. The question is on what basis did He do that?
We see clearly in Scripture that no one is righteous, no one does good, all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If no one is attractive to God based on their goodness or personal righteousness (the prophets wrote that our righteousness is like filthy rags before the Lord), why did God choose who He chose?
I think it’s based on what ‘pleased’ Him. I think God in eternity, in all of His perfection, was pleased to choose some to be His. Here’s one of the reasons I say that. Paul wrote this in the context of God choosing us before the creation of the world – “With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
We see three main aspects of God’s choice here:
- His Will
- His Good Pleasure
- His purpose in Christ
For what reason? “To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”
I can understand a lot about God’s foreknowledge and predestination, but am still thinking about how God’s good pleasure affected selection. It’s obvious God selected, so that’s not at issue. The Perfect God was pleased to choose some for salvation and some for destruction.
While that may sound unfair, I think back to my childhood when some children would be chosen to play a game and some wouldn’t. Was it unfair for the choosers to choose some and not choose others? Were they bad people for not choosing some children for a game? No, because the choosers had the right to use their will and good pleasure to make their choices. Choosing those who would play would in effect also choose those who wouldn’t play. The game choosers wouldn’t necessarily look at those they didn’t choose and say, ‘hey, I’m not choosing you because you’re a loser.’ They just didn’t choose them – whatever their reason might have been.
One major difference between God choosing the elect from eternity and playmates choosing people for a team is that the people waiting to be chosen for a team know the choosing is going on. They are alive to the process and wanting to be chosen for a team. That differs from what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians –
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Ephesians 2:1-3
Sinners are not alive to the process of selection or opportunity. They are ‘dead’ in trespasses and sins. Their lives are in accordance with the course of this world, the devil, and the lusts of their flesh. They are by nature ‘children of wrath.’ They do not have the ‘potential’ to play in the game. Only God’s intervention (love and grace) can save them and He does that without their even knowing about the game (speaking metaphorically).
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-6
Humans are all losers in the sense of being sinners, but God chose many losers for eternal glory. His eternal choice makes us winners! Did He look at everyone else and say He didn’t choose them because they are losers or did He just not choose them? If God doesn’t choose someone, God doesn’t draw them to Himself. They wouldn’t even know they weren’t being drawn. They would just not be interested or convinced. They might even oppose Christianity strongly. Those might be some of the responses of those who are not chosen.
There are other doctrinal issues that come from foreknowledge and predestination (e.g. Limited Atonement), so it’s important we understand it the best we can. One thing I hope all Christians will do is obey Christ’s commands about preaching the Gospel to every creature, making disciples and teaching them to observe all the things Christ commands us. Hope this helps!
Scriptures to Consider
- Ephesians 1:4-5, 11
- Ephesians 2:1-10
- 2 Timothy 1:9
- 2 Timothy 2:19
- Titus 1:1-3
- Romans 8:28-33
- Romans 9:11-22
- Romans 11:5-7, 29
- John 6:37-39, 44, 65
- John 1:12-13
- John 14:6
- John 15:16-19
- John 17:2, 6-9
- Mark 13:20, 27
- Luke 10:22
- Matthew 22:14
- Acts 4:27-28
- Acts 13:48
- Acts 18:10
- Revelation 13:8
- 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13
- 1 Peter 1:1-2, 20
- Galatians 1:15
- Colossians 3:12-13
- 1 Corinthians 2:7
The Next Question
In the next part of our special series, Tough Questions From Christian Teens, we will look at a question about Calvinism.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Faith & Self Defense 