This word is properly used only with reference to God’s plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered “predestinate” is found only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11; and in all of them it has the same meaning. They teach that the eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional decree or “determinate purpose” of God governs all events.
This doctrine of predestination or election is beset with many difficulties. It belongs to the “secret things” of God. But if we take the revealed word of God as our guide, we must accept this doctrine with all its mysteriousness, and settle all our questionings in the humble, devout acknowledgment, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.”
For the teaching of Scripture on this subject let the following passages be examined in addition to those referred to above; Gen. 21:12; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Chr. 6:6; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; – (from the Easton Bible Dictionary)
Below are the above referenced six uses of the Greek word ‘predestinate’ found in the ESV New Testament.
Acts 4:27-28 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Rom 8:29-30 29 For those whom he foreknew (loved) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
1 Cor 2:7 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages (predestined) for our glory.
Eph 1:5,11 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
It’s not a matter of whether or not ‘predestination’ is found in scripture, the above passages declare that it is. It’s a matter of whether or not we believe what scripture teaches us about predestination.
The Battle Cry 
I don’t understand how people can claim God’s Omniscience and then turn around and say we are not predestined. I think people who have an issue with predestination may find themselves also having issues with allowing full control of God over their lives.
I also heard today another argument that if God elects for eternity with Him, He has also elected those who will spend eternity in Hell. The way I understand it is God, being outside of time He knows will exercise their free will and who won’t and reject Him. All who reject Him will only have themselves to blame…just like those who are saved will be able to take any one the credit. He does not elect anyone to Hell. Just typing outloud… 🙂
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“I also heard today another argument that if God elects for eternity with Him, He has also elected those who will spend eternity in Hell. The way I understand it is God, being outside of time He knows will exercise their free will and who won’t and reject Him. All who reject Him will only have themselves to blame…just like those who are saved will be able to take any one the credit. He does not elect anyone to Hell.” – Debs
It appears here that you’re saying that God has omniscience over those who are to accept Christ but allows non-believers to have free will.
It is literally a logical impossibility, since there exists only heaven and hell as options, for God to elect some to heaven but be absolved of electing the remainder to hell. Seriously. Not meaning to be Mr. Argumentative, but if there are only two colors available for a wall, black or white, if I choose part of it to be black, I have chosen the remainder to be white.
If God only chooses some, the remainder have no choice. We cannot say that he chooses one but has no responsibility for the other.
A collision of free-will versus total sovereignty will always run into this question.
Omniscience only means that He KNOWS everything. Not that He determined it before time.
The question for Bernard is whether God pre-determined EVERYTHING that would ever happen before He ever made the world, or if He simply KNEW it.
Some would say that man was only created for God’s glory, then mankind sort of strayed from God’s plan. Others would say that it all was done to glorify Christ, God’s son, and that mankind’s “original sin” was all part of the original plan.
Y’all know all this, I know. Forgive me.
I probably need to shut up and get to work, anyway!
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What if we are all born on death row (because of Adam’s sin), headed for hell, and God detremined beforehand to save some out of the train wreck of humanity and pass over the rest? Would God be unfair to do such a thing? Just asking.
Of course there is also the question “How ‘free’ is free will? Right now though, since predestination (that God did predetermine stuff) is a scriptural principal that we have to believe somethng about and can’t ignore it entirely.
Omniscience does mean only that God knows everything. Then we have His sovereignty, which means he rules over everything, including the salvation of men, while at the same time we are responsible for believing in Christ for salvation.
that also brings up the interesting question: Scripturally speaking, how ‘free’ is free will?
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This whole issue has been a source of fairly intense “thought” for me over the past 2+ years. To a certain extent, you’d probably have to be inside my head to understand why, but reading my post at http://karnardkreations.com/bernardshuford/wordpress/2007/12/7-05-07/ might give a bit of insight into why I even fool with discussing this.
I do think it’s sometimes a bit easy to get bogged down here. It’s “intriguing”, in a way, but it’s also very personal for many of us. I have friends who simply don’t understand why Calvinist / Reformed folk are so obsessed with this.
While I totally believe that salvation is fully of God and is of His grace, I still balk at the ease with which many Calvinists conclude that “all” does not mean “all”, that “whosoever will” doesn’t really mean “whosoever will”, and that being denied the ability to choose to follow Christ still fully places the blame on the sinner. To say “those who spend eternity in Hell have only themselves to blame” while simultaneously proporting that men have no capability, without the work of the Holy Spirit, to even “seek God” (reference the Calvinistic hatred of the term “seeker friendly”), simply does not compute for me.
While I think I “lean” more toward Reformed thinking than virtually anyone I know in the real world, I simply don’t have this settled. I believe that Calvinists normally attempt to have their cake and eat it, too, whilst I am not convinced that this is possible. Your reference to the Divine paradox is poignant, but I wonder if it is more of a “Calvin’s paradox” than a Divine one. However, the “free will” approach has a paradox, too, in that virtually all who believe that also proclaim God to be Sovereign and in complete control, but maintain that whether or not “we accept Christ” is COMPLETELY outside of God’s control. That doesn’t make sense either, so I’ve come to the thesis that perhaps neither view is actually right 🙂
“predestination IS in scripture and it would profit us greatly to find out what scripture says ABOUT it rather than ignore it because we might not like it.” – Born4Battle
It puzzles me that this becomes such a talking point. I’m very unsure of our justification for devoting so much resource to this particular point. I suppose, that God, something like 20,000,000 years ago, could have predestined that we would spend a tremendous amount of time discussing predestination, hmmmm? I wonder why He didn’t predestine that we spend time evangelising, or being good to the poor, or loving our families, or even worshipping Him? Why would He predetermine that we spend so much time debating?
🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not being flippant, but I’m simply not 100% convinced that EVERYTHING has to be PREDETERMINED in order for God to still be Sovereign.
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For me, the more I know ‘about’ the God of the Bible, the bigger He becomes in my mind and in my spirit.
A.W. tozer once said, “”What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” – from The Knowledge of the Holy, 7.
Personally, I want to know as much about the God of the Bible as I can before I kick the bucket. If that means He chose, out of the mass of spiritually dead humanity, remnant for Himself, then made it happen, because if left on our own it wouldn’t happen, I’d like to know a God that big.
Then I have some people I love very close to me that will deny God predetermined much of anything and never investigate scripture to see if perhaps he did.
Why does it matter? Well, concerning salvation, either God did it all (monergism), or he did most of it and got a little help from us and our decision (synergism), which sounds a bit like an old ‘shake ‘n’ bake commercial.
Also, if anything is added to grace (a free gift), it is no longer grace.
And by the way, I really appreciate that you are wrestling with the thing, most won’t. I’ve been down that road about this very thing!
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I’m actually rather weary of the wrestling 🙂
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There is some ‘wrestling’ to be done. I want God bury His truth in the matter deep in my soul. What does it matter? Scriptural truth about God always seems to elevate my view of Him and lower my view of myself. My ‘flesh’ doesn’t like it much, but my spirit soars. Thanks for your ‘wrestling’.
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Thanks for stopping by, Deb.
Those who spend eternity in Heaven have only God to thank, and those who spend eternity in Hell have only themselves to blame. The Divine paradox.
The thought that God ‘predestines’ anyone for anything runs counter the popular notion of complete free will.
The bottom line – predestination IS in scripture and it would profit us greatly to find out what scripture says ABOUT it rather than ignore it because we might not like it.
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I can share with you that I spent at about one year to understand and to be fulfilled with such knowledge about the biblical predestination. It is hard to understand it by natural flesh, which is fully corrupted and denies all time God’s sovereignty in all things. It claims for justice when somebody is not saved, but if justice could be applied to salvation, nobody could be saved, because we all deserve everlasting perish. We are saved by grace, by God’s mercy, that chose us to participate on His eternal glory.
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