What is Predestination?

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.  In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”  Ephesians 1:5-7

The use of the term “predestination” in scripture has always been a mystery to most believers.  Predestination means that the outcome of something is determined before it happens.  God’s foreknowledge of the fact that men and women would sin because He had given them free will and not made them puppets to automatically follow Him caused Him to already have in the works a plan to provide a way of escape from eventually experiencing His wrath.  Because man is a sinner born with a nature that is prone to sin, man’s inherent nature is not to do good.  Man is selfish, egocentric, and prideful.  If a little child is never corrected, he or she will become a terror to others.  A child has to be taught to obey, sometimes painfully.  Free will gives a person a choice in how he or she lives his or her life, but without the Holy Spirit living within a person, the proclivity to live righteously is greatly diminished.

On the other hand, if God had chosen to create man as a puppet, God would not receive genuine love from His creation.  Man would, in effect, be programmed to love God; it would not be real love but rather a counterfeit love, a robotic kind of love.  God desires real love and devotion just like we do.  He seeks those who will be obedient because they love Him, not just to escape punishment.  He knows who will love Him, and who will not.  Scripture tells us in various places that God does not regard persons, nor is He a respecter of persons (Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34-35; Colossians 3:25; and I Peter 1:17) by which I understand that He doesn’t give one person more importance than another.

Job 36:5 tells us that God hates no one, although He definitely hates the sin that all people commit.  To be just, God sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay God’s required penalty for sin.  When one repents of his or her sin, believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and commits his or her life to Him, he or she will escape the punishment they would have eventually received for their sin.  Does God send the Holy Spirit to bring conviction at least one time upon every human being, past, present, and future?  Romans 1:20 tells us that enough evidence of God and His power are exhibited all around us so that no one has an excuse to not believe in Him, thus making all people accountable to God.  No one can blame God if he or she rejects Christ.

What is it for which men and women will be held to account?  Most people would answer that as to how each person lived his or her life on earth.  Did he or she help others, try to do right, obey the law, etc.?  Those who answer that way are mostly those who believe that good works will get them into heaven.  However, the first and foremost matter for which all people will be held accountable is their relationship or lack thereof to Christ.  “What did you do with Christ?” will be the question that all must answer.  Since each person must give an account to what they did with Christ, would not each individual have at least one opportunity to either accept or reject Him?  That seems logical, but still doesn’t answer the question about predestination.

No one can be saved without repentance and belief in Christ.  If the correct viewpoint is unconditional salvation, according to Calvinism, God saves a person of His choosing, writes his or her name in the book of life and then God gives him or her the ability to repent and place faith in Christ.  According to the Armenian view, God sends His Holy Spirit to convict a man or woman of sin, and he or she is given the ability to either receive or reject Christ.  Both views are similar except that in the former, the person really doesn’t have a choice while in the latter, the person can choose to receive or reject Christ.  Since God is omniscient, He knows from the beginning of time who will believe and who will reject Him.  Even so, Jesus, just before He ascended back to the Father in heaven, instructed His disciples to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16).  He also said in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Paul wrote in Romans 10:13-17 that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  However, in order for sinners to call on Jesus, someone has to tell them about Him, thus, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God”.  I think the most logical way to look at predestination is that God planned from the beginning to adopt believers into His family by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, making believers His children and the brothers and sisters of Jesus.  He pre-determined that all who come to Him in repentance and faith will be like Jesus.