Predestination

Contents: Different ways of interpretation The biblical understanding Consequences of this teaching Appendix: Passages that seem to exclude the free will

DIFFERENT WAYS OF INTERPRETATION

The word 'predestination' occurs several times in the Bible, but there are two main lines of thought about the understanding of this term.

• The first is predestination on the basis of foreknowledge. Predestination is the eternal decision of God, arising from love, by which he sets out a historical plan of Salvation giving every person the possibility to receive eternal Salvation. God predestined Jesus to be the only and absolute mediator between Himself and mankind.

• The second is the belief that God is sovereign and decides everything that will happen regardless of the will of man and that what God determines no man can change. Within this line of thought there are two directions of understanding: "single predestination", which some Lutherans believe in and "double predestination", which the Calvinists believe in.

Single predestination means that God elects in advance those who will come to heaven.

Double predestination means that God determines in advance who will be in heaven and who will go to hell.

In the rest of this treatise the word "predestination" will be used for this second line of thought.

Within this second stream of understanding of predestination there are three important advocates:

Augustine (354-430):

Augustine was the first person to develop a systematic teaching of predestination. The compulsion he felt to defend the undeserved, arbitrary nature of grace led him to develop the doctrine of predestination. In "Ad Simplicianum" he developed his teaching explaining Romans 5:12 and chapter 9.

First exists the plan of God, and through this plan he elects. (Ad Simplicianum I,2,6)

Moreover, he declares that God predestines as many men for heaven as there were angels who deserted the faith. (Faith, Hope and Charity /Enchiridion de fide, spe et caritate/ 9,29)

Luther (1483-1546):

Luther, himself a monk of the order of Augustine, adopted and further developed this teaching more than thousand years later. In his most famous work "The Bondage of the Will" he writes:

For if we believe it to be true that God foreknows and foreordains all things and that nothing happens but at His will; then, on reason's own testimony, there can be no free-will in man, or angel, or in any creature. (I bid. p.317, paragraph 19)

Calvin (1509-1564):

Calvin's teaching gained a lot of influence when it was discussed and developed at the Synod of Dort (1618-1619 in the Netherlands) and became the official teaching of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands.

By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation. (Institutio Christianae Religionis 3.21.5)

THE BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING

God lives in eternity. He doesn't live in time as people do. For Him everything is present. Therefore He knows what choices men make. Because God knows who chooses Him, He can elect and predestine them to become His obedient children.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30)

Verse 30 should be read in connection with verse 29 where it is expressed that God elects according to foreknowledge. This means that God does not choose at random but on the base of the decision of man, which he foreknew. Everybody, about whom he knew that they choose Him, he predestined to become to the image of His Son.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, ¶ To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, (...) who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ... (1 Peter 1:1-2)

God in his love desires to predestine (elect and save) all people to be together with him forever but he doesn't force anybody to have a relationship with Him.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

In the Bible we find the clear teaching that God wants everyone to be saved, but that people have a free will to choose against this. If God did not consider the decision of people, hell would be empty because God would indeed save everyone.

But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. (Luke 7:30)

So the Pharisees and the lawyers themselves decided not to take part in God's purpose. God also wanted for them to come to repentance, but they were not willing.

The aim of the world

God created the world because He is love. He wanted to share His love with people. Therefore He created us to be holy, as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). God never intended for people to sin. The fact that man was disobedient and sinned against God is a distortion of the original plan. The original aim was for man to have a relationship with the Creator. Now, we know that God is love and that He is righteous and that all other virtues are combined in His being. Therefore His plan to create the world was pure as well. He loves the beings He created. If He had decided that everything should happen according to his will, the fulfilment of His plan for a world full of love and peace would remain unchanged even today. Since He respects the will of people, sin could come into the world through their decision. The teaching of predestination implies, in fact, that God planned in advance for men to sin and wants the majority of people to go to hell. This would make God the author of sin. Before they are even born it has already been decided that the majority of people will never have the chance to be saved (according to Calvin).

"Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?" (...) "Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live." (Ezekiel 18:23.31-32)

In the Bible people are very often called to "Repent!" This presupposes that it is possible! When he calls us: "Repent!" he does not order, but he encourages, asks, urges, implores. For the Almighty it is no humiliation to ask us - because he is perfectly humble: "we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5,20).

Relationship, love and will

The purpose of man's existence is to have a relationship with God (John 17:3). The most important characteristics of a relationship are love and a free will. If someone is forced to be together with somebody else, it is not an expression of love. A relationship is based on love when both parties have the freedom to choose to stay together and the possibility to separate. If you can control somebody's will, he has become like a robot. Robots do what you have made them for. God did not create robots, but human beings that have the choice to love Him, or not to do so.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him... (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a)

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. (Matthew 23:37)

If you do well, will not {your countenance} be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it. (Genesis 4:7)

Even after the fall of humankind people are not under the compulsion to sin but have the possibility to rule over it.

CONSEQUENCES OF THIS TEACHING

• People who believe in predestination deny that man has a free will to accept or reject God's offer of salvation.

• They also believe that man is totally depraved, because if a man is able to do good, he can choose the good and seek God.

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves... (Romans 2,14)

• Furthermore if you are predestined to live an eternal life with God, it is impossible to go away from God, so if one teaches predestination, he also has to teach that there is no apostasy.

See our writing entitled "About the apostasy".

• Moreover the one who is elected cannot resist the "grace", because those who are predestined will come to God with certainty.

You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. (Acts 7:51)

• Predestination annuls the importance of deeds. The Bible speaks very clearly of the fact that "faith without deeds is dead" and that faith alone cannot save a person.

See our writing entitled "Faith and works".

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?; But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? (James 2:14.20)

This teaching, by stripping the deeds of their significance, maintains that it is not possible to see according to the fruits of a person whether he is a Christian or not.

See our writing entitled "Who is a Christian?".

This is a contradiction to Matthew 7:16 which tells us that we will recognise the tree by its fruit.

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn {bushes} nor figs from thistles, are they? (Matthew 7:16)

Real faith is followed by deeds of devotion.

• "Church" loses its meaning because it is not clear anymore who belongs to the church and who doesn't. Within local "church" assemblies today there are many unbelievers, although it is clearly stated in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 that believers and unbelievers can not be yoked together and fight for the same kingdom.

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1)

Therefore a distinction has been made between the local "visible" church assemblies (where there are also unbelievers) and the "invisible church" made up of true believers independent of place and time. But this artificial distinction doesn't have any biblical basis.

See our writing entitled "The visible church".

• Predestination also means that even if someone wants to repent today, he cannot, because he has to wait till God "converts him". This means that he cannot start to live a holy life pleasing to God, although in Hebrews 3:7-8 and Psalm 95:7-8 it is written: "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me". This is a disastrous deception, which brings forth passivity in people.

• False Image of God: If God predestined men regardless of their will, it would mean that God's wrath is upon those he does not save and that he would punish people whom in reality he does not want to save. It is not just to punish for what man is not responsible; it is not his fault.

• Predestination states that everything happens according to the eternal plan of God. This would mean that God does not only want the good, but also the evil. This makes God the author of sin.

• There may be different teachings about predestination: single and double predestination. In reality the difference is finally not decisive. Both teachings exclude the free will of man. If God "only" chooses those who will go to heaven, then the others will automatically go to hell. In this way God's own nature is the reason for the condemnation of people.

• Whoever teaches Predestination should be conscious of the fact that he understands and defines the nature of man in a wrong way. He deprecates the value of human being as a person. For being a person means being able and obliged to act out of liberty and reason, following certain motives and goals. It means being able to gain access to the sense of life and experiencing the effects that one's chosen way of life brings.

PASSAGES THAT SEEM TO EXCLUDE THE FREE WILL - CONTINUATION