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| Predestination Well, here is my predestination post. I said I was almost done with it 9 months ago, I think. Ha! But I told Josh I would post it before I went off to school, so here it is. Many thanks to Josh for designing the whatchamacallit verse pop up thingy. I figure most people on here will disagree with me on large portions of this. I will be delighted if they thoughtfully respond in the comment section, I might even argue with them. Please feel free to state your convictions, (even disagreeing ones). You don’t even have to have references, so long, of course, as your thoughts are scripturally based and presented. I always prefer having the references though. I think that’s why only two people commented on my last post. Please forgive the length of this post; I began to think it would never stop growing. It’s divided into five sections which are all intertwined; they don’t make good sense without each other. But finally, here it is. Total Depravity All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (). Usually the first point in the plan of salvation, this point is the most obvious of the five; to disbelieve in original sin is properly called heresy. However, it is often easy to miss the full extent of our flawed nature. “There is none that seeketh after God.” (Romans 3:11.) We cannot even seek after God until He first reaches out to us and causes us to want Him. This is at odds with the popular idea that God calls us and we choose whether or not to answer Him. We cannot even want Him until He infuses a desire for Himself within us (). Of course this does not mean that we don’t choose God at all, only that God must first make us able to choose Him (,). Since we are totally wicked and there is none that does good, (Romans 3:10), therefore we are all utterly deserving of eternal damnation (),and salvation can be from Christ alone (),we cannot contribute to it (),we have nothing to give. Praise God for His grace and power, His love bestowed upon us, for He does save us, that we might be called the Sons of God (,). Unconditional Election Unconditional election means that God, before the world began, chose whom He would save, based on His own will and desire and not His foreknowledge of our actions. A key passage asserting this is in Romans 9 beginning in verse 10, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calls.” It speaks of Jacob and Esau of whom the Lord said before their birth and before they had done good or evil, “the elder shall serve the younger.” Paul concludes, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” I can see no other reasonable explanation for this passage ()than that which says God predestinates, conditional on His will alone. Many people have objected to this in various ways; the most common argument is that Paul here speaks of the peoples of Israel and Edom and not of Jacob and Esau. But if this explanation is taken then verse 14 makes no sense to me. If all Paul is saying is that God blesses some nations and not others, based not on the whole nation’s righteousness and that individual election is still conditional, then why would Paul have to deal with the objection that God is not just to act thus? The next example is of Pharaoh, and it is unquestionably individual. Some here say that God hardened Pharaoh because Pharaoh had already hardened his heart to God. But why then does Paul not say that? If that were his meaning then he seems to greatly confuse and obscure his points; I think it makes far more sense to take the entire passage at face value to say, “God chooses to save whom He will, according to His will, and the rest He hardens.” This makes much more sense, I think, when we go on to look at verse 19. If God chooses people based on His foreknowledge of their actions then how is this objection possible? It says some will object, “How can God condemn unrepentance, since it is He who hardens the heart, and who can resist His will?” This makes it seem that unrepentance is a result of hardening and not that hardening is a result of unrepentance. In Romans 1, however, God shows that the process of hardening does not occur all at once. In Jesus says that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Unless we were called by God and given faith we would love darkness as well, all are unrepentant until and unless God leads to repentance, but praise God, for His goodness leads us to repentance ().And if it is of God’s goodness then it is no more of our actions that we may be chosen, we have no righteousness but what is given us of God who gives mercy to whom He will and the rest remain unrepentant and are hardened by Him (). In , Paul speaks of what happens to those who do not believe. Each step of hardening is a result of their sin and as time goes on they sin more and more. This process does not occur against their will but each step happens as they further reject the Truth of the gospel and of the holiness of God. Paul in Romans 9 compares us to clay in the hand of a potter, who can fashion us as He wills, unto honor or dishonor. Look at verse 20, how shall we say that our own works count anything at all in salvation when it is God who does the whole work of forming unto salvation? The clay cannot make anything of itself. And what else could be in accordance with the sovereignty of God and our depravity? How could the election of God be based on His foreknowledge of our actions and yet our salvation not a whit based on our deeds ()?If God chooses based on His knowledge of our response or receptivity or faith, then our response (a work) has a part in our salvation. Also how could God accomplish all His pleasure if He were limited in His purpose by the future choices of the creatures which He would create ()?Our God is sovereign; He does all His pleasure, therefore His choices are based on His will alone and not on anything that we, His finite creatures, can do (). The natural reaction to this is, “well then, what of our actions? Does it not matter how we act, if we are unchangeably going to heaven or hell anyway, what’s the difference. This can’t be right because the Bible tells us to sin not, lest we go to hell. And it tells us we must believe in order to be saved.” And such a reaction is far from foundationless, here are just a very few verses dealing with our own actions. According to these, we must believe in order to be saved. If we are Christians then we must act like Christians. And we are responsible for our own actions. This is a paradox but it still does not contradict what we have seen before. One important point to remember is that no mere man knows the will of God. No one knows who is predestined save for God Himself. As we saw in the first point, God infuses a desire for Himself in those whom He has elected (). He leads them to conviction and repentance (). He gives them saving faith (). Those who have saving faith believe, and their faith is counted righteousness. Because they believe, their faith overflows into actions showing their faith to be real. God has prepared good works for us, (). Anyone who is truly elected of God will act in faith, unto good works. Look at . All saving faith is the gift of God to those whom He elects, (). Thus salvation is conditional on faith. We must believe to be saved. However, election is unconditional; God chooses whom He will, based on His will. All the works of Christianity are of God alone because they come from a saving faith which comes from God. It is not just the acts of salvation which God predestines. I believe that God predestines all things that come to pass (, , ). Having created everything, being omnipotent, omniscient and sovereign, and having a divine purpose for all of His creation how could He not plan out all things through eternity, that He alone might be glorified all in all. Limited Atonement Limited Atonement is the doctrine that God does not intend to save everyone through Christ’s atonement but that it is limited to those who will and do believe, who are also the elect whom God has chosen. To me this is the most difficult portion of my studies. The difficulty as I did see it was this. The Bible says God does as He pleases. The Bible says God wants everyone to be saved. The Bible says not everyone will be saved. I could see no way that all of these statements could be simultaneously true. For a long time I had been convinced that God does not want everyone to be saved. The grammar and wording used in allows for it to be interpreted, “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any of us should perish but that all of us should come to repentance.” Some would say that us would refer to the elect. This makes more sense of the passage they say, because it tells plainly why the Lord delays His coming, until the last of the elect is saved. They then say that in it means, “Who would have all kinds of men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.” This also is somewhat reasonable, look at ; it shows that the insertion of “kinds of” is legitimate and even necessary in at least one case. Still, I think this to be a poor way to wring meaning out of the scriptures, surely God meant for them to be taken at face value. This alteration seems to me a shameful way of dividing the word of truth (). There is no simple answer to this problem. Who can know the mind of the Lord? He is unfathomable and glorious beyond all reckoning and measure. His will is His own and not another’s, knowable and understood by Him alone (). We must get away from the idea that we can put the will of God is a box. He is never simple and easy to understand, though a child may see farther than most into His heart. His word shows many complex desires which intermingle such as this one, to save everyone and to choose all which are saved. It is tempting to just leave the question be and not worry about it. But the answer is important! Look at . After a glorious and terrifying encounter with the presence of the holy God Himself Isaiah is sent to harden the hearts of Israel lest they be saved. What do we make of this? Furthermore, what do we make of the fact that Isaiah’s commission is quoted in the first six books of the New Testament? ,,,, andall contain this quotation of making the hearts of the people heavy, making them blind and deaf lest they see and hear the truth and repent. The question seems to be quite important and certainly the answer must be as well. Of the answers I have seen, heard and studied, this seems to be the most Biblical: God does will for all to be saved and He also wills to choose unconditionally certain ones to be saved. There is good evidence for multiple facets of God’s will in the scriptures. For instance, God predestined the death of Christ. He gave prophecies of the mockings, the scourgings, the betrayal, and the horrible death He would die to atone for our iniquity. God intended these horrific things that His purpose of grace might be fulfilled. But did He endorse them? Does not God despise all such sin? According to , he who does the Father’s will will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Yet this is obviously a different sort of will than God has in , where it says in verse 10 that God willed that certain sinful acts take place in order that His Son should be offered as propitiation for our transgressions. God willed the appalling manner of death Christ underwent yet this will is entirely different from the will He has that all men should obey His commandments and His will that all men be saved; and both are valid. Another example, says God does not will the death of the wicked, but rather their repentance. And yet look at . Speaking of the sons of Eli it says that God wanted to kill them in their wickedness, in fact it says that this was why they did not repent, because the Lord wanted to slay them. Even the Hebrew word for desire used in these two cases is identical. God does not desire the death of the wicked, yet He did desire to slay the sons of Eli. Going back to the original problem, we know God does as He pleases. And we do know that not everyone will be saved. And we know that God wants everyone to be saved. The question becomes then, what is it that God wants more than for everyone to be saved? There must be some desire which God has that overrules His desire to save everyone. I would say it is His desire that all things be done so that He be glorified, that the manifestation of His power in wrath and in mercy makes His glory more full than mercy alone (); also that man be humbled by knowing that God alone has wrought His salvation (, ). By recognizing that God both wills to save everyone, and desires to slay some in their wickedness, and that He can will both at once, we see that and do not obstruct the doctrine of limited atonement which follows from unconditional election. God has chosen whom He wants to save based on His will alone, and the rest He has hardened. Therefore the atonement which He has provided is intended only for the elect, for them who would believe. It is not limited in its power to them, but it is intended only for them, only so could it fulfill all of its purpose. In my opinion, it is only if atonement is limited can it be said that our God will do all He pleases (). He says, “I am God and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My counsel will stand and I will do all My pleasure.” Irresistible Grace The doctrine of Irresistible Grace is closely related to Unconditional Election. It says that when God calls those whom He has elected, then His grace overcomes our natural inclinations to evil and we are saved by His power (). God is able to make His calling irresistible whenever He chooses (), though He may not do so if He intends to bring Himself more glory and accomplish His purpose by having His grace resisted (). If God has chosen the elect before foundation of the world unconditional on our own actions (), then it is necessary that His will be sovereign for how else could it always be accomplished. The scriptures say God is omnipotent, thus nothing can stop His will (); He does as He pleases (). If God is sovereign then how can His grace not be irresistible? Some will say God does not use His power to make us repent and be saved because using His omnipotence would violate man’s free will. It does seem that if all salvation is from God, if God chooses everyone who will be saved, and though His grace they are saved, then man has no free will. I think it would be good if I tried to define free will here. Free will does not mean we can do as we please, neither does it mean that we can do anything so long as we don’t “break the rules.” It basically means that we can want what we desire to want. God does not force us to want to do good or evil (). It would seem on first impression that God hardening the heart would mean God forces some to want to do evil (). It would seem that God predestining some to salvation would force them to want to do well (). But it cannot be so; we are made in the image of God, with the knowledge of good and evil (). We must want what we please. And we must choose to seek what we will to choose to seek because that we are pleased to want to choose thus (). So then, we do have a choice in salvation and all other things, as well as a responsibility for all our desires and actions (). Therefore, since God does do all His will (), and man has his own free will (), God must persuade, not force, us to do His will. And so it is that we want what God wants; God never violates man’s ability to choose what he wants to do. God, through the riches of His power and wisdom is able to convince us to change our minds that we may do His purpose, and yet do it by our own free will. The power and love of God is always greater than any man’s wickedness and stubborn rebellion (). Our choices are important (). We reap what we sow. Predestination does not nullify free will (). The sovereignty of God does not make our choices of little significance or effect (). They both coexist in harmony, neither inhibits the rightful extent of the other’s power; yet the sovereignty of God is constantly affecting the choices of man. Because we do have a free will, then we have complete responsibility for all of our actions (). When God calls us, we must make the choice to answer His call and accept Him as Lord and Savior (). We have the responsibility to believe in His words (). We are challenged to surrender our lives to do His will (). says we must give diligence to make our calling and election sure. God worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, yet at the same time we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We are ultimately responsible for all of our actions (). To rely on predestination to accomplish God’s will in us and the world is both irresponsible and erroneous. It is also sinful. We cannot look at our sin and say that it is alright because God predestined it to be so, God sins not, neither does He tempt any man to sin (), He has predestined sin for His own glory in the ending, but it is of ourselves that we sin. Furthermore, God uses all things for our good according to His purpose but we still have the responsibility to obey His word (, ). We have no excuse for our iniquity (Romans 3:23). We cannot neglect to witness by saying that God has already chosen who to save and so we are not making a difference (). We are the vessels of Christ by which He accomplishes His purpose (, ). Furthermore, He commands us to go and tell the world, to argue that doing so is useless is simply disobedience. God called us to be sons and servants, not His counselors ). We cannot say that God is not just to not predestine everyone because everyone has sinned, and it is our own fault that we sinned, because we sinned because we wanted to sin (, ). Neither can we say that we are “safe” in Christ, that it is alright to sin because we are elect and saved (). God hates all sin (, ), though He has worked it into His purpose for His glory, and He commands us to be holy as He is holy (). If we are in Christ we ought to walk as Christ walked (). Those whom Christ justified He will also sanctify. Some will here object that irresistible grace defeats the whole purpose of mankind, for how could God delight in having a race to glorify Him of their free will through all eternity if He irresistibly decreed it to be so? I would say, however, that the purpose of God is not defeated because man still serves Him of their free will, even though He decreed it so, God’s delight comes from our serving Him freely, not from His lack of bringing it about Himself. After all, from Him and by Him are all things. Perseverance of the Saints The doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints states that once someone becomes a Christian, once they are justified, then God protects their salvation and they cannot lose it or become reprobate against it. They may fall into periods of sin and rebellion but God in His mercy will always draw them out again (, ). Some refer to this as once saved always saved though I don’t like this terminology because it seems to imply that once we are saved we have reached a finish line of sorts; that we have completed the struggle and now can rest in Christ and not worry about sin, hell or the devil. This certainly is not the case! (). As the older terminology suggests we must persevere through life till the end. The struggles will not be easy (). We, who are dead to sin, cannot live any longer therein; we must live in Christ, in the spirit (). But if God be for us, who can be against us (, )? He who has called us and justified us will not fail to also sanctify us and glorify us, to His own glory and praise throughout all eternity (). And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calls you, who also will bring it to pass. (). To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever, Amen (). Soli Deo Gloria | |
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This is the verse.
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