What Do We Believe About Predestination/Election?
Everyone who believes that the Bible is true believes in predestination and election (which just means choice).
Ephesians 1:4-5, 11
"Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will . . . having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will."
God’s predestining and electing (choosing) is simply normal and common biblical language (Rom 8:29-33, 11:4-7, Ac 4:28, 1 Cor 2:7, 2 Tim 2:9-10, Titus 1:1-2, 2 Thess 2:13-14, Matt 24:22, Col 3:12, 1 Cor 1:27-28, James 2:5, 1 Pet 1:1). God DID predestine; some ARE elect (chosen). That fact is biblically inarguable.
The primary disagreement is that God’s choice is a choice of response. That after looking down the corridors of time to see who would choose him, he then chooses those that chose Him first. The opposing view to that is a choice of causation, where God’s choice is first in order and that which brings about the proper response of His elect then choosing Him. We believe that the Bible supports the latter - that God chooses us so that we will choose Him. To say that God “chooses” based on our choice is not to explain predestination/election, it is to deny it outright and make it meaningless; in that case God loves us because we first loved Him.
In the end you can’t get God off the proverbial hook. God created you, gave you your DNA and personality, placed you at this time in history instead of that one, put you in Alabama to parents that would teach you the Gospel instead of in the middle east where you would never hear it (for instance). That was God’s call. Even if it was God seeing what you would choose, He is responsible for what leads one to their choice.
We do want to emphasize that we are comfortable with some mystery here as God is infinitely beyond us and the Bible doesn’t find any contradiction in God’s sovereign predestining and our responsibility to believe and repent. The Bible is clear that God is absolutely sovereign and that man is morally responsible, that man’s choices truly matter, and it makes no effort to reconcile those friends (Gen 50:20, Ac 4:27-28) as much as we tend to want to make such efforts. Speaking of these truths, Spurgeon says, “They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.” D.A. Carson says that two truths are unavoidably and obviously true from Genesis to Revelation: 1. God is absolutely Sovereign, but that sovereignty never mitigates human responsibility, 2. Humans are morally responsible creatures, but that responsibility never relegates God to contingency. The Bible teaches that God chose us as his own and wrote our names in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Hallelujah!
The Bible also teaches that it is the responsibility of every human to follow God and any human that perishes does so because they rebelliously refused to believe. Jesus weeps, “How long I would have gathered you under my wings but you would not!”
How does all that work exactly? We don’t know, but we are seeking to humbly place ourselves below the Word of God even when it presses us.
You are a Christian because God chose you, and you are a Christian because you believed and repented; both are true.
“Well Pastor, what if I wasn’t chosen?”
Repent, and you were.
Acts 13:48
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."
Ephesians 1:4-5, 11
"Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will . . . having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will."
God’s predestining and electing (choosing) is simply normal and common biblical language (Rom 8:29-33, 11:4-7, Ac 4:28, 1 Cor 2:7, 2 Tim 2:9-10, Titus 1:1-2, 2 Thess 2:13-14, Matt 24:22, Col 3:12, 1 Cor 1:27-28, James 2:5, 1 Pet 1:1). God DID predestine; some ARE elect (chosen). That fact is biblically inarguable.
The primary disagreement is that God’s choice is a choice of response. That after looking down the corridors of time to see who would choose him, he then chooses those that chose Him first. The opposing view to that is a choice of causation, where God’s choice is first in order and that which brings about the proper response of His elect then choosing Him. We believe that the Bible supports the latter - that God chooses us so that we will choose Him. To say that God “chooses” based on our choice is not to explain predestination/election, it is to deny it outright and make it meaningless; in that case God loves us because we first loved Him.
In the end you can’t get God off the proverbial hook. God created you, gave you your DNA and personality, placed you at this time in history instead of that one, put you in Alabama to parents that would teach you the Gospel instead of in the middle east where you would never hear it (for instance). That was God’s call. Even if it was God seeing what you would choose, He is responsible for what leads one to their choice.
We do want to emphasize that we are comfortable with some mystery here as God is infinitely beyond us and the Bible doesn’t find any contradiction in God’s sovereign predestining and our responsibility to believe and repent. The Bible is clear that God is absolutely sovereign and that man is morally responsible, that man’s choices truly matter, and it makes no effort to reconcile those friends (Gen 50:20, Ac 4:27-28) as much as we tend to want to make such efforts. Speaking of these truths, Spurgeon says, “They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.” D.A. Carson says that two truths are unavoidably and obviously true from Genesis to Revelation: 1. God is absolutely Sovereign, but that sovereignty never mitigates human responsibility, 2. Humans are morally responsible creatures, but that responsibility never relegates God to contingency. The Bible teaches that God chose us as his own and wrote our names in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Hallelujah!
The Bible also teaches that it is the responsibility of every human to follow God and any human that perishes does so because they rebelliously refused to believe. Jesus weeps, “How long I would have gathered you under my wings but you would not!”
How does all that work exactly? We don’t know, but we are seeking to humbly place ourselves below the Word of God even when it presses us.
You are a Christian because God chose you, and you are a Christian because you believed and repented; both are true.
“Well Pastor, what if I wasn’t chosen?”
Repent, and you were.
Acts 13:48
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."
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