by Bob Sharpe

Do you have a Biblical view of Predestination?

A few years ago, Scott, one of my son's friends entered a drawing for a vacation to Florida. His entry was picked, and he won a trip to Florida. He invited my son John to go with him. They had a great time.

Let's examine how the winner was determined. Scott entered the contest by filling out an entry form. He put his entry into a box in a store. When the day of the drawing came, someone reached into the box of entries and pulled out an entry form. The entry selected was Scott's. Scott was the lucky one. Scott had nothing to do with the drawing, other than the fact that his entry was in the box.

The Luck of the Draw

The Calvinistic, or reformed view of salvation operates somewhat the same way. Calvinists believe that some people were actually predestined by God to go to Heaven. That means that God only wanted to choose a small percentage of people to go to Heaven. He will not allow anyone else to get saved, regardless of how much exposure they have to the Gospel. If you were elected by God to go to Heaven, you are one of the lucky ones. Every Calvinist I know claims to be one of the Elect (lucky people).

Why Witness?

The lucky people (the elect) are going to go to Heaven anyway, so why bother? The unlucky people (everybody else) have no chance of escaping Hell because God wants to send them there, so what's the use?

Those who are the Elect (arbitrarily chosen by God for Heaven) will get saved and go to Heaven. Don't worry about them. They were Predestinated to go to Heaven, so God will see to it that they get saved sometime before they die, so we don't have to worry about reaching them. They are the Lucky Winners. And oh, what a Prize - Eternal Life in Heaven.

What about the Unlucky Ones?

Don't worry about them, either. Since they are not part of the Elect, they couldn't possibly get saved. They didn't get picked, and you are wasting your time trying to reach them. God didn't want them to go to Heaven. He made them for one purpose - to send them to Hell.

The Good News - God doesn't operate that way

If 1 Timothy 2:4 is true, then Calvinism is a villainous lie when it teaches that God chose some for Heaven, and that He actually chose some for Hell. (Many Calvinists don't like to admit that they believe that God actually chose some people to populate Hell). Scripture says that God desires everybody to be saved. If God desires everyone to be saved, He would be a liar if He made it impossible for most people to get saved as Calvinism teaches.

So, if God desires everyone to be saved, why isn't everybody saved? It's because God made the Sovereign choice to give the final decision to you and me. We can reject God's offer of salvation in Christ, but we cannot escape the consequences if we do.

He gave us everything we need in order to be saved, then He told us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or we will go to Hell (John 3:36).

1. He gave evidence of His existence in His creation and in the human heart (Rom. 1:19-20)
2. He gave His Word, the Bible to tell us how to get to Heaven (John 5:39)
3. He called and sent preachers and soul winners to spread the Gospel (Matt. 4:19; John 15:16)
4. He gave the Holy Spirit to empower His servants to reach people (Acts 1:8)
5. He draws people to Himself when the Gospel is presented (John 6:44)

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV)

Again we see God's love and passion for everyone on earth. God is not a respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11). Jesus died for everybody (1 John 2:2). There is not one human being in history who was not included when Scripture says . . . "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son . . ." - John 3:16

The people who are excluded from God's gift of Grace are those who did not receive Jesus (1 John 5:11-13).

The notion that God chose some for Heaven and did not choose the rest of mankind for salvation is as foreign to the Bible as Mormonism, Islam or Atheism.

Does the Bible Teach Predestination?

Yes and No. It does teach Predestination. It does not teach the predestination of Calvinism. The Calvinistic interpretation is a gross perversion of Scripture that robs churches of the excitement of seeing people saved, that causes Christians to not witness, and that damns people to an eternity in Hell as a result. 

The Divine Order

Note that there are 5 key words in these verses. These words are presented in order, because they explain how predestination works.

1. Foreknew

God is omniscient. That means He knows everything - past, present and future. He knows you. He knows what you will have for breakfast tomorrow morning. He knows when you are going to die. He also knows where you are going to go when you die, because He has known from the beginning whether or not you would ever become a Christian in this life.

2. Predestined

Based on His foreknowledge of your conversion to Christ, He chose you and predestined you to be part of His family and to spend eternity in His Heaven. He didn't arbitrarily choose some and refuse others. He predestined people based on His foreknowledge.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. (1 Peter 1:2, NKJV)

The word elect, in the noun form, means those who are chosen. He didn't choose us based on a random drawing, as in the vacation contest to Florida. He didn't choose us based on respect of persons (Rom. 2:11). He chose us based on His foreknowledge of how we would respond to the Gospel. This is very clear when you understand Scripture.

Evangelist Oliver B. Greene observes, "Election looks BACK to foreknowledge. Predestination looks forward to DESTINY. The ELECT are PREDESTINED to a FIXED DESTINY. This is possible BECAUSE God in His SOVEREIGN POWER and omniscience saw the END in the BEGINNING.

The first two events, Foreknowledge and predestination, occurred before Creation (Eph. 1:4). The next two are happening now. The fifth will take place in the future.

3. Called

How does God call people? Through the preaching of the Gospel and the compelling of the Holy Spirit. Whom does He call?

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30, NKJV)

And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Rev. 22:17, NKJV)

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe (John 1:7, NKJV)

4. Justified

The word justified means to be declared righteous by God. When God says you are righteous, you are righteous in His eyes - even though you've never been righteous in your whole life! People are justified the moment they get saved. 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1, NKJV)

Note how we are justified. It does not say that we are justified by the arbitrary decision of God to save us and condemn others. We are justified by faith. 

5. Glorified

Glorification is the finished product of salvation. It is when we receive our glorified bodies at the Rapture. (1 John 3:2)

Notice the tense of the verb glorified. It is the past tense (Greek aorist tense). Have we received our glorified bodies yet? No. In God's plan, however, it's a done deal. God, who sees the End from the Beginning, sees us as the finished product. Because of the fact that He foreknew that we would get saved, He predestined us to be glorified. As sure as the sun will come up tomorrow morning, God's true children will have their glorified bodies and go to Heaven someday.

Salvation by Luck?

Luck is OK for a contest. But Scripture does not teach that people are saved because God mysteriously "picked" them.