Reference: Predestination
Easton
This word is properly used only with reference to God's plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered "predestinate" is found only in these six passages, Ac 4:28; Ro 8:29-30; 1Co 2:7; Eph 1:5,11; and in all of them it has the same meaning. They teach that the eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional decree or "determinate purpose" of God governs all events.
This doctrine of predestination or election is beset with many difficulties. It belongs to the "secret things" of God. But if we take the revealed word of God as our guide, we must accept this doctrine with all its mysteriousness, and settle all our questionings in the humble, devout acknowledgment, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight."
For the teaching of Scripture on this subject let the following passages be examined in addition to those referred to above; Ge 21:12; Ex 9:16; 33:19; De 10:15; 32:8; Jos 11:20; 1Sa 12:22; 2Ch 6:6; Ps 33:12; 65:4; 78:68; 135:4; Isa 41:1-10; Jer 1:5; Mr 13:20; Lu 22:22; Joh 6:37; 15:16; 17:2,6,9; Ac 2:28; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; Ro 9:11,18,21; 11:5; Eph 3:11; 1Th 1:4; 2Th 2:13; 2Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2; 1Pe 1:2. (See Decrees of God; Election of Grace.)
Hodge has well remarked that, "rightly understood, this doctrine (1) exalts the majesty and absolute sovereignty of God, while it illustrates the riches of his free grace and his just displeasure with sin. (2.) It enforces upon us the essential truth that salvation is entirely of grace. That no one can either complain if passed over, or boast himself if saved. (3.) It brings the inquirer to absolute self-despair and the cordial embrace of the free offer of Christ. (4.) In the case of the believer who has the witness in himself, this doctrine at once deepens his humility and elevates his confidence to the full assurance of hope" (Outlines).
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If the Lord had not cut those days short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of the people chosen as His own He has cut them short.
For the Son of Man is going away, as it has been divinely decreed, but a curse will be on that man by whom He is betrayed!"
All that my Father gives to me will come to me, and I will never, no, never reject anyone who comes to me,
You have not chosen me; I have chosen you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, that your fruit may remain too, so that the Father may grant you, as bearers of my name, whatever you ask Him for.
just as you have given Him authority over all mankind to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him.
"I have made your very self known to the men whom you have given me out of the world. At first they were yours, but now you have given them to me, and they have obeyed your message.
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world now, but only for those whom you have given me, because they are yours --
You have made known to me the ways of life, and you will fill me with delight in your presence.'
But in this way God fulfilled what He by the lips of all the prophets foretold, that the Christ should suffer.
to do all that your hand and will had predetermined to take place.
to do all that your hand and will had predetermined to take place.
The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed,
From one forefather He made every nation of mankind, for living all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands,
For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers; and those whom He marked off as His own He also calls; and those whom He calls He brings into right standing with Himself; those whom He brings into right standing with Himself He also glorifies.
For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them,
So He has mercy on any man that He chooses to, and He hardens any man that He chooses to harden.
Has not the potter the right with his clay to make of the same lump one vessel for ornamental purposes, another for degrading service?
So it is at the present time; a remnant remains, in accordance with God's unmerited favor.
He foreordained us to become His sons by adoption through Christ Jesus, to carry out the happy choice of His will,
in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will,
in accordance with the eternal purpose which God executed in the gift of Christ Jesus our Lord.
with your roots deeply planted in Him, being continuously built up in Him, and growing stronger in faith, just as you were taught to do, overflowing through it in your gratitude.
in the hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago
and a man who continues to cling to the trustworthy message as he was taught it, so that he may be competent to encourage others with wholesome teaching and to convict those who oppose him.
Fausets
(See ELECTION.) Ac 2:23; 4:28, "whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done" (proorisen). God has "predestinated" believers "unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace." "He hath chosen us in Christ" out of the rest of the world, "predestinated" us to all things that secure the inheritance for us (Eph 1:4-5,11). "Predestination" refers to God's decree, embodied in God's "election" of us out of the mass; His grand end. in it being "the praise of the glory of His grace" (Eph 1:6,12,14). It is by virtue of our union to Christ, "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1Pe 1:20), that we are "predestinated" (2Ti 1:9).
Believers are viewed by God before the world's foundation as "IN CHRIST" with whom the Father makes the covenant (Re 13:8; 17:8; Eph 3:11), "according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." In 2Th 2:13 the Greek for "chosen" (heilato) means rather "taken for Himself"; He adopted them in His eternal purpose; "in (Greek) sanctification of (i.e. by) the Spirit" (by consecration to perfect holiness in Christ once for all, next by imparting it to them ever more and more). There was no doubt or contingency with God from the first. All was foreordained. God's glory and the believer's salvation are secured unchangeably. All pride on man's part is excluded; all is of God's unmerited grace. Yet the will of man is, in the sense of preserving our reponsibility, free. God alone knows how the two harmonize, His predestination and our freedom; it is enough for us they are both distinctly revealed.
At the same time fatalism is excluded, for God who predestinated believers to salvation as the end predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son as the means. We must make as sure of the means as of the end. Not to have the Spirit of Christ is to be none of His. Yet God's predestination is not founded on the believer's character, but the believer's character results from God's predestination (2Th 2:13; Ro 8:9,28-30). God the Father gives us salvation by gratuitous election; the Son earns it by His blood-shedding; the Holy Spirit applies the Son's merits to the soul by the gospel word (Calvin): Ga 1:4,15; 1Pe 1:2; the element IN (Greek) which we are elected is "sanctification of (consecration once for all by) the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (the end aimed at by God as regards us).
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this very Jesus, I say, after He was betrayed, in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you had wicked men kill by nailing Him to a cross;
to do all that your hand and will had predetermined to take place.
But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Yes, we know that all things go on working together for the good of those who keep on loving God, who are called in accordance with God's purpose. For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers; read more. and those whom He marked off as His own He also calls; and those whom He calls He brings into right standing with Himself; those whom He brings into right standing with Himself He also glorifies.
who gave Himself for our sins, to save us from the present wicked world in accordance with the will of our God and Father;
But when God, who had already set me apart from my birth, and had called me by His unmerited favor,
Through Him He picked us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in His sight in love. He foreordained us to become His sons by adoption through Christ Jesus, to carry out the happy choice of His will, read more. so that we might praise the splendid favor which He has shown us in His beloved Son.
in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will, that we who had first put our hope in Christ might praise His glory.
who is the first installment of our inheritance, so that we may finally come into full possession of the prize of redemption, and praise His glory for it.
in accordance with the eternal purpose which God executed in the gift of Christ Jesus our Lord.
We ought always to be thanking God for you, brothers dearly loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through the Spirit's consecration of you and through your faith in the truth,
We ought always to be thanking God for you, brothers dearly loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through the Spirit's consecration of you and through your faith in the truth,
For He saved us and called us with a holy call, not in accordance with anything that we had done, but in accordance with His own purpose and unmerited favor which was shown us through union with Christ Jesus eternal ages ago,
who was foreordained for it before the foundation of the world but was brought out to public view at the end of the ages, for the sake of you
All the inhabitants of the earth whose names, from the foundation of the world, have not been written in the slaughtered Lamb's book of life, will worship him.
The wild beast that you saw, once was but now is no more; he is going to come up out of the abyss, but he is going to be destroyed. The inhabitants of the earth, whose names from the foundation of the world have not been written in the book of life, will be astonished when they see that the wild beast once was but now is no more, and yet is to come.
Hastings
The English word 'predestinate' in the AV is, in the few cases in which it occurs (Ro 8:29,36; Eph 1:5,11), exchanged in the RV for 'foreordain,' a return to the usage of the older Versions. The Gr. word (proorizo) conveys the simple idea of defining or determining beforehand (thus, in addition to above, in Ac 4:29; 1Co 2:7). The change in rendering brings the word into closer relation with a number of others expressing the same, or related, meanings, as 'foreknow' (in pregnant sense, Ac 2:23; Ro 8:29; 11:2; 1Pe 1:2,20), 'determine' (Ac 17:26), 'appoint' (1Pe 2:8), 'purpose' (Eph 1:9), in the case of believers, 'choose' or 'elect' (Eph 1:4 etc.). In the OT the idea is expressed by the various words denoting to purpose, determine, choose (e.g. Isa 14:24-27; 46:10-11), with the ahundance of phrases extolling the sovereignty and immutability of God's counsel in all the spheres of His operation (see below; so in NT). The best clue to the Scripture conception will he found in tracing it as it appears in these different spheres of the Divine action.
1. In its most general aspect, foreordination is coextensive with the sphere of God's universal providence, is, in fact, but another name for the eternal plan, design, purpose, counsel of God, which executes itself in providence. The election of believers, to which 'predestination' is sometimes narrowed, is hut a specific case of the 'purpose' of Him 'who worketh all things after the counsel of his will' (Eph 1:11). It is in this wider regard, accordingly, that foreordination must be studied first. It cannot be reasonably doubted that all Scripture
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Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
Do not sparrows sell for a cent apiece? And yet not one of them can fall to the ground without your Father's notice. Even the very hairs on your head have all been counted by God.
this very Jesus, I say, after He was betrayed, in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you had wicked men kill by nailing Him to a cross;
You have made known to me the ways of life, and you will fill me with delight in your presence.'
to do all that your hand and will had predetermined to take place. And now, Lord, give attention to their threats and help your slaves with perfect courage to continue to speak your message,
For the Holy Spirit and we have decided not to lay upon you any burden but these essential requirements,
From one forefather He made every nation of mankind, for living all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands,
For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers;
For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers;
For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers;
As the Scripture says: "For your sake we are being put to death the livelong day; we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered."
What are we then to conclude? It is not that there is injustice in God, is it? Of course not! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on any man that I choose to have mercy on, and take pity on any man that I choose to take pity on." read more. So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you to your position for this very purpose of displaying my power in dealing with you, of announcing my name all over the earth."
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you to your position for this very purpose of displaying my power in dealing with you, of announcing my name all over the earth." So He has mercy on any man that He chooses to, and He hardens any man that He chooses to harden. read more. So you will ask me, "Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?" On the contrary, friend, who are you anyway that you would answer back to God? Can the clay that is molded ask the man who molds it, "Why did you make me like this?"
On the contrary, friend, who are you anyway that you would answer back to God? Can the clay that is molded ask the man who molds it, "Why did you make me like this?" Has not the potter the right with his clay to make of the same lump one vessel for ornamental purposes, another for degrading service?
Has not the potter the right with his clay to make of the same lump one vessel for ornamental purposes, another for degrading service? And what if God, though wishing to display His anger and make known His power, yet, has most patiently borne with the objects of His anger, already ripe for destruction,
And what if God, though wishing to display His anger and make known His power, yet, has most patiently borne with the objects of His anger, already ripe for destruction,
And what if God, though wishing to display His anger and make known His power, yet, has most patiently borne with the objects of His anger, already ripe for destruction, so as to make known the riches of His glory for the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in ages past to share His glory --
No, God has not disowned His people, on whom He set His heart beforehand. Do you know what the Scripture says in Elijah's case, how he pleaded with God against Israel?
How fathomless the depths of God's resources, wisdom, and knowledge! How unsearchable His decisions, and how mysterious His methods! For who has ever understood the thoughts of the Lord, or has ever been His adviser?
Through Him He picked us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in His sight in love.
Through Him He picked us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in His sight in love.
Through Him He picked us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in His sight in love. He foreordained us to become His sons by adoption through Christ Jesus, to carry out the happy choice of His will,
He foreordained us to become His sons by adoption through Christ Jesus, to carry out the happy choice of His will,
He has made known to us the secret of His will, which is in accordance with His purpose which He planned in Christ,
in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will,
in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will,
in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will,
You too were dead because of the shortcomings and sins in which you once lived in accordance with the spirit of this present world, and the mighty prince of the air, who is always at work in the disobedient, among whom all of us, we Jews as well as you heathen, read more. once lived while gratifying the cravings of our lower nature, as we continued to carry out the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were exposed to God's wrath, as the rest of mankind. But God, who is so rich in mercy on account of the great love He has for us, has made us, though dead because of our shortcomings, live again in fellowship with Christ -- it is by His unmerited favor that you have been saved. And He raised us with Him and through union with Christ Jesus He made us sit down with Him in the heavenly realm, to show, throughout the coming ages, the boundless generosity of His unmerited favor shown us in His goodness to us through Christ Jesus. For it is by His unmerited favor through faith that you have been saved; it is not by anything that you have done, it is the gift of God.
You married men must love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, to consecrate her, after cleansing her through His word, as pictured in the water bath, read more. that He might present the church to Himself as a splendid bride without a blot or wrinkle or anything like it, but to be consecrated and faultless.
with your roots deeply planted in Him, being continuously built up in Him, and growing stronger in faith, just as you were taught to do, overflowing through it in your gratitude.
We ought always to be thanking God for you, brothers dearly loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through the Spirit's consecration of you and through your faith in the truth,
So then, brothers, continue to stand firm and keep a tight grip on the teachings you have received from us, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the foreign-born Jews who are scattered over Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
and: "A stone for them to stumble over and a rock to trip them up." They keep on stumbling over the message, because they are disobedient to it, and this is their appointed doom.
and from Jesus Christ the trustworthy witness, the First-born of the dead, and the Sovereign of the kings of the earth. To Him who ever loves us and once for all released us from our sins by His blood, and has made us a kingdom of priests for His God and Father: to Him be glory forever. Amen.
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to have ascribed to you the glory, honor, and power; for you created everything, And since you willed it so, they came into existence and were created."
and they cried in a loud voice: "Our salvation is due to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb."
Then I looked, and there the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand people who had His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of great waters and the rumbling of loud thunders. The sound that I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps. read more. They were singing a new song before the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. These are the men who have not been defiled by relations with women, for they are as pure as virgins, These are the men who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from among men as the first fruits for God and the Lamb, and they have never been known to tell a lie with their lips; they are blameless. Then I saw another angel flying in mid-air, with eternal good news to tell to the inhabitants of the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people.
Watsons
PREDESTINATION, according to some, is a judgment, or decree of God, by which he has resolved, from all eternity, to save a certain number of persons, hence named elect. Others define it, a decree to give faith in Jesus Christ to a certain number of men, and to leave the rest to their own malice and hardness of heart. A third, more Scripturally, God's eternal purpose to save all that "truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel,"