Predestination is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in Christianity. Most opponents believe that it forces the effectuation of God’s will in creation and individuals, and that this removes the individuals’ free will. This misunderstanding of predestination results in believing in fatalism[1] or determinism.[2] But these views are contrary to the predestination taught in Scripture.
Most people chafe at the very idea of God’s predestination of creation. Dr. B.B. Warfield expressed his views regarding the many concerns with predestination when he wrote the following.
Our difficulties with Predestination arise from a, no doubt not unnatural, unwillingness to acknowledge ourselves to be wholly at the disposal of another. We wish to be at our own disposal. We wish “to belong to ourselves,” and we resent belonging, especially belonging absolutely, to anybody else, even if that anybody else be God… We will not be controlled. Or, rather, to speak more accurately, we will not admit that we are controlled.[3]
From eternity, only God was. And nothing else existed. At that point in eternity, God, according to His will and His wise and righteous purposes, determined all that would come to pass in creation (Eph. 1:11, Rom. 11:33, Heb. 6:17, Rom. 9:15,18, Acts 4:27-28, Mt. 10:29-30). He decreed these things not because of His omniscience, but because He foresaw how the creation would unfold. However, He certainly did foresee (Acts 15:18, 1 Sam. 23:11-12, Ps. 139:1-4), but because of his foreordination in eternity of all that would come to fruition in the future (2 Tim. 1:9, Eph. 1:4-5). God thus predestined and made certain by His eternal decree all that would happen in the future.
God’s eternal decree predestined and made certain that everything must come to pass. “This does not mean that God has determined to bring to pass Himself by a direct application of His power all things which are included in His decree, but only that what He has decreed will certainly come to pass; that nothing can thwart His purpose.”[4] God’s foreordination of future events makes them sure but does not effectuate them by His own direct action.[5]
A distinction must be made between the eternal decree from all eternity and its execution in the coming creation. God’s eternal decree predestines and foreordains what comes to pass, but does not compel, obligate, or do violence to the free wills of human beings to make it come to pass. Human beings remain free agents, and all future events will be affected by antecedent causes acting in a manner consistent with the nature of the event at the coming time. Thus, predestination is not, as some assert, fatalism or determinism. Predestination—election and reprobation—are perfectly compatible with Human free will.
Election as a doctrine, “may be defined as that eternal act of God whereby He, in His sovereign good pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit in them, chooses a certain number of [people] to be the recipients of special grace and of eternal salvation.”[6] By God’s eternal decree from eternity, of all the human beings that He determined to create in the future, He chose a certain number of those individuals to receive the special grace of eternal salvation.
The doctrine of “Reprobation may be defined as that eternal decree of God whereby He has determined to pass some men by with the operations of His special grace, and to punish them for their sins, to the manifestation of His justice.”[7] Though Augustine and Calvin taught this doctrine, it was opposed by the “Roman Catholics, the great majority of Lutherans, Armenians, and Methodists.”[8]
Another objection to biblical predestination is that because God effectuates all events and actions in the future, it means that God does good as well as evil. We have debunked the idea that God will affect all future events above. But it is true that some of what God makes certain or predestines in the future is evil, however, this does not mean that God is the author of sin (Job 34:10; Jam. 1:13; 1 John 1:5). Because God is not the author of sin (Jas. 1:13; Ps. 92:15; Eccl. 7:29; Jn. 1:5). God cannot be the author of sin because God is perfectly righteous (Dt. 32:4; Ps. 145:17) and His law prohibits sin. He allows certain bad things to happen to achieve His will and purpose for the eternal good of His children (Rom. 8:28).
From all eternity, God determined all that would come to pass in the future, but He did not choose to effectuate all that would come to pass. Dr. A. A. Hodge, in his book Outlines of Theology, said that God’s eternal decree did not effectuate every event when he wrote that in “every case that the event shall be effected by causes acting in a manner perfectly consistent with the nature of the event in question.” God decreed what was certain to come to pass in the future creation within its complete system of internal causes and effects, and not necessarily by God’s direct application of His power.
God works all things, both good and bad, together for good for the elect children of God (Rom. 8:28). God gives human beings a will and the freedom to use it contingent on secondary antecedent causes (Acts 2:23, Mt. 17:12, Acts 4:27-28, Jn. 19:11). So all human beings, good and bad, are allowed to practice their free wills and God by His divine providence ensures that everything, both good and bad, works together for the spiritual good of His chosen ones, the elect.
The Westminster Confession of Faith speaks of predestination in this way:
Before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4), according to His eternal, unchangeable plan (Eph. 1:11) and the hidden purpose and good pleasure of his will (Eph. 1:9) God has chosen in Christ (2 Tim. 1:9) those of mankind who are predestined to life and to everlasting glory (Rom. 8:30, 1 Thess. 5:9, 1 Pet. 5:10). He has done this solely out of his own mercy and love and completely to the praise of his wonderful grace (Eph. 1:5, 6, 12). This choice was completely independent of his foreknowledge of how his created beings would be or act. Neither their faith nor good works nor perseverance had any part in influencing his selection (Rom. 9:11, 13, 15-16, Eph. 1:4,6,9, 2 Tim. 1:9, Eph. 2:8-9).
[1] The doctrine that states that the fate of human beings is out of their control and their actions and the events of their lives have already been determined by God.
[2] The doctrine that all events, including human action, are really determined solely by preexisting causes external to the human will.
[3] B.B Warfield, Warfield: Selected Shorter Writings, vol. 1 (P & R Publishing, 1970), 103.
[4] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 95.
[5] Berkhof, 96.
[6] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, combined ed., (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2021), 104.
[8] Berkhof, comb. 106.
