Personal
Evangelism Handbook
CHAPTER XX
Understanding Predestination
BIBLlCAL DOCTRINE:
"God is absolutely sovereign, and in His
sovereignty gave man a free will to accept or reject the
salvation that He has provided. It is God's will that
all would be saved and that none should perish. God
foreknows but does not predetermine any man to be
condemned. God permits man's destiny to depend upon
man's choice" (Florida Bible College Doctrinal
Statement, Point Four) .
I Tim. 2:4 tells us that God
would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge
of the truth. God does not predetermine who will believe
and who will not believe, but God predetermined what
will HAPPEN to the believers and to the unbelievers.
The father who asks the son to
mow the yard may have predetermined that if he does, he
will reward him, and if he doesn't, he will chasten him.
God explains our salvation in this same way . . . that
the choice of our salvation is up to us, but He has
predetermined the RESULTS of our choices.
Acts 10:34; Eph. 6:9; Col.
3:25; Rom. 2:11; and II Chron. 19:7 all point out
clearly that God is no respecter of persons and does not
choose one to be saved and one to be lost, but loves all
alike. This is certainly clear in John 3:16, "For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life."
II Thess. 2:13 says, "But
we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you,
brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation THROUGH sanctification
of the Spirit AND belief of the truth." We are made
pure and holy by sanctification of the Spirit. Look up
the word "holy" in the Strong's Concordance,
#37 in the Greek New Testament, and you will find it
means to be made "holy, pure, and blameless."
God chose those that believe the truth to be sanctified
by the Spirit. But He did NOT choose WHO would believe
the truth!
Eph. 1:4 is addressed to those
who have received Christ as their Saviour and says that
God predetermined all BELIEVERS to be before Him, holy,
and without blame. Fatalists believe that this verse is
teaching God chooses some to be saved. But the entire
epistle of Ephesians is written to those who are already
saved (Eph. 1:1), and verse four specifically says this
is to those who are already "in Him"-
believers who are in Christ. Ephesians 1:13 tells us we
heard the Word of truth first; then, by believing, we
were sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8: 29 tells us more
about God's foreknowledge, "For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to
the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren." Some take this out of its
context and say God chose some and made them to be
conformed to the image of His Son, instead of realizing
that God FOREKNEW those who would believe and
predestinated the BELIEVERS to be conformed to the image
of His Son. He did not predetermine WHO would believe.
He predetermined what would happen to those who did
believe. I Peter 1: 2 also tells us we are chosen
according to God's foreknowledge of who would believe.
God has a faculty that people
do not have. He can see the future perfectly. Perhaps
this is because God is "timeless," and
therefore is actually living in the future as well as in
the present. If we could see into the future and know
exactly what things would take place, we could tell
people what would happen in the future . . . not that we
would MAKE these things happen . . . but simply that we
would KNOW what will happen.
God does not "decide"
who will be saved. God does not "make" any one
believe, even though He wants all to believe and be
saved. But God, since He can see the future, knows who
will believe and who will not believe. Long before I was
ever born, God knew I would decide to trust Christ as my
Saviour. But this "foreknowledge" of His did
not CAUSE me to trust Christ as my Saviour.
In Matt. 23:37 we find that
Christ looked over Jerusalem and said that He would have
gathered them together many times, but the people would
not receive Him. God did not make these people reject
Him. In fact, it is God who is desiring them to accept
Him. But it is the people who would not, by their own
free will and choice.
Our salvation comes through OUR
OWN belief. The Bible is full of Scriptures that point
this out. Rom. 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that BELIEVETH...." I Cor.
1:21, "For after that in the wisdom of God the
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that
BELIEVE." John 3: 18, "He that BELIEVETH ON
HIM is not condemned: but he that BELIEVETH NOT is
condemned already, because he hath not BELIEVED in the
Name of the only begotten Son of God." See also
Habakkuk 2:4; Luke 7:50; Matt. 15:28; Psalm 119:173;
Jude, vv. 10, 16-19; Psalm 119:30; Gen. 6:12; Isa.
29:13; John 17:8; Hos. 4:6; Isa. 55:1.
II Peter 3:9 says God is
"not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL
should come to repentance (change of mind) ."
Luke 2:10-The angel told us
that the good news would be to ALL people, not to a
limited number.
FATALIST POSITION:
Many fatalists teach that faith is a gift of God and
that God would have to "give" you the faith in
order for you to believe. But God gives everyone the
ability to believe (faith). Man may exercise this
ability in any direction. Man can have faith in Buddha,
Mohammed, or any cult or sect . . . and by their same
definition, this would be a God-given ability to believe
(faith) in Buddha, etc., as well as Christ. The faith we
placed in the Lord Jesus Christ to save us COULD have
been placed in Mohammed. The CHOICE was left up to us.
Some fatalists use the
"sign theory," trying to take contradictory
statements and make them seem not to be contradictory.
They place a sign over heaven saying, "Whosoever
will may come." But after you get to heaven you see
the reverse side of the sign which says, "Chosen in
Him before the foundation of the world." (This, of
course, is only a partial quotation of Scripture, and
you just studied the answer to these-the answer is that
BELIEVERS are chosen to be before the Lord, holy and
blameless someday.) The fatalists say, "We do not
understand it," and they think this explains it.
This "sign theory"
cannot be true because you would have to place the same
sign over hell in the same way, saying, "Whosoever
rejects Christ goes to hell," and on the other side
of the sign you would have to place, "Chosen to go
to hell from the foundation of the world." The
reverse side of this sign would be just as unscriptural
as the reverse side of the one over heaven.
IN CONCLUSION:
"WHOSOEVER shall call upon the Name of the Lord
shall be saved" (Romans 10:133.
Praise the Lord that our God is
truly one of love, and who offers, "And ye shall
seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with
all your heart" ( Jeremiah 29: 13) . Psalm 107:9
says, "For He satisfieth the longing soul, and
filleth the hungry soul with goodness."
There is no person who has ever
lived on the face of the earth that the Holy Spirit of
God hasn't worked with continually, showing the person
the truths of God. Christ in John 16:8 says the Holy
Spirit convicts the world (every body) of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. No one can stand before
God and say he didn't have the opportunity to hear the
truth. "For the invisible things of Him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are WITHOUT EXCUSE" (Rom.
1:20). "For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to ALL MEN" (Titus 2:11).
