All Christians Believe in Predestination. But In The Way The Bible Teaches It?

 

Eph 1:11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,  NAS

Dan 4:35  All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven  And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?”   NKJV

Eph 3:11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,  NAS

Not a change of plan because He didn’t know if Adam would sin.  Not a second plan because His 1st plan for man to live forever was stopped by men. This was His eternal purpose. He does all things according to His own will!  He does all that He pleases; not some of it, not that He could do it, but chooses not to. He does it!

Lam 3:37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth? NAS

Isa 46:9… I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure, 11… The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.

Job 23:13 “But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does.

14 For He performs what is appointed for me, NKJV

Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased
Psalm 135:6 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
Matt 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good? NKJV

Prov 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD. NKJV

 

Of Jesus’ Death

The whole gospel plan that is preached was predestined before the world began. It was not an after thought due to Adam or anyone’s sin. The whole glorious gospel of redeeming love was ordained before the world. God knew the end even from the beginning of time. There is nothing hid from Him because He has brought it to pass just as He Pleased. God used the wicked desires of the Jews to accomplish His plan of crucifying Christ.

 

What if God could not determine what people did and only could look into the future as some people wrongly think the word foreknow means? What if God foresaw that Jesus was made King and not crucified by the people’s will? What good would that do to foresee it, if God could not change it or do anything about it? What could He do? We would have no sacrifice for sin and all people would go to hell. But Christ was predestined to be slain from the foundations of the earth Rev 13:8 So there was no chance the people would or could change it. They had to crucify Him.  Foreknow means to foreordain. The reason He knows is because it is done, He has predestined it to be so.

Even though God Predestined Jesus’ death to be done by Judas and the Jews, yet man is still held accountable for his own selfish desires because he does not feel forced to do it. God so moves man in a way that He does not force a man to act against his will. We do not experience predestination therefore we cannot excuse our actions or blame God for our actions.  God does as He pleases and though we may not understand, He is just and good in all He does.

Luke 22:22 And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”

Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;  NKJV

Acts 4:28 …to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. NKJV

 

In these and other texts we see that though God predestines all things, yet He still holds man responsible for his decisions. Some people are confused because some text seem to speak of man’s desires, decisions and actions while other texts speak of God’s doing it. One has to understand that God sometimes speaks from the perspective of human responsibility and sometimes from the perspective of His sovereign predestination. God also speaks to us in scripture in anthropomorphisms. God is not a bird and yet speaks of his wings. He speaks of His desires in earthly terms or as if He changed His mind because of man’s repenting etc. God does not change and already knows what ids going to happen so He is simply speaking in story form and from human perspective and understanding.  These narratives do not contradict each other or the truth that God predestines man’s actions. God ordains things to happen by means or methods involving people; even sinful people at times. So He is still just when he predestines the Assyrian king to attack Israel and then punishes the Assyrian king for doing it. Because He predestines in a way that people do not feel it so the choices people make are real choices from their desires. The king chose to do it for selfish evil reasons and God was using the king’s selfishness to accomplish God’s plan to punish the Israelites for their sin. God uses the wicked people’s desires to accomplish His good ends.

 

Even the wills of the wicked are under the control of God and He can send Calamity on People

1 Sam 16:14Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him. 15 Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. NAS

1 Sam 18:10 Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house… NAS

Deut 2:30 “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day NKJV

Is 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Amos 3:6 shall evil befall a city, and Jehovah hath not done it? (ASV)

Prov 16:4 The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. NAS

Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:8 They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. NKJV

1 Sam 2:25But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the LORD desired to put them to death. NAS

Speaking of the Egyptians it says God caused them to hate Israel.

Is 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. (KJV)

Speaking of the Egyptians it says God caused them to hate Israel.

Ps 105:25 He turned their heart to hate His people, To deal craftily with His servants. NKJV

2Thes 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (KJV)

Since the fall, all people became sinners and deserve to go to hell and all would have because no one seeks God or does good and they are separated from God by their sin.

 

A Key is Understanding Free Will

There is no totally free will. A person’s will is bound to his nature. Is a person free to will to fly like a bird or swim underwater all day like a fish? No because he has the nature of a human and not the nature of a fish. His will is not free to fly or swim and breathe under water. So we see man does not have a totally free will. Similarly, a fish has free will to go where it wants, but only in water, it does not have a free will to go on land. We can say a man on a ship has free will. He is free to go where he wills, but only on the ship; that is his limit. From a larger perspective, does the man on the ship still have free will?  Not really.  His will is limited by the bounds of the ship and the whole time He is going wherever the captain takes the ship; even off course or to a different harbor than planned and the man may not even be aware of it. So either we say we do not have free will, because it is not totally free; or we say man’s will is free, but limited to his sin nature. He will not do good, because his will is fallen and in opposition to God.

Prov 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. NKJV

Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. NKJV

Prov 16:9  A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. NKJV

We can say we have free will, in the sense we do not feel forced to act. Therefore we can be held responsible for real choices we make. But our will is always limited to some extent; never totally free. We are born in bondage to a sinful flesh fallen nature that will not seek God or please God. It will not believe in Christ or receive Him any more than the man on the ship will walk off the edge. His will is “free” and he “could” or is free to, but he won’t go against his nature he is bound by. He accepts the limits to his will.  And without a new heart put into us and new desires put in us, by a new birth, we are free only to do sin. Maybe moral good, but not good pleasing to God or of spiritual good from pure motives to please God as we are told in Rom 3:10-11. We are not free to do true spiritual good until we are born from the Spirit.

 

Can you reconcile the fact that everyone generally agrees that in heaven there will be no sin. Now does this mean that in our glory we have been deprived of “freewill”? I don’t think so.  Is man’s will free in heaven? And yet he cannot sin. So here fallen man, though his will is free it is limited so that until God changes his nature, He is selfish and unwilling to seek God.
The kind of “freedom” Arminians claim to exist just does not exist. In heaven, no one will possess the freewill to sin. If we don’t have this sort of freewill in heaven, why should anyone claim we have it now on earth? Is this “freewill” the Arminian claims we possess now somehow stripped from us in Heaven, where we have been perfected, or is it more plausible we never possessed this Arminian concept of “freewill” in the first place?

 

And if you do not want to deprive man of a free will then how much worse is it for you to deprive God of free will. You are concerned that man gets to choose God or not, which is man centered rather than God centered. Why are you not concerned that if man gets to choose then God does not have free will to choose who His Son’s bride will be?  Got has to settle for whoever He gets and does not get to choose? Of course not.

 

Now let‘s look at the nature of fallen man according to scripture.  Because the will is limited to our nature, when man fell in sin, his nature was changed to a sin nature. People cannot know God or please God or do any true spiritual good in God’s eyes. In this current natural state man cannot even understand spiritual things let alone believe them or seek God and don’t want to. They want to sin and rebel and make their own gods. He is so in bondage to sin that he will never seek God or believe.

Rom 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;

There is none who does good, There is not even one. ” NAS

Do not add to the word of God, the words “except those who believe and repent”? The natural person is unwilling to believe.

 

1 Cor 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. NAS

John 4:48 Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” NAS

John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life. NAS

1 Cor 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. NKJV

Why is it foolishness to the natural person? Because a person in his natural fallen state won’t understand it, and is dead spiritually. He can’t even respond to it or believe it unless the Spirit first gives him a new nature that can seek God and repent and have faith.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” NKJV

 

Do not be as the religiously educated Nicodemus saying How can this be; instead accept Jesus’ words that you cannot control the Spirit or make it come to you any more than you can make the wind blow or come to you.

He goes where He chooses to give the new nature so we can understand the gospel and spiritual things, have a desire to seek and obey God and believe in Christ and His word.

 

In fact God tells us that the natural man cannot be converted unless God chooses to give them the Spirit’s new birth and new nature, and as he did with Pharoah, He also has prevented some from being converted.

Matt 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

John 6:65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

After hearing that it is not man’s choice but God’s choice who will be saved many of His “disciples” quit. Will you also quit because you know this?

 

And God tells us He has blinded some so they will not receive the truth.

John 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Matt 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

 

Believing in Jesus is not all it takes to be saved. These believed and saw and were not saved because the belief they had was not the special saving belief that causes one to repent of all known sin and turn to a life of obedience to Christ as Lord and the whole word of God, trusting in Him alone to save them from this bondage in sin.

Prov 1:28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

 

John 2:23-24 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men.

 

Even when they repent with tears, their decision and repentance cannot save those not ordained to mercy.

Heb 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. (KJV)

The reason is because this belief and repentance is human and selfish and not a gift of God by grace. It was not saving faith and repentance that only comes to those the Spirit gives the new creation and comes with that new birth and nature.

 

People can’t change themselves or their sin nature and are helplessly lost. They really need a savior to come save them not just from the punishment of sin, but from the bondage to their nature sin has put them. Their will is now limited to sin only and not seek God or believe if they do hear the gospel.
God must be the one to first free them from the bondage of their sin nature and give them a new nature that is willing to seek Him and believe.  He chooses to have mercy on some and predestined them to be vessels of mercy and honor.

 

John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; NKJV

Unless the Father draws them they can not believe, because

their will is not to do what God wants them to.

Unless it is given to them to be able to come they can’t because their sin nature binds and limits their will to not believe and obey.

A person must be one predestined and chosen by the Father, whose name is already written in the book of life.  God is the one who decides who His Son’s bride will be. God has free will to give mercy to whom He will. Here God says the reason a person will not believe is because he is not one of God’s people.

John 10:26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

 

John 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. NKJV

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

John 1:12 …to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. NKJV

Not much room for free will here. If you are given you shall come! Of course it is because our new nature we are given that we shall certainly come because we will certainly be willing when God gives us a new heart. A person cannot give themselves a new heart to seek God or be accepted by God.

Jeremiah 24:7 “And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” –

No Man even seeks God, nor understands God; unless they are first born again they are dead and can’t believe, receive, decide, or see.

The reason God uses the figure of being born is because no man can will his own birth. He does not choose it nor receive it in any way, it is given to him by another.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NKJV

The Lord has to open the heart to respond or we won’t respond to the gospel. This is changing the natural man and giving a new nature that God can look on and hear. It is being born again such that all things change in their life to live for God.

Acts 16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. NAS

 

We must be predestined and chosen by the Father, and one whose name is already written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.

We must be given true saving faith a gift of God; that is a belief that causes us to truly repent and obey God and makes us a new creature with a new nature that desires God’s will. It is all of God start to finish and none of it is due to us. All praise and glory goes to Him for His marvelous work of designing the plan and having mercy on some.

“I believe the man who is not willing to submit to the electing love and sovereign grace of God, has great reason to question whether he is a Christian at all, for the spirit that kicks against that is the spirit of the devil, and the spirit of the unhumbled, unrenewed heart.” - Charles Spurgeon

Due to Adam’s fall all men deserved hell. He did not have to save any.  He chose some for his own purpose and gave them faith to believe; that all might see the greatest of all love in saving those who didn’t deserve it. By His own son’s sacrifice for them, this is grace. It is all of God’s doing, all of grace, not part depending on a spiritually dead people who don’t seek God, doing good by repenting and believing, which are good.

 

Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”  16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

The only reason a person would think this and Paul would answer it is if indeed man’s will and choice in the matter is at stake. Paul has said you didn’t get to choose to be saved or not, God did and naturally then you will say, then if I didn’t have a choice how can He find fault with me for that. Well here’s the only answer humanly understandable:

20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? NKJV

So shut your mouth before God and just submit to His right to do as He pleases with His creatures He made.

How can this be, well you chose in Adam; you as a result of the fall deserved hell and your will was bound to a sin nature that would never seek or receive Jesus. So God chose to be fair and just and let most go to that judgment. He also chose for His good pleasure to have mercy on some of the people especially the weak, less wise and less worthy so that it would be obvious it was just grace and not merited by the person.

 

We even see prophecy was not by the will of man. These men did not will this to happen or choose it. God predestined it and moved their will to make it happen. It did not come from their choice so their wills were not totally free. 2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

So we see that from the fall man now has a sin nature a fallen human nature that can’t do good or even seek God, is not willing to seek God. He is hopeless to restore or have any relationship with God. Only God can change man and make him holy so that God can have fellowship with him. So as scripture says:

Phil 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. NKJV

The new nature that the Spirit gives us when he makes us a new creation is willing to believe and obey God.

Ps 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,…

John 3:27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. NKJV

 

Jesus did not even pray for every person in the world, only those who were chosen to be His. John 17:10 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. NKJV

 

If you have a problem with God’s sovereign choosing being fair, then let’s resolve it at the start or there is no need to go farther.

1. Did God make Adam our legal representative and not let us each have a chance to sin on our own to fall and be separated?

2.  Is God just if He punishes all people for having a sin nature by being children of Adam and sending all to hell?

Yes! And Yes! Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  See Rom 5:14-19 & 1Cor15:45-7

 

Are you willing to submit to the scriptures or will you follow those who design a false god to their own liking by only using some scriptures, not all scripture? If you will not accept this fact of scripture that Adam’s sin bound us all to a sin nature that has a will that is limited and we are separated from being able to commune with God, then there is no purpose for going on.

At first this may seem unfair to some and they struggle with it. But this is what the Bible teaches.  Spiritual death and judgment passed onto all men from Adam’s sin. Mankind never got a chance on his own to choose freely as Adam did. But no doubt all would have sinned too don’t you agree?

We were born sinner humans and our will though it has some freedom and we make real choices, was limited to rejecting God and not seeking Him and not believing in Him; just as we see most of the Jews doing in spite of the most amazing miracles and provisions. If a man by his own free will could believe wouldn’t you think those who saw the miracles would have? Are you wiser and a better person than they?  If you think it is something in you that made you choose and another person not, then you are boasting of something in yourself. That is why God tells us this is not how it happens:

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. NKJV

 

Now any Biblical reader knows that grace is not from man. This would not be a question one would need to be told. It would be foolish to think people would think grace is from yourselves.
So any honest Biblical interpreter has to agree that it is “faith” that is described by the clause, “that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”  Very clear, no way to avoid this understanding and say that grace is the gift of God.
Because then the passage would be saying, Gift is the gift of God. Or grace is the grace of God.  Because gift and grace have the same meaning.  So saving Faith is the gift of God. That faith is not in the natural man who cannot understand spiritual things.
Salvation is 100% of the Lord, not of man, not even his faith. He is lost without Hope and God has mercy on some of us by His own choosing for His own purposes.
This is no different than the Jews being chosen by God to be the ones that got saved and all other people of other nations were rejected by God and not saved. Did God choose the Jews because of foreseen faith that they would have and other people of other nations would not? Of course not; that is foolishness.

Deut 7:6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, …

Rom 9:11(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, NKJV

God chose who He would have saving mercy on and who He would not. And God created all the people of other nations knowing that He would not choose them to be saved, but only from the Jews. End of story.

And if you think you are smarter than someone else or better so that you will decide to believe, who made you better?  Would that still not have been God?  There is no room for you to think it was you that made the decision to believe. It is God who chooses to have mercy on whom He wills. It is all of God, all of Grace; Amazing grace, and this truth is what made John Newton write that song. He understood it was God who saved us while we were still sinners; still not seeking Him, not willing to believe. And that is why grace is so Amazing to the chosen people to whom these things have been revealed.

The great thing about God making Adam our legal representative is that the rest of us would have no doubt sinned, if our own fate was left to us. And then we would have no hope, because we would have to be perfect on our own to avoid punishment; never sin once. Do you think you would have made it better than Adam? But thankfully because God made Adam our legal representative, God also made Christ a legal representative for His people. So all His perfect life can be credited to His people and His sacrifice is accounted payment for their sin; just as Adam’s sin was accredited to his people. Rom 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (KJV)

This legal headship looks like a good idea now doesn’t it? This legal representation is the only way Christ’s atonement can be applied to us.

If it was passed on through physical descendants, those who are not physical descendants of Jesus would not get the legal representation that people got from Adam who gave the sin nature. Legal, or federal, representation was the way God chose to deal with people so they would have a possibility for redemption. This is mercy, but it is also justice because Christ was made to pay 100% of the deserved penalty for all the sins of all who He died for. Those people are free now, justified in the sight of God and no longer can be punished. Justice was satisfied by this method. There had to be a way for God to show mercy and love without violating His justice.

 

So since all have sinned and deserve punishment, then not punishing a person is unmerited favor or grace. It is not based on that person’s decision, because no one would not do good or make a good decision or respond to the true Gospel to believe in God because he was spiritually dead and unwilling. God does not have to give grace and mercy to anyone and certainly not to everyone. Some get justice while to others He chooses to show mercy.

God has to send His Spirit to each person and give them a new birth with a new nature that is willing to choose good, and can know God and believe truth, before man would repent or would be willing to receive the gift. When scripture says things like “who ever believes” or “as many as received Him”, we must know two things; first that would only do that after God changes our heart and will to desire good.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. NKJV

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. NKJV

The second thing to note is that it is not saying anyone can do this.  It does not say whoever, anyone, can have ever lasting life. It qualifies this with, only those who believe. Not whoever but “whoever believes” can have eternal life. Whoever receives Him by faith, can be the children of God. Do not separate the “whoever” from the defined group qualifier.

And notice it says this was not by the will of man.

Very very clear.   Whoever believes is how God chooses to offer the gospel to all people who get to hear it. But only those who believe will get eternal life and those are the ones He will first have to give a new heart to so they are free to will to do good and believe. All of God, all of grace.

 

It is not an act of our will that originates in us with our fallen nature. So conversion is not a result of a person’s work of receiving, accepting, believing, knowing or even seeking God. For in his fallen state he will do none of these. God is too pure to be in the presence of sin and He would not even hear the prayers of a sinner.  Hab 1:13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:

Psalms 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: John 9:31 Now we know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he hear.

 

A person must be first given faith and a new holy nature which is covered by the blood of Christ so that God can commune with them and accept them. This produces repentance, belief and obedience to God and Christ as Lord of their whole life. Only after this conversion will a person want to believe and please God. After a person is no longer a guilty and a sinner, but pure white righteous person legally before Him, God can now be in the man’s presence and make Himself known to the person.

In Jn3:3 & 1 Cor 2:14 God tells us a man must first be born again before he can understand spiritual things. He must get a new nature that is not limited by the fall and sinful nature.

 

The fourfold states of human nature that a mankind has been in are expressed this way.

In the garden, man was able to sin and able to not sin.

After the fall, man was able to sin and not able to not sin.

After rebirth, man is able to sin and able to not sin

After glorification, man is not able to sin 

Because of the fall:

1. We all deserve eternal punishment.

2. God can have mercy on whom He will and leave the rest to justice. He is not obligated to give mercy to all.

3. He must first pardon the sinner from the guilt of sin, credit Christ’s righteousness to him and make him alive spiritually with a new nature that wills to do good before a person will seek God or receive Him.

4. Then a person can believe, repent, do good works and be in the presence of God.

 

Paul explains that it is not up to a man to decide to be saved but God’s choosing for His purpose.

Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

 

Then the passage goes on to answer the question that naturally comes up only if we understand this as pertaining to personal salvation. Note that Paul does not have some logical answer that satisfies man’s limited intellect. Rather he says don’t ask God why? God can do what He wants, with His creatures, you think to highly of people and not high enough of God.

Rom 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. NAS

Paul makes it clear the question is not about justice. Really none of us wants justice that would be for all of to be sent to eternal punishment. Its about Mercy and who God chooses to give it to. Paul corrects their misguided line of thinking.

We are a creature He made for His pleasure. This may not be satisfying to you but the purpose of God explaining this to us is to shut us up before Him and accept Him as He is and as He reveals Himself to us. Even to fear Him rightly.

 

Further to clarify that this does mean God is predestining people we can look to other scriptures:

Prov 16:4 4 The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. NAS

Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Beautiful theology by Paul telling us all who are known to Him from the foundations of the world will be glorified. There is no way one who is justified can lose their salvation, they are predestined to be glorified already. The whole thing start to finish is done. Those predestined are called and justified and glorified it is all done. No change in persons can or need take place because God has determined it all. If you were predestined or called you are justified and will experience glorification in heaven.  But we do not feel this and are not aware of it so the experience is real of being convicted by the Spirit and drawn to Belief in Christ and repent. We make real choices to respond or not to the gospel because we are not sensible of the Spirit’s imparting faith and a new nature to us. So we can be held responsible for our decisions and actions even though it has all been done before:

Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. NAS

 

The word, foreknow, means to foreordain because one can not know the future without having created it and it being set or fixed already, determined. It can not be that God looks into the future to see what one person does, then make things happen, because God’s new action would still change the rest of the future that God already saw and that would change someone else’s actions as a result.
It doesn’t help anyway to say God only knew the future because that means it is still determined so when you get there what you will do is already set. It is clear He causes what occurs. This is the Jehovah of the Bible. Is this the God you Worship? Many disciples left following Jesus when they learned this.

 

God tells us that He is the one who determined, by choosing, that a remnant of Jews would be saved.

Rom 11:1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. … 4 But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”  5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. 7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8 Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.”  NKJV

His chosen people then are obviously not all Jews but only those of the remnant that He chose. Just as He calls us all saints or believers in the church and His people, yet some will not be saved. It is covenant language for a visible group of followers who all get the external benefits of being with the people of God but may not really be converted. So don’t let the language fool you. Just because one was a Jew ethnically that was not enough, nor just because one is called a believer in the church.

Making a decision and repenting and believing is a human work just as keeping the law was. That is you determining who gets grace and salvation, it would not all be from God. It would not all be by grace a gift, you had to do your part to make God convert you. Christ would have only made salvation possible but it was you who got yourself saved. You could boast saying, it is a good thing I was smart enough to understand this or a good enough person to choose to believe it. God would not get all of the glory for saving you because you had a part in it. It was up to you. The faith would not be a gift to you. It would be from your choice, not God’s gift to you. That is man doing part of the saving himself not all God saving the man.  But the reality is if God did not open your heart you would be as others who did not get the gift and continue not to believe.  But God says we did not even seek Him.

Rom 10:20 And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who sought Me not,

I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” NAS

2 Thess 2:13 because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. NAS

Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.         NKJV

Who believes? Only those ordained to!

Acts 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (KJV)

1Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: (KJV)

2Tim 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (KJV)

 

If this happened before the world began what part could we have played in making the decision?

 

We only believe and obey as we manifest that we have been born again by the Spirit. We cannot make Him come to us and make us born again. We respond to the faith put in us and begin to act from our new nature that loves God, hears His voice and obeys Him.

Faith is not from ourselves but is a gift the Spirit gives us when He gives us the new birth and new nature that can know God, believe and do good. Eph 2:8-10

 

 

God Chose or elected some to be saved

Note that the purpose of this passage is explained to us so that the teaching of God being the one who chooses or determines who will be saved is proved.
Rom 9:11 for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Again it is futile to go back to the argument that God looked into the future to see who would believe because that would destroy the intent of the passage to prove it was not based on what the men did but to prove God chooses.

It also can’t mean these men represented nations God chose because the rest of the context is about individuals. And even if we say God brought the gospel to certain nations and others He did not get the gospel to them then He still chooses some people to not even get a chance to be saved. Either way, God is sovereign on who He will elect or choose to save.

Matt 24:31 “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.  NAS

1 Thess 1:3-5  4 knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; NAS

Titus 1:1 for the faith of those chosen of God NAS

1 Peter 1:1-2…who are chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, NAS

2 Peter 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;

James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  NAS

1 Cor 1:26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, 29 that no man should boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, NAS

These are clearly specific people of specific types he has chosen not some race or group of people but individuals, not many wise people, but He chose the weak people etc..

 

2 Thess 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. 14 And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. NAS

Acts 9:15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, NAS

John 15:16“You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain,… 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. NAS

John 13:18 “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; NAS

Matt 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.” NAS

Matt 24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. NAS

 

*He even chose some angels not to fall. The elect angels didn’t fall with Lucifer

1 Tim 5:21 in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, NAS

 

And besides all this it is most obvious that for thousands of years He chose only people of the Jews to be saved and left the rest of the world to perish.  How is this any different? Not all people even had a chance to hear of Jehovah and His salvation except those living in the covenant community. Today not all get to hear the gospel either; this is why it is a special blessing to be born in the covenant or visible church today, as we are told in these verses:

Rom 3:1-2Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

1 Cor 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. NAS

 

Couldn’t Predestination be after God foresees what man’s actions will be.

Saying Predestination is based on God’s looking into the future, makes it no predestination at all. It is to make the word of God meaningless. If God did not actually do anything but just foresee what was already going to happen and not influence man’s will; then there is no ordaining of anything. There is no choosing or electing by God. For God to see what happened is to say it is out of His control and He looks to find out what will happen.  Why would we pray to God for our child’s salvation or anyone’s, there would be nothing God could do about it.

You say, well He could order circumstances. You mean He could make someone be at some place and time or make something happen to them?  Wouldn’t that be God interfering with some other person’s free will?  No, He foreknows because He has planned it all and knows what will happen because He does what He has planned and no one stops Him.  As a matter of fact the word foreknow means foreordain. Not foresee into the future.

It can not be that God looks into the future to see which one chooses. Just think about it.  If God looks into the future and sees something is going to happen can He do anything about it?  Can He then change other people’s actions to make things happen around the life of the first person?  This would still make His new action, based on what He foresaw, have the appearance of interfering with the free choice of someone.

It is only the short sighted who would try to postpone the inevitable conclusion by this argument. It merely confuses the simple minded by taking the focus off the first person and does not go on to show that each predestinated action, based on the previous foreseen one, could not happen without His changing someone else involved. Like if He wanted to get the gospel to someone in Africa and no one wanted to go. Then God would not be able to do what He wanted in His creation. This is absurd and ridiculous to even consider. I hope you can stop holding on to such man centered notions that prevent God from getting all of the glory for saving us while we were still in our sins and can see this can not possibly be what scripture teaches as we have shown above.

 

Stop and think a minute. What if God foresaw into the future and saw Christ dying. He would then have had to go back in time to change what the prophet’s will and make the prophet prophecy the death of Christ. The prophet couldn’t have done that unless God had foreseen it was going to happen. So God still had to interfere in the prophet’s will and when did he do it? Before He foresaw that the prophet wasn’t going to do it or after the prophet was alive or from the beginning before the prophet was born?  And what if God foresaw the Jews all fell down and worshipped Jesus because of the miracles and the raising of Lazarus from the dead?  What could he do to change the Jews mind?  We all would go to hell because Christ wasn’t crucified. It doesn’t even make sense. You can’t avoid it. At some point God has to be sovereign over man’s will and move Him to do things. If God wants to save some people He has to put it in the will of a preacher to go to those people and preach.

If God only foresees, it leaves it all based on the free will decisions of each person. God has no control over man’s decisions or actions. So it would be foolish to pray for him to change people, or to do things. He can’t change what will happen. You can’t have both, a God who can respond to prayer and do things and a God who cannot interfere in men’s free choices. In fact then salvation would not be of God it would be up to man’s free will to decide. This would not be a free gift of grace. This would be man’s works, his belief saving him and being the determining factor and not God’s choosing. It would also say he could do good, could seek God, believe in God and did not need the new birth, regeneration and a new nature to be bale to understand spiritual things or have faith.  He could call the Spirit to Him by his will and decision.  So rather than as scripture says, faith is a gift of God and no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him and the Spirit opens his eyes to the truth, that man is not deceived and dead spiritually; he is spiritually able and willing.  And that is against all the scriptures we have read.

 

Why pray if God can not cause it to happen, if He can not interfere with each person’s free will? Why pray for someone to make a good decision, God can do nothing about that, why pray and ask God to save someone. He can’t, they must decide to receive of their own free will; why pray for God to send someone to bring them the gospel if God can’t cause a man to want to go because that would interfere with his free will choice?

Praying is foolishness if God is not free to do what He wants with His creatures and to work through people and turn their hearts and desires to do as He wills and as the above scriptures show us that He in fact does in every case including salvation.  And to say God can influence people except in salvation is ridiculous and there is no scriptural basis for this distinction. Does it make sense to say God is all powerful and can change a man’s heart and desire except not to get Him to love Him.  If you still inconsistently and illogically want to hold to this then don’t ever pray for a person to be converted again because God can do nothing to cause that to happen. Do not pray for your children to be saved. God can’t change their wills. It’s up to them.  Do you see how foolish and unbiblical this is?

God would have had to make salvation possible but save no one and it is up to man to get saved by his belief and his getting himself to somewhere the gospel is preached. This is to pervert all of scripture’s teaching and is another gospel. Gal 2

 

Either God is just in doing what ever He wants with His fallen, hell deserving, under judgment, creatures, or He is not! Remember, all deserve to go to Hell. Anything other than sending them there now is Mercy. It is clear He causes whatever occurs and is righteous because it is done for the motive of his glory. We may not do whatever we want without sin, but God can.  This is the Jehovah of the Bible. Is this the God you Worship?

 

 

People often ask; If God is Sovereign and predestinates all things, WHY PRAY?

The real truth however is, if God was not sovereign, having total control over His People and creation; we would have no reason to pray as we just pointed out. We should not pray to God, but pray to our loved one to decide to live for Christ. God can do nothing more.

Do we believe God predestinated Christ’s death, had it prophesied and made sure no one prevented it and that the Jews did not fall down and worship Him and make Him king? If it was possible that the Jews could have recognized Him as King we all could have gone to hell with no atonement. He determined who would betray Him and that the Jews would have Him put to death. Do you think God left this up to man to decide if it would happen?

 

Do you really believe God can do no more? That it is up to the will of men what they choose to do in salvation?

Is this what the Bible teaches? Why pray and give thanks to God for your food?  Was it not you who worked and earned the money to buy it? Was it not you who eats to keep the body healthy so it can work? Was it not the drunk driver who decided to quickly swerve and not kill you? So it was man’s decisions, why thank God? Or do you believe God can intervene and cause man to do what God wants regardless of what man wills or chooses? That God can make a man swerve a car to prevent an accident, or  make a man decide to give you a job. Is God really making sure you get food by His unnoticed influencing of your decisions; or should you be thanking your own self will for your decisions and your food? Is it sensible that God can only change people once in a while as in a miracle, but not on a daily basis and not for salvation? Are you sure what you believe is from scripture?  Let’s see; can God direct the steps of His people? The Bible tells us!  Prov 16:9 A man’s heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps.  Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps

 

We pray for the same reason we preach and work and eat. We give thanks to God for providing our food, but we must go work to earn money then buy it. This is God’s way of getting it done. He did not have to limit Himself to save people through the preaching by men. But He ordained this would be the way He would bring the new birth to His people.  We do not think preaching saves; God does. But He does it through the means of preaching. If God has not ordained that anyone is preaching now, then God has not ordained anyone to be born again now. Even Paul had heard the gospel preached before Christ appeared to Him. We pray because it is a means of grace. A way God chooses to use all His people to get what He wants done. He works through men’s desires and wills that He controls. Not in a way that we experience it and that is why we can be held accountable for the decisions we make. They seem like real choices to us, but as we see above the Lord directs our steps and chooses us etc.. So the natural method that God uses to feed us is giving us a desire to work. We don’t sit there and pray for food then do nothing. We obey His word that says, if a man does not work neither should he eat.

Not all can preach but all can pray. And He has commanded us to pray. Even as Paul did, we pray for God to convert people. If no one has been ordained to pray then God is not ordaining anyone to be saved. If no one is ordained to preach then no one is ordained to be converted. So God works through our working. Samuel prayed for wisdom and 2 Chron 9:23 And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. NKJV

 

God wanted to bring a drought on the land but He used the means of Elijah praying to accomplish it. James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. NKJV

Thus we are also urged by this example to pray so God can work through us. It is God’s way of providence to use people to do His Will. God tells us though He is going to do something He wants us to pray and ask Him to do it, as in the next verse.

Ezek 36:36-37 “Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.” 37′Thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them: NKJV

 

Therefore let us lift up the arms that hang down, and pray. Don’t you feel led to pray?  Then if God is ordaining things to happen, He is ordaining people to pray, for them to happen also. If He plans to convert someone He puts the desire in someone’s heart to go preach to them. He gives us the desire to give financial support so someone can go preach the gospel so He can send His Spirit to open the blinded eyes and the deaf ears and raise the spiritually dead with a new birth so they can do good and believe. By understanding predestination we are more desirous to preach and pray, knowing our actions are the means God is using to do His predestined will. We pray because we know God does His work when we pray. We can be confident that is we obey Him and ask for godly things in accord with scripture this is because He has given us the desire for it and is using that as the means to get it done and bless us and others.

Ps 57:2 I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me. NAS

 

The fact we do not feel or experience predestination does not mean it is not happening!                              

It is not because scripture is not abundantly clear on these issues, it is people just don’t want to believe and have to live according to the implications of these truths and let go of their emotional attachments to longstanding ideas and ego. They have been taught and conditioned to think another way so they are blinded to these verses and their only logical and consistent meaning, Most of the concerns are just from a lack of having ever thought through the issues completely from a scriptural perspective. Let’s look at a few concerns.

1. One supposed concern to some people is that predestination of salvation means God is not giving a fair chance to everyone.

If one starts from a humanistic point of view, that I deserve a chance to decide to believe in God, it would seem unfair if you did not get that chance. But the Bible starts with In the beginning God, not with man. God created us for His pleasure and purposes, to show His great attributes of justice, mercy and love. Now when Adam who was free to choose good he decided to sin, he lost that freedom. He earned for himself, and all mankind after him, the fair justice of eternal punishment in hell, spiritual death. It altered human nature into a fallen, sin nature, that was separated from and could not know God or do good. Man’s will became limited so he could not do any spiritual good and he was in need of a sacrifice to restore communion with God. Scripture shows that God chose, rather than to give Adam only justice, He also gave him mercy. God had to be just, but He showed His great love by the shedding of blood in making clothes for them from animals. This was a fore type of the atonement that would shed blood to cover their sin legally in the future. With this new birth and new nature that Adam was given, he once again could choose to do good. All of mankind deserves punishment and to be sent to hell from this point on; but God has determined not to give only the fair justice to all. Some he will choose to have mercy on, in spite of their deserving punishment and gives faith to apply Christ’s work to them, and give them a new nature also. Those He does not give this new nature to, can not please Him or know Him. Their will is left as they deserve, it is limited to want only to sin.  This is fair, they will get justice. There is no one stopping them from doing good. They just don’t want to. Just as you and others could be perfect all the time, but you would rather sin and hope God does not punish it. You will to sin. You are not forced to. Why is it you do?

 

Man chooses to sin because we have a sin nature and we do not want to do true spiritual good. Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. This is total depravity from the fall. What happened is our nature fell and has a will that wants only to sin, its selfish, not God serving. God has to reach out to us now because we do not seek Him. He must initiate salvation and restore communion with us. Until we are given a new nature our will is free to make choices but only sinful ones. More sinful or less sinful due to the restraining power of the Spirit in the world, whose presence along with the church, sets a morality that helps people follow their conscience and do some moral good; though still tainted with sin or sinful motives. Until their consciences are seared they may be restrained from some evil and do relative good things, but they can not understand the scriptures or believe or receive Christ because of their sin nature. The new spiritual nature God puts in the hearts of the born again converts are new desires to please God. They will to do good, to please God. This is why a struggle between the two natures begins.

 

How Is Predestination Shown in Christ?

1st we must realize that the free wills of the Jews were not free to make Jesus King. If that was a possibility that could have happened if God could not interfere in the wills of men and did not control all that would happen, then if Christ was not crucified man’s will would have overthrown God’s plan and we all would have gone to hell. If it was possible that the Jews made him king there would have been no sacrifice for sin. So it was not possible that this could happen.  God did not foresee the Jews rejection He made sure it would happen. What if He foresaw that Jesus was made King by the people’s will? What good would that do if He could not change it or do anything about it? What could He do? We have no sacrifice and all would go to hell.

 

Another difficulty for some is: Who was Christ predestined to die for?

This is confusing only because many forget the great difficulty the Jews had in accepting that Jehovah was now to be the God of all men not just the Jews. To break the old mindset the authors of the NT often spoke of Christ being “the propitiation for the whole world”. Or that God wants all men to come to repentance. The key to interpreting scripture is first to know who it is written to and what the problems are that are being addressed. What is being taught to the Jews was that Christ is the not only the atonement for the Jews but the only one for the whole world and for all people of all nations and all races.

Another thought to remember is the word all seldom means each and everyone. For example, “All Judea came out to see Jesus”. This does not mean every person and child was there. It means many. These do not mean He died for each and every one. The words are careful and so must be the interpretation. It is not whosoever, but “whosoever believes” that get the gift.

Not to all, but “all who will repent” or “everyone who believes”.

To rip the “every” from the descriptive of who believes, is a violation and results in misunderstanding.

 

Another vital fact to keep I mind is that propitiation is a term meaning the debt is paid for and accredited to the account, accepted. So if I paid a debt you had, and you knew nothing of my payment the authorities could not bring a penalty against you. Whether you ever knew it or not you were legally pardoned. It had been propitiated. If Christ’s sacrifice paid the penalty for every person, then all would be saved regardless if they knew it or not, because it is of grace, not of works of man. To say Christ died and was punished for someone, yet God could still punish the person again, is to say Christ’s blood was ineffective. Less effective than the money I paid for your debt.

Stop and think. Anyone Christ died for, Christ was fully punished for all their sins already so how could God punish the person again.

Christ was given a just amount of punishment for each and every sin for each person He died for. It was not some arbitrary amount of general punishment just making it possible for men to be saved if they chose to; the debt was paid and cannot be required to be paid again. It was perfect justice giving the exact punishment due each person whose penalty He paid, or else none would be free. So those sins are all paid for already and can not be punished again. If Christ paid the entire penalty for sins God would not be just if he required them to be paid for again by the sinner sending him to hell. So either Christ did not get punished and pay for all sins, or He did not die for all people. All the sins He paid for are paid.

 

It would be most heinous to the justice of God to say the penalty being inflicted by the Father on the Son was wasted and excessive. God would not be just to punish Christ for sins of those He intend to punish later. Either the sins were paid for by Christ’s suffering or they were not! God will not punish twice just because a person did not do a good work of making a decision of their will. If God brings the Spirit to a person, and regenerates him, giving faith to believe, what would be the point of having Christ pay the penalty for the sins of those God has no intention of bringing this faith to? There is no need for Christ to have paid for a man’s sins to tell him he must repent and believe in His creator. There is no need even to tell him if he believes he shall be saved, for we know only those who Christ paid for will believe. So we can rightly and freely offer this salvation honestly without Christ having to die for their sins.

Unless there is one who would repent and believe who Christ did not die for then it would be wrong to say He must die for those sins. And that simply is not the case.

It is not as though we say Christ died for most sins but not for the sin of unbelief; that one sin you have to take care of yourself. Christ died for all the sins of all HIS PEOPLE!

What about this verse? John 17:9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.  NKJV

If Jesus would not even pray for others does it makes sense He would die and suffer punishment for their sins? And that when it wasn’t going to do any good because they were to be punished later anyway? Would that be loving or just of the Father to punish the Son needlessly?

As it says, He came for His Sheep, He died for His people. Those God gave Him, whose names were written in the Book of Life before the Foundations of the world.

 

Matt 1:21 Shall save His People from sins. Shall save; not may. Their specific sins, not sin or sin nature. The same is true in 1Peter 2:24 He bore our sins and Rom 4:25 …who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. ASV

This not only shows He died for specific offenses, but also rose for our justification. Those he died for are the same as those he rose for and they are justified in the Father’s account.

All the people who were crucified in Christ are dead to sin. If everyone was crucified with Christ they would all be dead to sin in this life just like a Christian. John 17:2…You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him NKJV

John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. NKJV

His work did give eternal life, not just make it possible; if they would then do the rest of the work to be saved. And He gave it only to those people the Father gave Him from out of all people of the world.

John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am…  NAS.

 

In fact Jesus did not just forgive our sins so we could be saved; He also had to impute His righteousness to our account so we are positively righteous in the eyes of God. Sinless alone is not enough; we have to have been righteous too. So Christ’s life of righteous living is imputed to us as well as His sacrifice for our sins. This is what is needed to be justified in the sight of God and restored to fellowship with Him. So, just as he did not already pay the penalty for all people He has not imputed His righteousness to all, only to those The Father chose for Him.

 

If one thinks God only looked into the future to find out who would decide to believe, you still have to admit from that point on God knows who will believe. So why would He then have Christ pay the penalty for those He knows will never believe? Why would God punish Christ for sins of those who will not believe and be saved? His punishing Christ would be unfair, and then to send them to hell and punish them again. This would be for God to waste the Son’s blood and suffering. This is not a game. Christ really suffered a real punishment do us, for our sins. He really paid the penalty for the people God united with Him on the cross.

 

The next verses show us that Christ knew who His sheep were and that He laid down His life, not for every person, but for His specific sheep. He says He has other non Jewish believers that He will give eternal life to. And He says His sheep follow Him. So these are the believers and they are who He lays down His life for. He mentions that others don’t believe Him and the reason is because they are not His sheep. Not that they are not His sheep because they don’t believe. John 10:14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.  NKJV

Note that it does not say they don’t believe because they don’t receive Him, that is not the reason.  They don’t believe because they aren’t His, so they won’t believe. If they were His they would believe; just as He told the Pharisees. Next some were not given the right or ability to know.

Matt 13:11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. NKJV

His priestly sacrifice denotes a personal relationship to the sinner and his sins to atone for. There are many excellent works that go more in detail to the atonement.

So our choices when the passages that seem so broad are read, they must mean either

1. every person is saved

2. Christ was unable to save some of whom He died for and paid the penalty for their sins.

3. Christ did not die for every sin, the sin of unbelief we must make up for.

4. But the only biblical meaning is Christ perfectly atoned for every sin of every one He died for and that He is the only savior and is a savior for all races and nations. Reiterated many times to keep reminding the Jews to drop the old habit that was even so hard for Peter until God gave him a vision of all races being acceptable to God.

I hope you no longer find it difficult to see that Christ died for a certain specific people who were predestined to be saved. Christ does not have to die for every single person in order for God to be just in requiring every person to repent, even though some people incorrectly limit God this way.

 

God can command men to do what they are not able to do and be just.

He commands us to be perfect. It is His right. He tells us to come and buy even though we have no money. Isa 55:1 Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk, Without money and without price. NKJV

How can we buy without money? How can we buy if there is no price? It is humanly impossible. Because it is not up to us, it depends on God. God pays the price for us, though He commands us to Come and buy. Just as God prepared His own sacrifice for Abram so that he did not have to kill his son. God tells Ezekiel to command the dry bones to hear and get up. The bones are not just dead but dry so they have no life or power in themselves to respond with. No will to will new life with. This is a picture of gospel preaching to the dead hearers. The spiritually blind; which is why Paul calls it the foolishness of preaching because it is not logical and doesn’t need to appeal to men’s logic because they can not respond to it anyway unless the Spirit opens their eyes and gives them faith and gives them a new birth and nature. It is foolish to preach to spiritually dead people.

1 Cor 1:18,- 21.  Jesus Called Lazarus to come forth. Lazarus did not have the power to respond. God supplies the power to comply with the command. It is not necessary for us to have the potential for God to command us to obey.  Christ can be freely offered because God has promised salvation to any who will repent and believe. But He knows none will, except those He has chosen to give a new nature to that wills to do good.

The others will not.

Even though God Predestined Jesus to be crucified, man is still held accountable for his own selfish desires because he does not feel forced to do it. God moves people in a way that people do not experience predestination and do not feel forced to go against their will. Since we do not experience predestination we can not excuse our actions or blame God because of our will or it being limited to our sin nature. We didn’t deserve a chance to be sinless or life at all. We are creatures for His use and Glory and to serve and worship.                                                                                                    

 

Objections

Some may ask, how does one consistently and Biblically understand the meaning of the following passages.

1st they must not be understood in a way that would conflict with the clear teachings of scripture. So all scripture must agree. Can you make any of the previous verses fit with God not being sovereign over man’s will?  Can you make them fit with the Arminian heresy that man’s will is free to seek God and believe of his own volition unaffected first by God’s Spirit drawing him and giving him a new nature that can receive the things of God? No. So we must see if the following do harmonize with the above.

2 Peter 3:9 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. NKJV

Who is the “us” here? All men or the elect? The people addressed in the letter are believers, and the us is the elect that he wills not to perish. So god is patient waiting for all of the chosen ones to be brought into the kingdom and not any of them left out.

Obviously it is God’s will that some perish because He made hell for them and some indeed do go there. So it cannot contradict other clear passages and mean God doesn’t want anyone to perish. This more passive word shows that the focus and responsibility is on man and his choice to not recognize the true God from creation and obey Him when he hears the gospel and the fact that God had predestined this or hasn’t chosen to change his fallen nature is no excuse for man’s choice. Man is still pointed to his choice since he does not feel the predestination and have that limit his choice.

 

Another says, God does not delight or have pleasure in the death of the wicked as in Ezek 33:11and Ezek 18: 23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live? NKJV

These passages teach us that God’s punishment comes from his justice not some sadistic delight in Him to punish people; even though He does ultimately will it and He knew it would happen when He made man.

So however you want to define or understand words like desire or pleasure, they cannot ultimately mean that God does not will for people to be punished eternally in hell because He does it. We know some will go to hell and God could stop it so it is His will. Some want to distinguish God’s secret will or revealed will and there may be some use in this very complicated concept. But it is clear, God does all His will and counsel.

Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done,

Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ NKJV

So this is speaking in an anthropomorphic way, God seeking to illustrate, in a way people can understand, in human terms or by human emotion, that He delights in mercy, and genuinely offers salvation to all who hear the gospel, and is not preventing them because He enjoys punishment. The intent of the passage is to put responsibility on people that they are guilty because they will not believe and repent, not teach God’s desires.

 

Now let’s check and see if there is other scripture that would show some distinction in God’s desire for the death of the non-believer though we know we cannot fully know the mind or emotions of God. But while God loves His chosen people we see another aspect of God’s holiness and pure righteousness.

 

Ps 7:11 God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day. NKJV

Ps 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup.

 

Ps 50:22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.  NAS

Prov 3:32 For the crooked man is an abomination to the LORD; But He is intimate with the upright.

33 The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, NAS

 

Jer 23:19 “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked. 20 “The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; NAS

 

Jer 30:23 Behold, the tempest of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, A sweeping tempest; It will burst on the head of the wicked. 24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back, Until He has performed, and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart;  NAS

 

Isa 63:3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. 4 For the day of vengeance is in My heart, NKJV

 

Ex 22:22-24 “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; 24 and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. NKJV

 

Deut 29:27-30:1  And the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’ 29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

 

What about passages where it seems God changed His mind?

Ex 32: 14 So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. NKJV

Or where God seems to change His mind or be sorry for what happened?

Gen 6:6-8 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 And the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. NAS

 

These quite obviously are anthropomorphisms, or where human attributes are given to God to help us understand something from a human point of view. This is in a narrative story that is being told to people, human emotion or feelings are attributed to God. Scripture also says God has wings like a chicken, obviously only symbolic language.

Ps 91:4  He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; NKJV

But as we see in the verses below, though God may be angry with what man chooses, it is all part of His plan and He knows what will occur. This passage shows us God is unchangeable and His purpose is sure.

Heb 6:17-18 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18 in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, NAS

 

Again it is not that it is really impossible for God to lie, but it is against His nature so He won’t do it.

 

Mal 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change; NKJV

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. NKJV

 

Though God predestinates all things He can still hold us accountable because our will does not feel the effect of predestination. Our choices are real to us. Though our will is limited to our fallen nature as Rom 3:10-12 teach us, and we can not do good and we don’t want to seek God, yet we still choose what we do, they are real choices in our mind.  And Rom 9:14-26 teaches us that we can not argue with God that He has done this.  So we rest in:

Deut 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. NKJV

Ps 131:1 Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me. NKJV

Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?”  NKJV

Ps 145:3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. NKJV

Job 37:5-7 “God thunders with His voice wondrously, Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.

6 “For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ And to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’  7 “He seals the hand of every man, That all men may know His work. NAS

Eccl 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. NKJV

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. KJV

 

1 John 3:20 God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

Rev 6/2010