Quotes on Predestination
“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.” — Jeremiah 24:7
“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
“Predestination should be taught… because it is one of the primary Gospel doctrines, and foundations of faith. It cannot be ignored without great injury to the Church and to believers, since it is the fount of our gratitude to God, the root of humility, the foundation and most firm anchor of confidence in all temptations, the fulcrum of the sweetest consolation, and the most powerful spur to piety and holiness.” Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, Question 6
“If some abuse this doctrine, either to licentiousness, or to desperation; this happens not per se, from the doctrine itself, but accidentally, from the vice of men, who most wickedly wrest it to their own destruction. Indeed, there is no doctrine from which more powerful incentives to piety can be drawn, and richer streams of confidence and consolation flow.” Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, Question 6
“Predestination should be taught… Because Christ and the Apostles frequently taught it… Nor otherwise do Peter, James and John express themselves, who speak repeatedly of this mystery whenever occasion offered. Now if it was proper for them to teach, why is it not for us to learn? Why should God teach what would have been better to be unspoken? Why did he wish to proclaim those things which it would be better not to know? Do we wish to be more prudent than God, or to prescribe rules to Him?” Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, Question 6
“The Mystery of Predestination is too sublime to be comprehended by us, as to the why, and he is rash who would attempt to find out or to assign the reasons and the causes of it; but this does not hinder it from being taught in Scripture as to the fact, and from being firmly held by us. Two things, therefore, must be distinguished here, the one what God has revealed in his Word, the other what He has concealed; the former we cannot despise unless wickedly, the latter we cannot investigate unless rashly… To neglect things revealed argues ingratitude, but to search into things concealed argues pride. We must not therefore deny what is plain; because we cannot comprehend what is hidden, as Augustine expresses it.” Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, Question 6 ~ Francis Turretin (1623 – 1687)
Irenaeus (c. 130-c. 200): … 8 But He Himself in Himself, after a fashion which we can neither describe nor conceive, predestinating all things, formed them as He pleased, bestowing harmony on all things, and assigning them their own place, and the beginning of their creation. ANF: Vol. I, Against Heresies, Book 2:2:4.
Clement of Alexandria (150 – c. 215): Therefore in substance and idea, in origin, in pre-eminence, we say that the ancient and Catholic Church is alone, collecting as it does into the unity of the one faith—which results from the peculiar Testaments, or rather the one Testament in different times by the will of the one God, through one Lord—those already ordained, whom God predestinated, knowing before the foundation of the world that they would be righteous. ANF: Vol. II, The Stromata, Book VII, Chapter XVII.
Clement Romanus - the apostle Paul speaks of in Philippians 4:3, as one of his fellow-laborers, wrote an epistle in the name of the church at Rome to the church at Corinth, about[3] the year 69 AD, which is the earliest piece of antiquity next to the writings of the apostles extant: [4] “when he wills, and as he wills, he does all things;” kai ouden mh tarelqh twn dedogmatwmenwn up autou, and that “none of those things which are decreed by him, shall pass away,”
“Let us therefore consider,[10] brethren, out of what matter we are made; who and what we were when we came into the world, as out of the grave and darkness itself; who, having made and formed us, brought us into his world proetoimasav tav euergesiav autou prin hmav gennhqhnai, having first prepared his good things for us, before we were born.”
“Therefore He (that is, God), being desirous that pantav touv agaphtav, all his beloved ones should partake of repentance, confirmed it by his almighty will.”
Tertullian 200 AD, was by birth an African, of the city of Carthage, his father was a Proconsular Centurion; He was a presbyter of the church: “he distinguishes the issues of things, not substances; for who does not place the judgment of God in a twofold sentence of salvation and punishment? Wherefore all flesh is grass, quae igni destinatur, which is appointed to the fire, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God; quae saluti ordinatur, which is ordained to salvation.” [5] “there can be no election without reprobation.”
… All this, carries along with it so complete a dethronement of God – it is bringing His creation under the dominion of so many nameless and undeterminable contingencies – it is taking the world and the current of its history so entirely out of the hands of Him who formed it – it is withal so opposite to what obtains in every other field of observation, where, instead of the lawlessness of chance, we shall find that the more we attend, the more we perceive of a certain necessary and established order – that from these and other considerations which might be stated, the doctrine in question, in addition to the testimonies which we find for it in the Bible, is at this moment receiving a very general support from the speculations of infidel as well as Christian philosophers. Assenting, as we do, to this doctrine, we state it as our conviction, that God could point the finger of His omniscience to every one individual amongst us, and tell what shall be the fate of each, and the place of each, and the state of suffering or enjoyment of each, at any one period of futurity however distant. Well does He know those of us who are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and those of us whom He has predestinated to be conformed to the image of His dear Son, and to be rendered meet for the inheritance. ~ Thomas Chalmers, D.D. & LL.D. – From Congregational Sermons: Vol. II, Sermon VIII.
Predestination and Human Accountability Explained
Octavious Winslow on Predestination
Martin Luther on Predestination and the Error of Fatalism
Quotes on Reproof, Correction, & Stopping Sin
Quotes on Jesus and His Disciples
