Is predestination real? Does God choose who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? Does he provide the faith we need to accept him? Is his grace irresistible? The answer to all these questions is NO. I believe that we have free will and it is our job to recognize God’s creation, Jesus’ love, and the Holy Spirit’s power. I chose to accept God and to believe in Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Jesus did not die just to save those he wanted to save, but he died to take away everyone’s sin, so that everyone had a chance to accept God’s grace and attain salvation. But how do I know this is so?
Let’s start with 1 Timothy chapter 2. It says “1I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone- 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and please our God our Savior, 4who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” This verse specifically says that God wants ALL to be saved and that Jesus paid the ransom for ALL people. John 3:16 reiterates this: “3For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God loves the WORLD. Now, can anyone honestly say that scripture tells us that God chose a certain number of people to be saved? Do they tell us that Christ died to save the chosen? No.
Now, let’s look at 2 Peter 3:9 “9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but to come to repentance.” This verse also tells us that God wants all to come to repentance. But, before that, it says God is being patient with us. Why would this be so? Certainly it is not because God does not have the power to change our hearts immediately; because he does. God is not being patient with us because it takes a long time for him to convert our hearts, God can convert our hearts in less than a second. But, God is being patient WITH US because it is our choice as to whether or not we will accept Christ. If it was not OUR choice than God would only be patient with himself; which is not what the verse says.
Now, on to Romans chapter 3 starting with verse 22 “22This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of blood- to be received by faith.” Now according to this verse what is given to us by God? Answer: Righteousness and a sacrifice of atonement. Both these things are given THROUGH faith. Nowhere in the bible does it say that faith is a gift from God. Actually, faith being given to us by God contradicts the definition of faith itself. Faith is believing in what cannot be proven, believing in what we hope for. If God gives us faith that says he is real, then it is no longer faith, it is knowledge. If we think that God makes us believe in him, then we do not accept him on faith, we accept him because we are given the knowledge that he exists. [provide analogy here]. On to another point- Verse 24 says that all are justified freely by his grace. It does not say, in fact it says the opposite of, we are justified by the constraint of God’s choice, or we are justified through the will of God.
We all know the story of Abraham and Isaac, how God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac on the alter to test Abrams’s faith. And right before Abraham was about to slay his son God says “ 12’ Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’ “ God tested Abraham. Why? To see if Abraham truly feared God. It is Abraham’s choice whether or not to believe in/fear God. If it is not Abraham’s own choice, then God merely tested Himself, which is ridiculous! Therefore, it is our choice to accept God and have faith in him, not God’s choice.
What about God finding favor in certain people, mainly Noah. Genesis 6:8 says “8But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.” How did Noah find favor in the sight of the Lord? Easy, the only way he could have, by obeying God’s word and believing in God. Genesis 7:1 says “1Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.” These two verses show that Noah found favor in God and that he was righteous. Nowhere in Genesis does it say that God chose Noah to believe. If God chose Noah to believe in Him, then He couldn’t find favor in Noah, because God made him do these things. If God controlled whether Noah would accept him or not, God would not find favor in him just because he did what God made him do. If you could control someone you would not like them simply because they did what you said, that doesn’t make sense. Imagine holding a gun to someone (this is the only way a human can directly control another human) and asking them to get you a glass of water. If they get you a glass of water are you going to then have more respect for the person or like them more? No. They are doing what you asked because you made them do it.
Genesis 6:6 says, “And the Lord was sorry he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Why was the Lord angry? Because people were sinful and would not turn to God. So, from this verse it is obvious God does not chose who is saved, because this verse says he is sorry for making humans who would not choose him and continue only in evil! If God chose who he wanted to be saved, he would never have felt this way because he would have just opened some humans hearts to accept him.
I now feel that it’s time to move on and discuss some verses that are very confusing. Mostly, the verses that have the word “predestination” in them. But one thing I want to point out before I continue is that a lot of people have a crooked view of the word predestination. Notice that whenever the word it mentioned it is talking about a group of people, never a single person.
First up, Romans 8:29-30, “29 For those God forknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Now, this is tricky, so feel free to read this paragraph over a few times. “those God forknew” refers to the believing Gentiles; God knew there would be a group of Gentile believers (that’s why he sent his son to die, so that Gentiles could also have their sins forgiven and be saved). So those Gentile believers were “also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son;” now conforming to the image of the Son is talking about a change in personality but also about being saved. God predestined ‘the forknown’ to be saved. The key here is to realize that the ones God forknew are not specifically Bob, Paul, Sara, Jim, Will; but the ones God forknew is the group of Gentile believers. Here is a metaphor that might make things clearer. God chose Gentile believers to be saved, but he didn’t choose who would be a Gentile believer. Another way is: All Gentile believers can get on this bus #2, and God is letting us all know that bus #2 is going to heaven. It is now our job to become Gentile believers, which gets us on the bus.
Next, we jump over to Ephesians 1:4-5 which says “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” This verse’s first sentence starts right off by saying that God chose us to be saved. But who is the “us”? Paul writes this letter to Gentiles. Just as I said before God chose the Gentile Believers (as a group, not specific people) to be saved. Again, when in the next sentence, Paul says God predestined us for adoption, he is talking about Gentiles. Let me give you another example to back this up. Think back to Romans 11 and the ingrafted branch. Did God graft single person branches in or the whole Gentile nation? God grafted the whole Gentile nation branch in so that whosoever believes in Him shall never perish but have eternal life!
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