Predestination

What "Predestination" Is Not.

Very few understand what "predestination" is. First, consider what it is not. There is no teaching in the Bible that says the decision you are to make -- your final fate of becoming either saved or lost, is already pre-determined, and that you are destined finally to arrive at that fate.Absolutely no text anywhere in the Bible says anyone is predestinated to be lost.But doesn't the Bible say anything about predestination?Certainly. But it does not say what people seem to think. People seem to think it says we are predestinated to be either saved or lost. Some to be saved -- others to be lost.Let us read the only texts in the Bible speaking about"predestination." And see if you can find anything in any of them about anyone being predestinated to be lost. The difficulty is that people have assumed and taken for granted what is not true.There are just four places where the word "predestinated"occurs in the Authorized Version.Romans 8:28-30: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate,them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:and whom he justified, them he also glorified."Ephesians 1:4-5, 11-12: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will ... in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ."Notice, none of the places in the Bible where predestination is mentioned says anything about anyone being predestinated to be LOST -- predestinated to reject Christ. No one is predestinated to make a certain decision -- to accept or reject Christ -- to be saved or lost. But some have been predestinated to be called to salvation,now!


When We Were Called

Of those called now, in this age, notice when we were called!II Timothy 1:9: "God, 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."And, as in Ephesians 1, quoted above, notice carefully what it says:God chose us in Him, when? "Before the foundation of the world"!"Having predestinated us" -- what for? To be lost? No, "unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.""Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Were any predestinated, then, to be lost? Is it God's will that any be lost?He says it is not! Then can't we see that "predestination" has nothing to do with whether we shall be lost or saved -- with our decision -- with our ultimate fate?Notice carefully, now!"Being predestinated ... that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." Those predestinated are the first to trust in Christ -- merely the first preliminary soul-harvest.And now do you begin to see the glorious truth -- that predestination has nothing to do with your making a decision or your fate -- it has only to do with the time of your calling --whether you are called now, in this age, or later.Notice it in the passage in Romans 8:28-30:"For whom he did foreknow ...." How great is God! If you are one now called, God "foreknew" you. And "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate" -- to be lost? No, "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called ...." Not will call in the future -- called, now, in this age.There it is. Note it."Whom he did predestinate, them he also called."Predestination has to do with being called. Not with being saved or lost. Those now being called, in this age, were foreknown, and PRE-destinated to be called now -- to be the first to put their hope in Christ. All others have their call later.God does not decide for you, in advance, whether you shall be saved or lost. He did decide far in advance which ones He would call in this first calling, to be a priest or a king in His Kingdom-- to have part in the saving of others.How wonderful are God's ways, when He opens our understanding to reveal them to us.Let us make our calling and final election sure. Let us not grieve over departed loved ones who probably were not called, in this life. God is able to raise them up again. They will come up In the Great White Throne Judgment. And in that judgment, the book of life shall be opened, and many shall then find it. Judgment, now,is upon the true Church of God -- those now called (I Pet. 4:17). And we are later to judge the world!The overwhelming majority on earth today are neither saved nor lost. Their chance has not yet come. This is not their time. But it is coming as certainly as God's Word is true.This is not the age when Christ is desperately contesting Satan as to whether all humanity shall be saved or lost. If it were, as most seem to believe, a controversy for souls now, between Christ and Satan, then Satan surely is winning the contest, and a one-sided contest it is.But Satan is not more powerful than God. We near, now, the close of the sixth working day of Satan's week. Soon will come "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Satan shall be chained, Christ shall rule -- and preach, and save!