Why predestination is true

Predestination is an act of infinite fatherly love, taking outsiders into his family forever. However, God is not indifferent to justice. Far from it! We do not understand why God has chosen some and not others. The astounding fact is not that God damns sinners to hell, but that he saves and reconciles sinners to himself.

Unconditional election is the friend—not the enemy—of sinners, for without it no one would be saved. The Creator has the right to do what he pleases with his creatures. The means by which God saves his elect include the outward work of preaching the gospel, and the inward work of the Spirit upon the mind, heart, and will of those who hear the gospel preached. Far from depriving human choices and actions of all significance, predestination infuses them with eternal meaning.

For this reason, we should strive to know with accuracy and clarity all that God has revealed about this precious truth and teach it to others.

Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Paul M. He previously served for twelve years as a pastor in the Baptist General Conference in the midwestern United States. Katherine Forster. And the beautiful thing is that he will. I Keep Losing My Temper. Alasdair Groves. My Beliefs Are Viewed as Intolerant. Michael J. As our world continues to speak about inclusivity, diversity, and tolerance, it can seem like Christianity is embarrassingly behind the times. The good news is that God knew this day was coming and has provided counsel for us to stop worry at its source.

Sign In. This article is part of the Help! What Is Predestination? It really includes all of us. Left to myself, I deserve to go to hell. Left to yourself, you deserve hell. No one deserves heaven. If you go there, you go as a gift because someone else paid the price of admission for you.

But since God is just and merciful, he delays his judgment on sinners in order to show mercy on those he is calling to salvation. He gives everyone more time to be saved. Yesterday I received the sad news that the brother of a dear friend died from a sudden heart attack. My friend is grieving because of the loss of his brother and because he does not know if his brother was saved or not.

He fears that he was not. What can we say in such a situation? I take it to mean that God will make no mistakes in his dealings with humanity. No one will go to hell by mistake.

There will be no mistakes in eternity. Everyone who truly belongs in heaven will be there. No one will be in hell except those who truly deserve to be there. I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.

So I am forced to accept that doctrine. I love his boasting in God. I think it is attractive. I think it is motivating to evangelism. I know of a man who came to Jesus Christ after many years of people praying for him. He gave that man more time to think about Christ.

And when he did, he was saved. Even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality. Many people think that predestination means that only a few people will be saved. Nothing could be further from the truth.

God has determined to open the doors of heaven to the whole wide world. Anyone who believes in Jesus can be saved. Today there are approximately 13 million Jews in the world out of a total population of 6. Who are the Gentiles? Remember, no one can talk back to God. These verses teach us that God opened the door of salvation to everyone!

Anyone who wants to can walk right in. Will there be any Jewish people in heaven? But not every Jewish person goes to heaven. God is so determined to populate heaven that he has invited the whole world to join him there. Anyone who wants to can go to heaven.

Jew or gentile. Slave or free. Male or female. Rich or poor. Young or old. Educated or illiterate. Healthy or sick. None of those things matter with God. In his great mercy, God has opened the door and included the whole world in his invitation. All he is waiting for is your RSVP. Some people are vessels of wrath; others are vessels of mercy.

Some are chosen; others are not. God shows justice to all, saving mercy to some. In the final analysis, this is why some people fight so strongly against predestination. It teaches us that salvation is of the Lord. It is a work of God from first till last. It starts with him and ends with him. If predestination is true, it means that we can never claim any credit for our salvation.

I did leave that out. We do the running away. God does the catching. God is in charge of saving us. The Bible says that God saves those who place their faith in Jesus Christ. No one is saved without faith in Christ. God has the first move, but the next move is up to you. But what if the answer is no. One reason God has delayed his punishment is to give you more time to be saved.

The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish but wants all people to come to repentance 2 Peter Think about that. God wants you in heaven. He even paid the price of admission—the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.

This is why the Canons of Dort say God elected us "out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own will" Canons of Dort 1.

This eternal grace was initiated, executed, and purposed in God himself, and not in us. The cause of election is God's love. It is not arbitrary or capricious, but rooted in a deep love for us. As Moses revealed to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7, it was not because they were more in number or greater than anyone else that He chose them, but it was merely because the Lord loved them.

So why did God choose one person and not another? More personally, why did God choose you and not another? He did not do so because there were prerequisites in you, such as "foreseen faith and the obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality or disposition" Canons of Dort 1. As Ephesians says, God "chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world. Again, we read that "in love [the Father] predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace" Eph.

His predestining us made us sons; we were not predestined because He saw us becoming sons. Have you ever heard a preacher use the illustration of a parade, where God, as it were, was in the broadcast booth watching the entire parade. From that vantage point He could see all humanity pass before Him, believing or not, and then He reacts to this with His choice. Ephesians 1 says otherwise, that it was according to the riches of grace in God before time began that He chose you, not because of your faith in time.

So the graciousness of God's electing work is particularly glorious when we realize that He chose "us" as sinners. And because He chose us of all people, we sing at the top of our lungs and from the bottom of our hearts, "O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be!

It is definite. The doxology of Ephesians 1 is that "we" bless God because He has blessed "us" Eph. This is not an indefinite mass, but real people like you and me. Some believe that predestination is of an indefinite class of people, "those who would believe and would persevere in faith and in the obedience of faith" Canons of Dort 1. Rejection of Errors 1. But note well that the definitiveness of predestination is personal.

Why is this so important to debate over? If predestination were indefinite and impersonal we would ever be in doubt as to our participation in it.

On the contrary, because it is definitely of particular persons, John Calvin said Paul's intention in Ephesians 1 was "to rouse [our] hearts to gratitude, to set [us] all on flame, to fill [us] even to overflowing with this thought. Finally, what makes the doctrine of election so glorious? It is Christ-centered. This is one of the areas we as Reformed believers need to grow in appreciation for. We can so often speak abstractly of "predestination," forgetting that this doctrine is Christ-centered.

In Ephesians 1, before he even says a word about predestination, in chapters 1—3 before he even says a word about our doctrine, in chapters 4—6 before he even says a word about how we are live, Paul roots everything in Jesus Christ.

How so? We bless "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," who has "blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing" v. He continues, God "chose us in him," that is, Jesus Christ v.