Predestination

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Predestination is a very controversial subject in the Christian world. In his letters to the Romans and the Ephesians, the apostle Paul speaks of God predestining us to be saved. From these words, some people have deduced that God has chosen certain people and not others to be saved through Jesus.

The passages most often used for this doctrine are these:

Romans 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.

Romans 8:30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Does God know things in advance?

Yes, He does!

In that case, is Paul saying that God would choose some people to be saved and others not?

Absolutely not!

If we take this assumption for granted, then we're going to have some problems interpreting other passages in the Bible that show the opposite. If we take the hypothesis that God would have made a selection of those who would be saved and those who would not, based solely on His choice, this would imply that God does not want all humans to be saved.

The same Paul quoted above, speaks to Timothy telling him this about God.

1 Timothy 2:4 … in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

In this passage "all men" includes the entire human race from Adam and Eve onwards without exception. That is why this passage alone contradicts the fact that God would have chosen certain humans and not others to go through the new birth. How can one knowingly select certain people in a group to be saved, and at the same time express a clear will that the whole group be saved.

Yes, Paul is talking about predestination, i.e. God has predestined human beings to a certain life with Him. When Paul speaks of predestination, the image that emerges is that God knows things in advance.

The Bible says that God's will is that everyone should come to the knowledge of the truth, that is, that everyone should be saved. So there is no question of thinking that a certain number of people are predestined to be saved and others not.

Let's take a closer look at this word from Paul in his letter to the Romans. We will look at verse 29:

Romans 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.

God is omniscient, which means that He knows the future. He knows exactly who will accept Jesus' offer on the cross to go through the new birth, and who will not. It is of these people who will accept salvation that Paul speaks, saying: "For whom He foreknew". In His knowledge of the future, God has predestined all human beings to be saved. It is not a certain category of people who are predestined and others who are not. No, all human beings are predestined to be saved. In fact, Paul never said that only some people would be selected by God to be saved. Paul simply said that those whom He foreknew, He predestined. This simply means that in His omniscience, God sees who will agree to go through the new birth without influencing them one way or the other. Then, on the strength of this information, which depends solely on the personal choice of the people concerned, God will predestine (because He has seen in the future those people who have decided to voluntarily accept Jesus into their lives) those people to become like Him, like everyone who goes through the new birth.

In practice, this means that God sees their decision to follow Jesus even before they are born. Having seen beforehand the decision of these people, God simply respects each person's decision to follow Jesus, and will destine these same people to enter into a personal transformation into the image of Christ.

Predestining those who will accept the new birth to be like Him does not mean that God has determined who will be saved and who will not. In fact, knowing in advance who will accept Jesus' offer on the cross, and predestining them to become like Him, does not constitute a selection that God makes. On the contrary, the selection, if there were one, is made by the free personal choice of each person to accept or not the new birth.

God's will is that all human beings, without exception, go through the new birth. However, God has chosen to leave it up to each person to decide whether or not to accept salvation in Jesus.

We might then ask whether God would act differently depending on who He knew in advance would refuse Jesus' offer at the cross. The problem with this theory is that if God were not to give everyone exactly the same chances of accepting salvation, this would favour some people. We could therefore argue that, because of certain circumstances that did not intervene in their lives, some of those who did not accept salvation would have been at a disadvantage.

This is why God does not intervene in people's decision to accept or refuse salvation. God knows who will choose to be saved and who will not, but He acts as if He did not know, without favouring or disadvantaging anyone. No one can say that they were forced to accept or refuse the new birth; it is a free choice that applies to everyone. Of course God will encourage us according to our requests of Him, but the final decision remains entirely ours.

Another problem with thinking that God would make a selection of humans who would be saved is that everyone's salvation would be a foregone conclusion. In that case, it would be a sin for us to even speak the gospel to someone whom God had not chosen to save, because we would be going against His will. If God had chosen to be sovereign in this world, it would be He who would decide everything, and it would be the responsibility of each Christian to know whom God had planned to save and whom He had not planned to save. For example, praying for our loved ones to accept the new birth could be a sin, if God had not planned to save one or more of our loved ones. What's really astonishing is that I've never seen anyone who advocates this far-fetched theory of predestination say that God didn't plan to save one of their loved ones and therefore didn't bother to tell them the good news. The fact of believing this theory, in which God would decide on the salvation of some people in advance, would render purely and simply all prayer and all evangelisation useless if the person or persons concerned were not on the "list" of people to be saved.

It is now easy to see the ridiculousness and stupidity of such a theory.

If God has placed us in this world for a temporary period, it is mainly and above all to make choices. And on these choices will depend my position in eternity, in a place where evil does not exist (paradise), or in a place where good does not exist (hell). On these choices will depend my spiritual advancement, on these choices will depend my transformation into His image in order to be like Him. On these choices will depend my hierarchical position in the kingdom, and on these choices will depend my spiritual growth in this world.

But in no way does God decide for a human being whether to be saved or not. That's why John the Baptist said in the French Bible version “Parole Vivante”:

John 1:29 (PVV) The next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him, and he cried out: "This is the one whom God himself destined to sacrifice himself like a lamb to take away the sin of the world. [translated in English]

Did God force Jesus to sacrifice Himself on the cross?

Of course not!

Jesus sacrificed Himself voluntarily to take away the sin of this world. Yet this passage tells us that God destined Jesus to sacrifice Himself. This shows us, in yet another example, that destining or predestining a person to a particular path does not mean that that person is forced to adhere to it without making any personal choice, leaving the whole decision to the one who destines the other.

Bye for now...