Is Predestinationism biblical? A study into the teachings of Calvinism.
The doctrine of predestinationism asserts that God, before the creation of the world, has chosen each and every single person that will be saved. These people, being called the elect. Those people that God has chosen to save have no choice regarding salvation, they have no choice but to be saved. There is nothing that they did in order to gain that salvation and there is nothing they can do in order to lose the salvation that they have been predestined to receive. God’s sovereign will means, as he has preordained certain people to be members of the elect and therefore gain salvation, those people will ultimately, without exception, be saved. For the elect this is good news. They will be saved no matter what.
This of course means that God has also chosen each and every single person that will not be saved. They have no choice but to not be saved. There is nothing that they can do to change their fate, they cannot by any means obtain salvation. This means that God has created people that will end up in Hell* for eternity with no ability not to go to hell. God therefore created people already destined to spend their eternity in hell. God punishes people for eternity for not choosing him having created them with no ability to do so. Not such good news for the non elect.
Those that assert this doctrine, will of course, unsurprisingly, also claim that they are part of the elect and therefore one of the ones that God has chosen to save. Lucky them. And yes that is exactly what it would ultimately boil down to. Pure luck.
If this doctrine were true then it would, in essence, make life nothing more than a lottery, where everyone has either been given a winning ticket, salvation, or not, eternal condemnation, in the case of the vast majority of humanity. Every single person, which includes me and you, have already been given a ticket with a location engraved upon it, either heaven or hell and nothing will change that location. You cannot change that location, it is sealed by God’s sovereign will.
God has basically set up a game of dominoes. He simply flicked the first one and then the preset human existence that we call life started to play out , exactly as he has set it up to play out with NO deviation from the preset play. It means that every event has already been predestined. Including every single rape, murder and child molestation there has ever been and ever will be. These are all God ordained. Isn’t that nice.
This of course also means that nobody can know if they are the elect until they die. There is literally no way of knowing if your ticket is a winner or not until after you have died. It may be that although you believe you are saved, ultimately you have not been preselected for salvation and you will have no choice but to become reprobate. It may also be that someone who it would seem is lost to the world may have a salvation ticket and will eventually come to the realisation of God and receive the salvation that they have already been preordained to receive, they will have no choice but to do so.
Now of course there are many, myself included, who will say that not only is this in no way fair but it also makes literally no sense whatsoever. I see no glory for God in this. I personally think this is one of the most sick and twisted false doctrines that there is. It certainly is not consistent with the Bible’s teaching that God is love.
1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
I see no love at all in this doctrine. If this is the God that you believe in then I do not believe that you know the true God.
Proponents of this doctrine will often go to a passage in Isaiah as support for this very clear nonsensical and seemingly arbitrary “game” that God is playing.
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Even if we, being mere lowly, fallible humans, cannot fathom as to why God has chosen to create life the way that he has and selected those bound for heaven and hell in the way that he has, God’s ways are above our understanding and they are correct. They are just because God is just. God cannot not be just and so anything that God decrees is also just. Including preselecting those that will be saved.
This is a rather dishonest move. It literally takes away the necessity to explain their claims in any way that we as humans can understand. We do not need to explain the doctrine we just appeal to the God knows best and we do not know God’s plan argument. There really is no argument at all in this, it simply inserts a passage that has nothing to do with understanding how God has selected his elect and proclaims that this is the answer. Isaiah 55:8-9 has literally nothing to do with this argument whatsoever.
Now while I will agree that God has foreordained, predestined believers to become the elect and receive salvation through faith in Jesus, I categorically disagree that God has arbitrarily preselected each and every individual who will be part of the elect and that those he has preselected have no choice but to be saved and those he has not have no choice but to be condemned.
This belief takes any responsibility of doing evil away from the person who does it. They literally have no ability not to sin. It actually is not their fault, it is simply the way God created them. They are then, in all essence, doing exactly what God created them to do. Therefore they are in fact not being disobedient to God, they are being perfectly obedient to how God created them. They sin because that is what God predestined them to do. How can a person sin by going against a command that God has given when God has actually preordained that they would go against the command and they have literally no ability not to do anything different?
Often those that claim predestinationism will claim that man is sinful by nature. We have all partaken in the sin of Adam.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
I have written elsewhere about the false doctrine of inherent original sin.
Notice that this verse says that DEATH passed to all men not sin. Death is passed on BY sin and all have sinned. It is by OUR own sin that we receive the wages(consequences) of sin, which is death.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We do not bear the iniquity of our fathers.
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Adam was not created with sin, Adam was sinless before he personally sinned. After the creation of Man on the 6th day God declared that everything he made was good.
Genesis 1: 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Now if everything is predestined by God then God predestined Adam to sin. God had created Adam sinless but had predestined him to sin, Adam himself had no choice but to sin. The command of God not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge becomes pointless. Adam had no ability to not eat of the fruit as God had already predestined him to do so. Sin was therefore also predestined to enter into the world through Adam.
God is right to send evil and wicked people to hell*. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So ALL men stand condemned. It is only the grace of God that any are saved. However if God predestined people to hell then it was God who preordained that they be wicked and deservant of Hell. If God did create a world in which HE determines every single outcome and there is no free will then God is ultimately responsible for people only choosing wicked because that is what they were preordained by God to do. So God punishes the people he creates with the ability only to do evil for the evil that they do when he created them that way.
It is a very different argument to assert that all men have sinned, have come short of the glory of God and so are in need of a saviour and asserting that all men are sinners incapable of accepting that saviour without being first chosen by God, before creation, to accept it.
We also have verses that tell us that people did things God did not command nor had it come to his mind.
Jeremiah 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Just like those asserting any other false doctrine, those who assert predestinationism will normally cite a number of select “proof” verses and texts that they say without doubt prove said false doctrine, in this case predestinationism, as being biblical.
These texts include but are not necessarily limited to.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Romans 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For 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. 30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Romans 3: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God
Ephesians 1:4 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: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Of course like any doctrine we must examine those cited verses and texts and make sure that they align with the rest of scripture and the context from which they were taken from.
That is what we will do in this study. We will examine these proof texts in context and in line with scripture. What we will see is that the doctrine of predestinationism flies in the face of the overwhelming biblical attestation that salvation is open to EVERYONE and that God wishes that none would perish and that all men would come to him.
There are many proof texts that attest to the fact that salvation is available to all men.
John 3: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, not just a select few.
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus gave himself as a ransom for ALL.
1 Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
God is not willing that any should perish but ALL should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
It is God’s will then that none should perish but ALL should come to repentance. This verse alone proves that if the will of God cannot be violated, then everyone would, in fact, be saved seeing it is his will that none should perish.
Christ died for EVERY man:
Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Jesus died for his friends
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
We are Jesus friends if we do as he commanded,
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
God has no pleasure in those that die and we are told to turn ourselves and live:
Ezekiel 18:23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Ezekiel 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
These are empty pleas if God has already preordained those that will and will not do so.
This in no way means that all men WILL come to Jesus.
The Bible very clearly states that Jesus wants to protect all but some are not willing.
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Paul states that it is possible to resist the spirit.
Acts 7: 51Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
This shows that although all men are being called to the son not all men will respond to that calling. If believers have been predestined then it would not be possible to resist the spirit.
We are also told that we have the ability not to harden our hearts and in fact the Bible over and over makes plea to us not to harden them.
Psalm 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Hebrews 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:Hebrews 3:15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Proverbs 29: 1He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
Again these are redundant pleas if people are already preselected.
God tells us to choose him.
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
Psalm 119:173 Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
Salvation is for all them that obey him.
Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
A person has to believe in order to be saved. NOT that a person is saved and so he will believe.
The water of life must be taken freely.
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
So let’s deal with the individual verses and passages that are used as proof.
We shall start with John 6:44
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
This verse is used to demonstrate that only people that the father draws to Jesus come to him. him. Obviously this would mean that if the father does not draw a person then they cannot come to him.
I most certainly am not going to disagree with this verse. It is scripture. In order for anyone to come to Jesus the father must draw that person to him.
However this in no way proves predestinationism. In fact it is very easy to explain, the Bible does it for us. Just 6 chapters later Jesus states that by him being lifted up from the earth, that this will draw ALL men unto him
John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.
Lifted up here is the Greek ὑψόω hupsoó meaning to exalt, to raise up.
The Greek draw is ἑλκύω helkó and means literally to draw or persuade.
So while it is true that the father has to draw men to Jesus otherwise they will not come to Jesus, we are explicitly told that this is exactly what the father has done for all men through the death, resurrection and exaltation of his son Jesus the Christ. The father has drawn (persuaded) ALL men to Jesus, not just a select few that were preselected to be drawn.
ALL men are drawn to Jesus by him being raised up , however not all men are willing to come to the truth, as shown previously. Some will resist the spirit and harden their hearts against the truth.
2 timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Jesus said that it was the will of the father that EVERYONE that sees the son AND believes in him would have everlasting life.
John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Everlasting life is given to those that believe in the son. Those who do not believe do not receive that eternal life
1 John 5:20 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
Those that assert that the will of the father is sovereign have simply ignored scripture showing otherwise.
So let’s look at the second passage in Romans 8.
Romans 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 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. 30 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.
If we simply take this passage and read the understanding of predestinationism into it, it is not hard to see why this passage is used to prove predestinationism.
However we are going to read out of the passage its meaning within the context of where it was taken from.
The first thing we must note here is that the predestination is to be conformed to the image of his son, not that he predestined them to salvation.
The ones he predestined he also called. But we just saw in John 12:32 that God draws all men through the resurrection of the son. ALL men have been called through the son.
This is exactly what Peter states in his 1st epistle. Called by Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
As we have already seen, this was to all men.
Paul tells us that we are called by the gospel, which is that Christ died and was resurrected, to obtain the glory of Jesus Christ.
2 thessalonians 2:12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
We have already seen that those that God has called to Jesus are all men through his resurrection. Jesus will cast out none that come to him. Again as we saw although all men are drawn to Jesus not all will accept the truth.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
So we come to a verse that is used to demonstrate that nobody actually seeks God.
Romans 3: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God
If no man seeks after God then how can a man find God unless God first makes him seek God?
Again on its own this verse does seem to do what it is claimed that it does. Show that nobody seeks God.
However, yet again this verse is not alone. It has a context and when put back in the context from where it is taken the meaning of this verse completely changes.
There are numerous verses regarding those that seek the LORD.
Psalm 9:10 and they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
Psalm 40: 16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
1 Chronicles 28: 9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
Jeremiah 29: 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Lamentation 3: 25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
Hosea 5: 15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
Hosea 10: 12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hebrews 11: 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
As you can see they are from both the old and new covenants.
So let’s put Paul’s statement back into context and understanding.
Firstly Paul starts chapter 3 by asking the question what profit does a Jew have over the Gentiles?
Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Paul answers this question by stating that they had a great advantage (in every way) for they, unlike the Gentiles, had the oracles of God. (the scriptures)
Romans 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
But what if some (of the Jews) did not believe? And it is NON believing Jews that are the referents here. Paul is specifically speaking of the non believing Jews.
Paul asks, would their unbelief make God’s faithfulness have no effect?
Romans 3: 3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Of course not, God is true so let man be the liar. The man who rejects the truth does not make God untrue but themselves.
Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Paul then goes on to ask if the righteousness of man shows God’s righteousness wouldn’t it be wrong for God to punish the unrighteous?
Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
Again Paul asks the same question in a different way.
Romans 3: 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
Paul then states that it is not a reason (as some have accused him of saying) that because God’s righteousness is shown through the unrighteousness of men, that this means we should do evil so that the good will be shown.
Romans 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
Paul here in this verse has taken away the excuse to do evil. A person cannot claim that doing evil actually is a good thing.
Paul then argues are the Jews better than the gentiles? Which he answers in the negative, both Jew and Gentile are under sin.
Romans 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Paul, having started his argument by claiming that the Jews had an advantage over the gentiles, now asserts that this does not make a Jew better than the gentile. Remember Paul had referred to the unbelieving Jews. Just because a Jew was a Jew and had the scriptures did not mean that they were better and free from condemnation. A non believing Jew was as guilty as the unbelieving gentile.
This was what John the baptist had pointed out to the Pharisees and sadducees who had come to his baptisms. The Jews were not saved simply because they were Jews.
Matthew 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Their being a Jew, a child of Abraham was not what was going to save them. This was not enough.
Just because the Jew had the oracle of God, if they sinned they were equally as guilty as the gentiles.
In the preceding verse to Paul’s statement in Romans 3:11 Paul states as it is written.
Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
This is a reference back to the Old Testament. So we need to go back and look at the passage that Paul is quoting from and find out the context of this passage. Verse 11 is taken from Psalm 14.
Psalm 14:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Now what is important to note here is that this is not referencing all men. Verse one tells us specifically that it is in reference to the fool that has said in their heart that there is no God. The none that do good are the fools who have rejected the existence of God. This is who Paul is referring to back in Romans 3. The Jew who is in unbelief, they have rejected God. God has looked down on the children of men, this is a reference to unbelievers , believers are called the sons of God. None of these were seeking God. They ALL (the fools) have gone aside. It is the fools who have rejected God that have together become filthy. It is amongst the fools that do no good, not one (of the fools who have rejected God). Non believers are the referents in this passage. The non believers are not seeking God.
This is also repeated
Psalm 53: 1{To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.} The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. 2God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God 3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one
In another Psalm we see that the wicked, through their pride, will not seek God.
Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Paul’s whole build up in his argument is about unbelieving Jews who are not better than unbelieving gentiles. Paul equates the Jew who rejects God as being the same as a Gentile who rejects God. The ones not seeking God in Romans 3:11 are the fool who says there is no God.
This is not in anyway referring to literally all people.
Now the sinner is the exact people that Jesus came for. To call them to repentance.
Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Everyone has sinned and so everyone is a sinner.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Jesus therefore came for all men. And it is through his death and resurrection that the father draws all men to him.
It is through FAITh that we are saved not through being preselected for salvation. Each individual must freely choose that salvation by way of their faith.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
It is the ordained to eternal life believed here in this verse that those that assert predestinationism latch onto. They assert that it is only those that were already ordained by God to believe were the ones that believed. They believed because they were already ordained to eternal life.
Most proponents of predestinationism will claim that ordained to eternal life means to be pre ordained to eternal life. It obviously does not say that these people were pre ordained to eternal life but this is what is read into the verse.
The Greek ordained is τάσσω tassó (assign, draw up, appoint) This is not the same as the Greek προορίζω proorizó translated as predestinate in romans 8:29.
This word is used in Matthew 28:16 which shows where Jesus had appointed his disciples.
Matthew 28: 16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
Jesus appointed the disciples on a mountain while they were present. They had not been preordained. The appointment happened at the time.
We must notice that in the context of the chapter from which this verse is taken both the Jews and the gentiles are being addressed. Paul had preached in the synagogue to the Jews . The gentiles had asked to hear the words preached to them the following Sabbath Acts 13:42 when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
We know that the following sabbath had come, the sabbath the Gentiles had asked to hear the gospel on. Almost all the city had come to hear.
Acts 13:44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
So clearly this was not ALL the city but MOST of the city and this is the important part.
Acts 13:48 specifically states that this was only referring to gentiles and not to the jews. The same gentiles that had wanted the gospel preached to them the previous Sabbath.
Acts 14:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
The gentiles that had heard the word were glad, glorified the word and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
So the gentiles that had come to hear the word believed, remember that there were gentiles that had not come to hear the word, The ones that were ordained, appointed to eternal life believed. This was ALL the gentiles that had asked to hear the word, who had come and heard it believed. They were appointed, ordained by Paul, who preached the word to them.
Paul stated in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is the power of salvation to everyone that believes.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
How would a person call on God if they do not believe in him without first hearing and if they are not preached to how would a person hear?
Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Paul had preached the word of God and so the gentiles had heard the word of God and believed. It was Paul who had ordained them to eternal life by preaching the word of God to them.
The all who were ordained in this verse are the ones that came to listen to the word. It was through the preaching of the word that they were ordained.
A very popular passage for predestinationists is Ephesians 1:4-5
Ephesians 1:4 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: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Again the predestinist will assert that God has already chosen us (those who will be saved) before the foundation of the world, having predestined us according to his will.
However just a simple analysis of this passage will show this interpretation incorrect.
Paul starts his epistle to those at Ephesus by sending greetings to those that are IN Christ.
Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
It is very important to hold to the fact that Paul’s epistle is specifically written to believers and the term IN Christ is fundamental to understanding what Paul means.
Those in Christ are believers. The believers in Ephesus.
Verse 4 states that God has chosen us IN HIM (Christ) before the foundation of the world. It does not say that God has chosen us to be in Christ.
Paul is still referring to believers. The US in the verse are fellow believers IN Christ.
God had chosen those that would be IN HIM that were the ones to be saved. It was Jesus that was slain from the foundation of the world and it was ordained by God that those IN him shall receive salvation.
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
In verse 5 it is stated that predestined us (believers) to the adoption BY Jesus Christ to himself.
By in this verse is the Greek διά dia meaning By or through, on account of
So God has predestined that BY/THROUGH/ON ACCOUNT of Jesus, believers would receive the adoption to himself.
Simply, salvation is predestined for those believers that are in Christ.
Paul then confirms what we have already seen throughout this study that a person trusts in Christ AFTER they have heard the word of truth which is the gospel. A person requires the hearing of the gospel to believe. After a person believes they are then sealed with the holy spirit.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
The sealing of the spirit comes after a person believes which comes after they have heard the gospel. It is through the preaching of the gospel that a person comes to Christ and it is after they have heard the gospel that they can believe. Salvation comes after they believe.
God has not predestined each and every individual which will or will not receive salvation. God has predestined that ANYONE that is drawn to Christ that believes in him will be saved. He has predestined that salvation will be through his son.
When we study the Bible in full the predestination of each and every individual cannot be supported.
Salvation is as stated in John 3:16 God gave his son that WHOSOEVER BELIEVES will have everlasting life.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Stand firm in faith.
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