About Doctrines
Predestination
Predestination assures us that those chosen of God will attain heaven. It is a function of God's love for those who love Him. Predestination is God acting to accomplish his ultimate purposes and decrees. Since our redemption and salvation springs from within God, He cannot act in a fashion contrary to contrary to His Will and purpose. The love of God created our plan of salvation and it is God's love upon which we may draw to assure that the plan will be completed, that is, that each and every believer will be predestined to heaven.
The Greek word translated as "predestination" means to make a boundary around something. To accomplish His Purpose and Plan, God has marked a boundary around those chosen and elected to salvation. This boundary assures they will spend eternity in heaven with God. God Himself keeps and guards His children.
We are a sinful people. God has not imparted to us all of His knowledge. God saves people the way He wants, not the way we thing it should be. Salvation is truly an act of God's grace. No one is saved apart from the Will of God. No one is lost apart from the Will of God. But that Will functions by God's Decree and Plan.
This does not override human responsibility. In yet another unexplained mystery of the Bible, God's sovereign Will and our choices of free will and responsibility act together in perfect harmony.
John 6:37-40 37
“All that the Father gives Me will
come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will
of Him who sent Me. 39 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all
that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son
and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him
up on the last day.”
NASB
Predestination means
- we are adopted as children
of God
Ephesians 1:5
He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— NIV - we have a part in Christ's
marvelous inheritance
Ephesians 1:11 - we will be conformed to God's
Son
Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 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. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. NKJV
It should be noted with a very emphatic statement that the Bible does not teach that foreknowledge and predestination mean that God predetermined in eternity who should and should not be brought to salvation. Predestination is about the future of believers, not about who is to become a believer. Predestination is the divine consumption of faith and one's surrender to God.
