PREDESTINATION

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

(Ephesians 1:5 AV)

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:

(Ephesians 1:11 AV)

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.

(Romans 8:29-30 AV)

Please note that in his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul from verse 1 through verse 12 is relating that God had predestined “us” and/or “we” as relating to himself, Tychicus and his Jewish brethren, not to the gentile church in Ephesus. From verse 13 on, he teaches and prays for the gentile church that they increase in faith and power.

The reference to predestination does not apply to those of the gentile church at Ephesus, but only to Apostles and Prophets with the Jews and whomever God chooses. This is borne out by his comparing the gentiles with the Jews in Ch 2:11-22 concerning their being one in Christ. Predestination is not a universal determination of God as is shown by the above scriptures.

Again in Romans, as related in the 11th chapter, Paul is speaking of the predestination of God’s elect. God has His own chosen for His purpose, and those chosen are no different than anyone, they also must be saved in order to reach Heaven. Judas Iscariot is an example of one chosen, even by our Lord, and he sold away his salvation. Note also, King Saul, chosen of God, but who became an apostate, having rebelled against God’s demands as to how a Israel’s kings should live.

Predestination also is God’s determination that all those who die in Christ will live eternally in Heaven, and those who die in their sin will be cast into the lake of fire with Satan for whom it was prepared.

To include all the world’s population in the classic Calvinist teaching of predestination (election or adoption) is to not rightly divide the word of God as we are taught. Election is of the Jews and beginning with the Apostles, all those gentiles God chooses according to His purpose and pleasure, are as responsible as the heathen, to believe unto salvation. God’s elect and chosen are predetermined by Him for His glory, that He may be known throughout the world. They are sinners just as are all who come into the world, even the chosen virgin Mary, and they must hear Jesus’ first words, “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”