What is predestination?

What does the Bible mean by "predestination"?

The Greek word proorizō means to decide or mark out beforehand. The Bible uses it to describe God's plan to bring believers into adoption and Christlikeness.

"For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

-Ephesians 1:4–5 CSB

"For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son ... And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified."

-Romans 8:29–30 CSB

Three things stand out:

1. Predestination is "in Him." God’s choosing happens in Christ, not apart from him. God did not sort individuals into heaven and hell in a vacuum. He chose Christ, and in Christ he chose to save everyone who is united to him by faith. Since Christ died for the whole world (1 John 2:2), the way into that chosen circle is open to all. No one is predestined to damnation, because no one is chosen apart from Christ.

2. Predestination is to a destiny. The Greek word for “predestine” (proorizo) appears six times in the New Testament. Two uses refer to God’s plan for the cross (Acts 4:28) and his hidden wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:7). The other four refer to people (Romans 8:29, 30; Ephesians 1:5, 11), and every time those people are believers being brought to blessing in Christ. It never says God predestined anyone to sin, unbelief or hell.

3. Predestination is good news. God’s Word speaks of it to comfort believers, not to frighten seekers. Predestination appears in letters written to churches, assuring believers that God will finish what he started (Romans 8:28–39; Ephesians 1:3–14). Scripture never presents it as a reason a seeker might be shut out. Anyone who wonders, “Am I chosen?” should look to Christ, who promises, “the one who comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

What is double predestination?

Those who believe in double predestination say that God, by one eternal decree, chose some people for salvation and ordained all others to damnation. John Calvin wrote, "eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others" (Institutes 3.21.5).

Many Reformed teachers state this carefully, saying God "passes over" the lost rather than actively hardening them. Still, the result is the same: before anyone is born, certain people will never receive the grace they need to believe. The question is not whether God is sovereign. He is. The question is whether God wills the damnation of particular people the way he wills the salvation of believers. Scripture says he does not.

Does God want everyone to be saved?

Yes, and the Bible says so repeatedly.

"The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance."

-2 Peter 3:9 CSB

2 Peter explains why judgment has not yet come: God is holding the door open. A few verses later it says it plainly: “Regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation” (2 Peter 3:15). "Any" and "all" stand in deliberate contrast. God's patience delays the judgment of the whole world (2 Peter 3:7, 10), and that patience aims at repentance.

"God our Savior ... wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

-1 Timothy 2:3–4 CSB

"I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?"

-Ezekiel 33:11 CSB

If God had decreed the death of the wicked, it would be the very thing he purposed from eternity. Ezekiel's "Why will you die?" would have an obvious answer: "Because you decreed it." Scripture never lets us say that.

Did Jesus die for everyone?

Yes. God's desire for all comes with a provision for all.

"He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world."

-1 John 2:2 CSB

John draws a circle around "our sins," the sins of believers. Then he deliberately steps outside it: "not only for ours." In John's letters, "the world" means humanity in rebellion against God (1 John 5:19). Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for the entire world and offered to the entire world.

The apostles say this over and over. Jesus tasted "death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9, CSB). He "gave himself as a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6, CSB). "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people" (Titus 2:11, CSB). No one will go to hell because Christ did not make atonement for them. People go to hell because they reject the gift of salvation freely offered to them. The Bible even describes false teachers “denying the Master who bought them” and so bringing “swift destruction on themselves” (2 Peter 2:1). Christ paid for them; they refused him. Jesus names the cause of condemnation clearly as coming from not believing: “anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God” (John 3:18).

Then why are some people lost?

Scripture is clear that our salvation rests in God's grace. It places the cause of condemnation in human refusal, never in a divine decree.

"How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."

-Matthew 23:37 CSB

Jesus wanted to gather them; they were not willing. If their ruin had been decreed, the Son would be weeping over the Father's own will.

The final judgment makes the same point. The righteous inherit "the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34, CSB). The wicked depart "into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41, CSB). Heaven was prepared for people. Hell was not intended for people, but people who refuse salvation will go there.

What about Romans 9?

Romans 9:22–23 is the text most often cited for double predestination. It speaks of "objects of wrath prepared for destruction" and "objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory" (Romans 9:22-23).

Look closely at the verbs. Of the objects of mercy, Romans says God actively "prepared [them] beforehand." Of the objects of wrath, he says only that they are "prepared," and he never names God as the one who prepared them. Instead, God "endured [them] with much patience," the same patience that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). Romans ends the section with this: "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all" (Romans 11:32).

Likewise, Jesus says no one can come "unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44). But he also says, "if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). God's drawing is necessary, and through the cross it reaches everyone.

So how should we understand predestination?

Scripture gives two keys.

1. Election is in Christ. God "chose us in him" (Ephesians 1:4). Christ is the Chosen One (Luke 9:35), and believers share his election by being united to him through faith.

2. Election follows God's foreknowledge. "Those he foreknew he also predestined" (Romans 8:29). Believers are "chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Peter 1:2). Notice the order: first God foreknows, then he predestines. God declares “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10), so before the world began he knew every person who would turn to Christ in faith. Those people he chose in Christ and destined for glory. And “foreknew” means more than knowing facts ahead of time. In Scripture, to be “known by God” is to be loved and claimed by him as his own (Galatians 4:9). Election comes from God’s omniscient knowledge of His people. It is not a random selection that leaves everyone else unable to believe.

Salvation is by God's grace. God's purpose to save a people in Christ is sincere. Those who perish do so against God, having refused the Savior who died for them.

What does this mean for you?

It means the gospel is for you. Christ died for you, God wants you saved, and his promise has no fine print: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).I t also means the gospel is for your neighbor, your coworker and anyone you know who is far from God. Since God wants them saved and Christ died for them, we have every reason to tell them about the good news of Jesus Christ.

And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

-Romans 10:14 CSB

God’s patience is real, but it will not last forever.

Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

-2 Corinthians 6:2 CSB

Don’t wait. Someone you know needs to hear it from you.