We must start by asking a seemingly simple question: What ifs predestination? There appear to be as many different definitions of predestination as there are doctrines of predestination. Since the Bible was not written in English, we don’t find the English word predestination, yet multiple Greek words convey the concept, so we look to these Greek words to inform our understanding of what predestination means.
One example is the Greek word proorizō. The prefix pro- corresponds to the English prefix pre-, meaning something that takes place in advance, in front of, or before something else that follows later, while orizō means “to appoint, designate, assign.” Therefore, proorizō refers to ordaining or designating something beforehand.
Without being fatalists, thinking that everything that happens falls out according to some impersonal guiding principle, we can say that we each have a destiny. In God’s providence, that destiny is in His hand and in His eternal plan. Before any of us were born, our destinies were written by God before the foundation of the earth.
With respect to salvation, the doctrine of predestination does not include the concept that every detail of our lives is foreordained and predestined by God. Rather, this doctrine deals with our ultimate destiny. Certainly, every detail of our lives is foreordained by God, but that truth belongs more properly to the doctrine of God’s providence. The doctrine of predestination, in its initial form, does not include these particular elements in its scope (though they are true). It simply concerns our final destiny and where we will go when we die.
Most Christians will agree that God is not simply a spectator of human events, but that He does, at least in some ways, decide things in advance. Most would affirm that in at least some sense, God has what we call foreknowledge, as this concept is deeply rooted in the pages of Scripture. God knows all things in advance, and He knows them perfectly. But as soon as we begin to probe the extent of that foreknowledge and the grounds for that foreknowledge, Christians divide into opposite camps and the philosophical debates erupt.
Though all churches and Christians don’t agree about the nature of predestination, one point can be agreed on: God, in His sovereignty, in some way predestines who gets to heaven and who does not. That’s the simplest definition of predestination. The focal point of predestination is the doctrine of election we find in the New Testament, and that has to do with God’s choosing and making a decision about heaven or hell.
Virtually all Christians believe that much about predestination. But exactly how God makes the decision in advance about our ultimate destiny is by no means a matter of universal agreement among professing Christians or in the historic creeds. There are many different doctrines of predestination. While delving into all the subtle nuances and peculiarities of the various views is beyond the scope of this book, we must mention the two most common views of predestination that we find in church history.
The first of these most common views—and perhaps the majority view in the Christian world today—is the prescient view. Prescience is simply a synonym for foreknowledge. The prescient view of predestination holds that God, from all eternity, looks down the corridors of history and knows in advance who will and will not respond positively to the invitation of Christ and His gospel. He knows that some will say yes to Christ and others will say no. From all eternity, God ordains that every person who says yes to the gospel will go to heaven. He chooses them for heaven based on their foreseen faith.
The Augustinian view, also called the Reformation view, holds that God, from all eternity, not only predestines those who will believe to be saved, but He also predestines those who will believe to believe. In other words, apart from God’s predestinating grace, no one would ever believe. People are not predestined to heaven because they believe or because God knows that they will believe; they are predestined to believe that they might go to heaven.
The Augustinian view maintains that from the foundation of the world—before anyone was born or did anything—God decided who would be brought to faith and who would not. Eternal destiny is rooted and grounded in God’s predestinating grace. Those who are not predestined from the foundation of the world will not come to faith, and their destination will not be heaven.
These two views are very different. In the first view, the decisive factor regarding a person’s destiny rests with the individual. In the second view, the decisive factor rests with God. Those who take the latter view must respond to questions about God’s fairness and justice and about man’s free will. Those who take the first view must answer the question of why is it that some people say yes and others say no. Is it because some people are more righteous, intelligent, or meritorious than others?
Studying predestination forces us to ask and answer hard questions, and if nothing else, it forces us to look more closely at the character of God and at our own sinfulness. We can never spend too much time studying the character of God. There is no such thing as a “too developed” understanding of the grace of God or the greatness of God. Nor is it harmful to us to explore the depths of our own human weakness. Virtually all of the errors that plague the church and her doctrine relate to one of two errors: either an underestimation of the greatness of God or an overestimation of the greatness of man.
Ligonier Ministries