Understanding of Predestination

The topic of election and predestination is complex and deserves careful, contextual interpretation of Scripture, especially in relation to God’s attributes and character. Whether one identifies with Calvinism or Reformed traditionalism, this is a subject that should invite thoughtful, edifying discussion among fellow believers in the shared pursuit of truth.

How to identify incomplete or completely wrong interpretations

All doctrines come from one of two places, be that directly from Scripture or from reasoning of man. In either case both doctrines and interpretations should be testable to and verified by Scripture. So as to avoid confirmation biases, Scripture must be allowed to interpret Scripture. Therefore, all doctrine and or interpretation must fit contextually, progressively, and intact, without contradiction throughout all Scripture. Likewise, all doctrines and interpretations must uphold to the immutable Perfection of God in both what He is in His Perfect Natural Attributes and who He is, in His Perfect Moral Character. If an interpretation cannot meet this standard of truth, then it must be considered incomplete or completely wrong.

The Definition of Predestination & Predeterminism

Although predestination and predeterminism are often used interchangeably, they have profound distinctions:

• Predestination refers to God’s foreordination of outcomes—especially in relation to salvation—while still allowing for human choice.
• Predeterminism holds that all events, including human actions, are fixed in advance and leave no room for free will.

A bus illustration can be used to explain this distinction: two buses have fixed destinations, one to heaven and one to hell. As per predestination in this analogy it is the destination that is fixed, while the choice of which bus to board is presented as the individual’s decision within God’s sovereign design. Predeterminism on the other hand holds to the perspective that the decision of  which bus the individual boards has been predetermined by God and God alone.

A Rose By Any Other Name Is Still a Rose

Although Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, TULIP, and the Westminster Confession often use the term “predestination”, they do not teach that God simply created a world in which He foreknew each person’s choices and then allowed history to unfold accordingly. Rather, Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, TULIP, and the Westminster Confession deny human free will and therefore God does not merely foresee outcomes; but instead He has “predetermined” them according to His sovereign will, including who will choose Christ and salvation and who will choose evil and damnation. It is ironic however, that in admirably seeking to exalt God’s sovereignty, glory, and majesty by stressing His absolute divine control over all things—including human beliefs, thoughts, actions, and choices— Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, TULIP, and the Westminster Confession end up limiting God’s sovereignty by leaving no room for God to sovereignly will individuals the ability to choose.

Double Predestination vs Foreordination in Predeterminism.

If God chooses (predetermines) only some individuals for salvation, then it must be reasonably understood that God chooses (predetermines) others unto damnation. However, this is where Reform Traditionalism parts ways with Calvinism. Reform Traditionalism for example teach that God does not choose individuals unto damnation but merely foreordains them to eternal damnation by passes them over in the process of choosing other individuals unto salvation. In contrast to Reform Traditionalism, Calvinism teaches a doctrine called “double predestination” which claims that God indeed chooses some unto salvation and chooses all others unto damnation. John Calvin himself, proclaimed this when in rejecting the Reform Traditionalism view said: “This they (Reformists) do ignorantly and childishly since there could be no election without its opposite reprobation … whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children”. It would be more than difficult to disagree with John Calvin’s assessment of the Reform Traditionalism view in this regard. After all, such a teachings is inconsistent with the Westminster Confession’s broader claim that God decrees every historical event in exhaustive detail, including attitudes, desires, decisions, actions, and eternal destinies.

The Definition of Partiality 

Now, the issue at hand is not whether God is just to condemn all sinners (He surely is), but instead the issue surrounds the question of whether or not it would be just for God to extend mercy selectively among people who stand in equal guilt and equal need. Our English dictionaries define “partiality” as favoritism or bias, the act of giving preference or respect to one person over others who have equal claim. To illustrate this point, using a courtroom analogy: if a judge pardons his own meritless son while condemning an equally guilty and meritless co-conspirator, this would be the very definition of partiality.  God commands of us in Leviticus 19:15 not to do injustice, not to be partial but instead, in righteousness we are to Judge. In Psalm 89:14 we read that righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne and in Romans 2:11 we read that God shows no partiality.  The English word “partiality” in this verse is derived from the Greek word “prosōpolēpsia” and is identified in Strong’s concordance as G4282, defined as “From G4381; favoritism or respect of persons.

The Definition of Acting Arbitrarily

Furthermore, the Westminster’s confession states that God hath chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory out of His mere free grace and love without any:

1. Foresight of faith
2. Good works
3. Perseverance
4. Or any other thing in the creature as conditions or causes moving Him thereunto.

This is therefore by its very definition – of being based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system – an arbitrary act on the part of God.

Foreknowledge & Predestination

Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, TULIP, and the Westminster Confession teach that God’s Foreknowledge is the consequence of His Predestining that which He creates. Thus, the reason God foreknows who will and will not be saved is because He has predestined by His sovereign Will, who will and who will not be saved. This is however highly problematic because Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, TULIP, and the Westminster Confession then not only infer that predestining is something in and of itself, that God can choose to do. or choose not to do, it also renders God’s foreknowledge to be contingent upon His wilful act of predestining (See Westminster Confession “Of God’s Eternal Decree” #2), and thus foreknowledge becomes contingent upon predestination. This for all intent and purpose would mean that Omniscience is not a natural attribute of God and therefore God is not in and of Himself Omniscient, knowing of all possible realities both created and uncreated.

Openess Theology

Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, TULIP, and the Westminster Confession in essence shares the same flawed rationale of Openness Theology which teaches that God does not infallibly foreknow all that shall come to pass. The only difference between Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, and TULIP theology and Openness Theology in this aspect is that Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism, and TULIP teach that God can know of all that shall come to pass, if and only when, He chooses to predestine all that shall come to pass. This is in part why Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, and Calvinism cannot accept the concept of Man having free will, for if God has not chosen to predestine as in sovereignly choosing (ultimately coercing) who will and who will not be saved, God would have no foreknowledge of how an autonomous free willed being would choose and or act. God would be constantly taken by surprise; His plans would be both dependent upon and thus reactionary to Man’s indeterminate choices and actions.  

Middle Knowledge

Middle Knowledge (AKA: Classic Theism) teaches that God’s Predestining is the consequence of His foreknowing that which  He creates. Thus, the reason God actively predestines who will and who will not be saved is because He, by His sovereign Will created that of which He foreknew. Hence, Middle Knowledge affirms that God, by His very nature, foreknows all possible realities both created and uncreated and that God is therefore, Omniscient. This means that predestination, in and of itself, is not a choice that God can choose to Predestine or choose not to predestine in relation to the act of creation but rather whatever God chooses to foreknowingly create (from among all possible realities), automatically becomes predestined to happen just as He Omnisciently and Omnipotently willed it to be. In essence, it is a form of a premeditated (Foreknown and planned) act, in so much that predestining becomes the consequence of creating that, in which God foreknew of all that shall come to pass. Unlike Augustinianism, Reformed tradition, Calvinism and Openness Theologies, the theology of Middle Knowledge postulates that God can Omnisciently and Predestinetly create a foreknown reality in which He gives Man whatever amount of uncoerced autonomy (Free Will) that He Sovereignly Wills to give Man. Thus, because God infallibly foreknows all that shall come to pass, God is not taken by surprise. It is reasonably acknowledged that God being Omnisapient (All Wise) has considered and configured into creation all necessary contingencies to ensure that all His plans unfold as per the means and the methods that He has chosen. As the saying goes, you can’t lose at poker when you know the cards that all the other players hold. Figuratively speaking, God not only knows the cards that Man holds in his hands, but God also knows how man will play the cards that he holds. God does not need to force mans hand, to win. It is by no coincident that every verse that mentions Foreknown and Predestined puts Foreknown before Predestined, and that is because Predestination is the biproduct of creating what is foreknown.

Predestination Challenges Our Understandings

It is understandable how some might view predestination as predeterminism. After all if God knows all possible realities and chooses to create one them, is then not everything that God foreknowingly created therefore predestined to happen just as He chose?  

In answer to that question, imagine for just a moment that God showed you three possible outcomes for your favorite hockey team in a game against an opponent: in one, they win; in another, they lose; and in the third, they tie. God then asks which outcome you would choose to become reality. Naturally, you would choose the scenario in which your team wins, and in that sense one could say you chose and predestined the victory. Yet choosing that outcome does not mean every move, action, and decision made during the game was not freely made by the players themselves.

It is not by coincident that the term “predestined” in Scripture follows some variation of  term “foreknew” and in each case, the word predestined speaks to the destiny of those already saved. In other words the context is never predestined unto salvation but predestined through salvation. It is by His sovereign will that He has given man the choice – metaphorically speaking – of which bus to board (be it destined to heaven or to Hell) and just because He created this reality, foreknowing our decisions, does not mean that our every thought, belief, action, and decision in this reality is not freely made by us ourselves.