How Should We Go About Teaching Predestination?

By John C. Orlando, Jr.

            A friend of mine e-mailed me one day and told me about the great experience he had in getting a chance to respond to an honest inquirer about the doctrine of predestination, and thus speak of the amazing grace of God.  However, he realized that the person asking the question was a relatively new Christian, and what follows is my reply to my friend about how to deal with new believers and the doctrine of predestination:

Brother,

            I agree with you wholeheartedly that we must get new believers on the milk of the word first, and then move on to the meat. Predestination is sort of a paradox in this regard, which you have no doubt discovered!  On the one hand, predestination is as essential, basic, and foundational to Christianity as any of the other doctrines of the faith. On the other hand, it is definitely one of the more “meaty” doctrines, and it can pose some difficulties, even for those who have studied it for years! 

I really like what the Westminster Confession says about Predestination when it states, “This important and mysterious doctrine of predestination must be treated with special discretion and care…” Notice some key words here.  First, the word “important.”  So many people make the mistake that predestination is just some trivial doctrine that people study to merely stimulate their intellect, and that it has no practical value, and really shouldn’t be taught in the church.  But the confession really refutes that misconception, and goes on to say that predestination is important so that, “ human beings may be assured that they have been eternally chosen from the certainty of their effectual calling.  In this way the doctrine of predestination will elicit not only our praise, reverence and admiration for God, but also a humble and diligent life, fully supporting everyone who sincerely obeys the Gospel.”  The confession brings out the truth that predestination is vitally important because it is the source of assurance, worship, and humility and diligence in the life of the believer.  Those are some very important things, and much more could be added.  For example, could you imagine a universe in which God did not predestine anything?  We would have no basis for hope because everything that we see unfolding in space-time history would have no rhyme or reason; there would be no purpose for anything.  We could never take comfort in the fact that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who have been called according to His purpose, if in fact God does not have any predetermined purpose by which He works all things. 

To carry this even further, I would venture to say that if we removed the concept of predestination or foreordination from the Bible, our Bibles would be very small indeed, if not non-existent altogether! Consider the following:

1. Gone would be the promises made to the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis that spoke of the future blessings of Abraham and his seed. 

2.  Gone would be the Exodus, because God would not have the power to absolutely guarantee that He would deliver Israel from the bondage of Pharaoh, which He had beforehand announced to Moses. 

3.  Gone would be the historical books, such as Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Samuel, etc., because those all report the workings of God in the affairs of Israel, the nations around her, and the future blessings that would eventually come from her, none of which could have occurred had God not guided the affairs of mankind according to His plans and purposes. 

4.  Gone would be all the prophetic books (how could God tell us the future if He did not determine the future beforehand?).  This would not only include all of the prophetic books (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the 12 Minor Prophets, and the Book of Revelation), but any single passage that spoke of future events, such as the numerous Messianic passages in the Psalms, and the prophetic statements made by Jesus in the Gospels concerning the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the end of the age. 

5.  Gone would be Christ’s work on the cross, because that all took place according to the “determined purpose and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). 

6.  Gone would be Christ Himself, because Christ was the foretold Messiah that would come, who fulfilled all of the Messianic prophecies (which, again, there would be none if God did not ordain all things that come to pass). 

7.  We could never pray, because prayer is predicated on the power of God to accomplish His purposes.  But if God has no purposes (which must be determined beforehand), and is not in control of the affairs of men, then that means we can never be certain that God can act on behalf of those who pray.  We could never pray the prayer of faith, believing that we will receive what we pray for, because God has no control over the forces of the universe. 

8.  We could never know for certain what our eternal destiny would be, because God would not be in control of destiny. 

I think it’s safe to say that if one were to remove the concept of predestination and foreordination from the Bible, there would be nothing left.

            The next key word to notice in the confession is the word “mysterious.” This calls attention to the fact that what we are dealing with holds a certain degree of limitation for us in terms of being able to fully explain all of the complexities that are involved with the doctrine.  Since that is the case, we should resist the idea that we can know all that there is to know about predestination, because the reality of the matter is that our knowledge of these matters is not exhaustive, due in part to the limitations imposed upon us by our own finiteness, and due in part to the fact that God simply has not revealed to us all that there is to know.  Christians seem to haven no problem accepting this principle when dealing with other mysteries, such as the Trinity, and the Person of Christ (how Christ is One Person with two natures).  Yet, when some of us come to predestination, we often lose sight of this principle, and develop all kinds of irrational theories that really only serve to explain away what the Bible teaches concerning predestination.

Thus, with these two words, “important” and “mysterious,” we are provided with the necessary balance that we must have in dealing with the issue:  It is so important to the Christian faith, that without it, there would not be a Christian faith.  Therefore, it must be taught.  Yet, it is mysterious.  So, while it must be taught, it must be taught with an immense amount of humility, and I would add along with R.C. Sproul that an extra measure of grace should be afforded those who may not agree with all of our conclusions on those matters. 

This leads to the final words “special discretion” and “care.” This reminds me of how we sometimes place the words “Handle with Care” on packages that contain items that are fragile.  Handle it, but be very careful, because the contents are easily broken.  The same is true with predestination.  Handle it, but be careful; the contents of the doctrine can be easily broken, i.e., given to much misunderstanding, and this misunderstanding can result in dire consequences to people.  That thing that should hold so much beauty and majesty for us, and is of immense practical value, can actually become something far less honorable.  This occurs when people are driven to the point of despair over the doctrine on the one hand, and people who see in the doctrine a fatalism that would destroy the need for evangelism and every other Christian work on the other.  These are the ones who say, “Well, since God has predestined everything, what’s the use of evangelism?”   They ignore the fact that God has not only ordained the ends, but also the means by which He has determined to reach those ends, and those “means” primarily involve the activity (prayer, praise, and proclamation) of His people. To not be engaged in those “means” is for the Christian to be engaged in willful rebellion against the clear commands of God. 

Some may also recoil from the doctrine because they believe it obliterates human responsibility and dignity.  To them, men are reduced to mere puppets or robots that make no real choices.  They not only fail to recognize that God has ordained the end as well as the means, but they also reject the clear teaching of the Bible on these things simply because they can’t reconcile those things according to their own finite wisdom!  Our choices are real choices because God has said that they are real choices, and our choices have real consequences because God has said that they have real consequences.  No other reason should have to be given.  The fact that we may not be able to reconcile completely God’s absolute sovereignty and foreordination of all things with human responsibility does not negate the fact that both of those things are equally true, our choices are real, and we are not puppets or robots.  This gets into the mystery part of the equation.  We must, as Calvin said, speak where Sacred Scripture has spoken, but also stop speaking where Sacred Scripture has stopped speaking.  Scripture tells us clearly that the secret things belong to God, and the revealed things to us (Deut 29:29).  Sacred Scripture has revealed to us that God is absolutely sovereign, and that He has ordained all things that comes to pass.  The Scriptures also reveal to us that man is a rational creature and moral agent, and as such he makes real choices that produce real consequences, and he is responsible for the choices he makes.  Scripture does not attempt to explain in any in-depth manner how precisely those two seemingly paradoxical things cohere.  These are the secret things that belong to the infinite God.  The Scriptures simply maintain that God’s absolute sovereignty and human responsibility do cohere, and bids us not to quibble about it, nor develop elaborate philosophies to try and explain it, but to submit to the absolute authority of the Scriptures alone by simple faith and embrace those truths as mutually coherent, and understand that the secret things belong to God.  It should be a matter of self-evidence that there are limitations to our understanding, but God has provided us a sufficient amount of information to enable us to understand the most fundamental principles of His nature, His sovereignty, and human responsibility. How those things do in fact fully cohere is something we cannot know, but we know that they do because God has told us that they do.  As Edwin Palmer states, “This then is the religious humility of the Calvinist.  He confesses: I don’t know.  I can’t understand everything, but since it is in the Bible that God is 100% sovereign and yet I am responsible, I believe.”

Given all these facts then, it is not too much to say that special discretion and care should be exercised when speaking on this high, holy, and mysterious doctrine of predestination.  To avoid teaching the doctrine altogether is a gross sin, just as teaching it in a cavalier and reckless fashion is extremely dangerous and every bit as sinful.  Help us O Lord, for without You we truly can do nothing! “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33). 

You are on the right track my brother.  And, I know that nothing I have said is new to you, because you’ve heard me say it all before.  But given the amazing work that God has done in you in such a short amount of time, and the opportunities He’s given you to share about these awesome truths that exalt His power and grace, I felt compelled to share these things with you to encourage you in your witness for our Sovereign Lord, and in encouraging you in those things, I am ever reminded of the special care I (we) must employ as we proclaim these truths to those who are not merely ignorant of them, but in some cases even hostile to them.