Men have taken the doctrine of predestination and made it teach something entirely foreign to Scripture, namely, that God has predestined some people to be saved and some to be lost. Predestination, which means “to mark out the destiny beforehand,” is never mentioned in the Bible in connection with the unsaved. Always it is used to speak of that destiny of glory which God has marked out for those who have trusted His Son as Savior. He has “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself,” that is, we are predestinated unto the full son-place, and we are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. 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.” In Christ “we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” |