By Steve Swinburne

The doctrine of predestination, election, calling and foreknowledge is difficult to understand and has created confusion and division within the body of Christ. This paper is meant to deal biblically with this complex issue, which in the end only God can fully understand.

Let us start by defining the terms in which we will be speaking of. The word “called” or “calling” as translated in our English bible comes from the Greek word kletos. This word literally means “to be invited”. The second word we must look at is the Greek word proginosko, which is translated in our bibles as “foreknew” or “foreknowledge”. This word in the Greek means “to have knowledge before hand”. This word is used in 1 Peter 3:17 in talking about things the believers already knew, as well as being used in other passages to speak of the foreknowledge of God relating to predestination. The third word which is important in this topic is proorizo, which is translated as “predestined”. Proorizo means “to predetermine before hand” or “of God decreeing before eternity”. The last word we will look at is eklektos, which is translated from Greek to English as “chosen” or “elect”. The meaning of this word is “to pick out”. Now that we have defined from the Greek the words which will be discussed we can dive into the application of this words and their usage in the doctrine of salvation.

The first point that we need to realize is that everyone matters to God. Jesus made this known in their parable of the lost sheep is which the shepherd searches for the lost sheep and rejoices when it is found (Luke 15:3-7). God loves his creation and created man to worship Him, and thus he desires all men to know him. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, [4] who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” In addition 2 Peter 3:9 says that: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God desires all of mankind to come to him, however we know that all men will not come to God because many will ultimately choose to reject His calling (Matt. 19:16-30).

The bible teaches that Jesus gave himself as ransom for all men (1 Tim. 2:5-6). Therefore Jesus’ death represents a chance for all people to be drawn to Him (John 12:32). Since Jesus died for all and desires all mankind to know Him, anyone who receives Him will be saved. The elect is not made up of a special group of people who God chose before hand to go to heaven and thus they cannot choose to reject God. The Lord did not create a special group of robots to worship Him, he lets men choose whether they will accept Him or reject Him. Jesus gives salvation to whoever believes in Him and to as many who receive Him (John 1:12, John 3:16, 1 John 2:2). Paul teaches that men are without excuse for not knowing God because the law of God has been written on their hearts and creation alone reveals that God is real (Romans 1:19-20; 2:14-16).

Perhaps the clearest explanation of the Kingdom of God is found in Matthew 22:1-14. In this parable Jesus relates the Kingdom of Heaven to a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The parable explains that men had been invited to the banquet but choose not to come, they paid no attention to the King or the Son and ultimately denied them (Matt. 22:4-5). The King sent his servants to invite anyone who would come (Matt. 22:9). The wedding hall was then filled with all types of people who choose to accept the invitation (Matt. 22:10). The parable ends with Matt. 22:14 which says: “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” God has invited all of mankind to His wedding banquet and we can choose whether to accept or reject the invitation (Matt. 22:3,5,8). Thus if we accept God we become part of the chosen or elect who receive salvation through God’s grace because of the work of Jesus Christ, this work was foreordained by God and God chooses salvation through Jesus as the only way to enter heaven (Romans 6:23). Therefore, mankind’s attempts to seek God through any other way than Jesus are worthless, because God choose Jesus as the only means by which we can be reconciled to God. Thus we can become part of God’s elected not by works or human will, but by the means of grace provided through Christ Jesus (John 1:12-13).

The next main point is that in order to understand predestination we must also understand the role of Israel and God’s covenant with Abraham. God chose Abraham to be the father of people who would glorify his name (Deut. 14:2). However being a descendant of Abraham or a member of the nation of Israel did not guarantee salvation. The descendants of Abraham had to choose to worship God in order to receive the grace of God (Ex. 19:5, Deut. 11:22, 26-28). In addition the descendants of God’s “chosen man” and “chosen people” evolved into many nations and tribes of people. God’s grace was shown in that one did not have to be part of the nation of Israel to receive grace, they only had to believe. This is confirmed by the story of the prostitute Rahab, who makes the Hall of Fame of faith in Hebrews (Hebrews 11:31). God chose Abraham and the nation of Israel to spread his word to the nations and to be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:3). The danger we must avoid is always comparing the nation of Israel to the body of believers today, because not everyone in the nation of Israel followed God, many chose to reject God and fell away from God. Thus we can see that God abides by the decisions of humans to exclude themselves from being part of the chosen people. Romans 9:27 says: “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.” This remnant are those that choose God through the means by which he has provided (Luke 12:32, Romans 9:32).

Romans chapter nine has traditionally been the support for the Calvinist view of predestination. However, I believe by properly understanding of what Paul is saying here we can correctly interpret this passage. The first point I want to address is that Pharaoh first hardened his heart against God before God hardened his heart. Pharaoh had hardened his heart seven times, and consequently God let Him have his own way and hardened his heart three more times (Ex. 7-9, Romans 9:17,18). In fact, Pharaoh helped God’s work and showed more of God’s power by hardening his heart (Romans 9:17). The second section of Romans nine I want to address is the story of Jacob and Esau. Many people believe that God just decided before time that he would hate Esau and love Jacob. This is simply a poor interpretation. In Romans 9:13-15 Paul is explaining that it was never enough just to be a Jew in order to obtain salvation. These two brothers who were part of Israel made two different decisions. Jacob choose to serve God and thus he stood for the people of God. On the other hand Esau rejected God and began the nation of Edom who chose to be an enemy of God (Mal. 1:1-5). Thus God loved Jacob who loved Him, and hated Esau because Esau turned away from Him. This had been spoken of before hand by God (Gen. 25:23), according to his foreknowledge. Paul explains that because God rejected Esau he is not unjust. God had chosen before the creation of the world that only through faith in Him would man be saved. Esau rejected this faith and because of this no matter what his works were, or how much he desired to go to heaven, God would not have mercy upon Him. ?16? It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy (Romans 9:16).

The election and predestination of man for salvation is a collective reality. This is displayed throughout Paul’s epistles when he writes the Church bodies and says that they were chosen by God. This is true; God chose the body of Christ and the means by which man could come into union with God. Ephesians 1:4-6 says:

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [5] he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

It was God’s pleasure and will that those who would receive his grace would receive it only through adoption as sons through Christ Jesus. Those who come to God through Jesus become part of the body of Christ and have thus joined his chosen people. This is our blessed hope and our purpose as the body of Christ as outlined here is to praise God for his grace.

Another aspect of God’s election is that he chooses individuals for ministry. Before Jeremiah was born he was appointed to become a prophet (Jer. 1:5). He reluctantly accepted this calling (Jer. 1:6-7) and fulfilled God’s purpose for Him. God also choose Cyrus the Great to fulfill his purposes (Isa. 44:28-45:5). Jesus choose his disciples (Mark 3:13-19), and chose Paul to bring his salvation message to the world (Acts 9:6, 26:16). This is not to say God forces people to do his work or to come to Him. He chooses people to fulfill his purposes and invites them to do so. Jonah first disobeyed God’s purpose for Him in ministry, yet finally conceded to God’s will and preached to the city of Nineveh (Jonah 1-3). God’s call to ministry in these cases is usually so convincing and appealing that man cannot reject it and thus God’s will is carried out by those he chooses for special ministry.

There are two types of predestination. The first is a collective predestination in which God chose the body of believers in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. This body is not a closed club but open for all who accept him (John 1:12). The second type of predestination is individual. This is God choosing people to carry out his purpose in ministry. It is important to keep these two types of predestination separate and to look at who the audience is in passages in the bible which speak about predestination. God has left the door to salvation open to those who will receive Him (John 3:16), all creation matters to Him (1 Tim. 2:4) and all men are without excuse (Rom.1:19-20). God places Jesus as a cornerstone, a precious cornerstone and if we trust in Him we become part of a chosen people (1 Peter 2:4-12).