What Is Predestination? (Crucial Questions)

by R.C. Sproul

Martin Luther affirmed the central place of predestination and the importance of teaching it. He called it the core ecclesia, meaning “the heart of the church.” While Luther was at times given to overstatements and hyperbole, this is not such an instance.

No other doctrine more clearly demonstrates our utter dependence on divine grace and mercy than the doctrine of predestination. No other doctrine is more comforting to the personal struggle of faith than the doctrine of election.

Historically, virtually every denomination and every church that has a confession of faith or creed has developed some doctrine of predestination. We cannot say that Presbyterians believe in predestination and Methodists don’t, or that Episcopalians believe in predestination but Roman Catholics don’t. Every church and every Christian has some doctrine of predestination because the Bible has a doctrine of predestination.

The word predestination wasn’t invented by Augustine or Luther or Calvin. It is found in the New Testament itself, and therefore, it is not peculiar to a movement in church history after the Apostolic age. The word refers to a biblical concept, and anyone who is convinced of the authority of Scripture must recognize that in order to submit to the Apostolic word, one must have some understanding of the doctrine of predestination.

Paul is talking about salvation—a predestined salvation in which, from the foundation of the world, believers were chosen by God to be saved.

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.

It simply concerns our final destiny and where we will go when we die.

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.

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 b...

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?

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.

These verses are often called the “golden chain of salvation” because they contain a series of redemptive actions or events, a shorthand version of what theologians call the ordo salutis or the order of salvation.

the text does not explicitly say that those whom He foreknew He predestined on the basis of His foreknowledge. All it says is that those whom He foreknew He also predestined. The prescient view assumes that predestination is based in some way on foreknowledge. However, this is an inference from the text and not necessarily justified.

It is much better to understand this passage as denoting universal categories in this golden chain: all who are foreknown (in whatever sense one understands foreknowledge here) are predestined, and all who are predestined are called, and all who are called are justified, and all who are justified are glorified.

The external call is the basic proclamation of the gospel message to all people. Some respond positively; others reject it.

The internal call, however, has to do with the secret operation of the Holy Spirit. He calls men and women inwardly, changes the dispositions of their hearts, raises them to new spiritual life, awakens them from their dogmatic slumbers, and impels them toward faith and belief. That’s what is meant by the inward call of God.

text when Paul says that those whom God calls He justifies? If the call referred to in this passage is the external call, that would mean everyone who hears the external call is justified, and that everyone who hears the gospel has faith. But we know this is not the case. Therefore, this passage cannot refer to the external call; it can refer only to the internal call.

The Bible doesn’t say that predestination is based on God’s prior knowledge of what people will do. It is based on God’s prior knowledge of people. The elect are predestined to be called—and all who are predestined to be called are called, and all who are called are justified, and all who are justified are glorified. No one in the group of the elect will fail to be elect. All the text is saying is that God’s predestination includes a knowledge in advance of the objects of His predestinating work—the people.

To summarize, the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 8 that all of the elect are foreknown by God. There is no election apart from foreknowledge. Predestination means that people are predestined to be called, justified, and glorified.

The prescient view argues that God looked down the corridors of time before Esau and Jacob were born, and on the basis of knowing how they would behave, He chose Jacob and not Esau. Yet that argument flies in the face of the clear teaching of the Apostle.

In Romans 9, Paul labors the point that our election is not based on what we do—not on our doing, our willing, our goodness, or our badness. Instead, before we were born—and without any respect to what we would do or not do—God elected some and not others, that His purposes in election might stand. It’s fascinating to note that God didn’t just distinguish between two different people, cultures, lands, and religions; He distinguished between sons of the same father in the same family. Further, they were not just brothers but twins. Paul uses this illustration to drive home the point that this was done to show the purpose of God’s electing mercy and to make absolutely clear that our election is based “not on human will or exertion” but on the sovereignty of God.

If God’s election were based on what we do, no one would raise a voice of protest or accuse God of being unfair. Our view of fairness stems from our belief that people should be judged according to their behavior, so Paul knew that people would struggle with the teaching that in the case of Jacob and Esau, their respective destinies were planned from the foundation of the world by God according to His sovereign counsel, without any respect to anything either one of them ever did or would do.

When unbelievers hear the teaching found in Romans 9, they often say something like this: “Well, I’m not a believer, so why should I even be concerned? If I’m not elect, and if I’m not going to be saved, why should I bother?” The response to that is this: to any who do not at this moment have faith in Jesus Christ, there is no reason whatsoever to assume you are not elect. Every person who has ever come to faith in Christ was at one time an unbeliever. You may very well be numbered among the elect but have not yet realized your election.

The doctrines surrounding the Augustinian view of election are also referred to as the “doctrines of grace.” This designation rightly puts the accent where it belongs, since the focal point of the biblical doctrine of election is the grace of God.

In its simplest terms, grace can be defined as “unmerited favor.” When we receive grace from God, we receive a blessing, favor, or benefit from His hand that we have not deserved, earned, or merited. It comes to us simply from the wideness of His mercy.

the first thing we must understand about God’s grace is that His grace is sovereign. Grace is something that God is never obligated to give—God doesn’t owe anyone grace.

If God owed us grace, it would no longer be grace. It would simply be justice. Justice is receiving one’s due as a reward or a punishment for certain forms of behavior. Grace, however, is not required. God reserves the right of cosmic executive clemency. It is executive privilege on His part. He can be merciful to whom He wants to be merciful, and He can withhold His mercy or His grace from whomever He decides to withhold it from, for whatever reason He is inclined to do so, in order to accomplish His purposes.

There are different kinds of nonjustice—two of which are most important for our consideration. On the one hand, there is injustice. On the other hand, there is mercy or grace. Injustice is a category of evil that is absolutely antithetical to justice. If God ever did anything that was unjust, He would no longer be a righteous God. He would no longer be good. But consider mercy or grace. Is there anything wrong with a holy, righteous God being gracious or merciful? It would not be evil for a just and righteous Being to grant mercy or grace, because grace and mercy are laudable.