Quotes About Predestination

The Pelagian denies that God has a plan; the Arminian says that God has a general but not a specific plan; but the Calvinist says that God has a specific plan which embraces all events in all ages.

what God does. He sovereignly picks a man up out of the kingdom of Satan, and places him in the kingdom of heaven. Those are the elect that are referred to some 25 times in the Scriptures: Matt. 24:22: "For the elect's sake, whom he chose, he shortened those days" (at the destruction of Jerusalem). I Thess. 1:4: "Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election." Rom. 11:7: "The election obtained it, and the rest were hardened." Rom. 8:33: "Who shall lay anything to charge

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. (Isaiah 46:10)

God saved you not because you have been good, but he sovereignly arranged for you to hear the gospel and regenerated you.

Accordingly, a person who insists that he accepts Christ because of his own free will, and not because of God's sovereign choice and direct action in his soul, cannot at the same time affirm a sovereign God.

Since the only God presented in the Bible is an absolutely sovereign God, a person who affirms human free will cannot, without contradiction, affirm belief in God.

the doctrine of election is foundational to Christian soteriology in particular.

Rather than choosing an individual because of any foreseen faith, the elect individual receives faith precisely because God has chosen him.

God's will determines all the choices and circumstances of his creatures, so that nothing is up to man's "free will." In fact, because God is completely sovereign, man has no free will:

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:16)

Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary says, "In Romans 8:29 and 11:2, the apostle Paul's use of the word foreknew means 'to choose' or 'to set special affection on.' The electing love of God, not foresight of human action, is the basis of His predestination and salvation."[149]

election is "arbitrary," since God indeed rules "by absolute authority," and election is indeed based on his "individual discretion.

God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Romans 9:18), and therefore election is "arbitrary," but not in the pejorative sense.

The Bible denies that man has "free will." Although the will of man exists as a function of the mind, it is not "free" in the sense that it can operate apart from God's constant and complete control.

Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Romans 9:18).

God is sovereign, man is not free – and there is no problem. This is biblical, coherent, simple, and defensible.

The Bible does not say to the Christian, "Thank you for choosing Jesus Christ" or even "Congratulations on your wise decision"; rather, it says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). Needless to say, to misunderstand or even reverse this fundamental truth in our doctrine of salvation is to cripple a person's relationship with God at the very beginning. And for this person to perform the work of the ministry is to spread heresy.

Rather, whoever believes the gospel does so only because God chooses to save him, to change his inner nature, and to produce faith in him.

It is a false doctrine to suggest that God provides the mere possibility of salvation, and that it is up to each individual to actualize it when he believes the gospel by his own free will.

God had chosen certain individuals to receive salvation, and he sent Jesus Christ to die for them and to pay for their sins. He has appointed a time for each of these chosen ones to be summoned and converted.

You must not think that you had the good sense or moral clarity to choose Christ, as if God did not sovereignly and irresistibly cause you to so choose. The doctrine of free will represents the height of impiety and the essence of false religion.

Since they are dead, they are unable to cooperate with any assistance, or even request it. In fact, they would choose not to be rescued if left by themselves (Romans 8:7; Colossians 1:21). Against this, the Father has chosen some to be saved by Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 1:4-5) by dragging them out of the water (John 6:44, 65), purely by his own initiative (Romans 9:15).

God has determined to save the elect and to condemn the reprobates. The elect are those whom God has chosen to save from sin and hell by producing in them faith in the Lord Jesus.

As for the charge that the doctrine of predestination encourages licentiousness, there must be something wrong – something depraved and sinister – in those who make this objection.