Quotes About Predestination

God had already determined your success even before you were born

Songez que, dans nos sociétés, dans nos moeurs, tout prédestine un sexe à l'autre; tout enseigne l'hétérosexualité, tout y invite, tout y provoque, théâtre, livre, journal, exemple affiché des aînés, parade des salons, de la rue. Si l'on ne devient pas amoureux avec tout ça, c'est qu'on a été mal élevé

The way I see it is that some things are just meant to be the way they are.

For Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so nothing is taught but what is expedient to know. Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to suppress.

It seems harsh to many to think that God chooses some and rejects others, and does not consider men's worth, that by his own free will he chooses whom he pleases and moreover rejects others. But what is this scruple except a desire to call God to order and subject him to their judgment?

Therefore, as Paul testifies, election, which is the cause of good works, does not depend upon men.

whenever God is pleased to make way for his providence, he even in external matters so turns and bends the wills of men, that whatever the freedom of their choice may be, it is still subject to the disposal of God.

God neither wills nor decrees anything without having long before directed it to its proper end. People

The salvation of all the elect is not less certain than the power of God is invincible.

Now, it is beyond a doubt that the steps by which the Lord in his mercy consummates our salvation are these, "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).

Christ is indeed presented to all, but God opens the eyes of the elect alone, and enables them by faith to seek after him. The

Hence the unskilful   rashly infer, that man did not sin by free choice.

Whence follows the plain conclusion, that if all men were elected, no man would perish.

So long as we are adopted by God in Christ, we are destined for slaughter. If

We are taught that the salvation of all the elect is as certain as that God's power is invincible. Besides

It is the Spirit of God alone who opens the gate of heaven to the elect. Further

The decree is dreadful indeed, I confess.

Let us imagine, for example, a merchant who, entering a wood with a company of faithful men, unwisely wanders away from his companions, and in his wandering comes upon a robber's den, falls among thieves, and is slain. His death was not only foreseen by God's eye, but also determined by his decree. For it is not said that he foresaw how long the life of each man would extend, but that he determined and fixed the bounds that men cannot pass [Job 14:5]. Yet

As all future events are uncertain to us, so we hold them in suspense, as if they might incline to one side or the other. Yet in our hearts it nonetheless remains fixed that nothing will take place that the Lord has not previously foreseen.

the reason for God's keeping some for himself and rejecting others is to be sought nowhere but in God himself. When

Therefore, God's foreknowledge cannot be the reason of our election, because when God [looks into the future and] surveys all mankind, he will find them all, from the first to the last, under the same curse.

How childish is   the attempt to meet this argument by the following sophism! "We were   chosen because we were worthy, and because God foresaw that we would be   worthy." We

in the freest manner, and on no mercenary   grounds, does God bestow upon us his love and favor, just as, when we   were not yet born, and when he was prompted by nothing but his own   will, he fixed upon us his choice. [111]

But we are not to forget that the stability of our salvation is not in us but in the secret election of God.