Predestination
A friend asked me to help him understand predestination. While I've taught and written some on this topic, I realized that I never posted any Christian Teaching on my website. So I gathered my notes to meet with him and decided to add this webpage.
Tim Isbell, 1/21/2022
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?
Predestination
God’s purpose has always been to create a kingdom of nations that are conformed to the likeness of Jesus through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Opting into life in God’s eternal Kingdom is available for anyone who will devote their whole life and personality to the Lord Jesus.
The indwelling Spirit of Jesus assures us that we are God’s adopted children and that our future is secure. Through all circumstances, even suffering and hardship, our hope survives because we know that just as God resurrected Jesus to a new life he will do the same for all who follow him.
To understand election and predestination. Consider a great ship on its way to heaven. God chose (elected) this ship (the Church) as his very own vessel. Christ is the Captain and Pilot of the ship. Anyone who desires to crew on this elect ship can do so through a living faith in Christ. As long as we are on the ship, in company with its Captain, we are among the elect. If we abandon the ship and Captain, we forfeit our place among the elect.
Predestination tells us about the ship’s destination and what God has prepared for those remaining on it: the glory of Christ-likeness in the age-to-come.
For a deeper dive into this topic, check out A Concise Summary of the Corporate View of Election and Predestination, a publication by the Evangelical Society of Arminians.