My mom heard a pastor preach on the subject of double predestination or reprobation, that God predestined or ordained some people to salvation and God ordained others to hell. The manner in which this preacher taught this subject left my mom in total despair over the salvation of some of her loved ones. The Scriptures do not leave believers in despair. God was not teasing in his Word when he declared, “Whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (Jo 3:16).
The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, is given credit with saying: When the sinner comes to the gates of Heaven, above the gate it reads “Whosoever will, let him come.” When he goes through the gates into Heaven and looks back, he sees written on the other side, “Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.”
John Calvin was not as positive as Spurgeon. I agree with John Calvin that the doctrine of double predestination or reprobation is a “dreadful” doctrine. Calvin, in his The Institutes of the Christian Religion, wrote: “The decree, I admit, is dreadful.” [1] However, I disagree with John Calvin that this “dreadful” doctrine is biblical.
Calvin taught that God created some people for salvation and created others for hell: “All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.”[2] Thank God, those “dreadful” words are not above the gates of heaven.
I am not on a campaign against Calvinism. [3] I identify with Charles Ryrie as a “moderate Calvinist.” [4]
With Ryrie, I believe in unlimited atonement, the effective call, efficacious grace, regeneration at the moment of faith in Christ, and reject double predestination, Lordship salvation, and perseverance of the saints (which is different from eternal security or preservation with which I agree).
Charles Ryrie in Basic Theology argued against the “dreadful” tenet of double predestination: To predestine is to preplan a destiny. The word proorizō [προορίζω] means to mark off beforehand.” Ryrie next states what Scripture declares is predestined. Notice, sinners are not predestinated to reprobation in the five times the word “predestinate” is used in the New Testament: “The death of Christ and its meaning were predestined by God (Acts 4:28; 1 Cor. 2:7). God’s elect are predestined to adoption (Eph. 1:5), to an inheritance (v. 11), and to ultimate conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:28–29).”
The two meanings of predestination: a biblical and a theological meaning
Ryrie elaborates that there are two meanings of predestination: a biblical and a theological one, and that the two are not synonymous among strict Calvinists. “Biblically, predestination is limited to the elect people and assures their present position and future destiny.
Theologically, the term has been used to include all things, that is, as a synonym for the total plan of God. From this theological definition it is an easy step for some forms of Calvinism to use predestination in relation to the destiny of the nonelect. Thus there arises a doctrine of double predestination. However, this is a logical assumption, not based on biblical texts. The Bible is clear that the elect are predestined, but it never suggests that there is a similar decree to elect some to damnation.[5]
Paul Enns also rejected double predestination or reprobation:
Unconditional election is both a logical necessity and a scriptural emphasis. Believers are chosen from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). The corollary doctrine of reprobation (that God decreed the non-elect to suffer eternally in hell) is not sustained by Scripture.[6]
There are five biblical references to” predestination” in Scripture and none of them has to do with the predestination of unbelievers. The word “predestination” in reference to believers only has to do with what God has predetermined for the believer in heaven. The believer’s salvation is not predestined nor the unbeliever’s reprobation.
This is the biblical definition of predestination
Christ was predestined to die (Acts 4:28).
Christ was predestined to die) (1 Cor 2:7-8).
Christians are predestined to the future aspect of adoption (Eph1:5). Paul in Romans 8:23 describes the end of adoption as glorification of the believer in heaven.
Christians are predestined to a future inheritance (Eph 1:10, 11).
Christians are predestined the future conformity to Christ’s image (Rom 8:28-29).
Notice, just as certain as Jesus was predetermined to die on the cross for the sins of the world, believers are going to be glorified, gain a future inheritance, and be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ.
This is the theological definition of predestination
So, when “predestination” is used in reference to “double predestination” it is used in a theological sense not a biblical sense. One’s theology can contradict God’s Word. For example, A. A. Hodge links reprobation with limited atonement: “It is purely unthinkable that the same mind that sovereignly predestined the elect to salvation and the rest of mankind to the punishment of their sins should, [double predestination] at the same time, make a great sacrifice for the sake of removing legal obstacles out of the way of those from whose path is decreed.”[7]
John Piper defends double predestination as one of his seven points of Calvinism.
Piper seeks to demonstrate that double predestination is not just a theological truth without any biblical basis:
While not using the word predestined for unbelievers who perish, the Bible does refer to the reality of it. And it’s not just a logical deduction. Sometimes this gets a bad rap because they say, “There you go applying your crusty, wooden, cold logic, which the Bible doesn’t do.” Well, forget that. We’re not talking about a logical deduction here — we’re talking about texts. For example, consider ... First Peter 2:8, that refers to those who “stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do” (Is Double Predestination Biblical? That is not a convincing argument from 1 Peter 2:8 for double predestination. In this article on double predestination, Piper simply quotes 1 Peter 2:8 and declares this verse teaches reprobation with no explanation. However, Thomas Constable at netbible.org refutes Piper, critiques double predestination, and thoroughly exegetes the verse:
The doctrine of “double predestination” is that God foreordains some people to damnation just as He foreordains some to salvation. This has seemed to some Bible students to be the logical conclusion we should draw because of what Scripture says about the election of believers (e.g., Rom. 9; Eph. 1). However, this is not a scriptural revelation. The Bible always places the responsibility for the destiny of the lost on them for not believing rather than on God for foreordaining (e.g., John 1:12; 3:36; 5:24; 6:47; Rom. 1—3).
Constable refutes the double predestination interpretation of 1 Peter 2:8
To what does God appoint those who stumbled, unbelief or the stumbling that results from unbelief? In the Greek text, the antecedent of “to this” (eis ho) is the main verb “stumble” (proskoptousi), as it is in the English text. “Are disobedient” (apeithountes) is a participle that is subordinate to the main verb. Therefore, we would expect “to this” to refer to the main verb “stumble” rather than to the subordinate participle “are disobedient.” God appoints those who stumble to stumble because they do not believe. Their disobedience is not what God has ordained, but the penalty of their disobedience is (cf. Acts 2:23; Rom. 11:8, 11, 30-32). [8]
Robert Lightner critiques double predestination:
“The Bible nowhere teaches the predestination of the lost to Hell. That is a human deduction, quite common among strict Calvinists, from the fact that God has predestinated some to salvation. God does not take the responsibility for men going to Hell. He did not predetermine that they should go there; He merely passed by them and left them in their lost estate for which they are responsible.” [9] Clearly, Lightner, distinguishes “merely passed by them and left them in their lost estate” or preterition from double predestination.
Distinction between general sovereignty and meticulous sovereignty
Andy Naselli in this article: Don’t Just Affirm God’s Meticulous Sovereignty and Providence, Love it! distinguishes between God’s general sovereignty which advocates, according to Naselli, that God is in charge of everything, but he does not ordain everything, such as sin, and God’s meticulous sovereignty which teaches God is in charge of everything, and he ordains everything—even sin and the reprobation of sinners. [10] This definition of meticulous sovereignty is not view of Ryrie, Enns, Lightner, and Constable.
God has a decreed will and a permissive will
God has decreed some things that will happen. God decreed the death of Christ for our sins before the foundation of the world. In Acts 2:22-23, wicked men carried out the predetermined plan of God when they crucified Christ. Even the decreed will of God does not eliminate human responsibility for which these wicked men are accountable to God.
God also has His permissive will or what He desires but does not decree. God desires the salvation of all people. Peter in 2 Peter 3:9 clearly states that the “Lord … is longsuffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” This is what God desires not what God has decreed.
Sinners go to Hell because they choose to do so by rejecting the gospel. John places the condemnation of the unsaved on the unsaved and not on God: “He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).
Sinners condemn themselves to Hell. The Bible does not teach reprobation, but rather retribution for the rejection of Christ as Savior: “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41).
Conclusion
God’s sovereignty is balanced with and does not violate human responsibility
1. Believers should pray that God would raise up laborers (Mt. 9:36-38). Do you have an unsaved loved one or friend who lives out of state? Then pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up laborers to befriend and win them.
2. Believers should pray for the salvation of the lost (Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1). I like the practice of George Muller who prayed for five unsaved friends each day until they all came to Christ.
3. Believers should witness to the lost (Acts 1:8). We also need to pray for boldness for when God opens the door to witness (Eph 6:19).
4. The unsaved must receive Christ as his/her savior (John 1:120. Listen to Paul stress the necessity of the sinner by an act of his/her will believing or receiving Christ as Savior: “If you shall confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom 10:9).
[1] John Calvin; Caleb Sinclair. The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grapevine Press) (1437). (Function). Kindle Edition.
[2] ibid., 1497.
[3] Leighton Flowers at soteriology101.
[4] Ryrie, Charles Caldwell, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (368). (Function). Kindle Edition.
[5] Ibid., 361.
[6] Enns, Paul P., The Moody Handbook of Theology (743). (Function). Kindle Edition.
[7] Archibald Alexander Hodge, The Atonement, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1953, (414).
[8] Thomas Constable at netbible.org on 1 Peter 2:8.
[9] Robert Lightner, The Death Christ Died, Des Plaines: Regular Baptist Press, 1967, 99.
[10] Andy Naselli, Don’t Just Affirm God’s Meticulous Sovereignty and Providence, Love it!