SPEAKING NOTES: BIBLE MYTHBUSTERS 2 "PREDESTINATION"

Our purpose tonight is to bust the myth of Calvinism and explore the biblical doctrine of Predestination and Eternal Security.

Outline
1. Read the biblical passages that contain the word “predestination”
2. The Confusion: exploring John Calvin and His theology
3. The Truth: What does the Bible say?

MAIN TEXT

Rom 8:29-30

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (KJV)

Eph 1:4-5

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
KJV

Eph 1:11

11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
KJV

The Confusion: John Calvin’s theology

John Calvin wasn’t that bad of a guy.

Born
July 10, 1509(1509-07-10)Noyon, Picardie, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of France
Died
May 27, 1564 (aged 54)Geneva
Occupation
Pastor and theologian
Religious stance
Reformed Protestant

He always claimed to try his best to stick with what the Bible said and not follow any creed or church doctrine.

He rejected Roman Catholicism, the pope and the indulgences.

His business training and skills lead to the development of the silk industry in Geneva. His writing heavily influenced the city of Geneva and they adopted a moral and government system that proved to be very effective.

He was one of the first male theologians of the Protestant reformation to speak out against male marital infidelity and spoke harshly against spousal abuse.

The Five points of Calvinism, sometimes called the doctrines of grace and remembered with the acronymn TULIP. [1]

While he never articulated these ideas this way – this list is based upon his works

Total depravity
Also called "radical depravity" and "total inability", this point means that every person is corrupt and sinful throughout in all of his or her faculties, including the mind and will. Thus, no one is able to do what is truly good in God's eyes. (This does not mean that every act is as evil as it could be, but rather that every good act is corrupted by sin.) As a result of this corruption, man is enslaved to sin, rebellious and hostile toward God, blind to truth, and unable to save himself or even prepare himself for salvation.
Unconditional election
Election means "choice." God's choice from eternity past, of whom he will bring to himself, is not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in the persons he chooses but rather is unconditionally grounded in his own sovereign decision.
Limited atonement
Also called "particular redemption" or "definite atonement", the doctrine of limited atonement is the teaching that Jesus' atonement was definite and certain in its design and accomplishment. The doctrine is driven by the concept of the sovereignty of God in salvation and the Calvinist understanding of the nature of the atonement: In the Calvinist view, the atonement is viewed as a penal substitution (that is, Jesus was punished in the place of sinners), and since, Calvinists argue, it would be unjust for God to pay the penalty for some people's sins and then still condemn them for those sins, all those whose sins were atoned for must necessarily be saved. Moreover, since in this scheme God knows precisely who the elect are and since only the elect will be saved, there is no requirement that Christ atone for sins in general, only for those of the elect. Calvinists do not believe, however, that the atonement is limited in its value or power (in other words, God could have elected everyone and used it to atone for them all), but rather that the atonement is limited in the sense that it is designed for some and not all.
Irresistible grace
Also known as "effectual grace" or the "effectual call", this doctrine does not hold that every influence of God's Holy Spirit cannot be resisted but that the Holy Spirit is able to overcome all resistance and make his influence irresistible and effective. Thus, when God sovereignly purposes to save someone, that individual certainly will be saved.

Perseverance of the saints
Also called the "preservation of the saints" or "eternal security," the fifth point teaches that, since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated by human will or anything else, those whom God has called into communion with himself will continue in faith until the end. Those who apparently fall away either never had true faith to begin with or will return. This is slightly different from the "once saved, always saved" view prevalent in some evangelical churches in which, despite apostasy or unrepentant and habitual sin, the individual is truly saved if he or she had truly accepted Christ in the past; in traditional Calvinist teaching, apostasy by such a person may be proof that they never were saved.

The Truth

What does the Bible say?

There is some confusion on this topic b/c the knee-jerk reaction of some Apostolics leads to a misinterpretation of this topic. There is some predestination that takes place in God’s plan

Predestination Defined: To predestine means to foreordain, to determine in advance, to plan ahead of time with no possibility of alteration.[2]

Things and people that are predestined:

The Atonement

The sacrifice for our sins, the blood of Jesus Christ, was and is predestined to cover sin.

Zech 12:10

10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
KJV

Heb 9:13-14

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
KJV

The Incarnation

The incarnation was predestined.

Well didn’t Jesus say “not my will but yours be done” Yes – but I believe that it would have been impossible for Jesus to fail in His mission. People who believe that He could have failed misunderstand the nature of the incarnation – another topic for another day.

God predestined Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for all humanity.

Acts 3:18
But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
KJV

Acts 4:27-28

27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
KJV


The Church

The book of revelation describes the marriage supper of the Lamb – a future event illustrating the predestination of the church.

Rev 19:7-9

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
KJV

The confusion arises when people incorrectly assume that since the atonement, the incarnation and the church are unconditionally predestined that they are too!

God has not unconditionally predestined the individual soul. To do that would completely remove free will from the picture. While Calvinists rightly exult salvation as the unconditional mercy and grace of God they err in the area of free will.

Free will
The Bible states that man was created with a free will.

Gen 2:17

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
KJV

Even after the fall man still has the ability to choose


Matt 16:24

24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me
KJV

Eph 2:8

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
KJV

While it is impossible for us to be saved outside of the unmerited favour we are not so depraved that when confronted by our sin, convicted and drawn by His spirit we are not able to choose to follow His

Context

In order to figure out these scriptures (our text) we must examine them in their context.

If we interpret the scriptures incorrectly then we are going to get the wrong conclusion.

Think of biblical interpretation as a recipe. We must understand the different ingredients and add them all together to get a finished interpretation. Here are the ingredients:
· Author
· Audience
· Book
· Verses
· Passage
· The rest of scripture.

If these ingredients are missing, we miss what the Bible is trying to say, we fall into false doctrine and possibly lose out on salvation.

John Calvin’s false doctrine is based upon poor interpretation of the Scriptures

The doctrine of predestination becomes clearer once we examine the scriptures in their context.

Let’s look at Romans first.

Author: Paul, a Christian missionary. Paul was a highly educated man and was skilled in the OT Law. He dictated His book to a scribe named Tertius.[3]

Audience: The Christian church in Rome; primarily made up of Gentiles though it did have strong Jewish population. The readers were evidently familiar with the OT Law. This is largely because of the strong Jewish influence in the city of Rome.[4]

Book: Romans is a powerful book. It’s the cornerstone in the biblical doctrine of Justification by faith. It explains why, when and how a person receives biblical salvation. It’s purpose is to give a comprehensive statement of the Gospel.[5] It’s written in the ancient language of Koine Greek à which we must refer too if we wish to discover

The book is a doctrinal exposition of the Gospel

Outline for the book of Romans.[6]

This divides the topics Paul wrote about as they are found. You’ll notice the outline is not based upon chapter and verse divisions; that’s because there were no chapter and verse divisions in the original document. Chapters and verses were added several hundred years later to help us reference scripture. But they should never have any influence on interpretation.

I. Prologue (1:1-17)
II. Universal Guilt (1:18-3:20)
Ill. Justification by Faith (3:21-5:21)
IV. The Believer’s Life (6:1-8:39)
V. The Condition of Israel (9:1-11:36)
VI. Practical Exhortations for Christian Living
VIl. Epilogue (15:14-16:27)

Why is it important to do look at an outline?

The passage dealing directly with predestination is found in the section where Paul deals with the believer’s life. The first four sections chronologically detail the relationship of the Christian to Christ:
Universal Guilt
Justification by faith in the Blood of Christ
Living the Christian life

We have come a long way from Calvin’s doctrine

We’ve proven that:
Predestination applies to the atonement, the incarnation and the church
Man has free will and has the ability to accept or reject God
Predestination applies only to believers

Now let’s go a little deeper and explore not just predestination but eternal security as well.

The verses:

Rom 8:29-30

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (KJV)

“Whom” is a key word in this scripture.

Whom in the original language, Greek, is plural; lending to an interpretation that God has predestined a group not a single individual.[7]

“The point is that the believer’s salvation is not just a wish or a mere possibility. It is an absolutely certain event if the believer will only remain in God’s plan. Moreover, salvation will consist of a transformation into the image of the Son—the image of God in human flesh. We will not become God, but we will receive a sinless nature and an immortal body like that of the man Christ.”[8]

This is further cemented when we examine the context of verses

Context of the passage:
Rom 8:1-9
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
KJV

The context of predestination is smack in the middle of a passage describing living in Christ by the Spirit.

The only way then to be predestined is to be in Christ, His church and live in the Spirit!

Eph1: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

It is easy to see that the context of these “predestination passages” applies DIRECTLY to those sealed by the Holy Ghost.


Unconditional Election/Eternal Security

Is it possible for a Christian to be lost? YES!!!

Gal 5:4
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
KJV

Gal 5:4
You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace
NKJV

Heb 10:26
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
KJV

James 5:19-20
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
KJV

While these scriptures state that it is possible for a believer to sin – all of the one’s we read involve a WILLFULL and DELIBERATE rejection of Christ.

The Word of God is able to “divide the thoughts and intents of the heart.” There will be times while you walk on the straight and narrow that you will fall and fail but if you will repent, get up and keep going – you are still in Christ. However, if you wilfully reject Him you will be lost.

But if you’ll do your best; rest in Christ’s mercy and live in the power of the Spirit there is nothing that can stop you from reaching heaven. If firmly believe that God knows what will happen in your life and has worked everything for your and His favour. In a practice this means that you live everyday not worrying about your future or health b/c God is at the wheel of your life.

Conclusion: The Christian is predestined b/c of their place in Christ Jesus. As long as you walk with Him you will not fail! Heaven is your final destination – you are eternally secure. Through the Holy Ghost we have abundant, victorious and ultimately a triumphant life! Your life is in the hands of the Lord. So when life throws you a curveball don’t loose hope – God’s mapped out the destiny for those who live for Him – He’s not surprised or thrown off by adverstity. A predestined life is for all those who’ll deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow Jesus Christ.

[1] TULIP found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_points_of_Calvinism on October 30, 2007
[2] The Message of Romans Bernard, WAP, 190
[3] The Message of Romans, Bernard, WAP, 20
[4] Ibid, 21-22
[5] Ibid 23
[6] Ibid, 9-10
[7] ibid 191
[8] ibid 191