What is predestination? (Is it foreknowledge?)

The Bible clearly teaches predestination, but the concept has caused division in the church for hundreds of years. Some people have tried to resolve the conflict by treating predestination as foreknowledge. But this doesn’t work. Predestination means foreordain, predetermine, decide beforehand, and appoint beforehand. This is different than foreknowledge (pre-knowing or prior knowledge).

The sovereign will of God predetermined how the universe would work, spoke the worlds into existence, designed all the plants and animals, breathed the breath of life into man, predestined the plan of salvation, predetermined the results of accepting salvation, and predetermined the judgment of rejecting salvation.

Predestination and foreknowledge are different words

Some people say predestinate really means pre-knowledge. However, this is very unsatisfying because the concepts are very different. Furthermore, there are 2 separate words for these 2 different concepts. If God had wanted to convey the thought of foreknowledge, he could have caused that word to be used.

4309 proorizó
(from 4253 /pró, “before” and 3724 /horízō, “establish boundaries, limits”) – properly, pre-horizon, pre-determine limits (boundaries) predestine. Since the root (3724 /horízō) already means “establish boundaries,” the added prefix (pro, “before”) makes 4309 (proorízō) “to pre-establish boundaries,” i.e. before creation.HELPS™ Word-studies

4267 proginóskó
(from 4253 /pró, “before” and 1097 /ginṓskō, “to know”) – properly, foreknow; used in the NT of “God pre-knowing all choices – and doing so without pre-determining (requiring) them” (G. Archer).HELPS™ Word-studies

God has the sovereign power of predestination

Jeremiah, the crying prophet, had the unenviable task of trying to turn an entire nation from evil idolatrous practices. Here is the essence of the message in a single conversation with the Lord. Even though God had foreknowledge of the results, he gave the people a choice, but he predestined the results of their failures.

Then the LORD gave me this message:  “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay?  As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.

“Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem.  Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’” 

But the people replied,  “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.”  (Jeremiah 18:5-12 NLT)

God has the sovereign power to decide in advance what he is going to do. He is not a man, that he should lie or repent (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29). If the people continue sinning, God will perform the evil that he has predestined, but it the people repent, God will change his actions.

I will repent of the evil … I will repent of the good – All God’s dealings with mankind are here declared to be conditional. God changeth not, all depends upon man’s conduct.Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

  • The potter and the clay – The sovereign potter tries to make one kind of vessel but the stubborn willful clay ruins it by resisting him so he makes another kind of vessel

Foreknowledge is not predestination

Some people have focused on the conflict between Moses and Pharoah as an example of predestination. Let’s look at how and why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

When God commissioned Moses from the burning bush on Mt Sinai, he told him his foreknowledge.

 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.  And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. (Exodus 3:19-20 KJV)

It should come as no surprise that God’s foreknowledge was correct.

And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.  And Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.”  And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword. And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. (Exodus 5:1-5)

Therefore, God judged Pharaoh for his hard heart.

Then the LORD said unto Moses,  Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.  (Exodus 6:1)

Pharaoh made the choice and God determined the results. God makes the rules. But he doesn’t play the game.

The sovereign power of God allows people to turn from their evil ways

The Bible truth is consistent with God’s message through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the judges, the kings, and the prophets (such as Jeremiah, Jonah, Daniel, and Amos).

This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds:  “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. 

 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes.  Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:

“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God.  They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.” 

 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.  (Jonah 3)

Here is how Moses summed up all the teaching of the law and covenants at the end of 40 years of wandering in the wilderness…

Today I offer you life and prosperity or death and destruction. This is what I’m commanding you today: Love the LORD your God, follow his directions, and obey his commands, laws, and rules. Then you will live, your population will increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you’re about to enter and take possession of. But your hearts might turn away, and you might not listen. You might be tempted to bow down to other gods and worship them. If you do, I tell you today that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live for a long time in the land that you’re going to take possession of when you cross the Jordan River.  I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live.  Love the LORD your God, obey him, and be loyal to him. This will be your way of life, and it will mean a long life for you in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)

  • Free Will in the Old Testament — The Old Testament contains almost 4000 years of history about people exercising free will to obey or disobey God bringing blessings and curses.

Years later, Joshua reminded the people of this choice

“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord,  choose this day whom you will serve,  whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living;  but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:14-15)

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