So runs the opening stanza of Robert Burn’s famous poem ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’. Scotland’s national bard was certainly no theologian, and his dubious morals compel one to question whether he was a believer. But this poem which is an astute critique of Pharisaic hypocrisy within the church of Burn’s day was quoted to me some time back as a riposte to the Biblical and hence Reformed doctrine of predestination.

It is probably true to say that the doctrine of predestination is more than any other doctrine associated with the Reformed Faith in the popular imagination. Sadly however it appears reactionary and repellent to nearly all outside the Reformed constituency. And it may be for this reason that few within the Reformed Church unapologetically proclaim this truth today with the same relish and zeal that characterised the reformers.

It is still widely believed both within and out with the church that this doctrine actually originated in the thought and teaching of John Calvin. However, it did not originate with Calvin. Nor did it come from Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Zacharias Ursinus, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox or any of the other great leaders of the Protestant Reformation, although they all steadfastly proclaimed, adhered to and defended this awe-inspiring truth. And it is my contention in this article that we would do well to learn from their Theo-centric and God-glorifying example.

Nor did it originate with Augustine, the 5^th century theologian and bishop, as some are believe. Although he, like the reformers, boldly defended it in opposition to the teaching of Pelagius and others who sought to spread the falsehood that man’s salvation is not due to the sovereign grace of God but is within the grasp and power of man himself.

No! The doctrine of predestination originated with God who alone revealed it to His church in and through the word of truth which is the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. It is on this basis that George Whitefield, the celebrated 18^th century itinerant preacher whose labours were so mightily blessed by God both in Britain and in America, in a letter to John Wesley explained why he believed and upheld the doctrine of election and predestination. He stated, ‘Alas, I never read anything that Calvin wrote; my doctrines I had from Christ and His Apostles; I was taught them of God.’

Predestination defined⤒🔗

Let us therefore acknowledge that the word predestination is used in the Bible specifically to denote God’s decision, made in eternity past within the supreme council of the Godhead, regarding the final destiny of each person. The prefix ‘pre’ refers to the decision made in the past – in eternity past to be precise, and destination refers to the individual destinies of all men.

Within the word predestination is encapsulated both the doctrine of election – that is the free gift to individual sinners of salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ to the glory of God’s grace, and the reprobation or the passing over of others to damnation who will justly be punished for their sin to the glory of God’s justice. Calvin lucidly and succinctly explains it this way. He writes

‘Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which he has determined in himself, what would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or other of these ends, we say he is predestined either to life or to death.’

Institution III, xxi, 5

While the world seeks to classify people by gender, class, ability, wealth, ethnicity or nationality, the Bible is unequiv­ocal in teaching that there is in reality only two classifications of person. These are the saved and the unsaved, the believer and the unbeliever, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares! And such correspond to the elect and the reprobate.

Predestination is Biblical←⤒🔗

While many professing Christians vociferously object and refuse to accept this teaching and are notoriously scathing and hostile towards the Reformed Faith on account of this doctrine, we must nevertheless understand that Calvin’s observation which is elucidated in the Westminster Confession of Faith simply reflects the clear and plain teaching of the word of God! We are specifically told in the Bible that salvation “is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom 9:16). In other words, it is neither on account of our faith nor our works that God saves but merely of His grace. And to those who would dare to question the sovereignty of God in predestination, God says:

O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.Romans 9:20-23

In the Acts of the Apostles we are explicitly told that “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Only those who were ordained to eternal life believed. Only those appointed to eternal life were effectually called to life, light and salvation in Christ through His gospel. God’s Word categorically declares, “For whom he did foreknow (meaning fore-loved), he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 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” (Rom 8:29-30). Salvation is from start to finish the work of God. He is the Author, Worker and Finisher of the salvation of His elect.

Predestination must be taught←⤒🔗

It was on this basis that the reformers made clear that the awesome doctrine of predesti­nation must be preached and taught within the confines of the church to magnify God’s grace and give Him the glory that is due to Him alone and for the edification, comfort and assurance of the saints. The Westminster Confession rightly declares: ‘The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in his Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election’ (III, vii).

Theodore de Beza rightly cautioned in his A briefe declaration of the Table of Predestination that ‘we speak no further herein than God’s Word doth limit us: and that we set forth the same thing which the Scripture teacheth accordingly and to edification.’ Similarly John Knox while agreeing with his contemporaries and successors that care must be taken in handling this doctrine nevertheless was adamant that it was essential and foundational to our understanding of the doctrines of God, man and salvation.

He wrote: ‘Some do think that because the reason of man cannot attain to the understanding, how God shall be just, making in his counsel this diversity of mankind, that therefore better it were to keep silence in all such mysteries, than to trouble the brains and minds of men with curious disputation. I willingly confess, that all curiosity ought to be avoided, and that with great sobriety we ought to contemplate and behold that incomprehensible mystery of our redemption. But yet I say, that the doctrine of God’s eternal Predestination is so necessary to the Church of God, that without the same can Faith neither be truly taught, neither surely established; man can never be brought to true humility and knowledge of himself; neither yet can he be ravished in admiration of God’s eternal goodness, and so moved to praise him as appertaineth.’

Predestination, the reformers rightly remind us, is the eternal and unquenchable spring from which all of God’s grace and blessing originate and flow.

Predestination essential to our understanding the sovereignty of God←⤒🔗

The reformers were passionate in their conviction that the doctrine of predestination is essential therefore to our understanding of the sovereignty of God. Consider the following rationale posited by Jerome Zanchius in his famous work Absolute Predestination. He articulates five reasons why this is so:

1. For without it we cannot form just and becoming ideas of God. Thus, unless He certainly foreknows and foreknew from everlasting all things that should come to pass, His understanding would not be infinite, and a Deity of limited understanding is no Deity at all.
2. He alone is entitled to the name of true God who governs all things, and without whose will (either efficient or permissive) nothing is or can be done. And such is the God of the Scriptures, against whose will not a sparrow can die nor an hair fall from our heads (Matt. 10). Now what is predestination but the determin­ing will of God?
3. Nor can we rationally conceive of an independent, all-perfect first cause without allowing Him to be unchangeable in His purposes. His decrees and His essence coincide, consequently a change in those would infer an alteration in this.
4. Without predestination to plan, and without providence to put that plan in execution, what becomes of God’s omnipotence? It vanishes into air. It becomes a mere nonentity. For what sort of omnipotence is that which may be baffled and defeated by the very creatures it has made? Very different is the idea of this attribute suggested by the Psalmist, “Whatsoever the Lord willed, that did He, in heaven and in earth, in the sea and in all deep places” (Psalm 135:6), i.e., He not only made them when He would, but orders them when made.
5. He alone is the true God, according to Scripture representation, who saves by His mere mercy and voluntary grace those whom He hath chosen, and righteously condemns (for their sins) those whom He thought fit to pass by. But without predestination there could be no such thing either as sovereign mercy or voluntary grace. For, after all, what is predestination but His decree to save some of His mere goodness, and to condemn others in His just judgement?

Now it is most evident that the Scripture doctrine of pre­determination is the clearest mirror wherein to see and contemplate these essential attributes of God. Here they all shine forth in their fullness of harmony and lustre.

Beza similarly justifiably cautions us that to deny this truth is no minor matter. He writes ‘we cannot think that anything happeneth contrary to God’s will, except we deny blasphemously that he is omnipotent and almighty.’

We must therefore conclude that those who reject the Biblical and Reformed doctrine of predestination are erroneously robbing God of His sovereignty in creation, providence and redemption. We must avoid this grave error by believing and proclaiming the Biblical and Reformed doctrine of predestination.

Predestination is essential to our understanding the true gospel←⤒🔗

If we neglect, reject or fail to proclaim predestination and election the reformers were insistent then we are failing to preach and teach the full-orbed gospel. Indeed they would go further and say that we are actually failing to preach the true gospel. Again, we would do well to heed the prudent advice of Zanchius who notes that

‘The Gospel is to be preached, and that not partially and piece-meal, but the whole of it.’

The commission runs, “Go forth and preach the Gospel;” the Gospel itself, even all the Gospel, without exception or limitation. So far as the Gospel is maimed or any branch of the evangelical system is suppressed and passed over in silence, so far the Gospel is not preached. Besides, there is scarce any other distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel can be preached, in its purity and consistency, without this of predestination.

Election is the golden thread that runs through the whole Christian system; it is the leaven that pervades the whole lump.’ He further adds: ‘Now the doctrine of predestination batters down this delusive Babel of free-will and merit. It teaches us that, if we do indeed will and desire to lay hold on Christ and salvation by Him, this will and desire are the effect of God’s secret purpose and effectual operation, for He it is who worketh in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure, that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord.’

Regardless of the label that is used to identify opponents of sovereign grace, whether Pelagian, Universalist, semi-Pelagian or Arminian such believe and teach that salvation is synergistic rather than monergystic. They believe that it is a question of God and man co-operating in man’s salvation. They believe that God has done all things requisite for the salvation of every man and that it is down to man as to whether he is saved or not. This however is not the teaching of the Bible.

How can those who are dead in their trespasses and sins choose to believe and live without God first regenerating them and granting to them the gift of faith? Thus the great Scottish reformer John Knox writes, ‘Faith springeth from Election, so is it established by the true knowledge of that doctrine only, which this day is most furiously oppugned (opposed) by those who do not understand the same.’ Beza adds: ‘It is most evident, that they which teach that man’s salvation either in part or wholly dependeth and is grounded in works, destroy the foundation of the Gospel of God.’

And yet tragically the Arminian error has become the popular view among evangelicals today even in Scotland where the Biblical and Reformed Faith once shone so bright. We must not however follow popular opinion or majority thinking but instead we must continue to embrace and disseminate the plain teaching of the word of God and uphold our Confessional standards and Reformed heritage for this is not an unimportant issue as many are apt to conclude.

Instead the reformers were surely correct in their estimation that those who oppose the Biblical and Reformed doctrine of predestination are in fact preaching a different gospel which is no gospel at all. For such people mistakenly believe that man is capable of earning his salvation through self-wrought faith, and/or meritorious works such as religious observances, keeping the law, doing penances or good deeds. This heresy was earnestly refuted and rejected by the Reformers. Luther’s Bondage of the Will, for example, comprehensively disproved the synergistic notions articulated by Erasmus which was and remains the official position of the Church of Rome.

In a similar way the Five Points of Calvinism formulated by the most able and learned Reformed divines from across Europe at the Synod of Dort in 1618 in opposition to the Remonstrance presented by the followers of Arminius who opposed the Biblical doctrine of unconditional election as well as man’s total depravity, limited atonement or particular redemption, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints upheld the true gospel to the glory of God alone. We must continue to do likewise.

Predestination necessary for true humility←⤒🔗

The doctrine of predestination is also necessary for the promotion of true humility throughout the visible church. For it ought to enable us to understand who and what we are in the flesh. It helps us to see and to understand that we were, and remain, altogether unworthy and undeserving of God’s sovereign grace, love and mercy and that we can only love Him because He first loved us who were at enmity with Him.

This ought to humble us. For when we have grasped that there are none righteous not even one and that we would never have repented and believed on Christ had God not worked in to enable us to do so then we have no cause for self-adulation and gratification.

This doctrine reinforces the awesome truth that we are saved only on account of the fact that we are recipients of sovereign grace which we continue to be dependent and reliant upon now and always. On this basis Knox writes, ‘from that same doctrine (predestination/election) floweth the very matter of true humility.’ Humility he wisely tells his readers ‘is the mother of all virtue, so it is also the root of all godliness ... none other doctrine maketh man careful to obey God according to his commandment, but that doctrine only which so spoileth man of all power and virtue, that no portion of his salvation consisteth within himself; to the end that the whole praise of our redemption may be referred to Christ Jesus alone; whom the Father, of very love, hath given to death for the deliverance of his body, which is the Church, to the which He was appointed Head before the beginning of all times.’ The doctrine of predestination ought not only breed humility in us but gratitude, love and joy as well.

The chief opponent of the doctrine of predestination is the Devil←⤒🔗

It was for this reason that Knox determinedly defended the doctrine of predestination against its adversaries in the mid-sixteenth century.

He noted: ‘Satan ever from the beginning hath declared himself enemy to the free grace and undeserved love of God, so hath he now in these last and most corrupt days most furiously raged against that doctrine, which attributeth all praise and glory of our redemption to the eternal love and undeserved grace of God alone. By what means Satan first drew mankind from the obedience of God, the Scripture doeth witness: to wit, by pouring into their hearts that poison, that God did not love them; and by affirming, that by transgression of God’s commandment they might attain to felicity and joy; so that he caused them to seek life where God had pronounced death to be. This same practice hath Satan ever from the beginning used, to infect the Church with all kinds of heresies; as the writings of Moses, of the Prophets, of the Apostles, and of the godlie in the primitive Church, do plainly witness. But alas! To such blasphemies did never the Devil draw mankind as now of late days, in the which no small number are become so bold, so impudent, and so irreverent, that openly they fear not to affirm God to be unjust, if that He in his eternal counsel hath Elected more of one sort of men than another, to life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

The reformers admonition is no less apposite for our own day. We ought to be aware that the greatest enemy of the doctrine of predestination and sovereign grace is the Evil One himself. Satan will use every ounce of cunning and deceit to lead man away from God and His word onto the path of self-reliance and self-confidence which terminates in self-righteousness and tragically in self-condemn­ation. Satan will forever whisper in our ears, ‘did God really say’ or ‘trust in your own ability; trust in the wisdom and ways of your fellow man.’ He will continuously seek with all his craft and cunning to have us doubt or cast aspersions on the authenticity and complete trustworthiness of the word of God.

Predestination a cordial to comfort the saints←⤒🔗

Knox not only endeavoured to refute those who ill-advisedly and misguidedly sought to mock and attack the doctrine of predestination but he also laboured with a true pastor’s heart to instil comfort, confidence and assurance in the saints.

He wrote that ‘there is no way more proper to build and establish faith, than when we hear and undoubtedly do believe that our Election (which the Spirit of God doth seal in our hearts) consisteth not in ourselves, but in the eternal and immutable good pleasure of God. And that in such firmitie that it cannot be overthrown, neither by the raging storms of the world, nor by the assaults of Satan; neither yet by the wavering and weakness of our own flesh. Then only is our salvation in assurance, when we find the cause of the same in the bosom and counsel of God.’

As we are wonderfully taught in Romans 8, each and every Christian’s salvation is safe and secure in Him who has known and loved His elect from eternity past and who will be with them to His eternal praise and glory for all eternity to come. To Him alone be the glory.