Case Against Conditional Predestination

Introduction

Predestinarian view has held the controversial ground for centuries since the time of Calvin. It is indeed difficult, in our human understanding, to rightly establish the interrelationship between God's sovereign grace and the role of our free will. There are many verses we could use for our examining purposes, but I will take Romans 8:29 for today. In this verse, Paul writes:

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;” - Romans 8:29, NASB.

Concerning predestination, one of the popular views among Christians today (and the one we are concerned with today) is the notion of “foresight of faith.” That is, in His omniscience, God “foreknew” the saints who would choose the truth from the beginning of time, and accordingly, He chose them. At first glance, one might think that there seems to be no problem with this, since God's omniscience and omnipotence are indisputable, according to the canonical texts. Along with this, our “free will” comes into play, in which a person expresses his or her sincere belief in the redeeming death of Christ and His resurrection, and makes a conscious commitment to observe His commandments. Both doctrines – one concerning God's omniscience and the other concerning human justification – hold true when considered separately. However, it is when we begin to mix these two principles, we begin to have our problems. There are many things that could be mentioned, but I will address two prevalent problems for our purpose.

Question of Sovereignty

Under the assumptions of “foresight of faith,” God's sovereignty is questioned. What is God's sovereignty? It is God's absolute authority to exercise His will and power in the universe. Our God is able, due to the absolute perfection of His character. As the Creator and the Governor, His decrees are final and they are to be obeyed. He is the Justice. Given these, God does not owe to anyone the grace that He freely gives us. God does not have to choose a person based on one's merits – these merits include the choice itself, which also, in actuality is manifested in one's reason by God Himself (this we will deal with separately and extensively later).

Concerning Calvinism, we ask: (1) Why does God only pick out the ones He wills, to save some? and; (2) Is God fair? As to the first question, I honestly do not know why He does not do it for all. One's salvation is ultimately up to God's total and absolute sovereignty. As to the second question, the answer is yes; for there is no partiality with God (Rom. 2:11). Consider this: we are all destined to Hell if we are left to ourselves, for all have fallen short of God's glory (Rom. 3:23). God did not have to provide the means of escape through the revelation in Christ. We must remember that, grace is never required – and that is why it is grace. And by grace we have been saved through faith; not of ourselves – it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). In God's sovereign grace, His justice and love are manifest.

In the notion of “foresight of faith,” I daresay that the orthodox Christian doctrine of faith-salvation almost becomes like the work-salvation. We have to realize that we are not the ones who are making the choice to obey and follow God. Paul deals extensively with the issue of sin in his epistle to the Romans. In the first chapter, he writes that “Even though [the men] knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (v.21). We are damned if we are left to ourselves. We will not obey God even if we know Him, Paul says. The human nature is essentially sin (Rom. 5:12). Sin by nature is against God; that is, our nature is everything God is not. We must not fall into the danger of thinking that the salvation, and the goodness of God thereof, is a choice we make and something we will for – that would be a choice against the essence of our nature. 1 John 2:11 says, “One who hates his brother [one who sins] is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” From this verse, we know that we cannot obtain for ourselves the light that is salvation, unless it has been revealed to us by God Himself. Consider John's analogy: a man in darkness cannot synthesize light by any means within himself. It is only the light itself, an external source, that provides the illumination and enables the man in darkness to perceive both the light external and the darkness internal. Likewise, a sinful man will not choose God if given the choice of salvation. Such is the reason for our need for grace. The act of believing only comes through the work of the Holy Spirit, which is from God.

Origin of Free Will

In the Genesis account, God created man in His own image (Gen. 1:27). Accordingly, though we share many a metaphysical trait with our friends of the animal kingdom, there are some characteristics that are only attributed to humans. Namely, reason and love are exclusive to humans, however imperfect they may be. This principle applies to free will as well. When we ask about free will, we have to understand that the very freedom to choose what we will comes from God. From here on, we can let the Word speak for itself:

“Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” - 2 Peter 1:3

The word “granted” here is the Greek word “doreomai,” which is the verb form “to present, bestow.” We can take this as meaning that God Himself has bestowed unto the believers the true knowledge of Him pertaining to life and godliness, when we were still in our rebellious state, not drawing ourselves to God on our own because we both could not, and would not. We were doomed to be eternally lost. Our faith, the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ to our hearts, minds, and souls through Holy Spirit, would become impossible without the sovereign grace of God. Early twentieth century theologian John Murray writes, "Even if it were granted that "foreknew" means the foresight of faith, the Biblical doctrine of sovereign election is not thereby eliminated or disproven. God foresees all that comes to pass. Then the question would be: whence proceeds this faith which God foresees? And the only Biblical answer is that the faith which God foresees is the faith he himself creates."

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). We see clearly in this text that it is not our obedience (or the lack thereof) that draws us to Christ but God Himself. Jesus goes further on to say, “No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). It was not even our Lord's own will to draw us to Him, but only the sovereign will of the Father.

Conclusion

On the grounds that I have provided, I reject the case of “foresight of faith.” Predestination is not conditional upon our will, but it is an unconditional election. I conclude in John Murray's words who writes, “Thus it is God who predestinates, it is God who calls, it is God who justifies, and it is He who glorifies. It is not the foresight of difference but the foreknowledge that makes difference to exist, not a foresight that recognizes existence but the foreknowledge that determines existence. It is sovereign distinguishing love."