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INTRODUCTION
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Let us go through some definitions. Firstly, freewill is the ability to decide what to do, apart from any outside influence or divine intervention. Secondly, the word, “predestination” in Christian theology of salvation means that God in His sovereignty chose only some people to be saved but not others. Closely associated with predestination is the term, “double predestination” which means that just as God has predestined some to be saved, He also predestined others to eternal punishment. Please read further.
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ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
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Predestination – Predestined to be saved.
Eph 1:4-5 tells us that God chose who He wanted to save before He created the world. He predestined them to adoption as sons through Christ according to His own will. We did not choose Him (even though it may seem like we chose Him), it was He who chose us from a long time ago. He chose us to be saved long before we even existed. Similarly in Rom 8:29, God foreknew those who are saved and predestined them to become conformed to the image of His Son so that He (Christ) would be firstborn among many brethren. So, if there is freewill, then those who are not chosen by God can also be saved as long as they on their own freewill, decide to believe in Christ. But John 6:44 tells us that no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him. If there is freewill, then verses Eph 1:4-5, Rom 8:29 and John 6:44 are not true, and this means that God’s word is not true. But God’s word is everlasting and always true. Therefore, there is no freewill at all when it comes to a person’s salvation in Christ. God chose us and drew us to Christ, that is the only reason, and can be the only reason why we are saved. Our salvation is decided by God and not by us.
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Double Predestination and Man’s Freewill
The reason why the doctrine of those who are predestined to eternal damnation is called, “double predestination” is because it contrasts with the doctrine of single predestination where only the elect are predestined to salvation, and the fate of the rest is not explicitly determined by God. We believe there are many in Christendom who believe in single predestination. In fact, from the writer’s personal experience, there are some in church leadership that have not the faintest idea that the salvation of all true Christians has been determined by God a long time ago. They believe that if you pray and preach hard enough, the lost will be saved. Pray and preach we must in obedience, but the salvation of the lost has already been determined from eternity by God. We do our part, but we must also leave the rest to God. Those who believe in the doctrine of single predestination need to change their minds. How can anything in this universe be out of God’s control? In saying that, we certainly do not mean that God intervenes in the lives of those He predestined not to be saved, in order to bring them to sin for that would make Him the author of sin. God is not the author of sin. All men sinned their own sins and caused their own death. But God in His mercy chose to save some. He sent His Son to the cross to save those He had chosen to save. Therefore, the doctrine of double predestination, that is, those predestined to damnation is derived from the doctrine of predestination (not the doctrine of single predestination, but the doctrine of predestination). God chose some who were dead in their trespass and made them alive (Eph 2:5). Those whom He did not choose, are predestined to damnation because they are still dead in their trespasses. Even when Christ was preaching the gospel, he deliberately spoke in parables to hide the message from those He did not want to save. Please read the following verses especially verse 12 – Christ actually did not want some of them to return and be forgiven. Sounds unbelievable? Please read the following verses.
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Mark 4:10-12 (NASB95) states:
(10) As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. (11) And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, (12) so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”
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Does Man have Freewill?
First, let us discuss the issue of being spiritually dead. In the second half of Gen 2:17, God told Adam that if he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die on the same day. Not only did Adam not die physically on that day, but he also continued to live on for some time. So, is the word of the Lord empty and powerless? No. God’s word will not return to Him empty (Isa 55:11). For Adam did die immediately, he died spiritually from the moment he disobeyed God and ate from the said tree. Later, he and his wife died physically. Spiritual death does not mean that the person’s spirit cease to live, it means that the person’s connecting relationship with God is broken. John 1:4 tells us that in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 1 John 5:12 (KJV) also tells us that whoever has the Son has life and whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Essentially, without God, we are dead spiritually, even though we may seem to be alive, walking about, doing things. In Matt 8:22, Jesus told one of His disciples, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.” The spiritually dead had the ability to decide on the burial of their own dead. They can decide whether to walk or take a bus, go to city A or city B, or they can decide to eat instead of fast. They have plenty of free will. So, to say that the spiritually dead, that is, unbelievers, do not have the ability to decide and make an independent choice is false. But this leads us to an important question. Can a spiritually dead person make a freewill decision to believe in Christ and become a true born-again believer? Rom 3:11 tells us that there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. So the person has freewill to decide, yet he has absolutely no ability to come to Christ because he is spiritually dead. He comes to Christ only and only if the Father draws him to Christ (John 6:44). Having an independent freewill is useless because it is in that person’s freewill that he will never choose God because he is spiritually dead. Someone gave this example. He said the lost are like men who are drowning, and Christ is like a saving lifebuoy. This is certainly not the case and certainly not true at all. If we used the same example, the lost are not like men who are drowning, but men who are already dead and decomposing at the bottom of the sea. But God in His mercy, pulled some out of the water and gave them life. The spiritually dead does not have the ability to come to Christ, it is the Father that will have to draw him to Christ (John 6:44). And whoever has the Son, has life (1 John 5:12, NKJV).
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CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY
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Anyone who sins, dies spiritually. The spiritually dead do not have the ability to seek after God. It is not that they do not have the freedom of choice or freewill. They have plenty of freewill to decide on anything they wish and go about their daily activities as they will. But because they are spiritually dead, they will never seek after God in their freewill. John 6:44 is clear that no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him to Christ. And Rom 3:11 is also clear that there is none who understands and none who seeks after God. Therefore, a man’s salvation is predestined by God. Those whom God did not predestine to eternal salvation, will receive eternal damnation. This is the truth and cannot be wished away. But we also wish to highlight that no one knows who is the elect or who is going to receive eternal damnation. So, it is pointless to accuse God of being unfair to choose only some to be saved. All who hear the gospel should repent of their sins immediately now and turn to Christ. For who knows if they are actually among the elect and that God is drawing him to Christ now? As for those who think they are saved, they should continue walking and setting their minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:4-5), making very certain of His calling and His choice of them for entry into His kingdom (2 Pet 1:10-11).