Predestination is not a theological invention—it is a scriptural reality. If the very mention of predestination offends you, you must ask: what is it in your heart that recoils at the goodness of God and the inheritance He freely gives? To take offense at predestination is to expose a rebellious posture, one unwilling to receive grace and the riches of Christ’s finished work. Remember: you once had nothing, you were without hope, alienated from the promises, dead in sins. But God, rich in mercy, made you alive together with Christ and seated you in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6-8). Now, having received such mercy, will you turn and be offended at the very doctrine that proclaims your adoption and inheritance?
The Roots of Rebellion: Two Extremes
Offense at predestination does not arise in a vacuum. It is the fruit of rebellion—whether the rebellion of the Arminian, who insists on exalting human choice apart from grace, or the rebellion of the Calvinist, who persists in self-righteousness and refuses the gospel’s implications. Both errors are not merely intellectual missteps; they are spiritual dangers that distort the gospel itself.
The Arminian error is to make human will the decisive factor, subtly denying the necessity and sufficiency of God’s grace. This is rebellion against God’s sovereignty. The Calvinist error, on the other hand, is to rest in a supposed election while rejecting the radical implications of the gospel—namely, that our righteousness is found in Christ alone, not in our theological system. This, too, is rebellion, but of a different kind.
The Peril of Double Predestination
There is a further, darker extreme: double predestination—the teaching that God elects some to salvation and others to wrath. This doctrine does not arise from the gospel but from a hardened, hateful disposition. It appeals to those who secretly relish the condemnation of others. I know this from experience: for a time, I found comfort in the idea that God had consigned others to wrath, as if their destruction was a vindication of my own worth. But such thinking reveals a deadened conscience, not a heart shaped by Christ.
Scripture does not teach that Pharaoh was predestined to wrath. Romans 9 shows Pharaoh as a vessel of wrath tolerated in the longsuffering of God. God reached out to Pharaoh—he could have repented, he could have applied the blood to his doorpost. Instead, Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God, in turn, confirmed him in that hardness (Ex 8:32; Ex 9:12). Pharaoh’s fate was not sealed by arbitrary decree, but by his persistent unbelief. God’s patience gave him every opportunity, and yet he remained accountable.
The Necessity of Both Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
Here is the scriptural tension: God is absolutely sovereign, and yet you are fully responsible. You have a will, and you are accountable for believing the gospel. These truths are not mutually exclusive. The error is to force a simplistic “either-or” logic where scripture demands a “both-and.” The balanced, Pauline approach is to embrace both divine sovereignty and human responsibility, humbly acknowledging the mystery.
We are creatures of time; God is the Creator of time, dwelling in eternity. His foreknowledge is not a cold calculation of your choice, but an all-encompassing knowledge of your entire history with Him—past, present, and future. He calls you His child, whether you call yourself Calvinist, Arminian, or have wandered into some other confusion. His grace is extended to all who thirst. Anyone may come and drink the water of life; none who come will be rejected. And when you find yourself in Christ, you will discover that you came according to His foreknowledge and purpose.
What Is Lost If the Error Is Embraced?
If you reject predestination, or twist it into a doctrine of arbitrary wrath, you lose the very foundation of assurance and inheritance. You undermine justification by faith, replacing it with either the uncertainty of your own will or the terror of a God who is not good. You forfeit the peace that comes from knowing your salvation rests on God’s eternal purpose, not your fluctuating performance. You rob yourself of the confidence that you are a son, an heir, accepted in the Beloved—because God Himself has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Embrace the Scriptural Posture
Do not seek a false clarity that pretends to resolve every mystery. Those who claim to have mastered the logic of predestination have simply replaced the gospel with their own system. True humility is to accept what God has revealed and to rest in what He has not. The gospel is not a puzzle to be solved, but a promise to be believed.
Predestination is not your enemy; it is the scriptural guarantee of your sonship and inheritance. At the same time, you are called to hear, believe, and come. If you imagine that your choice is independent of God’s grace, you have a problem. If you imagine that grace is irresistible and Jesus died only for the elect, you have another problem. Both errors collapse the gospel—either by making salvation a matter of human effort, or by making God arbitrary and unloving.
The only safe ground is to stand where scripture stands: God’s grace is sovereign and freely offered to all who thirst. Your responsibility is to believe. Do not be offended at predestination. Receive it as the declaration of God’s goodness, His mercy, and your secure inheritance in Christ.
