A Lamp Unto My Feet Bible Study Website
COURSE IN ADVANCED BIBLICAL DOCTRINES
Lesson #06
- The Doctrine of Free Will, Foreknowledge, and Predestination
- One of the most complex doctrines of the Bible is the concept of foreknowledge and predestination.
- The problem with this topic is that once you think you have understood one aspect, you have violated some other aspect of the nature of God or the nature of man.
- Therefore, it is important to put these topics together to achieve a balance of doctrine.
- Free Will
- When God created man in His image, that image included free will.
- God chose to limit his sovereignty in such a way as to never violate an individual’s free will.
- Therefore, the sovereignty of God is not coercive or arbitrary.
- What is free will?
- This is the aspect of man’s nature that differentiates him from the animals that do not have free will.
- Free will is the ability to make meaningful moral choices: choices to love or not to love, to sin or not to sin, to obey or not to obey, etc.
- Read Gen 1:26-27
- Read Gen 2:16-17
- Why did God create man with free will?
- The ultimate depth and value of love is a love chosen by one’s own will.
- God desires a people who will give Him this kind of extreme love made by individual choice.
- Read Deu 30:15-20
- Read Jos 23:11
- God also created angels with free will.
- We can see that the angels made their choice to follow God or not before God created man.
- One third of the angels chose to follow the angel Lucifer, who became Satan, in rebellion against God.
- Two thirds of the angels chose to faithfully follow God.
- Read Isa 14:12-23
- Read Eze 28:11-19
- Read Jude 1:6
- Read Rev 12:4
- We can see that the angels made their choice to follow God or not before God created man.
- Bound to the concept of free will are the ideas of faithfulness and commitment motivated by love.
- These are the same concepts seen in each of the covenants that God made with man.
- While man does not fulfill his side of the covenants, God always does. Therefore He is the example of a moral being using the will to make righteous choices to commit, to be faithful, and to love.
- God’s Free Will
- God’s plan and His will are bound together.
- To fulfill His plan, God at times circumvents man’s will or incorporates man’s will.
- For example, if man’s will comes in direct conflict with God’s will, God will allow man’s will and subsequently work in a different direction.
- Consider the situation with the Messiah that was to born from the linage of David. However, because of King Jeconiah’s (Coniah) evil, God put a curse on his lineage. That curse said that no king would descend from David through him. That curse put an obstacle in God’s plan for the Messiah, the King of kings.
- Read Mat 1:11
- Read Jer 22:24-30
- God went around man’s rebellious will and the Messiah came from the lineage of David through Nathan instead of through Jeconiah.
- When God created man in His image, that image included free will.
- Foreknowledge:
- Part of God’s character is His omniscient (all knowing) capacity. He knows the beginning from the end.
- This knowledge of events before they happen is combined with God’s wisdom. He knows and sees everything in advance of His will to best carry out His plan.
- Read Act 2:23-24
- Peter explains the crucifixion and resurrection: (23-24)
- According to Peter, the crucifixion was not some accident that was not supposed to happen. If these people in Peter’s audience had heard about Jesus’ crucifixion, they needed to know where this event fit in God’s plan.
- Peter tells them that the crucifixion was in God’s pre-determined plan according to his supernatural foreknowledge even though it was carried out by evil men.
- The Bible tells us that God planned the crucifixion before the foundation of the world. (1Pet 1:19-20)
- Peter explains the crucifixion and resurrection: (23-24)
- Read 1Pet 1:2
- All believers are chosen by God to be the children of God.
- Believers are chosen “…according to the foreknowledge of God…” (2)
- In other words, God, in His all knowing wisdom, knows the heart of every person. The idea of being chosen also includes the concept of God’s ability to know every person’s heart.
- Lea Rom 11:2
- He knows which hearts are soft and open to God. He knows which hearts will be open to God in the future.
- Those are the ones He chooses to set apart for God’s special dealing.
- He gives them spiritual light and by the Holy Spirit He attracts those with a soft heart to receive Jesus Christ.
- He knows everything about us including the following:
- Our thoughts, our intentions, our words even before we say them. (Psa 139:4 Mat 26:34)
- Our days, their beginning and their end. (Psa 139:16)
- Our life’s work even before we are born. (Jer 1:5)
- Because God has this capacity to know everything before it occurs (foreknowledge), only He can give prophetic statements that predict future events that will with certainty come about 100% of the time.
- To deny God’s prophetic ability is to deny God’s foreknowledge.
- To deny God’s foreknowledge is to deny God’s sovereignty over time and space.
- For God’s sovereign plan to come to fulfillment, God’s foreknowledge, God’s predetermination of His will, and God’s election must come together in space and time. (Predetermination or predestination)
- The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the perfect example:
- The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was in God’s plan, chosen before the foundation of the world. (1Pet 1:20)
- Therefore, He chose the time, the place, and the people involved in the crucifixion. (This is God’s election based on the knowledge of their hearts.) (Act 4:28)
- In God’s perfect will, God knew these events would occur to bring about His plan. (This is God’s foreknowledge.)
- The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the perfect example:
Read Act 2:23
For the events in God’s perfect will to occur on schedule despite the evil intentions of Satan and evil men, God must determine before the event certain avoidances of danger that would stop or delay God’s perfect plan. The Bible is full of examples.
There were attempts to kill Jesus before the crucifixion but these attempts were not in God’s perfect time, by God’s perfect will, or by God’s prophetic manner.
The prophecies of Isa 53 said he would be pierced for our transgressions, not thrown over a cliff.
The prophecies said that Jesus would die on Passover to be the Passover lamb sacrificed for our sin.
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- The attempted annihilation of the Jews is a good example:
- God chose Abraham to give prophecies to him concerning the blessing of Abraham’s descendents. (Election) God chose Jesus to come through the Jews to be the Messiah. (Election)
- Satan’s attempt to annihilate the Jews in the book of Esther was not God’s plan, but God know about this plan. (Foreknowledge)
- Therefore, God chose Esther to become queen to be able to set aside Satan’s plan. (Election)
- God predetermined events to trap the enemy in his own plot. (Predestination.)
- The attempted annihilation of the Jews is a good example:
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- Predestination
- While we have seen how predestination works in the above examples in conjunction with election, free will, and foreknowledge, we have not yet defined “predestination”.
- Read Isa 14:24-27
- Definition:
- Predestination means = to determine in advance certain events to move things to fit God’s perfect will. God always has a plan and a purpose that He determined long ago and in time He brings it to pass.
- Notice that it is events that are predestined or predetermined. It is not people who are predestined or predetermined. Why?
- If God predetermined people to be saved or lost, it would violate man’s free will. God never predestines people to do this or that, but allows them to willing participate in events that God predetermines.
- God never violates man’s free will.
- Therefore, predestination and free will cannot function together in humans.
- For example, let’s consider the situation with Judas Iscariot.
Like all the other disciples, Judas was chosen by Jesus. (Election)
Judas had free will. He did not have to betray Jesus. He was not predestined to be a betrayer. (Free will)
If it had not been Judas, it would have been some else acting on his own free will.
By his own free will, Judas chose to fit in with God’s plan of crucifixion in an evil way.
God knew before the event that Judas would betray Jesus because he saw Judas’ heart and all of the days of his life. (Foreknowledge)
God predestined the events that brought the circumstances, the willing people, and the timing together according to God’s plan. (Predestination)
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- God’s predestination toward believers:
- God has a plan for all mankind, but his plan for believers is motivated by love. (Purpose)
- Read 1Cor 2:7-9
- Read Eph 1:5, 11
- Read Eph 3:11
- God knows in advance who will desire to receive Jesus Christ. (Foreknowledge)
- God chooses to call those who have a willing heart for God (Election)
- Because of the willing desire of a person’s heart, God predestines events in that person’s life that will bring him to the point of cooperation with the Spirit of God to receive Jesus Christ (Predestination)
- Read Act 17:26-27
- Those things that God predestines for believers:
- Predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
- Lea Rom 8:28-30
- Predestined to good works that God has planned individually for each believer. (Eph 2:10)
- God has a plan for all mankind, but his plan for believers is motivated by love. (Purpose)
- God’s predestination toward believers:
- Conclusion:
- =1= Foreknowledge always precedes election and intricately linked to God’s will and His purpose.
- =2= God never violates man’s free will.
- =3= Predestination always refers to events in which people willingly involve themselves.
- Read Rom 9:21-24
- This passage is often used by Calvinists to point to the fact that some people are predestined for salvation and others are predestined for eternal damnation.
- If we keep in mind the above 3 points explained throughout this lesson, we can explain Rom 9:21-24 by filling in the holes in this scripture with other scriptures to give us a rounded and balanced view of Free Will, Foreknowledge, and Predestination.
