Do you believe the Bible?

“I CERTAINLY DO!”

Glad to hear that.  Then, that means you believe in predestination, right?

“Well . . .”

C’mon.  You’ve got to believe in predestination if you believe the Bible?

“How’s that? Nobody I know at church believes in it.”

That’s a very sad situation.

“How so?”

Because Arminianism (a view that hold an opposite of a belief) denies the biblical teaching about predestination—and to deny anything biblical is sad..  Especially, when one claims to believe the Bible.

“How do you know that the Bible teaches predestination?”

I know it because, if for no other reason than the fact that it uses the word several times to describe how God has planned things before they take place—indeed, from all eternity.

“Oh . . . But suppose the word doesn’t really mean that?”

Then what else could it possibly mean?

“That God permits things to happen  . . ?”

Nope.  That won’t work. There is nothing/one out there besides God when it comes to planning. To whom would He give permission to do whatever is done?

“Not sure.”

Well, there’s a good reason for your uncertainty—since from all eternity things were planned, and there was no one else but God to do the planning. Even if He permitted someone to do something, that permission would be part of His eternal plan in order to bring about what He wants.

“Hmmmm.”

Why not take a good look sometime at, for instance, the first chapter of Ephesians? It might help you to understand.”

“Couldn’t go wrong doing that, I suppose.”

Right.  It’s easy to be an Arminian rather than Reformed—everyone is born an Arminian—thinking that man is more than he is and that God is less than He is. It takes being born again to turn that around so that man is less in one’s thinking and God is more.

“Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ll check out the verses that speak of predestination, anyway, and we’ll talk again about it.”

Good.  But remember, you won’t find the word “predestined” every time  the concept is presented.  In fact, in the majority of places in which predestination is taught, the word itself isn’t used.

“As I said, we’ll see.”

Good.  Remember every prophecy is an example of predestination—prediction is God telling us what is planned for the future. If it were not, we couldn’t depend on the prophecies in Scripture to be fulfilled.

“Hmmmmmmmm!!!!!”