WHAT IS MEANT BY PREDESTINATION?
Predestination is that effective exercise of the will of God by which things before determined by Him are brought to pass. God says that at a certain time He is going to do a certain thing. That thing shall be done at that time because God is sovereign, possessing all wisdom and power. Predestination, as presented in Scripture, does not imply that God arranged all things beforehand but it refers solely to the salvation of God's elect. The prefix pre means before. Destination is the end of a journey. Destine means to determine. Predestination means the end of a journey determined beforehand. There is but one destination that was predestinated and that destination is heaven and immortal glory. It is there that all the saints will be conformed to the image of God for this is what God had predestinated. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). Paul also writes, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Ephesians 1:5). We are told why the saints are predestinated. "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11).
Predestination is that effective exercise of the will of God by which things before determined by Him are brought to pass. God says that at a certain time He is going to do a certain thing. That thing shall be done at that time because God is sovereign, possessing all wisdom and power. Predestination, as presented in Scripture, does not imply that God arranged all things beforehand but it refers solely to the salvation of God's elect. The prefix pre means before. Destination is the end of a journey. Destine means to determine. Predestination means the end of a journey determined beforehand. There is but one destination that was predestinated and that destination is heaven and immortal glory. It is there that all the saints will be conformed to the image of God for this is what God had predestinated. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). Paul also writes, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Ephesians 1:5). We are told why the saints are predestinated. "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11).