My dear readers,

Answering Remaining Questions from Calvary Pandan Church Camp 2022 (2)

Question: Please elaborate on “double predestination”. Who came up with this doctrine? What is our church position? In the case of Abraham pleading with God to spare Sodom if there were righteous people, would God have stopped the destruction? Or was it already predestined as God knew there was no righteous person except for Lot and his family? In the case of God sparing the city of Nineveh, Jonah said God would destroy the city in 40 days. When the people repented, God did not destroy the city. How do we understand God’s predestination regarding this case? Did God change His plan on predestination to destroy the city?

Answer: The foundation of the doctrine of double predestination is the absolute sovereignty of God. God is the Creator of heaven and earth and everything and everyone in it. Therefore, He has absolute control over all things and every creature He created. There is nothing on earth that exists that God did not create! Therefore, the doctrine of double predestination is very comforting to all children of God, especially in times of adversities because the evil and evil person who persecutes believers can only take place when our heavenly Father permits it. Imagine if God controls only the good but not the evil, then there will be more than one God on earth of equal power and might! Thank God such is not the case!

Ephesians 1:4-12: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 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: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”

Romans 8:29-30: “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. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

These are a few clear Bible passages that teach the doctrine of predestination of believers. This truth assures every child of God to be thankful and grateful to God that every aspect of his life has been ordained by God from the beginning of his existence to the day of his glorious salvation unto eternity. Every believer’s salvation is anchored in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s cross. All believers are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Therefore, he cannot lose his salvation once he is truly born again in Christ because there is no one more powerful than God almighty. The safety and security of every believer’s salvation is in the person of Jesus Christ and the promises of God Most High.

In the case of the predestination of unbelievers to hell, the teaching is also clear. Romans 9:18-24: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”

God is the One who predestined whoever will go to hell. We do not know who the predestined ones are; therefore, we need to share the gospel with all, without distinction. But the ones whom God has predestined to be saved will be saved. Just because they are predestined to go to hell does not mean that they are not at fault and God sent them to hell unjustly. All men are born in sin because of the first Adam. Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Therefore, they are bound for hell since conception and birth. If they have not been predestined by God to be saved in Christ, then they are predestined to go to hell because they died in their sins.

The difference between the above two doctrines of predestination is that in the predestination of believers, their salvation is all of God’s work so that their salvation cannot fail since it is in the hands of the Almighty God in Christ. In the case of the predestination of sinners, all sinners are born in sin and are responsible for their sins against God when they are cast into hell.

In the case of Abraham pleading for God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were ten righteous, this is an issue of the dynamic will of God in operation. This is the basis of prayer where God meant every word He said to Abraham and agreed to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when Abraham reduced the number from fifty to forty-five to thirty to twenty and finally to ten in his prayer request. God predestined the whole encounter, including the details of Abraham’s prayer, and the final outcome of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding region because there were less than ten righteous. 

In the case of Jonah and the city of Nineveh, again it was the dynamic will of God at work. The warning of God's judgment through Jonah’s preaching was real and it would have happened if the Ninevites did not repent. But they repented, from the king to the animals. Jonah 3:9-10: “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” The whole encounter of Jonah’s disobedience and final obedience and preaching to the Ninevites and their repentance and God sparing their lives were predestined by the LORD to happen exactly as revealed in Holy Scriptures.

The doctrine of God’s absolute sovereignty demands the doctrine of double predestination. God cannot be in total control only of all who enter heaven and have no say regarding all who are cast into hell. God’s sovereignty is a most blessed and comforting doctrine especially in times of adversities in every believer’s life. The will of God is always dynamic and sovereign and does not negate or diminish the responsibility of man in what happens to him in this life and the life to come, including his destiny.