Predetermination v Predestination

Predetermination v. Predestination I. Did God prior to creation ordain that Adam must sin and he thus could do no other? Did God predestinate Adam’s fall? Or, did God make Adam a sinless, responsible agent under law whom God knew beforehand would sin and therefore planned a saving remedy from the effects and punishment of his sin? Who is the efficient cause of sin, the responsible actor? II. Sin could not exist without God yet He is not the efficient cause, source or author of sin. A. Sin is the transgression of the law (1JO 3:4). Without God, there would be no one to transgress the law and no law to transgress. ROM 4:15. B. author: The person who originates or gives existence to anything. C. The existence of sin no more proves that God is the author of sin than shade proves that the sun is the source or author of darkness. 1JO 1:5. D. God never makes one sin. IJO 2:15-16; GAL 2:17-18; PRO 5:22; 11:5; JAM 1:13-14. E. (JAM 3:14-15) But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. (15) This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 1. If envying and strife are predestinated and efficiently caused by God, then this wisdom does descend from above. 2. By contrast, “...the wisdom that is from above is FIRST PURE...” (JAM 3:17). F. Wars and fightings come of man's lusts that war in his members, which lust is NOT of the Father. JAM 4:1; 1JO 2:16. G. If God by His irresistible might forces/causes men to commit abomination, then they are obviously delivered to do those abominations. But JER 7:8-10 shows otherwise. H. If God predestinates men to sin, then it obviously came into His mind that they should do it. But JER 32:35 denies this. I. Sin is contrary to God's very nature. DEU 32:4; HAB 1:13. 1. God hates sin, forbids it in His law, and punishes it. 2. To charge God with being the author of sin is to charge God with being the author of that which He abominates. J. Man is held responsible for his deeds. 2CO 5:10; ROM 2:1-6; 14:12. 1. A glove is manipulated by the hand that it is on. Therefore the hand is responsible for whatever the glove does. 2. If God manipulates a man to sin like a hand manipulates a glove, then God, not man, is responsible for his sin. 3. If God forces a man to lie, then it is God that is lying. But Scripture clearly teaches that God cannot lie. TIT 1:2. III. A distinction must be made between predetermination and predestination. A. predetermine: To determine beforehand. To fix, settle or decide beforehand; to ordain or decree beforehand, to predestine. B. determine: [ad. L. determinare to bound, limit, determine, fix, f. L. DE + terminare to set bounds to] To put an end or limit to; to come to an end. (See JOB 14:5) C. predestinate: [f. L. PRE + destinare to make fast or firm, establish, determine, appoint: see DESTINE.] Theol. Of God: To foreordain by a divine decree or purpose: a. to salvation or eternal life; to elect. D. destine: [ad. L. destinare to make fast or firm, establish, destine, f. DE- + stanare, causal deriv. of stare to stand] To ordain, appoint (formally or definitely). E. The Greek proorizo (SRN 4309) underlies these concepts in Scripture. Predetermination v. Predestination 3-11-23 Page 1  1. Proorizo means to limit in advance, i.e., (fig.) predetermine: determine before, ordain, predestinate. 2. It derives from horizo (SRN 3724) which means to mark out or bound (“horizon”), that is, (figuratively) to appoint, decree, specify: - declare, determine, limit, ordain. F. The following passages use proorizo: 1. (ACT 4:28) For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel DETERMINED BEFORE to be done. 2. (ROM 8:29) 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. 3. (ROM 8:30) 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. 4. (1CO 2:7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ORDAINED before the world unto our glory: 5. (EPH 1:5) Having PREDESTINATED us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6. (EPH 1:11) 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: G. When proorizo applies to the wicked acts of men in ACT 4:28, it is translated “determined before.” 1. As touching wicked works, man is the efficient cause of those works. 2. Yet those works are permitted within divinely planned boundaries. 3. Ergo, they are predetermined (bounded beforehand) by God. 4. The omniscient God knows all of mens' actions and limits them as He sees fit. 5. Thus God controls the wickedness of man without infusing it or coercing it. 6. ACT 4:28 deals with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. a. The gospels record various attempts to kill Christ. LUK 4:29; JOH 5:16-18; 7:1; 8:59; 10:31; 11:53. b. God restrained wicked men from being able to carry out any other form of execution other than crucifixion. (1) Christ had to die “...according to the scriptures” (1CO 15:3). (2) The Gentile powers must be involved. LUK 18:31-32; PSA 2:1-2. (3) He must be lifted up as was Moses' serpent. JOH 3:14. (4) As one cursed, He must hang upon a tree. GAL 3:13. (5) He must be pierced in hands and feet. ZEC 12:10; PSA 22:16. (6) All such scriptures forbade his death by any means other than the Roman form of execution: crucifixion. c. In crucifying Christ, wicked men were acting voluntarily according to their own lusts. d. By imposing bounds upon the voluntary actions of the wicked, God overruled their wickedness to accomplish His purpose in the death of His Son. LUK 22:22; ACT 2:23. H. Where proorizo is translated “predestination” in Scripture it exclusively refers to God's election of some sinners unto sonship, conformity to the image of Christ, and unto eternal life. 1. This predestination is without regard to human works (EPH 1:4-5 c/w ROM 9:16) in which passive men are made fast beforehand by the decree and faith of God. Predetermination v. Predestination 3-11-23 Page 2  2. It is a unique kind of predetermination which limits the current state of the elect who while in the flesh are of a dual nature: the old man of sin and the new man of Christ. ROM 7:22-23. a. Their subjection to corruption and the bearing of Adam's image goes no further than death or Christ's return. b. Their downward slide under the law of sin and death goes no further than their death or Christ's return. c. Their punishment for sins goes no further than death or Christ's return. d. Their death or Christ's return ends all that identifies them as sinners. e. Saints after death are identified as “...the spirits of just men made perfect” (HEB 12:23). f. Saints at Christ's return will thereafter in spirit and body be identified as the sons of God conformed to Christ's image. 1JO 3:1-2 c/w PHIL 3:20-21. 3. God most certainly IS the efficient cause in bringing men to this end. I. Therefore, all things are not predestinated (made fast beforehand) by God, but all things are predetermined (bounded beforehand) by God. J. It is with these thoughts in mind that we understand how God “...worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (EPH 1:11). 1. He works salvation by sovereign efficient cause in His elect without regard to the works or resolve of them or any other creature according to the good pleasure of His will (predestination). 2. He works the works and resolve of the creature to conform to His will by imposing boundaries upon their own freewill actions for which they are held accountable (predetermination). K. Election unto salvation is a matter of God afore preparing some out of an unholy lump (made so by Adam) to be holy and blameless while leaving the rest where Adam fitted them. ROM 5:12; 9:21-24 c/w EPH 1:4. IV. Do not confuse the spirits and their operations and influences. A. “God is a Spirit...” (JOH 4:24) Who “...worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (PHIL 2:13). He does not work us to do, He works in us to do. B. Satan is “...the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (EPH 2:1-2). Satan likewise does not work us to sin, he works in us to sin. C. If one’s theology is so complex that it cannot make this distinction, it is too complex. Never attribute to God the imposition or commission of sin. Predetermination v. Predestination 3-11-23 Page 3