Predestination

Note, this article is part of a topical study series.
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
Hebrews 13:8
"...thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting."
Isaiah 63:16
"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."
Psalm 90:2

Jesus, which is God, is from everlasting, to everlasting, and He has always been the same, and will always be the same. This means that his predetermined will, or his will that was before creation, is the same as His will declared in the scriptures.

So what was God's will before creation??

"not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
2 Peter 3:9
"Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."
Matthew 18:14
"Who will have all men to be saved..."
1 Timothy 2:4

God's will before the foundation of the world was that all men would be saved, and not perish. Unfortunately not everyone will do His will.

"Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite."
Psalm 145:7

So God knows that many people will deny Him, but that does not change the truth that He has:

"...predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,"
Ephesians 1:5

And for those who do believe, according to his predetermined will, we will obtain an inheritance

"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

Also those who believe He will give the Spirit (Galatians 4:6) and conform us to be more like Him in this life.

"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

We see from this verse that predestination is always predicated upon foreknowledge. That is to say, that God from the beginning of time could see how every person would respond to the Gospel. Calvinists have taken foreknow (Greek proginōskō) to essentially mean decree. However, this same Greek word is simply translated as knowing things beforehand in the following verse:

"Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness."
2 Peter 3:17

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