What is predestination?

Salvation & the GospelIn theological review

The short answer

Predestination is the Bible's teaching that God, before time, chose and planned the salvation of his people in Christ. Christians agree God is sovereign and that salvation begins with his choice, not ours. They differ, sometimes sharply, over how that choice relates to human faith and freedom, and the main readings are set out fairly below.

The fuller answer

Christians differ here, and this answer takes no house side. Predestination means that salvation was not an afterthought: before creation, God foreknew, chose and planned a people for himself in Christ, and he works through history to bring them to glory. Every tradition in this discussion affirms that God initiates salvation and that no one drags himself to God unaided. The differences concern what God's choosing rests on, and how it sits alongside real human believing and choosing.

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:29 (BSB)

Paul's chain in Romans chapter 8 runs from God's foreknowledge, through predestination and calling, to justification and glory, with no link left to chance. Ephesians chapter 1 adds that God chose believers in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined them for adoption, and did so according to the purpose of his will. Peter greets his readers as chosen according to God's foreknowledge, through the Spirit, for obedience to Christ. The vocabulary of choosing before time is the apostles' own, not a later invention.

For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence.

Ephesians 1:4 (BSB)

Later teachers organised these texts in different ways. John Calvin, in the sixteenth century, taught that God's election rests on his will alone, and that grace effectually brings the elect to faith. Jacobus Arminius, a generation later, taught that God elects those he foreknows will believe, and that grace can be resisted. Both men claimed the same verses. Calvin's readers stress the order of Paul's chain; Arminius's stress the passages where election is through faith and in Christ.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

1 Peter 1:2 (BSB)

Both readings also face texts they must carry honestly. One side must account for God's stated desire that all be saved and for real warnings against falling away. The other must account for Jesus thanking the Father for hiding and revealing according to his good pleasure, and for faith itself being called a gift. What no reader may do is use predestination to stop evangelism or prayer: the same Paul who wrote Romans chapter 8 also wrote that God chose the message preached as the means of saving those who believe.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

Can a Christian lose their salvation?Christians have answered this question two ways for centuries, and this page will not pretend otherwise. What Scripture states without qualification is the keeping power of Christ: his sheep will never perish, and no one can snatch them from his hand. It also gives sober warnings to those who turn away. How those fit together is where faithful churches differ, and both readings are set out here fairly.How can I be saved?By grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and not by anything you contribute. Ephesians says it outright: it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. To be saved is to turn from your sin, confess Jesus as Lord, and trust that God raised him from the dead for you. The rest of your life is learning to live from that gift.What is faith?Faith is trusting God's word and God's Son with your whole weight. Hebrews defines it as the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. It is not believing without evidence, and it is not mere agreement that something is true. It is the hand that receives what grace gives.Are we born sinful?Yes, in the Bible's teaching people are born with a fallen nature inherited from Adam, inclined away from God before they choose any particular act. Christians have explained the details differently, but the texts point to a need that begins at birth, which is why salvation is presented as new birth, not self improvement.How do I know I am really saved?Yes, you can know: 1 John was written so that believers may know they have eternal life. John grounds assurance first in God's promise about his Son, then in recognisable fruit: taking God's commands seriously, loving other Christians, and confessing Jesus truly. The Holy Spirit also witnesses inwardly that God's children are his. Weak feelings alone do not settle the question either way.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.Bible Character: PeterThe Galilean fisherman who confessed Jesus as the Christ, denied him three times on the night he was betrayed, was restored by the risen Lord, and preached at Pentecost.