The Bible Answers
Does God determine who will be saved?
As this question would be commonly understood, the answer is Yes.
Note the following Scripture:
Ephesians 1:11,12: "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."
- The fundamental issue is this: "Who is in charge of the universe?" God did not wind up the universe at the beginning and allow it to run itself. Are the causes for things in the world itself, or is there a purpose for the universe that lies outside the universe? There is no question as to what the Bible says about these things. God works all things after the counsel of his own will. Even evil, in some mysterious way, works to the glory of God, as the Psalmist says: [Ps 76:10] "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
- How much plainer can words be? Of course, if man is without strength, if he is a sinner in bondage to sin and the devil, if he does not understand the things of God then it must be by predestination if man is to be saved. There is nothing healthy in man that can grow the fruit of righteousnes, so it must be by grace and the power of God. This is exactly what the apostle says.
- "Foreknowledge does not mean what we normally think of foreknowledge, as if God had some kind of crystal ball in heaven that reveals the future to Him. God is not subject to time but is everywhere present in time and space. He knows what is in all time because he is everywhere present in all time. Those who say that God knows the future, but denies that He predestines the future would separate His power from his knowledge.
This means that God knows the future because in His good and wise power, He has determined all that comes to pass. For the Christian this is a very great comfort, for it means that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose [Romans 8:28]. This doctrine is a terror to the ungodly for it means that they have no power to escape their predestined end.
- God chose Jacob rather than Esau before they were born, expressly so we would know that His election or predestination is not according to foreseen good works, but according to his own pleasure.
- The election is not because man makes the right choices, or because he runs in the way of good works, but because God shows mercy.
- The children of God are those who are born again, and this birth is not because of any human power, but because of the power of God.