Word Study: Predestination
Word family: Predestination, predestine or predestinate, destiny.
Synonyms: Foreordination, preappointment, predetermination
Related ideas: foreknowledge, eternal purpose, election
Definitions: Predestination, similar in meaning to foreordination, is the appointment of a person to a predetermined and guaranteed future state.
Greek References: προοριζω (proorizo) 4309 (Strong)
Scripture:
God’s purpose and plan
- 1Corinthians 2:7 "But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory"
- Ephesians 1:5,11 "...having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire... in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will"
God’s foreknowledge
- Acts 2:23 "...him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed"
- Acts 13:48 "As many as were appointed to eternal life believed"
Our obedience
- Luke 7:30 "But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God for themselves"
- Romans 8:29-30 "For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son"
- 1Peter 1:2 "...chosen... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood"
Comment: There are two issues in predestination —first God’s sovereign will and counsel; second man's freedom of choice. Did God elect particular individuals for eternal life, and doom others to eternal death by passing them by, unmoved by any quality or condition in those particular individuals, and without them having any will in the matter?
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