Thoughts on Double Predestinaion

Double Predestination is the belief that God, in His sovereignty, created specific people to live their life and at the end of it all, no matter how their life was lived, or what they had done, would go to hell. We could live out lives in total defiance against God, and still go to heaven. Or we could live our life in total devotion to God, and still run the risk of going to hell.

I believe that we are totally deprave and are nothing without Jesus Christ, but the bible does not reveal God creating people for the intention of hell. There is a very big difference in God creating people with the knowledge that they would choose hell and God creating people for the intention of sending them to hell. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that “hell was created for the devil and his angels,” after condemning those who did not follow him into the pit. Although we as humans can go there, we are not the reason why hell was created. Ezekiel 33:11 says that God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live. Which brings the question of how the wicked can turn from their ways if they were already predestined to spend eternity in hell.

The question that causes so much controversy is the question of God, in His Sovereignty, creating men (a specific group) with the intention of sending them to hell so that he could be glorified.

“Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” -Romans 9:21

So God created a group of vessels so he could be exalted. He then also created certain vessels to be destroyed and so he could show his majesty and wrath.

Why would a potter create something terrible, when he is perfectly capable of creating something magnificent? Why would God create something for destruction when He is perfectly capable of creating something for eternal life? In His foreknowledge, God saw those that would go to hell, yet still he created them. Remembering Ezekiel 33:11, we can confidentially say that God did not create any man for the sake of sending them to hell.

If God knows, and does not take pleasure in the damnation of his creations, then why would he create those who are going to hell? God uses the lives of the wicked as examples or in ways that He could not otherwise show His majesty. Pharaoh is an excellent example of this. When Moses came to Pharaoh and commanded him to let his people walk free, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go. In Romans 9:17, God says it is for this very purpose that He raised Pharaoh up, that His power may be shown and His name declared in all the earth.

“What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” –Romans 9:22-24

The bible teaches that we were chosen for Salvation, but I have yet to find any verses stating that we were chosen to be damned. Jesus said in John, “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”

The issue of Predestination takes “free will” and makes it useless. We may be able to think on our own and make certain choices, but we will never be able to make the decision of Salvation on our own. God determined before time, whether or not we would go to heaven so we’re basically just sitting back, waiting to find out. Revelation 22:17 says “whoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” God gave us free will so that we could use it to either follow him, or live life for ourselves. He is not held responsible for our belief. God wants us to follow him, but He isn’t going to make us. We know this and we’ve head this so many times that God didn’t create robots and force them to follow Him. It is His will that we do follow Him, but He has given us a choice to go to heaven with Him for eternity, or to fall into hell, eternally separated from His presence.

It was easier to make this claim when it didn’t matter if God was fair or not. In the early church when Calvin proposed this idea, nobody really cared if God was fair. God is Sovereign and He created us. Their idea was “who are we to say what is and is not fair if God is doing it?” We all deserve death, and we are very aware of that. Because of our sin, we deserve hell. But God raised us out of the bondage of sin and washed us so our lives could be blameless in the days of our Lord.