BibleThought
  • Home
    • Hospital Patients/Caregivers >
      • Blessed by an Angel
      • No Visitors Please
      • Side Effects of Chemo
      • Need Help Coping?
      • Cancer and Genetics
    • Site Guide
    • Quora.com Questions
    • 3 Minute Videos
  • Understanding
    • Why I Believe the Bible >
      • Evidence for the Resurrection
      • Arguments Against Evolution
      • Atheism
      • Jesus in History
    • Can We Understand the Bible? >
      • Alleged Contradictions >
        • Is Jesus God?
        • Justified by Works or Not?
        • Predestination or Free Will?
        • Bible Verse Comparisons
      • Difference: Old and New Testaments
      • Bible Complexity
      • Why Are There Difficult Passages?
      • Causes of Common Errors >
        • The Bible's Second Purpose
        • Why Many Will Not Obey?
        • Hasty Generalizations
        • Language of Ashdod
        • Insertion of the "Only" Word
        • Making Rules from Exceptions
    • Is the Bible Sufficient?
    • Translations and Versions
    • Silence of the Scriptures
    • Bible Study Principles >
      • Systematic Bible Study
      • Study the Bible for Yourself
      • The Milk and the Meat
      • Consider the Context
      • Comprehensive Study Techniques
      • Biblical Rules for Study
      • Teaching Aids >
        • Bible Study Questions
        • Teacher's Guide to Questions
        • Periods of Bible History
    • Determining Bible Authority >
      • God's Laws Within Relationships
      • Biblical Commands
      • Biblical Examples
      • Biblical Implications
      • Generic and Specific Commands
      • Example of Conflict Resolution - Acts 15
      • Strictly Enforced
    • Figurative Language >
      • Non-Identical Metaphor
      • The Not ... But ... Construct
      • Synecdoche
    • Individual Responsibiity >
      • What is Christianity?
    • Commentaries >
      • Genesis 1-4
      • Gospel of John >
        • John 1-5
        • John 6-10
        • John 11-15
        • John 16-21
      • Acts >
        • Acts 1-5
        • Acts 6-10
        • Acts 11-15
        • Acts 16-20
        • Acts 21-25
        • Acts 26-28
      • Romans >
        • Romans 1-5
        • Romans 6-10
        • Romans 11-16
      • First Corinthians >
        • 1st Corinthians 1-3
        • 1st Corinthians 4-5
        • 1st Corinthians 6-10
        • 1st Corinthians 11-16
      • Second Corinthians >
        • 2nd Corinthians 1-5
        • 2nd Corinthians 6-10
        • 2nd Corinthians 11-13
      • Galatians >
        • Galatians 1-3
        • Galatians 4-6
      • Ephesians >
        • Ephesians 1-3
        • Ephesians 4
        • Ephesians 5-6
      • Philippians
      • First Peter
      • Second Peter
      • Revelation - Supplements >
        • Rev - General Comments
        • Revelation - Overview
        • Rev Beasts and Abyss
        • Rev - Numerology
        • Rev - Rome History Timeline
        • Revelation PPT Slides pdf
        • Rev - Notes Roman Catholic Church
      • Revelation - Commentary >
        • Revelation 1-5
        • Revelation 6-10
        • Revelation 11-15
        • Revelation 16-19
        • Revelation 20-22
  • Introducing Jesus
    • Who is Jesus Article 1 and ToC
    • 2 - A Samaritan Woman Meets Jesus
    • 3 - The Sufferings of Jesus
    • 4 - Was Jesus Who He Claimed to Be?
    • 5 - Why We All Need Jesus
    • 6 - How Well Do You Know Jesus?
    • 7 - Jesus Declares the Father's Name
    • 8 - Jesus, The Master Teacher
    • 9 - What Then Should I Do?
    • 10 - Jesus is God
    • Following Jesus >
      • 1 - I Will Follow (&ToC)
      • 2 - What it Means
      • 3 - Commitment Involved
      • 4 - Following Wherever
      • 5 - To Worship Him
      • 6 - To His Church
  • God's Plan
    • 1. Jesus Commands
    • 2-7. Examples in Acts >
      • 2. Acts 2
      • 3. Acts 8
      • 4. Acts 9
      • 5. Acts 10 and 11
      • 6. Acts 16
      • 7. Acts 19
    • 8. Summary Outline
    • 9. Baptism
    • 10. ??? Thinking ???
    • Saved by God's Righteousness
    • Does Doctrinal Purity Matter? >
      • Not Saved by Faith Only
      • Evidence of Living Faith
      • Not Saved by Works
      • Can a Saved Person be Lost?
      • Faith as the Things Believed
      • Jesus' Intent in John 3:16
      • Back to the Beginning
      • Postscript to Hebrews 11
    • God's Called Out People >
      • Local and Universal Church
      • The Worship of the Lord's Church
      • The Work of the Lord's Church
      • Finding a Church
      • Your Part in the Restoration
      • Creating a New Local Church
    • Hopelessly Lost
  • Pilgrims/Docs/Music
    • Bible Subject Index 1 >
      • Bible Subject Articles 2 >
        • Bible Subject Articles 3 >
          • Family and Home
          • Gambling
          • Giving
          • Happiness
          • Holy Spirit Articles
          • Heaven and Hell
          • Judging and Judgment
          • Love
          • Miracles
          • Profanity
          • Restoration
          • Riches, Materialism
          • Salvation
          • Sexual Immorality
          • Sin
          • Teaching
          • Temptation
          • Textual Studies
          • Unity
          • Where in the Bible?
        • Brief Points
        • Children and Parenting
        • Christian Life
        • Christmas and Holidays
        • Church
        • Church Discipline
        • Church vs Individual Responsibility
        • Clothing-Dating-Dancing
        • Conventional Wisdom
        • Death and Dying
        • Denominationalism
        • Elders and Deacons
        • Evidences and Pride
        • Faith
        • False Doctrines
      • Worship: Lord's Supper
      • Worship: Singing
      • Worship: Prayer
      • Worship: Preaching
      • Worship: Giving
      • Worship: Attendance
      • Abortion
      • Alcohol, Addiction, etc.
      • Attitudes
      • Authority
      • Bible Characters
      • Bible Preservation
      • Biblical Interpretation
      • Blessings
    • Pilgrims in this World >
      • Who is the Real Enemy?
      • Internet Truth Seeking
      • On Judging
      • Demons and Occult >
        • Occult Organizations
        • Bible Teaching on Satan
        • Bible Teaching on Demons
        • Who is Antichrist?
        • Who is Lucifer?
      • Bible and the Koran
      • Are Religious People Happier?
      • Active Shooter Response
      • True Representative Government
      • "No King in Israel"
      • "Give us a King"
      • Eschatology -- End Times
      • The Ultimate Victory
      • Bad Page Link
    • What is Love?
    • Sins of this World >
      • Saving Us from the Practice of Sin
      • The Sin of Deceit
      • Paganism - Bible Answers
      • Ways We Sin
      • Envy and Jealousy
      • Racism/Slavery
      • Economic Immorality
      • Extremism
    • Suffering >
      • Paul Answers Job's Questions
      • Comfort and Refuge
    • Recent Articles
    • Major Documents >
      • Coexisting with Chaos
      • MMLJ -- Old or New Testament?
      • 7 Myths of Denominalationalism >
        • Spanish Version
        • Preface and Table of Contents
        • Myth 1 - Bible is Too Complex to Understand
        • Myth 2 - The Old Testament is Still Binding
        • Myth 3 - We Are Saved by Faith Only
        • Myth 4 - Baptism is of Secondary Importance
        • Myth 5 - All You Need is Love
        • Myth 6 - The Rapture
        • Myth 7 - Original Sin
        • Where Do We Go From Here
    • Contact Us >
      • Distribubion List Form
      • Comment Form
    • Spiritual Songs

Predestination or Free Will?
by Dave Brown
Return to the Alleged Contradictions page

Return to Understanding page 


Harmonizing Alleged Bible Contradictions Series ...


This alleged bible contradiction is between the following two passages:

Romans 8:29-30
For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained (to be) conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.    [See also Eph. 1:5, 11, which is quite similar.]

Romans 2:5-6
… but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works: …

What?  The same writer, in the same letter saying that God is going to judge us according to our works turning around and saying that certain individuals are predestined to be saved???  A red flag should go up; obviously, both concepts cannot be true.

These two passages would seem to be totally contradictory on the surface, so let’s go beneath the surface to see how they harmonize.  Before exploring the context, let’s apply the principles of our general article on harmonization.  Recall the general principles: 
  • Milk and meat.  In this case the milk is a matter of common sense.  Has God not held men responsibility for the decisions they made and their behavior throughout the bible?  Do we have to go back to Adam and Eve?  Did God predestine them to eat the fruit that He told them not to eat?  Go through all of the Old Testament bible stories, and then read a few chapters at random from the New testament.  It shouts out FREE WILL on almost every page.  God has given us free will – many believe this is what is meant by being made “in God’s image” (Gen. 1:26, 27; 5:3; 9:6).  Skip over on through to the last couple chapters of Revelation to see free will being taught there as well.  Intuitively we know that we have free will, and the bible teaches that we will be judged by how we use our free will.  This is almost something that we do not need the bible to know – you and I know we have choices and that we are free will agents.
  • Consider figurative language. There is figurative language used in Rom. 8:29 – that of the first century Hebrew family and the privileges of the firstborn.  That metaphor is projected onto those who are in God’s family, i.e., the saved.  However, this does not change any of the meaning with regard to the concepts of predestination.
  • Comprehensive approach.  This was covered above when talking about the milk and the meat.  At this point we might just ask ourselves, what is the preponderance of scriptural evidence in this regard.  Does God predestine who will be saved and lost before any of us are even born?  Or, does God allow us to exercise our free will and determine for ourselves whether we are going to accept the free gift of eternal life or not.  Virtually every verse in the bible relates in some way to this subject, so the more you study and understand what is written, the greater will be your ability to harmonize these passages.  We have called this a comprehensive approach to bible study.  Those who wish to believe in total predestination make one or two verses their entire bible and ignore the rest of it.

Definition.  Before we go on it is important that we understand what predestination is.  Clearly, as will be shown below, some things are predestined, and there is absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent those things.  Some have argued with us that if mankind has free will then there can be absolutely no restrictions on what any person can do.  Not true, and quite illogical.  Why would it be that if God restricts a man from doing one thing (e.g., destroying the world with nuclear weapons) that this would mean that this man has no free will at all?  The logical flaw is one of hasty generalization.  God restricts what we can do in a variety of ways (e.g., government, laws and police).  However, that does not mean that we do not have considerable latitude on those things that are not so restricted.

This leads to a consideration of only two possible alternatives:
  • God predetermined who would be lost and who would be saved, and for that reason we have absolutely no control over it, and what we decide and do, whether good or bad can have nothing to do with our salvation; OR
  • God has given us both free will and His word so that we can determine what is good and what is evil.  He expects us to believe what He has revealed, and in believing it to live accordingly (Romans 1:16-17) – effectively this is the meaning of having faith in Jesus Christ.  We will be judged accordingly.

Let us evaluate the first alternative from a biblical point of view of God’s love and God’s justice.  Some might reason that God is showing love to those that he predestines to be saved.  But do they realize that if that is true, God is predestinating all the rest to go to hell?  Irresistible grace necessarily implies irresistible damnation.  The lost may try to serve God, but there is no hope for them whatsoever.  Is this a just God?  Is this a loving God?  That is NOT the God of the bible, and there is nothing in the bible that would ever lead us to think that God would act in this way.  This is not the God that I believe in, and I expect that you do not either.

So then how do we explain passages such as:

Romans 8:29-30
29 For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained (to be) conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren:
30 and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Recognize first that the “whom he” in verse 29 does not have to be referring to specific individuals.  In fact, the second clause in verse 29 indicates that he is not talking about one but “many brethren.”  This passage is talking about the totality of all those who would be saved.  God foreknew before the creation of the world that there would be some who would accept his free gift of forgiveness of sins, and they would have eternal life with Him throughout eternity.  He did not force anyone into or out of this group.  But he knew that there would be some who would be saved and others who would be lost.

Hear some of the final words of the bible.

Rev 22:16-17
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that hears, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely.

So when we sing the song “whosoever will may come” we are reflecting this basic truth.  God knew that some would respond, but he did not force any particular person one way or the other … “he that will, let him take the water of life freely.”  The voice of a loving and just God makes this offer quite clear.

As a final thought – did you ever wonder why those who believe in total predestination want to convince you and me that their view is right?   Will my belief in predestination save me?  According to their belief, can anything that I believe or do save me or have any effect on them.  According to them, no – God has already predestined it, and there is nothing we or anyone can do about it one way or the other.   So we re-ask the question … why are you so anxious that I should believe as you do, when it has to be your belief that my thoughts and actions have nothing to do with either my or your eternal destiny.  This is an unfathomable paradox that cannot possibly be answered logically, but it is interesting to think about.



What are the conditions of salvation given by Jesus?

Return to Understanding page



Contact Us     Submit a Comment     Register for Weekly Article      Site Guide
Cancer Patients and Caregivers: "No Visitors Please"                                                                       Powered by Weebly
Pledge: this site represents no religious organization; we will not take contributions nor sell anything on this site.