Predestination, a call from God

I promised a while back that I would do a few posts on the subject of predestination. Finally I'm able to devote a little bit of time to do a first post.

One of the most compelling aspects of predestination and election for me, is that, not only is it explicitly stated in Romans 8 , 9 and Ephesians 1, but we have evidence to support election since the beginning of the Old Testament.

Think about it. First we have to understand that it was God who chose Israel, despite Israel continually rebelling and disobeying His law and prostituting itself to foreign gods (Jeremiah 2). There, we have a case in which God chose a people. But beyond that, God also chose the individuals who would rule and lead His people. It was God who chose Abraham and made a covenant of faith with him. It was Him who chose Jacob (and renamed him Israel) over Esau, even though Esau was born first. It was Yaweh who chose Moses, even though Moses objected because he said he wasn't a good enough speaker to face Pharaoh. It was God who chose David, even though he was the youngest of his brothers.

And we could go on and on in just about every Old (and New) Testament book.

But then the argument could be, "Well, it's not that God chose those men strictly for salvation, but to fulfill a certain role."

In that case, we have to look at how the Bible uses the word "elect" which is the word most predestination supporters use to argue the stance of God choosing man.

I am not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, so unfortunately I have to rely on the English translations to see how the word "elect" is used.

In the NKJ version, the word "elect" first appears in Isaiah (in the NIV version, the word is replaced with "chosen" which is to show, at the very least, that it is God who elects, and not us). Here, the word is used to refer to the coming messiah (Isaiah 42:1), and to Israel as His people (46:4 / 65:9).

In Matthew 24:31, Christ speaks of the elect as the people God will gather by His angels.

In both cases, the elect is a term used specifically for those people God holds closely, and not just chosen for specific purposes.

On my next post I will look at Romans specifically which is when "election" and "predestination" are used together.