In this chapter I want to talk about a historical heresy taught in the Church that is even popular today. It is the teaching and misunderstood subject of Predestination in the form sometimes called Supralapsarianism or Double Predestination. This doctrine teaches that before God created the world, He determined who would be saved and who would be damned.^78/765 I would like to start by quoting from a book called The Word of Truth by Dale Moody. This book is a summary of Christian Doctrine based on the Bible. Dale Moody states the following,

"Many human minds seem to be programmed like a modern computer. Punch a button and a whole system of ideas comes out. This is especially true in theology when certain code words are used.

Take for example the perfectly good New Testament word Predestination. Say it and you can never be sure the New Testament meaning will be aroused in the minds of the listeners. Many, perhaps most, see a picture of an arbitrary tyrant on his hellish-heavenly throne watching mankind march by. "Number six - your in a fix! Number seven you go to heaven!" Why? God just decreed that all number sixes go to hell and all number sevens go to heaven."^79/337

I think that the popular concept of Predestination as stated above, if it belongs anywhere, it belongs with number six above, at least the way it is interpreted.

I have studied Church History for many years. While I was in school studying Church History, I thought it was interesting that the concept of Predestination had such a dominate position in the Church. I noticed at the same time, though, that this dominate position that it took had nothing to do with the teaching of Scripture other than to take a passage in the Bible out of its context to support their position. It had to do with a man like Augustine or Calvin popularizing the teaching. At the time they were teaching these ideas they were able to get a following. As a result the teaching of Predestination became a permanent tradition in the Church and was accepted more or less blindly without any real investigation or consideration about what the Bible actually taught on the subject and especially in context.

At this point of our discussion, understand that when we talk about Predestination, we are not talking about what the Scripture actually teaches on the subject, but rather what has been accepted historically by the Church on the subject. The historical definition of Predestination that has been handed down traditionally to us by the Church is that God has predestined some to go to hell and some to go to heaven. In other words it has nothing to do with whether you want Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life or not. God has decided it and that’s the way it is.

Dale Moody further discusses this issue in his book when talking about the teachings of St. Augustine.

"On the basis of belief in irresistible grace Augustine (AD 354-430) built his doctrine of single Predestination. He argued as follows: "Between grace and Predestination there is only this difference, the Predestination is the preparation for grace, while grace is the donation itself"... all who are foreknown are foreordained to eternal life. The rest of mankind is left in what Augustine called ‘the mass of perdition,’ some of whom had capacity to believe that did not hear and others who heard but refused to believe."^79/343

The doctrine of Predestination as it was being taught had absolutely nothing to do with the person’s beliefs, convictions, or whether they received Jesus as Savior and Lord or not. As Moody had said in the beginning, Number six - your in a fix! Number seven - you go to heaven! The image of God that this gives us speaks for itself, it speaks clearly to the foolishness of this kind of teaching.

Does the Bible support this interpretation of what is meant by Predestination? Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:1-6,

"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of ALL MEN, for kings and ALL who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, WHO DESIRES ALL MEN TO BE SAVED and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom FOR ALL, the testimony borne at the proper time."

In this passage of Scripture Paul states several all’s: 1) Pray on behalf of all men, 2) God desires all men to be saved, 3) that they would all come to a knowledge of the truth, and 4) Jesus was given as a ransom (died for our sins) for all men. The Bible does not contradict itself. Only man’s interpretations do. Paul plainly tells us in this passage of Scripture that God’s will is that ALL men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. This passage also clearly tells us that Jesus did not just die for a select ordained few, but for ALL men. The teaching of Predestination as it has been traditionally taught through the history of the Church is a Christian heresy not supported by the Word of God as is clearly indicated by the passage above.

Some opponents have tried to tell me that the word ALL here refers to people chosen from every race, thus all meaning from every race, not all men. This interpretation is even included in some Lexicons of the bible. For example, in the Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon of the Bible is the following quote from C.H. Spurgeon’s sermon titled Particular Redemption:

"... ‘the whole world has gone after him’ Did all the world go after Christ? ‘then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.’ Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem, baptized in Jordan? ‘Ye are of God, little children’, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one’. Does the whole world there mean everybody? The words ‘world’ and ‘all’ are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture, and it is very rarely the ‘all’ means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts — some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile ..."^86/CD

What is wrong with Spurgeons comments here? What isn’t he telling us? First, in the first example he sites from John 12:19 the word whole is not used. A correct translation of this passage is that "the world has gone after him." This is a general statement we even make today that does not mean all everyone, all inclusive.

The second passage Spurgeon quotes is from Matthew 3:5 which in context states:

"Then Jerusalem was going out to Him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins." (Matt 3:5-6)

Even an uneducated person understands that the use of the word all here, in context, does not mean not one person was left out. In any society or community of these sizes there are always going to be dissenters, those who do not believe. This does not require even an explanation from Spurgeon. But as is true with every heresy, passages are taken out of their immediate, surrounding and in the context of the Bible's full teaching on the subject and made to have a meaning total context does not support.

What Spurgeon is doing here is committing the same error he is attacking. He first is assuming the reader is making assumptions no intelligent person would make. Only He is committing the error he assumes men are making who in context are correct in interpreting the use of the word pa'" (pas, "all")⁹² in 2 Timothy 2:1-6 to mean all inclusive. When Paul states that God desires "all men to be saved," Paul by his own comments in the context of all does not mean he believes all men will be saved. Otherwise, why would he be admonishing Christians to pray for all men? Not because all men will be saved, but because it is God’s will that all men be saved, but God does not force men He gave independent will to accept His salvation for them.

Second, it is not true that God chooses some to be saved and some to be lost. The context of Scripture does not support this assertion. for example Paul wrote in Romans 5:18:

"So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to ALL men."

If all men here does not mean literally all inclusive, then neither does Adam’s transgression bringing condemnation to all men mean literally all inclusive. Context here tells us very plainly that Jesus salvation on the cross is for all men meaning all inclusive, not just those who do accept His Salvation.

God speaking through Ezekiel and Peter tells us His heart on this matter:

"‘As I live!’ declares Adonai Yehovah, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’" (Ezekiel 33:11)

"The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

God has made His desire clearly known: He wants no one to go to hell or perish, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That is God’s heart. What is true is that God does not force men to want Him or His rule over them. What is true is that if men do not repent and turn to Him He will send them to hell.

"For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries." (Hebrews 10:26-27)

For this reason God through Paul admonishes us to pray on behalf of all men so that they will come to a knowledge of the truth and have the opportunity for salvation. What 2 Timothy 2:1-6 does not say is that all men will be saved. God’s will and desire, however, in the context of the Bible as a whole is that all men will repent of their sins and turn to Him so they can be saved. Because this is His will and desire, and because he forces no one to accept His salvation, He asks us to pray on behalf of all men, here clearly meaning all men completely, no one left out. However, not all will repent or accept His salvation.

When you accept the teaching of double predestination, you force an interpretation upon Scripture total context does not support, you create all kinds of unsolvable contradictions of God’s own statements recorded in the Bible and you place upon God’s character an attitude and posture He nor Scripture supports. God’s heart and attitude about man are that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and He is not willing that any should perish, but he forces His free gift of redemption in Jesus upon no one.

I was intrigued while studying about the Reformation, that though Lutheranism, Calvinism and Zwinglyism were right concerning our need to get back to the Bible as the absolute Word of God and as our first and final determining factor in what is true or false concerning the teaching and practice of our faith, despite all the good that came out of the Reformation, the one thing that did not come out of the Reformation, which you would think would be a logical response to the Reformation, was a greater emphasis on Evangelism, one-on-one Evangelism, and Missions. The fact of the matter is there was hardly any effort whatsoever. In fact, the emphasis of Evangelism came more from their enemies the Catholics through the order of the Jesuits who, not the protestants, were responsible for evangelizing the indians of America.

The reason why the Reformation Church did not have strong emphasis Evangelistically was for the same reason the Catholic Church did not and that was because they continued to hold to the twisted non-Biblical traditional teaching on Predestination. If God had predestined some to be saved and the rest to be lost then what was the point of Evangelism? Moody comments,

"Even within the Lutheran camp the debate was heated. Philip Melanchthon, Luther’s closest friend, ventured to say three agencies cooperate in human conversion to Christ. These three agencies are the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the human will.^79/342 Melanchthon was especially fond of Philippians 2:13 which says: 'God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.' The very word work put Melanchthon at the mercy of Luther’s followers who denounced this teaching as synergism. Luther was great and the Protestant Reformation was not all in vain, but this denial of human freedom has not helped Lutheranism in the Evangelistic task of the Church. Holy Scripture is more precious than human tradition, even Protestant tradition."^79/344

Synergism is the mixing of God’s works with man’s works for salvation,^80/97 at least this is the way these Reformation Theologians were using the word, but that is not what the Bible means by the use of the term in context.

The whole emphasis of the Reformation was that the Church put so much emphasis in tradition that they ignored what the Bible taught. Again Dale Moody comments,

"Wherever they [teachers of Predestination] have prevailed, Evangelism and missions have not even begun, but wherever they have been repudiated in the light of a "whosoever" Gospel the fires of Evangelism and missions have been lighted."^79/342

Understand that the teaching of Predestination in Church History was Popular not because it had been based on the teaching of Scripture, that is on the total context of Scripture, but because it gave an excuse for not getting involved in Evangelism. To give you an example in my own life, when I was in college I worked for United Parcel Service in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I had a friend who worked there who was also a student at the Christian College I was attending. I knew from other Christian brethren that this person had a strong belief in Predestination. This brother knew that I was involved in teaching aggressive Evangelism on Campus. I taught an Evangelism program at this college called Tadpole Evangelism.