One of the doctrines people commonly associate with Presbyterianism is predestination. Actually, this is not a peculiarly Presbyterian doctrine – at least not historically. The Church of England (transplanted to America, the Episcopal Church) traditionally confesses this truth, as do all the Reformed churches of Europe. So do some Baptists (there is a movement, for instance, within the Southern Baptist Convention that holds this doctrine.
 
This is not the place, and I am not the person, for a lengthy treatise on predestination. Rather, I would like to set forth the doctrine in a brief series of questions and answers.

 
What vocabulary do I need in order to think about this doctrine? (1) Sovereignty means God’s rule as King over all things. (2) Predestination (pre-destine) means to determine what will happen before it does. (3) Foreordination (fore-ordain) means to ordain or order events before they occur. (4) Election means to elect or choose persons, as we do when we vote in elections. (5) Foreknowledge (fore-know) means to know beforehand, and, when used of persons, means to know in love, not merely to be aware of what is going to happen.
 
What is the main point of this doctrine? The main point is that God plans and causes everything that happens in what he has created. “…having been predestined by the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).
 
Do you mean even things we think of as chance events? Yes. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision of from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33).
 
Does God rule over governments? Yes. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).
 
What about pagan, evil governments? He rules over them, too. When the Old Testament Kingdom of God was in ruins (Jerusalem overrun, the temple destroyed, the Davidic line of kings deposed, the best and the brightest exiled) while the Babylonian Empire with its effective war machine dominated the world, God taught the king of Babylon this lesson: “for his (the LORD’s) dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4: 34, 35).
 
What about freewill? All human beings are responsible agents of all their actions and are free to will what they will within the limitations of their nature, abilities, and opportunities. Nobody is free to do anything he imagines. Try jumping off a roof and not hitting the ground. At the same time we are all conscious of making choices within the confines of our human limitations. Sin has so affected nature that we cannot by our own resources and power chose God, good, Christ, and salvation. On the day of Pentecost Peter combined the sovereignty of God and the free and responsible choice of man in this way: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). The church in Jerusalem said in prayer to God: “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27,28).
 
What about evil in the world? God is not the Source of evil, but he is in control of evil, and uses it for his own purposes. God chose to allow evil, but he overrules it for his glory. God said to Pharaoh, who the Bible says “hardened his heart” against God and God’s will: “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16). Joseph’s brothers chose to sell him into slavery and lie to their father that he had been killed, but later Joseph told them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive…” (Genesis 50:20).
 
What does this have to do with my salvation? God loved you and chose you before he made the world and foreordained and predestined everything necessary for your salvation. When the Gospel was proclaimed in Antioch of Pisidia, “…all who were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who …chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6). “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). Paul said of the Thessalonians: “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he has called you through our gospel…” (2 Thessalonians 2:13,14).
 
What is this doctrine not intended to do? (1) To make you proud of your knowledge, (2) to make you arrogant toward others, (3) to make you harsh toward those who disagree, (4) to lead to your attempt to read the mind of God as to who are the elect.
 
What is this doctrine intended to do? (1) To provoke praise to this wise, powerful, loving, gracious God, (2) to make you humble before God since your salvation is by him, (2) to make you confident of your salvation since God has planned and guaranteed it, (3) to give you strength and comfort as you face the trials of life knowing that God has ordained everything with an eye to your salvation, (4) to make you confident in witness because the gospel is the means by which God calls the many he has chosen to salvation.
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Rev. William H. Smith is pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Miss.