Reviewer’s
comment. This is an exciting chapter to review because of the responses that I
expect to receive to respond to the author’s trigger words. One need not wonder
where the younger generation’s fixation on trigger warnings and the demand that
forewarnings be issued before certain words or topics are mentioned by a
teacher in a university classroom. I suspect many millennials learned such
tactics from their childhood pastors who go off when such words as predestination,
election, or foreordination are used, evoking criticism when the terms are
used, without considering reading the way the author uses such Biblical words.
This
chapter has ten subdivisions.
“The big
question is: Why? Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are we here?
What is the meaning of life? Whence and whether – where did we come from and
where we going? In German there are two words for why. Warum
means “What caused this?” Wozu means “What is the purpose or goal of
this?” The answer to all these questions is the same: God. Romans 11:36: “For
of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory for ever.
Amen.”
What is Predestination? Five
paragraphs are devoted to answering this question, with those paragraphs
supplying Scripture references and a discussion of predestination and for
ordination as synonyms.
The Word Predestination. Two
paragraphs address the meaning of the English word and the Greek word from
which it is translated. Passages cited include Acts 4:28, Romans 8:29–30, First
Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:5, and Ephesians 1:11.
The Purpose
of God. Four paragraphs develop God’s purpose. Two Greek words often used
for God’s wise counsel and purpose are explored.
The Decree
of God. Three paragraphs address God’s decree. Arthur W. Pink commented: “There
is a vast difference between the promises of God and His eternal decrees: Many
of the former are conditional, whereas the latter are immutable, depending on
nothing for their fulfillment save the omnipotence of God.”
The Program
and Plan of God. Two paragraphs.
Eternal Predestination. Three
paragraphs. Three verses are cited: Second Timothy 1:9, Ephesians 1:4, Job
14:5.
Absolute Predestination. Six
paragraphs. “Predestination is absolute and definite, not contingent or merely
possible. It is unfrustratable, unstoppable, invincible.”
Predestination
of All Means and Ends. Two paragraphs. Predestination is universal. “Could
God have predestined things differently? In a way, yes. He is independent and
did not have to create. Creation is a free act, not a necessary act, like the
eternal generation of the Son or the eternal procession of the Spirit.”
A Caution. Two
paragraphs. “Deuteronomy 29:29 should be remembered: ‘The secret things belong
to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our
children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.’”
Conclusion. Three
paragraphs. “Arminianism approaches that in its idea of predestination being
contingent upon man rather than God alone. The alternative to sovereign divine
predestination is human tyranny… No man fully understands predestination. Only
God does. But he has revealed enough of it in Scripture for us to believe in
it. Why? Because God says so.”
