Question
I have a question, is pre-destination biblical? Romans 9:10-13 does it support it?
Answer
The short answer is NO, predestination is not biblical at all. God has created each one of us with the power of free will, free choice, and He respects our choices.
Romans 8 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Ephesians 1 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
The two passages above, written by the apostle Paul, are the only places in the Bible where it talks about being predestined. The Calvinists define predestination as God deciding who will be saved and who lost, without anybody having any choice in the matter. But that is not the way Paul defined it at all! According to Paul, God has predestined each one of us to be saved, because Jesus died for each and every sin, of every human being who ever lived. But because we have the power of free choice, we can choose to accept His offer of salvation, or reject it. We all are predestined to be saved, IF we choose to accept God at His word, and trust that He will save us by His grace.
Here are the passages that tell us that Jesus came to die for the sins of every human being. And why would He die for the sins of every human being, if He does not want everyone to be saved? And yet He does not force us, but respects our choices, even if we choose to be lost.
1 Timothy 2 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is … not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
John 3 14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
1 John 2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Romans 3 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus …
Romans 5 6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
Romans 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
2 Corinthians 5 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 7 26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Here are some of the passages that talk about free choice in the Bible. If God predestined some to heaven and some to hell, He would not have given us the power of free choice.
John 3 14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
1 Peter 3:11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
Now let’s look at the passage that you specifically asked about.
Romans 9 10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
What God hated, was the fact that Esau refused to listen to Him, refused to give his life to Him, and therefore was lost. Look at what is said about Esau, in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 12 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
Esau would not listen to God, he rejected God, and told God to leave him alone, as he wanted to sin, and he did not want to give up what he was doing. God did not walk away from Esau, Esau chased God away. When we cling to a sin that much, and we reject any offer of God to help us overcome the sin, God cannot forgive, for there is no repentance, and no asking for forgiveness. God can only forgive when we confess to Him, and ask Him to forgive, so when we don’t ask, He cannot forgive. He was still there, with Esau, He never moves, but Esau was constantly running away from Him, and not repenting of his sin. When we find ourselves far away from God, it is always we who have moved, never God.
Hebrews 13:5 ... For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
God does not decide who is lost and who is saved, before we are born, as the Calvinists believe. God created us with the power of free choice, and if we choose to follow Him and believe that He saves us by His wonderful grace, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are saved.
I trust that this makes sense to you. God bless!
