Volume 44   Number 6                                                                                     February 2002

Some of our religious neighbors believe in the doctrine of predestination as taught by men such as John Calvin(1509-1564) and Augustine of Hippo(354-430). They believed that because of the nature of God and His incomprehensible greatness, we just have to believe that God chose a certain number of souls to be saved, and created all the rest to go to hell. Free will, according to them, has nothing to do with our salvation; it is all up to the grace of God, even the very thought of wanting to be saved.

A passage that is used to support their view is Romans 9:9-24, where Paul uses Jacob & Esau to explain God’s choices and how the choosing of Jacob over Esau had nothing to do with their own works.

But before we accept a false concept, we need to consider the context. We must bear in mind that Paul’s subject is the nation of Israel, not individuals.

Remember, when the Bible talks about Jacob & Esau (“Jacob have I loved, and Esau I have hated”- Malachi 1:1-4) it is speaking of nations. (The same applies to “Pharaoh” in v.17; he represents Egypt. )

Remember the word of the Lord which came to Rebekah, the pregnant mother who couldn’t understand the ongoing struggle in her womb? God told her in Genesis 25:23: “ Two nations are in thy womb, And two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And the elder shall serve the younger.” (See also Numbers 20:14)

While living, Esau never served his younger brother. It was only years later that the prophecy was fulfilled when the nation of Edomites (Esau) served the nation of Israelites (Jacob). (See Numbers 24:17-19; 2 Samuel 8:14; 2 Kings 8:20.)

Romans 9 is Paul explaining the two peoples of the earth, Jew and Gentile. The sovereign choice of God regarding nations must not be stretched to include individuals, as Calvin and others have done, or else we will put God in the preposterous position of creating individuals to perish in hell, since God does not choose to draw some to Himself, as they teach.

When Augustine was pressed on this awkward predicament of believing something about God that makes Him look completely unreasonable, he explained that the harder it was to believe this doctrine, the greater the faith it took!!

“The just shall live by faith”, yet this is not a matter of mustering up enough faith to believe an idea that is not logical. Instead, the question is why would we want to believe a doctrine which puts God in the position of taking all responsibility for everyone’s actions on earth?

The Creator cannot be glorified by robots who have no choice. Instead of believing a doctrine that doesn’t glorify God, should we not rather be diligent to do all that we can to make our calling and election sure? “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:17)