Article copyright by Bob Rogers, Th.D.

Predestination is generally understood as God’s foreordaining of what will happen, especially who will be saved. It is often associated with the teachings of the Protestant Reformer John Calvin, and thus sometimes referred to as Calvinism. Presbyterians, Reformed churches, many Baptists, and some other Christians emphasize this doctrine, although they hold to differing interpretations of predestination. In this and the next four posts, I will expound on five truths about predestination, primarily from the ninth chapter of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans. In the third post, I will give special attention to different ways of understanding predestination.

Truth #1: There are two kinds of predestination: nations and individuals.

In Romans chapter 9, the apostle Paul was trying to explain why most of his fellow Jews had rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ. He explained it by talking about God’s “election,” or predestination.  Paul implies that there are two kinds of election: election of nations, and election of individuals. The Jews were, and are, God’s “chosen people.” Romans 9:13 quotes Malachi 1:2, “Jacob [Israel] I loved.” Despite this, not all Jews will be saved. Romans 9:6 says, “for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” That’s because there is a second kind of election, which is individual election to salvation, and that requires faith. Romans 9:30-33 says that many Gentiles became believers, even though they were not an elect nation, because they got “a righteousness that is by faith,” but Israel, which is an elect nation, “did not succeed… Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith…”

To be continued tomorrow…