PREDESTINATION?

PREDESTINATION: DID JESUS CHOOSE WHO WOULD BE SAVED? 
Calvinists use John 15:16 in an attempt to prove Jesus predestines people to be saved; however, this Scripture is not talking about who receives eternal life. Jesus is specifically speaking to the 12 apostles who were chosen for a specific task and purpose. He says “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” Jesus is reminding them that He chose them out of the wider mass of His followers for the specific task of learning from Him so that they could do the things He did.
To understand the Bible and avoid misinterpretations, we must study biblical passages within their proper context. Jesus is not speaking to us in 2025 as being one of the 12 chosen apostles, but He is speaking of the 12 disciples He chose to follow Him in service (Luke 12:13-16). He is not talking about who is appointed to receive eternal life, but who He chose for the purpose of preaching the gospel to the world. This speaks nothing of a predestination to either life or death. This is confirmed in Mark 3:13-14: “Now Jesus went up the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach.” God chose these 12 disciples to be eyewitnesses of the life and ministry of Christ Jesus. They were chosen to witness the glory and greatness of His resurrection, so that they could convince the Jews that He was their Messiah and share with Gentiles that His salvation was available to all.

​God bases His election on His foreknowledge of those who freely choose Him. Jesus died for the sins of all mankind, and “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4; Titus 2:11; 2 Peter 3:9). God is not schizophrenic. He does not will for some to be saved and others not to be saved. How could God genuinely desire that all men be saved, if He does not give them an opportunity to be saved? God gives all men the opportunity to be saved, but He allows each person to decide for themselves whether to accept His offer or not. Let me rephrase that: We are ALL called by the gospel to be saved, and when a person (“whosoever believes”) answers the call of the gospel, then that is when that person is chosen by God to become one of God's elect (Matthew 20:16). Those who accept His offer of salvation are those who are “predestined" in the sense that God foreknows from eternity who will choose to accept His grace and who will reject His grace and be lost. God reaches out to us FIRST but we can ALSO clearly see that if, in our hard heartedness, we reject the offer of salvation extended to us then we will not be CHOSEN. Those who “walk worthy of the Lord’ and faithfully “endure to the end” are the ELECT of God who will be saved.

-By Lynette Hughes