You make choices every day. What to eat. Where to drive. Whether to read this article or keep scrolling. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you assume the same logic applies to salvation: you decide whether to accept God. You choose Him — or you don’t.
But what if God chose you first? What if the decision that determined your eternal destiny was made before you were born — before the universe existed? That’s exactly what election and predestination teach. And it’s one of the most debated, most misunderstood, and most comforting doctrines in all of Scripture.
What Is Election and Predestination?
Election and predestination are closely related biblical terms that describe God’s sovereign plan for salvation. They are not the same word, but they describe overlapping realities — and confusing them leads to most of the bad theology surrounding this topic.
Election (Greek: eklegō) means God’s choice of specific individuals for salvation. It answers the question: Whom did God choose?
Predestination (Greek: proorizō) means God’s pre-determined plan for what His chosen ones will become. It answers the question: What did God plan for them?
“Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” — Ephesians 1:4-5
Notice the sequence in Paul’s language: God chose us (election), then predestined us for adoption (predestination). Election is the selection. Predestination is the destination. As theologian Kevin DeYoung puts it: “Election focuses on the people; predestination focuses on what will happen to them.”
Both terms point to the same stunning reality: before time began, God made deliberate, personal, unchangeable decisions about your salvation.
But here’s what most people miss.
What Does the Bible Actually Say About Predestination?
The word “predestine” appears six times in the New Testament (depending on your translation). Each time, it describes God’s action — never humanity’s. Here are the key passages.
Romans 8:29-30 — The Golden Chain
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” — Romans 8:29-30
Theologians call this “the golden chain of redemption” because every link holds. Notice: no one drops out between steps. If God foreknew you, He predestined you. If He predestined you, He called you. If He called you, He justified you. If He justified you, He glorified you — Paul writes it in the past tense because, from God’s perspective, it’s already accomplished.
This is not a chain of human effort. It’s a chain of divine certainty. God’s sovereignty over salvation means the outcome was never in doubt.
Ephesians 1:3-12 — Chosen Before the Foundation of the World
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians opens with an avalanche of sovereign grace. In the span of ten verses, he uses “according to his will,” “the purpose of his will,” “according to his purpose,” and “the counsel of his will.” The repetition is deliberate — Paul is hammering home that salvation originates in God’s decision, not ours.
The timing is critical: “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). Not after God saw who would believe. Not in response to human faith. Before anything existed — before there was a world to be the foundation of — God chose.
Romans 9:10-16 — Jacob and Esau
“Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls — she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.'” — Romans 9:11-12
Paul uses Jacob and Esau to illustrate that election has nothing to do with human merit. Before the twins were born. Before they had done anything — good or bad. God chose Jacob. The entire point of Paul’s argument is to exclude human contribution from the equation.
And Paul anticipates the objection: “Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!” (Romans 9:14). Then he quotes God’s own words: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” (9:15). God doesn’t owe mercy to anyone. Any mercy He extends is pure, undeserved grace.
Key Insight: Election is not God choosing the best candidates. It’s God making dead people alive — not because they deserved it, but because He decided to love them.
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Does God Predestine People? The Three Major Views
Christians have debated predestination for centuries. Three main positions have emerged — and understanding them helps you evaluate what Scripture actually teaches.
1. The Reformed (Calvinist) View: Unconditional Election
God, before the foundation of the world, chose specific individuals for salvation. This choice was unconditional — not based on any foreseen faith, merit, or decision in the person. God chose, then granted faith as a gift to the elect. Election is the cause of faith, not the result of it.
Key proponents: Augustine, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Canons of Dort.
This is the position Savage Mercies holds — and the position we believe best represents the full weight of biblical evidence. For a deeper treatment, see Do Christians Have Free Will?
2. The Arminian View: Conditional Election
God, looking ahead through time, foresaw who would freely choose to believe in Christ — and elected them based on that foreseen faith. Election is real, but it’s God’s ratification of a human decision rather than an unconditional divine choice.
Key proponents: Jacob Arminius, John Wesley, most Methodist and Pentecostal theologians.
The main problem with this view: it makes Romans 9:11 incoherent. Paul explicitly says God’s choice was made “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad” — in order that God’s purpose of election might stand apart from human works. If election is based on foreseen faith, it’s based on something in the person — exactly what Paul denies.
3. The Corporate Election View
God elected a people (the Church), not specific individuals. Individuals become part of the elect by choosing to enter the group through faith. God chose the category; humans choose whether to join it.
The problem: Ephesians 1:4 says God chose “us” — specific people Paul was writing to — not a generic category. Romans 8:29-30 traces the golden chain through individual steps (foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified) that only make sense applied to real persons. And Jesus says plainly: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16) — addressed to specific disciples, not an abstract group.
And this is where it gets uncomfortable.
The Hardest Part: What About Those Not Chosen?
If God chose some for salvation, what about the rest? This is the question that keeps people up at night. It kept Paul up at night too — he wrote “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” for his fellow Israelites who hadn’t believed (Romans 9:2-3).
The Reformed tradition has historically spoken of two related concepts:
Election: God’s active choice to save some.
Reprobation: God’s decision to pass over others, leaving them in the sin they freely chose.
Notice the asymmetry. Election is active — God intervenes, regenerates, grants faith. Reprobation is permissive — God doesn’t force anyone into sin. He simply withholds the grace that no one deserves. As R.C. Sproul explains in What Is Reformed Theology?: “God’s grace is not an obligation. If He chooses to extend saving mercy to some and not to others, He has violated no one’s rights — because no one has a right to grace.”
This is hard. It’s meant to be hard. Paul doesn’t soften it: “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Romans 9:21). The clay doesn’t get a vote. The Potter decides.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” — Deuteronomy 29:29
We don’t have access to God’s secret counsel. We can’t peek at the Book of Life. What we do have is the revealed will of God — the gospel command to believe. And the gospel invitation is genuine: “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
What Election and Predestination Mean for Your Life
This isn’t an academic exercise. These doctrines reshape how you pray, how you suffer, and how you understand your own faith. Here’s what changes when you take election and predestination seriously.
Your Salvation Is Secure
If God chose you before the foundation of the world, your salvation doesn’t depend on the strength of your faith on any given Tuesday. It depends on the unchangeable purpose of God. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Bad days don’t disqualify you. Seasons of doubt don’t cancel God’s decree. The golden chain holds.
Your Humility Deepens
You didn’t choose God because you were smarter, more spiritual, or more open-minded than your unbelieving neighbor. God chose you — and the choice had nothing to do with your resume. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Election destroys spiritual pride at the root.
Your Evangelism Gets Bolder
This surprises people. If God already chose who will be saved, why share the gospel? Because God ordained the means as well as the ends. Romans 10:14 asks: “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” God’s elect are scattered across the world. Your job is to preach. The Spirit’s job is to open hearts. You are not the Holy Spirit — you’re the herald. That takes enormous pressure off.
Paul — who wrote Romans 9 — was history’s greatest missionary. The man who taught unconditional election spent his life planting churches. If predestination killed evangelism, someone forgot to tell the apostle who taught it.
Your Prayer Transforms
If God is truly sovereign, then prayer is not you persuading a reluctant God. It’s you aligning with a sovereign God whose plans cannot fail. You pray boldly because you know the God who predestined the outcome also ordained your prayers as part of that plan. You don’t pray less. You pray with more confidence.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” — 1 John 5:14
Election and Free Will: How Do They Fit Together?
This is the question that launches a thousand theological arguments. If God chose who would be saved, do humans have free will?
The short answer: yes — but not the kind most people assume.
The Reformers distinguished between natural liberty (the ability to choose what you want) and moral liberty (the ability to want what is good). After the fall, humans retained natural liberty — you can choose pizza over pasta, left turn over right. But you lost moral liberty — your will is enslaved to sin. You can choose, but apart from God’s regenerating grace, you will always choose against God.
Jesus puts it bluntly: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Not “no one will” — no one can. The inability is real. As we explored in Dead Men Cannot Decide, the doctrine of regeneration teaches that God must make you alive before you can respond in faith. Being “born again” is not something you do. It’s something done to you.
Election and human responsibility coexist in Scripture — not because we can fully explain how, but because both are clearly taught. God is sovereign. Humans are responsible. The Bible holds both without embarrassment.
How Do I Know If I’m Elect?
“But what if I’m not one of the chosen?” If you’re asking that question with genuine concern, the answer is almost certainly: you are.
Here’s why: election is invisible from the front end. You can’t decode God’s secret counsel. But you can see its effects. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you trust Him for salvation? Do you desire holiness, even imperfectly? Do you love God, even inconsistently?
If yes — those desires didn’t come from you. Dead people don’t develop spiritual appetites on their own. “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). The very fact that you’re concerned about your standing with God is evidence that the Spirit is at work in you.
“Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” — John 6:37
The call is not “determine whether you’re elect, then believe.” The call is “believe” — and your believing is the evidence of your election. Faith doesn’t cause election. Election causes faith. But faith is how you know election has happened.
As the Canons of Dort state: “The sense and certainty of this election afford to the children of God additional matter for daily humiliation before Him, for adoring the depth of His mercies, for cleansing themselves, and rendering grateful returns of ardent love to Him.” Election is supposed to produce worship, not anxiety.
The Comfort of Being Chosen
Election and predestination are not cold doctrines for seminary debates. They are the warmest truths in the Bible — because they mean your salvation was never up to you.
If salvation depended on your choice, it would be only as strong as your resolve on your worst day. But salvation depends on God’s choice — and God’s choice was made in eternity, sealed in the blood of Christ, and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit who will not let go of what the Father gave to the Son.
The same God who spoke galaxies into existence looked at you — with full knowledge of every sin you would commit, every doubt you would entertain, every rebellion you would indulge — and said: “That one is mine.”
That’s not a burden. That’s the deepest comfort a sinner can know.
You were chosen before the foundation of the world. Not because of what you would do — but because of who God is.
Rest in that.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between election and predestination?
Election refers to God’s choice of specific individuals for salvation. Predestination refers to God’s pre-determined plan for what His chosen ones will become — namely, adopted children conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). Election is the who; predestination is the what. Both occur before the foundation of the world and are taught throughout the New Testament.
Does the Bible teach predestination?
Yes. The word “predestined” appears explicitly in Romans 8:29-30, Ephesians 1:5, and Ephesians 1:11. Related concepts of divine election appear in John 15:16, Romans 9:11-13, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, and 2 Timothy 1:9. While Christians interpret these passages differently, the concept of predestination is undeniably biblical.
How do election and predestination relate to free will?
Reformed theology teaches that humans have natural liberty (the ability to choose what they want) but lack moral ability to choose God apart from grace, because sin enslaves the will (John 6:44, Romans 8:7-8). God’s election does not override the will — it frees it. When God regenerates a person, He makes them willing and able to believe. Scripture affirms both divine sovereignty and genuine human responsibility.
How can I know if I am one of the elect?
The Bible’s answer is simple: do you believe in Jesus Christ? Faith is the evidence of election, not a separate phenomenon (John 6:37, 1 John 5:13). The desire for God, trust in Christ, and love for holiness — however imperfect — are fruits the Spirit produces in the elect. If you have them, they didn’t originate with you. They are evidence of God’s prior choice.
If God predestines people, is evangelism pointless?
No. God ordained the means of salvation (preaching the gospel) as well as the end (the salvation of the elect). Romans 10:14 makes this clear. Paul, who taught predestination more clearly than any biblical author, was also history’s most prolific missionary. Election should make evangelism more confident, not less — because God guarantees the harvest.
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