All Our Yesterdays
"To the last
syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays. . ." (Macbeth V.v.)
A series of brief articles
dealing with Human Pre-existence
by Arthur & Rosalind Eedle.
19. Predestination &
Foreknowledge
First of
all, let's have a look at certain well-known Scriptures, quoted from the
Authorised Version.
Romans
Ephesians
1:4-5 "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love;
having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will."
2
Thess.2:13 "We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you,
brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."
Here we are
treading on THE TULIP FIELDS beloved by the Calvinists. The word
TULIP refers to the acronym of the five points of Calvinist theology, which are
as follows -
1. Total
depravity: born in sin and wholly unable to respond to God.
2. Unconditional
predestination: God has a master list of those He intends to save. The
rest go to hell.
3. Limited
redemption: Christ did not die for all, but only for those predestined
to life.
4. Irresistible
grace: the Holy Spirit draws the company of the elect to God, and
guides them subsequently.
5. Perseverence
of the saints: a child of God, once saved, cannot be lost.
Horror of
all horrors! None of these items are taught in the Bible in the manner in which
Calvinists understand them. So let's investigate the words "predestination"
and "foreknowledge" to see what they mean.
Foreknowledge.
The Greek word
is PRO-GINOSKO. Pro- means "beforehand", and Ginosko is the usual
verb for "knowing". My Greek Lexicon says about Proginosko, "to
know beforehand, to be previously acquainted with."
Predestination.
The Greek word
is PRO-ORIZO. Pro- means "beforehand", and Orizo is the root from
which we get our English word Horizon. The Greek Lexicon says about Pro-orizo, "to
mark out beforehand, to ordain beforehand."
This
provides us with the possibility of making a better translation of Romans 8:29 "For
whom He was previously acquainted with, these He ordained beforehand to be
conformed to the image of His Son."
The words
clearly indicate that God knew these people as people, not just as
thoughts in His mind prior to creating them. Furthermore, the Ephesians passage
tells us that the choice was made "before the foundation of the
world," or to the Thessalonians, "from the beginning", which
must have virtually the same meaning.
One can
only assume that during the early stages of spiritual life in the heavenlies,
there was the possibility of polarisation between God and Satan, and that
beings were able, by virtue of their freewill, to veer towards one or the other
by persuasion. God, seeing and knowing those who showed Him sterling loyalty,
set them apart. He "was acquainted with them beforehand", and He
therefore "marked them out beforehand" for blessing. When they came
down to the earth, the Holy Spirit drew them unto God their Father, as Jesus
said in John's Gospel.
Where this
differs radically from Calvinism, is that God's "selection", (if one
has to use a rather distasteful word) is for the purpose of furthering His
greater work in coming ages, rather than making it seem as though God has
favourites, and consigns the rest to an everlasting furnace of torture. The
"elect" of God are like firstborn sons in
If the Lord
has, by His grace, called us unto Himself, then we should consider this privilege
a "double blessing", whereby we may, under the Lord's leadership,
assist in the salvation of the rest of the world in the coming days of His
Kingdom. When all that is achieved, we may sit at "grass roots level"
with the rest, and "cast our crowns before the throne", no longer
needed when "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell
with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them,
and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain, for the former things are passed away." (Rev.21:3-4)
This is the end of God's works, as foretold by Paul in 1 Cor.15:28, "When
all things are subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject
unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."
This is the
end of our Biblical expositions on the theme of pre-existence. The following
numbers will show how the subject has been viewed in the past by the Jews and
early Christians, by Greek philosophers, and modern poets.