Predestination of the Will

Chapter Predestination

Section I

Predestination of the Will

It is true that theological controversies about "Predestination" have caused great confusion in the religious lives of many Christians.

We must understand what brought this about.

In the Bible, there are many passages that could be interpreted to mean that the fortune or misfortune, happiness or misery of any individual, as well as the salvation or damnation of fallen men and the rise and fall of nations, all occur according to God's predestination. For example, the Bible says:

Those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified. (Rom. 8:30)

Again it says:

...'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'. So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. (Rom. 9:15-16)

It again says (Rom. 9:21), "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?". It also says (Rom. 9:11-13) that God loved Jacob and hated Esau while they were still in their mother's womb, and said the elder would serve the younger.

In this way, there are ample Biblical grounds to justify "complete predestination". But we must not forget that there are also many Biblical passages that deny complete predestination.

For example, when we see that God warned the first human ancestors not to eat of the fruit (Gen. 2:17) in order to prevent them from falling, it is evident that man's fall was not God's predestination but the result of man's disobedience to God's commandment. Again we read (Gen. 6:6), that God was sorry that He had put man on earth. If man had fallen according to God's predestination, there would be no reason for Him to be sorry for His having created man, whose fall He would have predestined. John 3:16 says that whoever believes in Christ shall not perish.

When we read in Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.", we can see well enough that all things are not accomplished merely by the predestination of God, but by human endeavor. If all things are to be accomplished solely by God's predestination, why did God so emphasize human efforts? Again, when we read that we should pray for sick brothers (James 5:14), we can understand that suffering due to sickness is not by the predestination of God. If all things were inevitably decided by God's predestination, there would be no need for man's tearful prayers.

If we accept the traditional belief of predestination, man's prayers, evangelism, charity and other human endeavors would be of no use whatsoever to God's providence of restoration; and any such endeavor would ultimately be useless. This is because the predestination of God, who is absolute, should also be absolute, without leaving room for any change due to human effort.

Since there are sufficient Biblical grounds to justify either acceptance or rejection of the theory of predestination, controversies over the doctrine of predestination are inevitable. How, then, would the Principle solve such problems? Let us investigate the question of predestination.

Section I

Predestination of the Will

Let us first define "will" before discussing predestination of the will. God could not accomplish His purpose of creation due to the human fall. Therefore, the will of God, in working His providence with fallen man, is to accomplish His purpose of creation. In other words, the "will" means the fulfillment of the purpose of the providence of restoration.

Next, we must know that God first determines the will, and then works to accomplish it. Having created man, God set up His will to accomplish the purpose of creation; however, due to the human fall, He was unable to accomplish the will. Naturally, in order to accomplish it, He has to determine His will a second time, and thus He carries out the providence of restoration.

God predestines the will to be one of goodness, not of evil; then He works to accomplish it.

Since God is the essence of goodness, His purpose of creation must also be one of goodness. Naturally, the purpose of His providence of restoration must be good, and His will to accomplish this purpose must also be good. God could not have predestined that which obstructs and is against the purpose of creation. Thus, we know that He could not have predetermined such things as the human fall, judgment of fallen men, or the destruction of the universe. If such evil results had been the necessary product of God's predestination, He would not have regretted the evil result of His own predestination, and we could not think of God as the subject of goodness.

God, looking at fallen men, was sorry that He had made man on earth (Gen 6:6); and, seeing King Saul's faithlessness, He repented that He had made Saul king (I Sam. 15:11). This is good evidence that these events were not the result of God's predestination. Such evil results occur from man's failure to accomplish his portion of responsibility, and from his being on the side of Satan.

To what extent does God predetermine the will to accomplish His purpose of creation?

God is the absolute being--unique, eternal, and unchangeable; so God's purpose of creation must be the same. Accordingly, the will of the providence of restoration, which is to accomplish the purpose of creation, should be unique, unchangeable, and absolute (Is. 46:11). God predetermines the will to be absolute; so, when a person chosen for the will fails to accomplish it, God must go on to fulfill it, even by setting up another person in place of the one who failed.

For example, when God's will to fulfill the purpose of creation centering on Adam failed, He sent Jesus as the second Adam, attempting to fulfill the will centering on him, because His predestination of the will was absolute. When this will was again a failure, due to the disbelief of the people (cf. Part I, Ch. 4, Sec. I, 2--141), Jesus promised the Lord would come and fulfill the will without fail (Matt. 16:27).

Again, in Adam's family, God intended to lay the foundation to receive the Messiah through His providence centered on Cain and Abel.

• However, this will ended in failure when Cain killed Abel. Then, God intended to accomplish His will through Noah's family.
• When Noah's family failed to accomplish this will, God had to set up Abraham to fulfill the will.
• In another instance, God intended to fulfill the will which Abel failed to accomplish by setting up Seth (Gen. 4:25).
• Also, He attempted to fulfill the will unaccomplished by Moses by choosing Joshua in his stead (Josh. 1:5);
• and again, He tried to fulfill the will unaccomplished due to the betrayal of Judas Iscariot by electing Matthias (Acts 1:15).