Before we can understand the truths of predestination, we must first understand some basic truths about God. According to the Holy Bible, there is only one God who is the Creator of all things, and He is an eternal being, without beginning and without end. God knows everything, from the secrets of the origins of His exhaustive universe to every intricate detail that will play out until its demise. God is omniscient (all knowing), comprehending all time and eternity, and sees beyond all that was, all that is, and all that will be. God is omnipotent (all-powerful), possessing capabilities without limit. God is omnipresent (all-present,) residing everywhere at once, and there is nowhere that He does not exist. He engulfs the vast expanse of the universe, and yet resides within the smallest corridors of the human heart. God is the creator of both good and evil, and He created both, angels and Satan. God is the giver and taker of life, and He gives life to and takes life from the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, and the weak and the strong. Everything in God's exhaustive universe is in His hands; He has no limitations, and there’s nothing He can't do. God does not respect, nor is He impressed by the wisdom and vanity of intellectual and sophisticated humanity. Finally, God is love, and His love is perfect, righteous, and without partiality. (Isa. 40:28)(Ps. 90:2)(Job 38-42:1-2)(Jer. 32:17,27)(Matt. 19:26)(Rev. 19:6)(Ps. 139:7-12)(Jer. 23:23-24)(Ps. 147:5)(Isa. 46:9-10)
 
Now that we’ve established some truths about God, we can better understand the idea of predestination. There are numerous scriptures in the Bible that relate to the idea of predestination, so I would like to introduce some of them to establish a basis for my following hypostasis.
Matthew 22:14, “Many are called (invited) but few are chosen.”
Genesis 25:22-23, speaking of Jacob and Esau in the womb, “The babies fought each other within her… The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
Psalms 135:4, “For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.”  
Mark 13:20, …the elect, whom He has chosen…”
John 15:16-19, Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”
Acts 13:48, “…all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “…from the beginning God chose you to be saved…”
1 Peter 1:2, “…who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God…”
1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people…a people belonging to God…”
Romans 8:29, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…”
Ephesians 1:4-5,11, “For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…having predestined us…according to the good pleasure of His will…In Him we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”
Acts 15:8, Concerning the Gentiles (non-Jewish) people, “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us.”
1 Peter 1:20 Speaking of Christ, “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you…”
Exodus 4-14, Romans 9:17-24, Speaking of Pharaoh, God foreordained him and superseded his will by hardening Pharaoh’s heart. For God says of Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Therefore, He (God) has mercy on whom He wills, and on whom He wills He hardens.”

So, in summary we see that God according to His foreknowledge, chose a people and persons according to His will, and He predestined, appointed, and acknowledged those that belong to Him, and gave them the Holy Spirit and eternal life as an inheritance, and He did so before the creation of the world.
 
Unlike the words “predestined,” “predetermined,” and “foreordained” the word “predestination” suggests the idea of a destination determined in advance. In Biblical terms, it’s an eternal destination determined in advance, which basically means it was determined before creation who’s going to Heaven and who’s going to Hell. This idea troubles a lot of people, because they believe it negates a person’s freedom of choice, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

When we consider the idea of pre-destiny or predestination, it’s imperative that we establish the significance of God’s foreknowledge. God fore-knows everything, including you. To make an illustration, lets fictitiously suppose that, before the creation of the world, God created a time machine, whereupon He journeyed into the future thousands of years to the time of two Biblical participants, the Apostle Peter and King Agrippa.  When He arrived in the future, God witnessed Peter choosing to have faith in Christ, but He witnessed Agrippa choosing not to have faith in Christ. So, God got back into His time machine, whereupon He journeyed back to before the creation of the world, and when He got there He opened The Book of Life, the book wherein the names of all who have been granted eternal life are written, and wrote Peter’s name in the Book of Life, but not Agrippa’s name. Now, let’s suppose God repeated this activity for every person, writing in the Book of Life the names of those who have faith in Christ, but not those who didn’t. Therefore, before the creation of the world, God knew those who would choose Christ and those who wouldn’t. Therefore, before the creation of the world, God knew the eternal destination of every person. (Matt. 16:16)(Acts 26:28)(Luke 10:20)(Phil. 4:3)(EX. 32:32-33)(Rev. 13:8, 17:8, 20:15, 21:27)

Now that we’ve established the significance of predestination and God’s foreknowledge, it’s imperative that we establish the significance of an individual’s freedom of choice. Although, God looked ahead in time and knew the choices of Peter and Agrippa, during the time of their life and as long as they were living, they had the opportunity to choose their destiny. Therefore, while we are alive, we shouldn’t presume that our fate is already sealed. Some presume to think that their destiny or fate is already determined, so there’s no use in doing anything to change it. This is a great deception, because a choice to do nothing is a choice to seal one’s fate. As long as a person is alive, they have the opportunity to choose their destiny, and whatever they choose, that’s what God recorded in The Book of Life. Whatever you choose today, is what God saw you choose before creation. (Deut. 30:19)(Josh. 24:15)(Matt. 10:32-33, 16:25)(John 3:16)
 
Now that we’ve established the significance of choice, it’s imperative that we establish the significance of what it means to be preordained. The words “predestined” (pre-determine) and “preordained” (pre-determine, appoint, decree,) though very similar, are two distinct words in the Biblical Greek text. Though every person is predestined, there are certain individuals who are not only predestined, but also preordained by God to accomplish His purposes, without recourse. Two Biblical examples of this include, the Pharaoh of Egypt approximately 1450 years BC, and Jesus of Nazareth in the 1st century AD.

Pharaoh was exalted to the throne of Egypt by God for the purpose of showing the world God’s greatness. When Pharaoh was faced with the choice of freeing the Israelite slaves, God hardened Pharaoh's heart so he wouldn’t free them. God did this so He could bring all the mighty plagues upon Egypt that are recorded in the Bible, and Pharaoh could do nothing to alter it. This was Pharaoh's destiny, this was his preordained purpose for coming into the world. Over thirteen hundred years later, the Bible refers to this same Pharaoh, and everyone else, saying that God has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens the hearts of whom He wills. Why, because the Potter (God) has the right to make from the clay (people) vessels of honor or vessels of dishonor. Before creation, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was preordained for a predetermined moment in time, and nothing could have altered it. Nothing could alter it, because God willed and decreed it as His plan to save the world. Even though the Bible says Christ had the power to called twelve legions of Angels to free Him, He couldn’t call them, because God’s will was sealed in His heart.  (Ex. 7-11, 7:3-5, 11:9-10)(Rom. 9:17-24) (1 Pet. 1:20)(Rev. 13:8)(Matt. 26:53-54)

According to God's infinite foreknowledge, every event and participant that is recorded in the Bible from the beginning of creation to the end of all things has been preordained to fulfill the purpose of ushering the ministry of Christ into the world. For example, all those named in the linage of Christ, from Adam to the father of the virgin Mary were preordained to bring the Messiah and Savior into the world. Think about this, this means Christ’s ancestors couldn’t die until they passed on the seed of Christ to the next generation. Furthermore, using one of Christ’s ancestors for an example, David couldn’t have been killed by Goliath, nor in any of the numerous battles he fought, until his son Nathan was conceived. Furthermore, it wasn’t only King David that couldn’t be killed, but anyone keeping him from being killed, likewise couldn’t die until he had saved the King, etc. How unsearchable is the mind of God, and His ways past finding out! (Luke 3:23-38)    
 
Forasmuch, as God's foreknowledge extends into the future, and since there’s a predetermined moment in time when Christ will return and usher in the end of all things, it is imperative that not only is His return preordained, but also, everything that must take place to accomplish it. For example, the Bible says before Christ’s return, there must be chaos in the world and everything that precedes it; there must be a great falling away from the faith and everything that precedes it; the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt and everything that precedes it, and there must be an Antichrist and everyone and everything that brings him into the world and into power, etc. (Matt. 24)

Now, let’s sum all this up, and put it in perspective, by seeing how we can practically apply this to our lives today. Since all of time and eternity is predetermined by the foreknowledge of God, your life is also. However, this doesn’t leave you without responsibility. Does the foreknowledge of God suggest you have no choices to make in your life, or no decisions to make in regard to your eternal destination? From the moment you were conceived, every event of your life has been predestined, and there’s a predetermined, appointed time in which you will leave this mortal existence, why, because God knew it before creation. Now I’ve heard it said, “When it’s a person’s time, they will die,” as if they had no choice in the matter. This is both true and untrue. It’s untrue in the since that people choose their fate by the choices they make every day, but it’s true in the since of God’s foreknowledge. For example, if a person chooses to get intoxicated, and decides to stand in the middle of the highway, whereupon they’re struck down by a truck, that’s not Gods fault, they didn’t have to die that day, they chose to. If a person chooses to smoke cigarettes all their life, and die of cancer at age 50, that’s not Gods fault, they could have lived longer if they would’ve chosen not to smoke. On the other hand, if a person is doing the right thing in the right place, and their life is taken, that could be a different story, that could be the result of just living in a sin-cursed world, as in the case of falling prey to a murderer, or it could be an act of God, according to the innumerable purposes He might have for that person’s life. Regardless, every day we have the opportunity to choose right or wrong, and whatever we choose, we bring the consequences of that choice upon ourselves.  Now, with that said, everything in your past was not only determined by your choices and predetermined by the foreknowledge of God, but also, has taken place to bring you to where you are right now. Regardless of your past, you still have the opportunity to choose your destiny right now, today! (Job 14) (Josh. 24:15)

Although, we are predestined, everything we do may or may not be preordained by God. Though we may be predestined because of God's foreknowledge, our actions may or may not be ordained (dictated or decreed) by God. If all our deeds and all the events of our lives were dictated by God, why would the Holy Bible instruct us to pray. Prayer breaks the power of "whatever will be, will be." Prayer has the power to change almost anything. Almost anything, because it could never change the coming of Jesus, nor those things that must be accomplished to fulfill the coming of Jesus into the world. Also, if God were a dictator, this would be contrary to the reason He gave us freewill in the first place, which was to have a people that love and trust in Him of their own free will. If every person's life, every deed, and every event of their lives was dictated by God, there would be no freewill. God works in our lives, through our choices and the consequences of our choices to lead us to Him, but in the end, He knows how everyone will choose. God has given every person a freewill to make choices whether good or bad, and God has revealed Himself to every person, and has given every person a measure of faith so they can choose Jesus and eternal life. Don't be deceived, your actions and your choices are important, because even though God knows the end of your actions, you do not. Your actions could do little, or your actions could change the world, only God knows. The Holy Bible says God is willing that NONE should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance, “for God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” God has given to every person the freewill to choose their destiny, but when all is said and done, He knows what everyone will choose. He knew it before the creation of the universe.

In conclusion, the Bible says if we love Jesus, it's because He first loved us, and He chose and predestined us to belong to Him and to have eternal life. Does God choose us because He sees something in us, because of our personality, our character, or because He sees something special in our hearts? Remember what the Bible says about Abraham's faith, Noah's righteousness, Moses' meekness, David's heart, Peter's confession, and Paul's zeal, just to mention a few. Does God choose us because of our traits, and if so, did He give us those traits? If He did, is He then dictating our lives? We know for sure He does not choose us according to our works or status, nor does He pick us at random, but how He chooses us is truly a mystery. So, the question remains, Does God choose us because he looked down through time and saw that we would be saved, or did He choose us because of who we are and the choices we’ve made? The answer to both is YES! This is why we must come to God by faith, trusting Him no matter what, choosing to believe this, that God loved us so much He sacrificed His only Son to give us eternal life. (1 John 4:19)(Eph. 1:4)(Heb. 11:7-8)(Num. 12:3)(Acts 13:22)(Matt. 16:16)(Acts 8:3, 9:1-16)(Titus 3:5)(Acts 10:34)
 
Because of His infinite knowledge, God does and allows all that is, and that was, and all that ever will be. He does what He does and allows what He allows because He has a great purpose and plan. We do not know, nor can we understand why God does and allows all that has and will transpire in the mortal and immortal realms of time and eternity. The Bible says we will NOT understand everything clearly now, but if we belong to Jesus, we will understand clearly on the day we see Him face to face, and when we see Him in person, we will know Him, just as He has always known us. (1 Cor. 13:10-12)
 
These are my thoughts. I'm not sure anyone can understand this subject perfectly, that would be the same as understanding God Himself. The Bible says that God's ways are unsearchable and beyond understanding. This is why prayer and faith are so important. If there are things we don't understand, or if there are things we understand wrongly, we must pray, study, and trust Jesus to lead us into all truth. (Rom. 11:33)

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