`That the number of the predestinated to life, and of those

foreordained to death, is so certain and definite, that it cannot be

either increased or diminished'.

It is difficult to see how any one holding such a doctrine, could ever

preach the gospel of salvation, could ever contemplate the `plucking' of even

`one brand from the burning' or why anyone should bother to preach at all.

The overshadowing of the word `destiny' is plainly marked in this Confession,

and many of the advocates of Calvinism are Necessitarians.  In a letter to

Archbishop Cranmer, the reformer, Melancthon complained:

`At the commencement of our Reformation, the Stoical

disputations among our people concerning Fate were too horrible'.

The word `destination' may convey in some contexts, the most fixed and

unalterable of fates, while in another it may be the attaining of a journey's

end.  To meet one's `Waterloo' may mean meeting one's fate; to be met at

`Waterloo', or `Waterloo Station was his destination' can have no such

element of `destiny' about it.  We must, therefore, avoid importing any ideas

into the doctrine of predestination that derive from the composition of the

English word.  The Greek word translated `predestinate' is a compound of pro

`before' and horizo `to set bounds'.  In the New Testament horizo is

translated `determinate', `ordain', `limit', `declared'.  This word gives the

English `horizon' which has no element of fate in its meaning, but means

simply the `boundary' where sea and sky appear to meet.

Predestination occurs twice in Ephesians, once it is `unto adoption'

and once to an `inheritance' (1:5,11).  This second occurrence falls into

line with the usage of the LXX.  Horizo in the LXX is found in the proximity

of the words kleros and kleronomia, words that mean `the obtaining of an

inheritance by lot'.

`This shall be your west border' horion (Num. 34:6).

`Jordan shall be their boundary, horion, on the east: this is the

inheritance (kleronomia) of the children of Benjamin' (Joshua 18:20

`See, that I have given to you (lit. "cast upon you") these nations

that are left to you by lots (klerois) to your tribes ... and the

boundaries (or he shall be bound horizo) shall be at the great sea

westward' (Josh. 23:4 LXX).

In the context of most of the references to horizo will be found words

that mean an inheritance obtained by lot.  Seeing that the apostle has linked

`predestination' prohorizo with `obtaining an inheritance' (kleroo), this Old

Testament usage must be recognized.

Predestination, or `marking off beforehand' is what every one does when

he makes a will.  Here, in the Will of the Father, we are permitted to see

that `adoption' and `inheritance' are secured.  That a human `will' is a

permissible analogy, Galatians 3:15 and 4:1,2 will make clear, and no legatee

under a human will has ever been heard to raise an objection on the lines of

`fatalism'.  Those who were chosen in Christ before the overthrow of Genesis

1:2, were also `marked off before hand' and as the R.V. reads were

`foreordained unto adoption'.