Calvin speaks truthfully when he says that foreknowledge is not the cause of

predestination, but appears to miss the mark when he teaches that predestination is either

to life or to eternal death.

First of all with regard to foreknowledge. We read in Rom. 8: 29, "For whom He

did foreknow, He also did predestinate," and in I Pet. 1: 2, "Elect according to the

foreknowledge of God the Father." Here election and predestination alike are linked with

foreknowledge. Those who deny the full force of election and predestination, as Calvin

says, "wrap it up with many cavillations" and say that because God foreknew that certain

men would believe, He could then elect or predestinate them upon this foreseen faith.

This is rather flattering to the mind of man, as it makes God's choice depend upon the act

of the creature. Let us test this idea by the Scripture, and we need not argue about the

matter; we need the verb "to foreknow" again, but this time translated in A.V.

"foreordained."  Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as a lamb without blemish and

without spot, the apostle continues, "who verily was foreordained" (foreknown as in 1: 2),

"before the overthrow of the world." If the word proginõskõ here means that God

foresaw that Christ would come in time to be the Redeemer, there seems to be something

wrong with the rest of the verse which says that this coming was not foreknown as an act

in the then future time, but foreknown at a period before the overthrow of the world. It is

moreover set in correspondence with the word "manifest' as will be seen thus:--

We need not search far in the Word to find evidence that the coming and the offering

of the Lord Jesus was not some foreseen contingence, but an act according to "the

determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2: 23), and that though the

betrayal and crucifixion of the Lord wasa accomplished by "wicked hands," it

nevertheless is written, "Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of

Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel

determined before to be done" (Acts 4: 27, 28).

The other contention, that predestination is either to life or to eternal death, is not

spiritual.  It is common idea with those who believe the doctrine of election and

predestination, that there is no hope outside these decrees, and that God has elected unto

salvation a very minute proportion of His creatures unto life and blessing, and has either

"reprobated" or "left" the huge remainder to eternal misery. The full consideration of

this theme comes under the teaching of Human Destiny rather than that of the Epistle to

the Ephesians, but we would anticipate our findings there by saying that it is becoming

more and more manifest that, during the course of the ages, there is no other phase of

God's dealings in operation so prominent as those which are elective.

All down the ages God may be said to have been "taking out a people for His name."

Genesis shows us the election of one nation and the passing over of the nations. Within