predetermining or predestining, the sentence ceases to have meaning, as, for example, if

we read: "whom He did foreordain He also did predestinate."

We therefore understand the passage before us to declare that God, Who is not under

the limitations of time and space as we are, and needs no external evidence in order to

attain to His knowledge, knows all things, past, present and future: knows them perfectly

and completely, and can, therefore, act with complete certainty where, to us, all would

appear in a contingent light.

Predestination.--Those who were foreknown of God were also predestinated to

conformity to the image of His Son.  Here is another term that demands care in

application. What is meant by predestination? It is somewhat unfortunate that the

English translation contains the word "destiny", which interjects the conception of fate,

although, speaking exactly, the word "destiny" contains no more than the idea of "end" or

The word predestinate is a translation of the Greek proorizo. The word horos, from

which horizo is formed, does not occur in the N.T., but it has the well-established

meaning of boundary or limit. This word, in its turn, is from horao, to see, boundaries

generally being marked to make them visible and conspicuous.  Those whom God

foreknew He also marked out beforehand for a glorious end--conformity to the image of

His Son.

Three words have now been considered, each commencing with the prefix pro:

The whole testimony of the Scriptures is to the effect that God has a purpose before

Him, according to which He works and, in accord with that purpose of peopling heaven

and earth with the redeemed, He foreknew every one who would respond to the call of

grace, and accordingly marked them off beforehand for the various spheres of glory that

His purpose demanded.

If we believe that God fixed unchangeably, from all eternity, whosoever should, in

time, believe, then however much we may hedge and cover the fact, there is but one

logical conclusion, a conclusion that, in days gone by, has driven many to the edge of

despair. That conclusion is, that He Who absolutely and unalterably fixed the number of

those who should believe, just as surely fixed unalterably the number of those who

should not believe, a conclusion so monstrous that it has only to be expressed to be