The Ordo Salutis - The Foreknowledge of God
The Ordo Salutis - The Foreknowledge of God
The Ordo Salutis
Preliminaries
1. Everyone needs a Bible - If you really want to get to know your Bible and have the ability to find most anything, then get a Bible you can use all the time. Just one. Don’t use or depend on online Bibles or devices. Those are confusing, they show just a small portion of text and they always appear differently on different devices, thus making it hard to find what you want because it doesn’t always appear in the same place on a page. With a written Bible in your hand, you will get know the exact location on a page of what you are looking for because you have read it so many times. This enables you to become much more familiar with what you are looking for. You can’t do that with electronic Bibles.
2. Feel free to Interrupt any time. If you don’t understand what I have said, or need clarification, or have been provoked to think of something or a question you have right then that you have always wondered about, say it. We may not be back to your stray but relevant thoughts for a long time unless you express it right now. What you are thinking someone else Is probably thinking, and it needs to be answered before we go on. Rabbit trails are often very helpful.
I am doing this because Alan suggested we study some theology. He mentioned election in particular. This suggests doctrine, which many people think of as dull. They think of the churches in which they were raised and perhaps of the rigid positions that they were taught that were never to be questioned.
So what is doctrine?
All doctrine means is teaching. In I Tim 4, Paul refers to doctrine about 3-4 times, and every time it appears, it is the same Greek word translated in most Bibles as “teaching.” In some denominations doctrine is regarded as dogma. That could be different. Dogma is a system of belief, a religious edifice that is rigid. It cannot be criticized, changed, or questioned. It is infallible. One example might be Roman Catholic dogma which many Catholics have discovered is not to be challenged. Literally, dogma means “opinion.” Sometimes dogma is just that - opinions about God, the Bible, and theology. Protestants regard some Roman Catholic dogma as just that - an opinion. Such as their teaching about Mary and the priority of the Pope, or the Bishop of Rome. It is based sometimes on church tradition and not Scripture. But orthodox Christianity also has rigid dogma that is based on Scripture - such as salvation by grace. Many Protestant theology books that are based on Scripture alone refer to themselves as dogma. For example, Reformed Dogmatics by Herman Hoeksema, which is a systematic theology work.
Mentioning doctrine, we should take a look at the word theology also.
Theology is a word that means “the study of God”. Whenever you see “-ology” at the end of a word, it means “the study of”, as in the case of the following words
Biology - study of life (bios is the Greek word for “life”)
Anthropology - the study of man
Psychology - the study of the mind
Theology itslef is often broken down into sub-theologies.
Christology - the study of Christ the person and man
Pneumatology - the study of the Holy Spirit
Eschatology - the study of “the end” or “last things”
Ecclesiology - the study of the church
Bibliology - the study of the Bible
Hamartiology - the study of sin
Soteriology - the study of salvation or the Savior. Here is where the doctrine of election and predestination is catalogued
During the Middle Ages theology was called “the queen of the sciences” because everything in the world begins and ends with God. Everything that exists, everything we are, everything we have and everything that happens is because of our Creator who has ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
Acts 17:28 “in Him we live, and move, and have our being”
Colossians 1:16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
So when you study Theology, you are studying God Himself and the source and knowledge of everything there is. It all begins and ends with Him.
The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
In this study, we are going to concentrate on the Reformed doctrine of Predestination. Sometimes it is referred to as the doctrine of ELECTION, which is the same thing. This is a very provocative topic. It often generates a lot of heat and division in the church if not approached wisely and cautiously. It can often take a long time for a person to accept this as part of their Christian belief system because it naturally goes against human nature. For some, it is never accepted. That is okay. No one is less a Christian, ignorant, or less spiritual if he can never believe the Reformed teaching about election. In this study, we want you to at least be informed about it and be challenged in your study and understanding of the Bible because we are all seeking the same thing - what is the truth the Spirit of God is teaching in all of Scripture? There are many interpretations. What is the most correct one at all points? The true one leads to proper response and behavior. There are millions of Christians in all denominations who believe in the Reformed doctrine of predestination. We will better be able to tolerate those believers in other denominations who hold this this belief if we understand what they believe and why they believe it. You also will be better informed in what YOU believe and why YOU believe it. I guarantee YOU will become a much more knowledgable, reasonable, and critical Christian thinker theologically by studying things that you may not initially believe or have never even thought about. This will definitely be one of them.
One of the best ways to think about the Reformed doctrine of predestination is through what is called The Ordo Salutis - a Latin term meaning the order of salvation.
Scaling the Reformed doctrine of Predestination is often a steep, difficult, hard, argumentative, and heated climb for many people. If you dive directly into it without some preliminary and helpful theological teaching that makes it almost impossible NOT to believe in it, then it may almost be impossible to get there. It is like climbing to the top of Pike’s Peak without any preparation that will make the climb easier. If the average, unprepared person stands at the bottom of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs and someone tells him that he are going to hike to the top - 14,110 ft - he is likely to resist and say, “I can’t do it.” But if you build a ramp from New York City that gradually goes to the top of Pike’s Peak, give him some time to make the journey, and provide some rest stops along the way (other doctrinal teachings that gradually open your eyes to some things you may not have thought about before - they will help boost you along the way), you will probably make it very easily because the incline slowly lifts you foot by foot till you suddenly realize you are standing on the top of Pike’s Peak. You will be there almost without even knowing it.
That is what we are going to do with the Ordo Salutis. It will incline slowly and gradually until you are able to gaze across the plain of God’s sovereignty and realize you are part of the Lord’s amazing grace in election. You are likely to wake up one day and say to yourself, “I don’t completely understand why I was chosen, but I do believe that God predestined me to salvation by His grace alone and not by anything I did beforehand.”
The First Ordo Salutis Passage - Romans 8:28-30
So let’s start with the first passage about the order salutis. There are several we are going to investigate that will fill in a more comprehensive picture. But the first is Romans 8:28-30. This passage reveals 5 stepping stones that progressively lead to your eternal salvation. On your path that leads to eternal life, you will step on every one of them till you cross the finish line.
Ro 8:28-30 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Below are the steps Paul outlines in your salvation.
We will investigate what each one of these means.
Foreknowledge
Foreknowledge means to “know beforehand”
The non-Reformed definition of foreknowledge goes like this: God looked down through the tunnel of time and He could see who would believe and repent. When he saw YOU, He saw that you would be one of those people who believed. It was then that He predestined you to eternal salvation. In other words, He rubber stamped what you did and called that predestination. Someone once called this Southern Baptist predestination, which is what I am going to call it so that you will know immediately what I mean when I refer to it. It is not meant to be pejorative of Southern Baptists. It just makes the reference memorable and easy to understand.
By the very nature of the definition of “predestination”, that is a very odd way to look at it. Predestination means “determine beforehand”, but in this instance it means that you did the predetermining beforehand and then God predestined you based on what you did.
Most adhere to Southern Baptist predestination because of the difficulty of believing God predetermines a person’s salvation ahead of time without him having anything to do with it. So the above interpretation of “foreknowledge” helps one to explain what looks like something that is unacceptable otherwise.
But is Southern Baptist predestination the Biblical definition of foreknowledge and predestination?
I am going to present 3 considerations that clearly argue against that view and shed light on the real meaning of “foreknowledge and predestination”.
1. Other places where the word “foreknowledge” appears. What is the meaning of it in those places?
a. Acts 2:23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Did God, in this instance, deliver up Jesus because He knew it would happen anyway? No. That event was ordained in eternity past according to God’s plan and purpose. Even Jesus said that in:
John 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
So foreknowledge seems to indicate a “gracious purpose” or a plan that emerged from God’s love.
b. The Biblical word “know” may also be helpful in defining foreknowledge
1) Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.”
Here “know” speaks of intimacy. Love perhaps.
2) Amos 3:2 speaking of the Jewish nation, God says, ““You only have I known
of all the families of the earth; (here known means loved)
3) Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (knew means know intimately or loved)
4) I Thess 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you
5) I Pet 1;20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (Here Christ is foreknown before the foundation of the world, possible meaning he was loved by His Father or graciously purposed)
6) Compare Acts 2:23 with Ro 8:28-30
In Acts 2, Christ is derived up according to a predetermined plan (NASB) and the foreknowledge of God
In Romans 8, the elect were foreknown and predestinated.
If Christ was foreknown and chosen for a predetermined plan in Acts 2, why would that phraseology be different when it applies to God’s elect in Romans 8? If it is the same, then it precludes the interpretation of Southern Baptist predestination in Romans 8.
2. If foreknowledge means that God knew before hand what the elect were going to do and predestined their salvation based on that knowledge, then God also knew something else ahead of time that is going to make Southern Baptist predestination impossible.
The Southern Baptist definition of foreknowledge assumes man is ready to accept the gospel if it is presented to him in a dynamic, persuasive, and convincing way. But here is where we are confronted by one of the most sobering and fundamental theological tenets that the Bible declares. We commonly know it as the First of The Five Points of Calvinism, or what is sometimes called the Doctrines of Grace. John Calvin was probably the primary theologian of the Reformation in the1500s. He formulated from Scripture 5 theological premises about the doctrine of salvation that had been lost for nearly 1,000 years since Augustine. The first one is about the sinfulness or depravity of man. We call it Total Depravity.
If we refer to a person as depraved, we are saying he is steeped in sinful behavior. John Calvin pointed out that the Scripture defines the nature of man as comprehensively depraved. That does not man is as sinful as he can possibly be or that he has committed every sin one can imagine because that is definitely not true of everyone. But what it does mean is that sin has totally affected every part of man, His will, desire, ability, and behavior. Martin Luther wrote a book about man’s depraved nature called The Bondage of the Will, one of the great masterpieces of the Reformation, published in 1525. It was a diatribe against the free will of man because of sin. So every part of our being has been touched and corrupted. It is this totally depraved nature of ours that prevents God from seeing that we will believe and accept Christ ahead of time and thus predestinating us to salvation.
So let’s look at some Scriptures that speak about our sinful human nature and how deeply and to what extent it has been affected.
Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
This is about conditions in the human race just before the flood and what precipitated it. Sin had fully developed in Adam’s descendent by this time. Since we have the same sinful nature from Adam as they had, the same pronouncement is true of us without redemption. In a heart and mind like that, there is not room for a single thought about God or any evidence of inclination toward Him.
Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
This was David’s confession after Bathsheba. He says the reason he did what he did was because of what happened at his conception, not his birth. Adam’s sin and condemnation starts early and is deep.
Psalm 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
Separation from God and the sinning is immediate at both conception and birth.
John 3:19-20 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Man cannot help himself. He naturally suppresses (holds down, forcibly subdues, prohibits, keeps from being revealed) the truth.
Romand 3:10 as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
In his natural condemned state under Adam, NO ONE understands or seeks for God. Not even one.
Romans 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This passage teaches that the natural man who has Adams sinful nature passed to him has neither the WILL, DESIRE, or ABILITY to believe, repent, seek, or do anything spiritual to please God. We might say, if we want to hold to man’s free will, that the only free will man actually has is the freedom to choose which sins he will commit.
I Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Man in his natural state cannot make a move toward his Creator. It makes no sense to him and never will.
Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians is pretty much the total summary of all the above verses about man’s depravity. The natural man when it comes to God is virtually the same as a dead man. There is and never will be any kind of response. He does not have the will, desire, or ability to do so. He is dead to God.
So, based on the Scriptures above, when God looked down from heaven to see who would believe, how many did He see?
None. If he knows everything, then He knows there are NONE.
Illustration
So let’s take this person described in the verses about total depravity and put him in a coffin. That would be an appropriate summary of his condition since he cannot respond to God or the gospel.
Let’s take him to church, or better yet, to a high-powered Billy Graham Crusade where even the hardest of sinners is often moved and park him down in the front row near the pulpit. We will enhance this even more by having Cliff Barrows lead a 20,000 voice Crusade choir in singing “How Great Thou Art.” Jim Vaus, the mobster who was saved at a crusade will give his life-changing testimony about God’s grace. Then George Beverly Shea will sing “I’d Rather Have Jesus”. In what has been orchestrated to be a climactic moment, Billy Graham strolls to the podium. Behind him somewhere in the belly of the stadium, 500 prayer warriors have been praying around the clock for a week and will continue to do so through the invitation that God’s Spirit will change lives. Every word Billy pronounces is backed up by prayer. This is one of those God-is-definitely-here moments. In this atmosphere Graham delivers one of the most moving sermons of his life on the love of God. Any fool there can sense that this is an electric and rare occasion. Finally, Billy extends the invitation to come to the front and confess Christ as your Savior. He bows his head and poses in that familiar stance where he closes his eyes and prays. As he does so, the 20,000 voice crusade choir quietly and prayerfully sings the invitational hymn “Just As I Am”, a hymn that breaks down sinners and literally almost ejects them out of their seats and shoves them forward to stand down down front, some of them in tears, to repent and be saved from their sins.
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
After the 67th verse the dead man hasn’t budged. Cliff Barrows signals the choir that they are now going into Softly and Tenderly.
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he's waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.
Refrain:
Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
mercies for you and for me?
But while you were watching those coming forward, did you keep your eyes on that casket? Someone down front who was concerned strolled over to the casket to see if the man was alright. He saw no tears, HIs head wasn’t bowed. He didn’t make a start out of the casket to make his way to the pulpit. No, his eyes were welded shut, clothes still in place, hands and fingers still folded across his body.
But there was a John R Rice, Bob Jones, Jack Hyles, Landmark Baptist Christian in the audience who was overcome with compassion with the dead man, thinking there was a man going to a fiery hell. So he prayerfully walked over to the casket, leaned over it and said, “Son, I feel that the Lord is working in your heart, and I can see the struggle you are having with your decision. You take my hand, get up out of this casket, and I’ll go down front and pray with you.
Every tactic and motivating action that good Landmark Baptists have known and have used for decades on people who they are convinced can be persuaded to accept Christ are employed to get this sinner to come forward and receive Christ.
And then - hold it - Oh, thank God, the dead man finally could resist no more. He rose out of the casket, came forward to be saved, and he is standing with the hundreds of others with his head bowed. He is - Wait a minute!- that’s not him. It’s that man who went over to talk to him!
So . . . Nothing. The man in the casket hasn’t moved.
Now some of your are saying, “You know, that is ridiculous. There are no corpses in churches and crusades where people are doing everything they can to get them to walk forward. That doesn’t happen.”
Doesn’t it? That’s not was these Scriptures say. Crusade are probably mostly filled with Christians and back-sliders, but when you look around - although they don’t look like it, hundreds of zombies - the spiritually walking dead - who have no more ability to respond to the gospel than a man in a funeral home are sitting or standing in place all around you. They may be sensing some guilt, conviction for their sins, maybe saying to themselves, “I wish I could believe like these people do,” but inside their hearts and minds, they are stone dead and not subject to the law of God and cannot be. They will not come to the light because they naturally hate it and love the darkness. Although sinners will sometimes break down and attend a church or a crusade with you if coaxed and cajoled enough, it is more likely because of what all those Scriptures above say that he won’t be anywhere near one of those places. They will make a million excuses and give thousands of reasons why they can’t go. On Sundays, they are usually at the beach, or a flea market, or at the Daytona Speedway, Disney World, or in bed. They steer away from the slightest hint or suspicion of the light. Evangelism by its very objective is an enterprise doomed to never-ending failure.
So what this means is that Jesus is not bending over an altar in the front of the church pleading with dead sinners and hoping they will be saved before it is too late. It also means that he is not standing at a door that has no door knob on the outside while He is softly pecking on it with his knuckle and bending his ear up close listening to see if he hears footsteps running to the door to grab the latch from the inside. He doesn’t do that because He knows He would be rapping on the entrance to a funeral home where no one can hear a single thing.
3. If Southern Baptist predestination is true, then that essentially changes the order of Romans 8:28-30. Since God makes His predestinating decision based on seeing who is going to believe, then calling and justification have to PRECEDE predestination and not FOLLOW it!
From This:
To This:
So these are the reasons why the common definition of foreknowledge cannot be correct.
Preliminaries
1. Everyone needs a Bible - If you really want to get to know your Bible and have the ability to find most anything, then get a Bible you can use all the time. Just one. Don’t use or depend on online Bibles or devices. Those are confusing, they show just a small portion of text and they always appear differently on different devices, thus making it hard to find what you want because it doesn’t always appear in the same place on a page. With a written Bible in your hand, you will get know the exact location on a page of what you are looking for because you have read it so many times. This enables you to become much more familiar with what you are looking for. You can’t do that with electronic Bibles.
2. Feel free to Interrupt any time. If you don’t understand what I have said, or need clarification, or have been provoked to think of something or a question you have right then that you have always wondered about, say it. We may not be back to your stray but relevant thoughts for a long time unless you express it right now. What you are thinking someone else Is probably thinking, and it needs to be answered before we go on. Rabbit trails are often very helpful.
I am doing this because Alan suggested we study some theology. He mentioned election in particular. This suggests doctrine, which many people think of as dull. They think of the churches in which they were raised and perhaps of the rigid positions that they were taught that were never to be questioned.
So what is doctrine?
All doctrine means is teaching. In I Tim 4, Paul refers to doctrine about 3-4 times, and every time it appears, it is the same Greek word translated in most Bibles as “teaching.” In some denominations doctrine is regarded as dogma. That could be different. Dogma is a system of belief, a religious edifice that is rigid. It cannot be criticized, changed, or questioned. It is infallible. One example might be Roman Catholic dogma which many Catholics have discovered is not to be challenged. Literally, dogma means “opinion.” Sometimes dogma is just that - opinions about God, the Bible, and theology. Protestants regard some Roman Catholic dogma as just that - an opinion. Such as their teaching about Mary and the priority of the Pope, or the Bishop of Rome. It is based sometimes on church tradition and not Scripture. But orthodox Christianity also has rigid dogma that is based on Scripture - such as salvation by grace. Many Protestant theology books that are based on Scripture alone refer to themselves as dogma. For example, Reformed Dogmatics by Herman Hoeksema, which is a systematic theology work.
Mentioning doctrine, we should take a look at the word theology also.
Theology is a word that means “the study of God”. Whenever you see “-ology” at the end of a word, it means “the study of”, as in the case of the following words
Biology - study of life (bios is the Greek word for “life”)
Anthropology - the study of man
Psychology - the study of the mind
Theology itslef is often broken down into sub-theologies.
Christology - the study of Christ the person and man
Pneumatology - the study of the Holy Spirit
Eschatology - the study of “the end” or “last things”
Ecclesiology - the study of the church
Bibliology - the study of the Bible
Hamartiology - the study of sin
Soteriology - the study of salvation or the Savior. Here is where the doctrine of election and predestination is catalogued
During the Middle Ages theology was called “the queen of the sciences” because everything in the world begins and ends with God. Everything that exists, everything we are, everything we have and everything that happens is because of our Creator who has ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
Acts 17:28 “in Him we live, and move, and have our being”
Colossians 1:16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
So when you study Theology, you are studying God Himself and the source and knowledge of everything there is. It all begins and ends with Him.
The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
In this study, we are going to concentrate on the Reformed doctrine of Predestination. Sometimes it is referred to as the doctrine of ELECTION, which is the same thing. This is a very provocative topic. It often generates a lot of heat and division in the church if not approached wisely and cautiously. It can often take a long time for a person to accept this as part of their Christian belief system because it naturally goes against human nature. For some, it is never accepted. That is okay. No one is less a Christian, ignorant, or less spiritual if he can never believe the Reformed teaching about election. In this study, we want you to at least be informed about it and be challenged in your study and understanding of the Bible because we are all seeking the same thing - what is the truth the Spirit of God is teaching in all of Scripture? There are many interpretations. What is the most correct one at all points? The true one leads to proper response and behavior. There are millions of Christians in all denominations who believe in the Reformed doctrine of predestination. We will better be able to tolerate those believers in other denominations who hold this this belief if we understand what they believe and why they believe it. You also will be better informed in what YOU believe and why YOU believe it. I guarantee YOU will become a much more knowledgable, reasonable, and critical Christian thinker theologically by studying things that you may not initially believe or have never even thought about. This will definitely be one of them.
One of the best ways to think about the Reformed doctrine of predestination is through what is called The Ordo Salutis - a Latin term meaning the order of salvation.
Scaling the Reformed doctrine of Predestination is often a steep, difficult, hard, argumentative, and heated climb for many people. If you dive directly into it without some preliminary and helpful theological teaching that makes it almost impossible NOT to believe in it, then it may almost be impossible to get there. It is like climbing to the top of Pike’s Peak without any preparation that will make the climb easier. If the average, unprepared person stands at the bottom of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs and someone tells him that he are going to hike to the top - 14,110 ft - he is likely to resist and say, “I can’t do it.” But if you build a ramp from New York City that gradually goes to the top of Pike’s Peak, give him some time to make the journey, and provide some rest stops along the way (other doctrinal teachings that gradually open your eyes to some things you may not have thought about before - they will help boost you along the way), you will probably make it very easily because the incline slowly lifts you foot by foot till you suddenly realize you are standing on the top of Pike’s Peak. You will be there almost without even knowing it.
That is what we are going to do with the Ordo Salutis. It will incline slowly and gradually until you are able to gaze across the plain of God’s sovereignty and realize you are part of the Lord’s amazing grace in election. You are likely to wake up one day and say to yourself, “I don’t completely understand why I was chosen, but I do believe that God predestined me to salvation by His grace alone and not by anything I did beforehand.”
The First Ordo Salutis Passage - Romans 8:28-30
So let’s start with the first passage about the order salutis. There are several we are going to investigate that will fill in a more comprehensive picture. But the first is Romans 8:28-30. This passage reveals 5 stepping stones that progressively lead to your eternal salvation. On your path that leads to eternal life, you will step on every one of them till you cross the finish line.
Ro 8:28-30 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Below are the steps Paul outlines in your salvation.
We will investigate what each one of these means.
Foreknowledge
Foreknowledge means to “know beforehand”
The non-Reformed definition of foreknowledge goes like this: God looked down through the tunnel of time and He could see who would believe and repent. When he saw YOU, He saw that you would be one of those people who believed. It was then that He predestined you to eternal salvation. In other words, He rubber stamped what you did and called that predestination. Someone once called this Southern Baptist predestination, which is what I am going to call it so that you will know immediately what I mean when I refer to it. It is not meant to be pejorative of Southern Baptists. It just makes the reference memorable and easy to understand.
By the very nature of the definition of “predestination”, that is a very odd way to look at it. Predestination means “determine beforehand”, but in this instance it means that you did the predetermining beforehand and then God predestined you based on what you did.
Most adhere to Southern Baptist predestination because of the difficulty of believing God predetermines a person’s salvation ahead of time without him having anything to do with it. So the above interpretation of “foreknowledge” helps one to explain what looks like something that is unacceptable otherwise.
But is Southern Baptist predestination the Biblical definition of foreknowledge and predestination?
I am going to present 3 considerations that clearly argue against that view and shed light on the real meaning of “foreknowledge and predestination”.
1. Other places where the word “foreknowledge” appears. What is the meaning of it in those places?
a. Acts 2:23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Did God, in this instance, deliver up Jesus because He knew it would happen anyway? No. That event was ordained in eternity past according to God’s plan and purpose. Even Jesus said that in:
John 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
So foreknowledge seems to indicate a “gracious purpose” or a plan that emerged from God’s love.
b. The Biblical word “know” may also be helpful in defining foreknowledge
1) Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.”
Here “know” speaks of intimacy. Love perhaps.
2) Amos 3:2 speaking of the Jewish nation, God says, ““You only have I known
of all the families of the earth; (here known means loved)
3) Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (knew means know intimately or loved)
4) I Thess 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you
5) I Pet 1;20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (Here Christ is foreknown before the foundation of the world, possible meaning he was loved by His Father or graciously purposed)
6) Compare Acts 2:23 with Ro 8:28-30
In Acts 2, Christ is derived up according to a predetermined plan (NASB) and the foreknowledge of God
In Romans 8, the elect were foreknown and predestinated.
If Christ was foreknown and chosen for a predetermined plan in Acts 2, why would that phraseology be different when it applies to God’s elect in Romans 8? If it is the same, then it precludes the interpretation of Southern Baptist predestination in Romans 8.
2. If foreknowledge means that God knew before hand what the elect were going to do and predestined their salvation based on that knowledge, then God also knew something else ahead of time that is going to make Southern Baptist predestination impossible.
The Southern Baptist definition of foreknowledge assumes man is ready to accept the gospel if it is presented to him in a dynamic, persuasive, and convincing way. But here is where we are confronted by one of the most sobering and fundamental theological tenets that the Bible declares. We commonly know it as the First of The Five Points of Calvinism, or what is sometimes called the Doctrines of Grace. John Calvin was probably the primary theologian of the Reformation in the1500s. He formulated from Scripture 5 theological premises about the doctrine of salvation that had been lost for nearly 1,000 years since Augustine. The first one is about the sinfulness or depravity of man. We call it Total Depravity.
If we refer to a person as depraved, we are saying he is steeped in sinful behavior. John Calvin pointed out that the Scripture defines the nature of man as comprehensively depraved. That does not man is as sinful as he can possibly be or that he has committed every sin one can imagine because that is definitely not true of everyone. But what it does mean is that sin has totally affected every part of man, His will, desire, ability, and behavior. Martin Luther wrote a book about man’s depraved nature called The Bondage of the Will, one of the great masterpieces of the Reformation, published in 1525. It was a diatribe against the free will of man because of sin. So every part of our being has been touched and corrupted. It is this totally depraved nature of ours that prevents God from seeing that we will believe and accept Christ ahead of time and thus predestinating us to salvation.
So let’s look at some Scriptures that speak about our sinful human nature and how deeply and to what extent it has been affected.
Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
This is about conditions in the human race just before the flood and what precipitated it. Sin had fully developed in Adam’s descendent by this time. Since we have the same sinful nature from Adam as they had, the same pronouncement is true of us without redemption. In a heart and mind like that, there is not room for a single thought about God or any evidence of inclination toward Him.
Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
This was David’s confession after Bathsheba. He says the reason he did what he did was because of what happened at his conception, not his birth. Adam’s sin and condemnation starts early and is deep.
Psalm 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
Separation from God and the sinning is immediate at both conception and birth.
John 3:19-20 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Man cannot help himself. He naturally suppresses (holds down, forcibly subdues, prohibits, keeps from being revealed) the truth.
Romand 3:10 as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
In his natural condemned state under Adam, NO ONE understands or seeks for God. Not even one.
Romans 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This passage teaches that the natural man who has Adams sinful nature passed to him has neither the WILL, DESIRE, or ABILITY to believe, repent, seek, or do anything spiritual to please God. We might say, if we want to hold to man’s free will, that the only free will man actually has is the freedom to choose which sins he will commit.
I Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Man in his natural state cannot make a move toward his Creator. It makes no sense to him and never will.
Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians is pretty much the total summary of all the above verses about man’s depravity. The natural man when it comes to God is virtually the same as a dead man. There is and never will be any kind of response. He does not have the will, desire, or ability to do so. He is dead to God.
So, based on the Scriptures above, when God looked down from heaven to see who would believe, how many did He see?
None. If he knows everything, then He knows there are NONE.
Illustration
So let’s take this person described in the verses about total depravity and put him in a coffin. That would be an appropriate summary of his condition since he cannot respond to God or the gospel.
Let’s take him to church, or better yet, to a high-powered Billy Graham Crusade where even the hardest of sinners is often moved and park him down in the front row near the pulpit. We will enhance this even more by having Cliff Barrows lead a 20,000 voice Crusade choir in singing “How Great Thou Art.” Jim Vaus, the mobster who was saved at a crusade will give his life-changing testimony about God’s grace. Then George Beverly Shea will sing “I’d Rather Have Jesus”. In what has been orchestrated to be a climactic moment, Billy Graham strolls to the podium. Behind him somewhere in the belly of the stadium, 500 prayer warriors have been praying around the clock for a week and will continue to do so through the invitation that God’s Spirit will change lives. Every word Billy pronounces is backed up by prayer. This is one of those God-is-definitely-here moments. In this atmosphere Graham delivers one of the most moving sermons of his life on the love of God. Any fool there can sense that this is an electric and rare occasion. Finally, Billy extends the invitation to come to the front and confess Christ as your Savior. He bows his head and poses in that familiar stance where he closes his eyes and prays. As he does so, the 20,000 voice crusade choir quietly and prayerfully sings the invitational hymn “Just As I Am”, a hymn that breaks down sinners and literally almost ejects them out of their seats and shoves them forward to stand down down front, some of them in tears, to repent and be saved from their sins.
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
After the 67th verse the dead man hasn’t budged. Cliff Barrows signals the choir that they are now going into Softly and Tenderly.
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he's waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.
Refrain:
Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
mercies for you and for me?
But while you were watching those coming forward, did you keep your eyes on that casket? Someone down front who was concerned strolled over to the casket to see if the man was alright. He saw no tears, HIs head wasn’t bowed. He didn’t make a start out of the casket to make his way to the pulpit. No, his eyes were welded shut, clothes still in place, hands and fingers still folded across his body.
But there was a John R Rice, Bob Jones, Jack Hyles, Landmark Baptist Christian in the audience who was overcome with compassion with the dead man, thinking there was a man going to a fiery hell. So he prayerfully walked over to the casket, leaned over it and said, “Son, I feel that the Lord is working in your heart, and I can see the struggle you are having with your decision. You take my hand, get up out of this casket, and I’ll go down front and pray with you.
Every tactic and motivating action that good Landmark Baptists have known and have used for decades on people who they are convinced can be persuaded to accept Christ are employed to get this sinner to come forward and receive Christ.
And then - hold it - Oh, thank God, the dead man finally could resist no more. He rose out of the casket, came forward to be saved, and he is standing with the hundreds of others with his head bowed. He is - Wait a minute!- that’s not him. It’s that man who went over to talk to him!
So . . . Nothing. The man in the casket hasn’t moved.
Now some of your are saying, “You know, that is ridiculous. There are no corpses in churches and crusades where people are doing everything they can to get them to walk forward. That doesn’t happen.”
Doesn’t it? That’s not was these Scriptures say. Crusade are probably mostly filled with Christians and back-sliders, but when you look around - although they don’t look like it, hundreds of zombies - the spiritually walking dead - who have no more ability to respond to the gospel than a man in a funeral home are sitting or standing in place all around you. They may be sensing some guilt, conviction for their sins, maybe saying to themselves, “I wish I could believe like these people do,” but inside their hearts and minds, they are stone dead and not subject to the law of God and cannot be. They will not come to the light because they naturally hate it and love the darkness. Although sinners will sometimes break down and attend a church or a crusade with you if coaxed and cajoled enough, it is more likely because of what all those Scriptures above say that he won’t be anywhere near one of those places. They will make a million excuses and give thousands of reasons why they can’t go. On Sundays, they are usually at the beach, or a flea market, or at the Daytona Speedway, Disney World, or in bed. They steer away from the slightest hint or suspicion of the light. Evangelism by its very objective is an enterprise doomed to never-ending failure.
So what this means is that Jesus is not bending over an altar in the front of the church pleading with dead sinners and hoping they will be saved before it is too late. It also means that he is not standing at a door that has no door knob on the outside while He is softly pecking on it with his knuckle and bending his ear up close listening to see if he hears footsteps running to the door to grab the latch from the inside. He doesn’t do that because He knows He would be rapping on the entrance to a funeral home where no one can hear a single thing.
3. If Southern Baptist predestination is true, then that essentially changes the order of Romans 8:28-30. Since God makes His predestinating decision based on seeing who is going to believe, then calling and justification have to PRECEDE predestination and not FOLLOW it!
From This:
To This:
So these are the reasons why the common definition of foreknowledge cannot be correct.