Why Predestination Is Biblical—and Why So Many Choose to Ignore It There are certain biblical doctrines that Christians readily embrace. We love to talk about God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. We sing about His goodness and celebrate the promise of eternal life. But there is another doctrine found throughout Scripture that makes many believers uncomfortable. It is a doctrine that challenges our understanding of salvation, confronts human pride, and forces us to consider just how sovereign God really is. That doctrine is predestination . The problem isn’t that the Bible is silent about predestination. The problem is that the Bible speaks about it quite plainly, and many people simply don’t like what it says. Let’s be honest. Predestination isn’t a particularly popular subject in many churches. It is often avoided, explained away, or dismissed as a theological invention of John Calvin. Some Christians become defensive at the mere mention of the word. Others insist that it ca...
What if one of the most frightening expressions of God’s judgment isn’t a catastrophic event, a devastating natural disaster, or even the loss of life? What if it’s something far more subtle? What if God’s judgment sometimes takes the form of allowing people to have exactly what they want? We live in a culture that celebrates personal freedom, self-expression, and the right to live according to our own desires. We are constantly told that the greatest good is to discover who we really are, follow our hearts, and never allow anyone—not even God—to tell us otherwise. But what happens when the very desires we insist on following are leading us away from the One who created us? The Apostle Paul addresses this very question in the opening chapter of Romans. Three times in this passage, Paul uses a chilling expression: “God gave them up.” These are not casual words. They describe a sobering form of divine judgment. Humanity rejected the truth about God, exchanged the Cre...