Predestination or Individual Choice—Which?

 2. How is astrology akin to predestination?

² But many religionists say God is partial, when they preach predestination, when they declare the individual’s destiny is divinely fixed before birth.

Predestination and Jehovah’s Foreknowledge

 1. How do predestination and foreknowledge differ?

JEHOVAH has the power of predestination and the faculty of foreknowledge.

“SO MANY imaginary problems would be avoided if the often-misunderstood term predestination were not used at all.”

You may wonder why, if you have used the word “predestination” or heard it used.

Can Predestination Be Reconciled With God’s Love?

“WE DEFINE predestination as the eternal design of God, whereby he determined what he wanted to do with each man.

Can these verses be rightly used to indicate either prehuman existence or predestination?—L.

There are some who believe in predestination that use this text to argue that the man’s blindness was ordained by God, in order that through it he would come in contact with Jesus, learn of him, follow him, and thus be brought to the salvation predestined for him before the foundation of the world.

Little wonder they give up reasoning on the matter and refer to their doctrine as “this high mystery of predestination”!f

 3. What do some contend, and how do they support their contention?

³ Some will contend that Jehovah God does shape man in such a way as to force him into a certain course of conduct, doing violence to the creature’s freedom of will or choice, and thus making things work out according to the divine predestination of matters.

Such a concept can be found in astrology, in Hinduism’s and Buddhism’s karma, as well as in Christendom’s doctrine of predestination.

You may feel that this sounds very much like the doctrine of predestination taught in some churches of Christendom.

PREDESTINATION AND THE “KEBLA”

Equally difficult to harmonize are the discrepancies in the Quran relative to predestination.

Predestination​—The Implications

Before answering these questions, consider the implications of predestination.

Predestination was another doctrine that stumbled Augustine.

He tried to merge his idea of predestination with “free will” by teaching in effect that God makes man of such a temperament and gives or withholds His blessing in such a way that man freely does what God foreknows he will do.

Yet such an arbitrary course of action those attribute to Jehovah who hold to the teaching of predestination, quoting Paul at Romans 8:29, 30, which states: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, . . .

Those who teach predestination hold that once a person has been “effectually” called, justified, sanctified and has come into a condition of grace he cannot fall away.

10. What shows that Jehovah’s drawing of some and not others does not involve predestination?

¹⁰ Does Jehovah’s drawing of some and not others involve a form of predestination?

What shows that Jehovah’s drawing of some and not others does not involve predestination?

The Predestination Issue

Soon after Arminius stepped into the pulpit, tension arose among Amsterdam’s Protestants about the doctrine of predestination.

The Pharisees also believed in a combination of predestination and free will.

In addition to rejecting predestination, the Sadducees refused to accept any teaching not mentioned explicitly in the Pentateuch, even if it was stated elsewhere in God’s Word.

For example, many espouse 16th-century theologian John Calvin’s theory of “predestination.”

Belief in predestination or in fate is bound to have a profound effect on a person’s way of life.