Predestination
“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” - Acts 10:34-35
This is a ‘pillar’ doctrine in Calvinism that misapplies God’s sovereignty and perverts His righteousness and justice. This has been covered in the Calvinism section which you can view here but it’ll be further explained.
Predestination comes from the word, “predestinate.” Calvinists believe that God has predestined some for heaven while others are chosen for hell regardless of anything they may say or do. However, it is not biblical. Why? Because God gives every man a choice, a free will to choose life or death. It is not determined beforehand, which means fixed or definite. Only the outcome of our choices is determined. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” (Deut 30:19). We also know that God desires all to come to repentance: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9).
God is so patient and long-suffering towards mankind. As Christ has shown us that same longsuffering and goodness in “while we were still sinners He died for us” (Rom 5:8, Heb 12:2). So since God prepared a way through His Son for all to be saved, it is then given to man a choice to determine his destination, not God. God prepared the Way. We see this in Rom 9:22-23 that it is not God who prepares people one way or another, but they. God only provides a place for those choices people make. “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,” (Romans 9:22-23).
The word “Prepared” here is an action verb with a passive middle voice. Let us look closer at its meaning: "to make fit, to equip, prepare" (kata, "down," artos, "a joint"), is rendered "fitted" in Rom 9:22, of vessels of wrath. Here, the Middle Voice signifies that those referred to "fitted" themselves for destruction. The scripture in Romans 9 earlier mentions Pharaoh (vs. 17) and how he hardened his own heart towards Moses and God several times (see Ex 7:22, Ex 8:15, 19, 32, Ex 9:7) so that God gave him over to his hardened heart. God intended to show Pharaoh mercy but he chose his heart to be hardened, so God gave him over to his impenitent heart: “for God looks on the heart and sees its condition and judges righteously” (1 Sam. 16:7). God chooses either mercy or hardens the heart to give what someone wants (Rom. 9:18). God in His righteousness gives everyone a chance to turn and repent, but many still choose death. We also see this in Romans 1:28 about people that give themselves over to sin, and God left them in their delusion as a result - “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;”
In conclusion: We all choose our destination, God provided a way for all to be saved. But it has requirements. The only way a person is determined to be acceptable to God is through humility, having godly sorrow to repentance, being completely submitted to Christ in loving and doing what He says, and by walking in righteousness and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. (Rom. 12:1, 1 Pet. 5:5, 2 Cor. 7:10, James 4:7, John 14:15, Ps. 15:1-2, and James 1:27).
“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21).
