Apologetics: Debunking Deconstruction – Does God Predestine People for Hell or Heaven?

Last week, when I was talking about Islam’s view of predestination, I mentioned that there’s actually a huge debate in the Christian world about if God predestines people to go to Hell or Heaven or if He just knows who is going to go where. And this isn’t the first time this has come up. In fact, this was brought up in a certain atheist’s comments to me back in 2024. So, I figure its finally time to address this issue and where I personally stand on it. Buckle up, because this is going to get a bit crazy.

To start with, let’s take a look at the predestination camp. Basically, the argument is that God has already decided who He’s going to save and who He’s not; who’s going to accept Christ and be sanctified and who’s going to reject Him. This is supported by passages such as Romans 8:29-30, Ephesians 1:5, 11, Matthew 24:22, and the list goes on. Those in the predestination camp argue that not only is this an explicitly biblical doctrine (which we will get to in a sec), but it’s also part of God’s grace. Per GotQuestions.org:

 Predestination is personal and relational, not capricious.

The most common objection to the doctrine of predestination is that it is unfair. Why would God choose certain individuals and not others? We must remember that no one deserves to be saved. We have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are all worthy of eternal punishment (Romans 6:23). As a result, God would be perfectly just in allowing all of us to spend eternity in hell. However, God chooses to save some of us. He is not being unfair to those who are not chosen, because they are receiving what they deserve. God’s choosing to be gracious to some is not unfair to the others. No one deserves anything from God; therefore, no one can object if he does not receive anything from God. An illustration would be a man randomly handing out money to five people in a crowd of twenty. Would the fifteen people who did not receive money be upset? Probably so. Do they have a right to be upset? No, they do not. Why? Because the man did not owe anyone money. He simply decided to be gracious to some.

If God is choosing who is saved, doesn’t that undermine our free will to choose and believe in Christ? The Bible says that we have the choice—all who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). The Bible never describes God rejecting anyone who believes in Him or turning away anyone who is seeking Him (Deuteronomy 4:29). The truths of God’s sovereign predestination and also man’s responsibility are not mutually exclusive. Somehow, in the mystery of God, predestination works hand-in-hand with a person being drawn by God (John 6:44) and believing unto salvation (Romans 1:16). God predestines who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. Both facts are equally true. Romans 11:33 proclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

The second position on this is that the term “predestination” is better understood as “foreknowledge” in a sense. As I said in my Flippin’ Fatwa Friday post, I am in this camp (so this post will have a bias in that direction). Essentially, this view is that God hasn’t necessarily predestined people to go to Hell or Heaven but knew beforehand who would be going where. This view is supported by verses such as 1 Timothy 2:3-4, Romans 8:28, John 3:16, etc.

Both of these things are kind of confusing to understand since foreknowledge and predestination are kind of similar. The best way that I can understand it is in the sense of an author writing a story versus someone reading the story for the second time. When you’re writing a story, you usually know what’s going to happen to your characters. You know who is going to be the villain and who is going to be the hero. You know exactly what’s going to happen to them at the end. Their journey and fate have been predetermined.

Meanwhile, if you’re a person reading the story maybe for the second or third time (perhaps you’re the author doing some edits on the story), you also know what’s going to happen to the characters. You know who is good or evil and what their fate will be. However, you have foreknowledge of what will happen at this point. You’re not causing these characters to do anything. But you know what will happen.

[Author’s Note: Or maybe a better analogy for this is that the foreknowledge thing is like the scene in Avengers: Endgame in which Dr. Strange goes through every possible timeline and figures out which one works best for the fate of the world. My dad brought this one up; you guys can debate if it fits or not. I am not an expert on this matter.]

The way I see it, God’s foreknowledge is like the later example. He knows what is going to happen, but he’s not forcing anyone to do anything.

This, in my opinion, makes more sense than the predestination camp, as confusing as both are. And the reason why I lean more towards the foreknowledge camp is because if God predestines people, then He can’t be good because He becomes the author of evil. As much as the Got Questions article tries to justify how predestination doesn’t infringe on free-will, it absolutely does. If you are predestined to never accept Christ and to stay dead in your sin, then your sins are not entirely your fault. You have just been programmed to do that, which puts God at fault. You’ve essentially become the robot following the code given to you.

Hopefully, this helps clear up some of the confusion around this doctrine. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s something we will fully understand until we’re on the other side of eternity since both sides are hard to understand.

Until next time,

M.J.