The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia

Absolute Predestination

Written by Arthur Allen

From our Banner, April 15, 1958; Vol. 3, No. 21.

The opening words of the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith read as follows: "Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave man inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation; therefore it pleased God, at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal Himself and to declare His will unto His Church." It is this special revelation that informs us that God is incomprehensible.

God is infinitely more glorious in the invincible power and majesty of His sovereignty than it is possible for the minds of men or angels to conceive, for, immediately we attribute infinity to His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence and eternity, the immensity that such terms imply shatter the imaginations of men. The only conception that we can form of omnipotence is to dispose of all the limitations that exist in us, and even this is totally inadequate, for God's omnipotence includes infinity, and who can define infinity? The same applies to His omniscience. To quote the words of the psalmist - "Great is the Lord and of great power: His understanding is infinite." Thus God's omniscience is incomprehensible, for it reaches out from eternity to the eternity of eternities, and not only so, but it brings the whole into one all-embracing present and never ceases to fill the whole of the universe: and so we have omnipresence. The magnitude of such a thought overpowers the soul, and what applies to one attribute of God applies to all. The apostle John writes: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." The text states that God is invisible and incomprehensible to all save the Son, "who is in the bosom of the Father."

The answer to the seventh question in the Larger Catechism is as follows: "God is a spirit, in and of Himself, infinite in being, glory, blessedness and perfection: all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, etc." The wildest extravagances of man's imagination cannot apprehend a spirit, although we are very conscious of our own soul, which is spirit. God is a spirit but infinitely higher than anything we are conscious of, and the second commandment forbids us to imagine God in any form. To quote Stephen Charmock: "We must apprehend God above any spirit - that He cannot be declared by human speech, perceived by human sense, or conceived by human understanding. " (Works, vol. 1, page 263).

In the 30th chapter of Proverbs, Agur, the seer, when he contemplates God, gives expression to his experience and a confession of his faith, saying: "Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I have neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the winds in His fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment ? Who hath established the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son's name, if thou canst tell?" John Calvin, in his Institutes Book 2, chapter 14, commenting on this Text, states: "Solomon, speaking of the incomprehensibility of God, affirms that His Son is like Himself, incomprehensible." 'What is His name and what is His Son's name, if thou canst tell ?'" When Moses requested God to make His name known, "God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM." God is incomprehensible in all the infinite Glory and majesty of His high and holy attributes, as it is written: "Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" ( Job 11:7-8).

The answer to the fourth question in the Shorter Catechism reads as follows: "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." It is the infinite attributes of God that constitute His sovereignty, but that sovereignty is not an attribute of God, but a divine prerogative. I accept the answer to the fourth question in the Shorter Catechism, for I cannot conceive that God in His absolute sovereignty, would permit anything (including sin and the fall ) that was not in accordance with His own design and purpose. Dr. William Hastie has well said: "The principle of absolute predestination (which is simply another way of saying Sovereign Grace) was the very Hercules-might of the young Reformation, by which, no less in Germany than elsewhere, it strangled the serpents of superstition and idolatry, and when it lost its energy in its first home, it still continued to be the very marrow and backbone of the faith of the Reformed Church, and the power that carried it victoriously through all its struggles and trials. The principle is to be read all through the writings of the great Reformed Theologians; and the Reformed Church never knew weakness nor decline till its vision became dimmed by the mists of the things of time for the eternal, immutable basis of its saving Faith." (Theology of the Reformed Church, page 224).

While God is incomprehensible, three persons one God, whose name is as infinite as His attributes and that name we cannot know, this does not mean that we cannot know God, for God is revealed unto us by the Lord Jesus Christ in the Covenant of Grace, as it is recorded in the 22nd Psalm and quoted in Hebrews 2:12. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will Ipraise Thee," and the words of our Lord: "All things are delivered unto Me of my Father - and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or Comforter are designations that describe the activities of the three persons in the Godhead in the Covenant of Grace, and the three persons in the Godhead must act in concurrence in the salvation of the soul. It is wicked presumption to think that man can call the Divine Assembly of Eternity together to act conjointly for the salvation of the soul when it suits his convenience.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Gal. 1:15, writes: "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, etc." The place of Paul's conversion was Damascus, the time, "When it pleased God," the mode, the three persons of the Godhead acting in concurrence. God, the Father drew Paul, God, the Son, received him, God, the Holy Spirit, quickened his soul into spiritual life. And this is what Christ has made known by revelation, that salvation of the soul is an act of Sovereign Grace. The Covenant of Grace is a compact from all eternity between the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

The elect are chosen by God, the Father, and we have it on the authority of Christ's own words: "As thou hast given Him power over all flesh, That He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him." (John 17:2). And there could be no clearer statement than that of the Apostle Paul, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will." (Eph. 1:4-5). The elect are not only chosen by God, the Father, but He also draws them to the Saviour, unseen, secretly, so that the elect are unaware of it until it is revealed unto them. God, the Father, in giving them to the Son, promises that they shall come to Him. In the 110th Psalm, God the Father speaks to the Son on equal terms, saying: "The Lord did say unto My Lord . . . Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power." God shall make them willing, or, to quote the apostle Phil. 2: 13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

The sinner that is called of God stands, as it were, in the centre of two eternities, as it is written: "Yea, I have loved Thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee," (Jeremiah 31: 3). In eternity, at the back of time the sinner was chosen by the electing love of God, the Father and he is drawn to Christ, who, by His sacrificial death, gives effect to the electing love of God, and stretches out the ever-unfolding vastness of eternal life before the sinner, saved by grace.

The Lord Jesus Christ, throughout His public ministry, in the sermons that He preached and the prayers that He uttered, emphasised Absolute Predestination, or, if you will, Sovereign Grace. Christ plainly declares that God, the Father, in electing love draws the redeemed to him, and from the abundance of evidence we shall take but a few texts to illustrate this point. In John 6: 39, Christ says: "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I shall lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last-day." The method by which God, the Father, carries out His promise to the Son is recorded in verses 44-45: "No man can come to Me," said Christ, "except the Father which hath sent Me draw Him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learnt of the Father cometh unto me."

When our Lord gives utterance to these facts, He is drawing them from the volume of decrees "the Volume of The Book," the records of the Covenant of Grace compiled in a past eternity, that human hands have never handled and human eyes have never seen. Christ is revealing God, the incomprehensible God making known His mind and will, as it is recorded in Jeremiah 29:11. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

The Arminian heresy openly denies the Sovereign Grace of God in the salvation of the Soul, and popular evangelism, which claims to hold the doctrine of Sovereign Grace, repudiates it by implying that even God cannot fulfill His will and purpose without man's co-operation. The majority of present-day evangelists place the emphasis upon the necessity for man's willingness to co-operate and not on the Sovereignty of God. No matter wherever it is directly stated or implied that God is only waiting for man's decision to save him and that Christ loved and died equally for all men, and He is longing to receive them or by whomsoever an appeal is made to decide for Christ based upon such ground, there is direct opposition to the doctrine taught by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The above statement is fully attested by Christ in the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to John. Our Lord refers to Himself as "the good shepherd," and it is recorded in the 28th verse: "Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you, My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me." Our Lord clearly states the reason why they did not believe, because they were not given to Him of the Father, saying: "But ye believe not because ye are not of My sheep."

Again Christ knows those who are given unto Him of the Father, as it is written: "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me." Present-day evangelism declares that Christ died for all men - but our Lord Jesus Christ flatly denies this and states that His atonement is limited to His own sheep. "I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father and I lay down My life for the sheep." If Christ died for all men, then the infinite worth of His sacrificial death would make it absolutely essential that all men should be redeemed. But Christ did not die for all men, He died for the elect, all that were given Him of the Father and not one can be added to that number. Our Lord in the exercise of His priestly office prayed for the elect only, and for no one else, as it is written: "I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine." (John 17: 9).

The methods adopted by present-day Evangelists can be called in question, not only in taking texts out of their context, but also in their dividing a text in two and leaving unquoted the part that does not suit them. A common example is John 6: 37: "All that the Father hath given Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." The first phrase is rarely mentioned by the popular evangelist, but the latter is worked overtime.

If the doctrine taught by our Lord should form the pattern of our preaching, and it most certainly should, as it is recorded in the last verse of Matthew's Gospel: "Teaching them to observe whatsoever things I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." Dean Alfred, in his Greek Testament, comments on this verse saying: "For this teaching is nothing less than the building up of the whole man into the obedience of Christ." It is impossible to render obedience to Christ unless you accept His doctrine.

If we consider the glorious invitations of the Gospel we will find that they are all qualified by Absolute Predestination or Sovereign Grace. We might look at two of the best known invitations in Scripture, John 3:16: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If we leave this text in its context we find that this invitation is fully qualified by the preceding verses, for example, verses 5-6: "Jesus answered: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." And this is attested by the words of John the Baptist, when he said: "But as many as received Him to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name, which were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 12-13). Thus, abiding by the rule that Scripture must interpret Scripture, Absolute Predestination is set forth in the invitation.

Again, in Rev. 3: 20: "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to Him, and will sup with him and he with Me." The invitation is qualified by the words, "if any man hear My voice." The Lord Jesus Christ tells us plainly who they are that will hear His voice, saying, "I am the Good Shepherd and know My sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." (John 10:14-16).

Holman-Hunt has transferred the Arminian heresy on to canvas. He has painted his conception of Christ standing at a door, upon which there is no handle, indicating that the door can only be opened from the inside. The Holy Scriptures declare that it is God that opens the heart: Acts 16: 14. "And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira which worshipped God, heard us (that is the preaching of the Gospel) whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." It was then that she opened the door to that fellowship described in John's 1st Epistle, a fellowship with the Father and the Son, as it is written, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Thus Lydia addresses Paul and his companions, saying, "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there."

There is another text that I would refer to that is frequently used to support the Arminian heresy, and, following the usual practice, is taken completely out of its context. 2 Peter 3: 9: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some count slackness: but is long-suffering to usward not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The Apostle Peter, in the beginning of his letter, makes it very evident that he is addressing the faithful. "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1: 1). The opening verse of the third chapter makes it clear that he is still addressing the faithful. "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by the way of remembrance.'' The apostle is speaking to them, that is, the beloved, of the long suffering of God concerning their repentance, not willing that any should perish, but they all should come to repentance. The qualifying word in the text is "usward," "but is long suffering to usward." The apostle Paul uses the same qualifying word in his letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 1: 19), "And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power."

It never seems to enter the minds of those who deliberately, or in ignorance, distort the Scriptures by removing a text from its context, or dividing a text in two in order to suit their purpose, in order to make pious appeals for decisions for Christ on the ground of the necessity of man's co-operation with God for the effectiveness of Christ's redemptive work, that they are seeking to rob Christ of the glory that belongs to Him alone. Undoubtedly it is an effort to overcome the problem of sin and the fall, but the problem is not overcome by mutilating the Holy Scriptures.

If the final perfection of God's eternal purpose did not involve sin and the fall, and redemption through the sacrificial death of Christ, then there would be no rational reason or answer to the question, why was man created at all?

The fall, sin, and redemption of man are essential in order that the reality and design of God's completed purpose would be equal to the requirements of His own attributes of perfection.

It is clearly understood from the Holy Scriptures that the Divine Assembly met before time, in a past eternity and constituted the Covenant of Grace. John, when on Patmos, speaks of Christ, "as a lamb slain from the foundations of the world." Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, "According as He hath chosen us in Him from the foundations of the world." And Peter, in his first epistle, uses forceful words concerning our redemption, "with the precious blood of Christ; as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was for-ordained before the foundations of the world."

The provision of redemption that was in the mind of God in eternity involved His own high attributes in the fulfillment of it and so was necessary for the manifestation of His glory throughout the endlessness of His own habitations. Therefore redemption was not thrown haphazardly into the world, but, just as perfection makes all God's works so it is in redemption. When the Gospel is proclaimed, it is not as something undirected and uncontrolled. The redemption that is in Christ; is within the Covenant of Grace and has the signature of Jehovah. All that the Father hath given the Son shall come to Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledges the Father's gift in this, saying "those Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the Son of perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." This is, indeed, Absolute Predestination or Sovereign Grace.

The charge that is often brought against those who hold to the Scriptural doctrine of Sovereign Grace is that they have forgotten the love of God. Such a statement arises from ignorance, for it is far from the truth. It is completely refuted by the celebrated Letters of Samuel Rutherford, who, as it is well known, held strongly to the doctrine of Absolute Predestination. Those who hold the doctrine of Sovereign Grace attribute to the love of God a deeper foundation than any who reject the doctrine, for Divine love can never be separated from Divine Sovereignty. We must measure infinity if we would measure the love of God. To reduce God's love to anything comprehensive is to rob it of its strength and limit its boundless worth and its all-embracing magnitude, and we do not presume to bring any human standards into our calculations. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, uses the illustration of the love of a husband to wife and wife to husband, but realises how inadequate is the illustration and concludes with these words, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church"; and in Ephesians 3:19, he says, "And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." To quote Dr. Hastie, "The Divine love is only the perfection of Divine Sovereignty, the perfect consummation of the Divine purpose disclosed at last in God's completion of the world by His self-communication to immortal souls. The mystery of all the apparent harshness of Divine Sovereignty in its natural operations in the lower spheres is illuminated when we think of Divine Sovereignty therein manifest, as an implicit, undisclosed love, requiring the whole wide order of the universe for its unfolding and realisation."

In this doctrine of Sovereign Grace is the immovable foundation of the assurance of Salvation. Thus, when the evidences of Grace are experienced, the soul can read therein the signature of Jehovah to its redemption called and drawn by God, the Father, received by God, the Son, and regenerated by God, the Holy Spirit.

Those who oppose the doctrine of Absolute Predestination or Sovereign Grace, declare openly and this is worse than an open declaration, because it clothes the same heresy in fair words, they imply that the doctrine destroys the full and free invitation of the Gospel. Such a statement is as baseless as it is false. The doctrine of the full and free invitation of the Gospel is attested throughout the whole of Scripture. Indeed, God is more ready to forgive than we are to receive forgiveness, as it is recorded in the 86th Psalm, "For thou God art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee." It is also recorded in Proverbs 1: 23: "Turn ye at My reproof: behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you." God, in order to show the exceeding riches of His Grace in receiving sinners that call upon Him, unfolds a glimpse of the glory of His omniscience in His declaration recorded in Isaiah 65: 24: "And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." This strong expression of God's readiness to hear and answer the sinner is not a mere promise that the sinner shall be heard, but it is the Divine assurance that the sinner is pardoned and justified while the very request for mercy still remains to be formed upon his lips.

The Lord Jesus Christ makes a parallel statement when He said, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him."

Surely, beyond this words cannot express the full and free invitation of the Gospel? And the free invitation is extended to all who hear the Gospel. The worth of Christ's sacrificial death exceeds the condemnation of eternal death and equals the claim of heaven against man's offence. Therefore, if the invitation can be offered to one member of the human race, it can be offered to all.

God is indeed ready to forgive. How can God refuse when it is on His own invitation that the sinner calls upon Him? How is it possible that God should, for one moment, refuse a request that He has placed in the heart of the sinner by His Word and Spirit? God does not retard the accomplishment of His own work, as it is written of Christ, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

If the sinner has not the inclination or disposition to call upon God for mercy that in no way alters the full and free invitation of the Gospel. Surely it is the free invitation of the Gospel that exposes the inclination and disposition of the heart, and divides the elect from the non-elect?

The prophet Isaiah wrote, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Later on, the prophet, from the midst of a glorious vision, recorded in Isaiah, chapter 6, received his official commission. Isaiah knew that the great majority of the people would not be inclined or disposed to heed his message, as it is written: "Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not." (Isaiah 6: 9). Nevertheless, that knowledge did not, in any way, alter the full and free invitation.

The importance of doctrinal distinction is essential in the proclamation of the truth. The prophets and apostles emphasised these distinctions under the inspiration of God, The Holy Spirit. Our Lord and Master did so, for He preached the deep things of God, and it is recorded that: "The common people heard Him gladly." The greatest teachers and preachers in the history of the Church have done so - Augustine, Calvin, Knox, Melville, Henderson, Gillespie, Rutherford, Chalmers, Cunningham, Hodges and Benjamin B. Warfield.

Brethren, I do not think that we can look for a revival of true religion until there is a revival of doctrinal instruction on Sovereign grace.

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