Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 8

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 Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.  I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.  I hope you find the short essays helpful. 

 

Why do Presbyterians believe in “predestination?” 

All Bible-believing Christians believe in predestination because the word “predestination” is in the Bible.  You must teach about any word that’s in the Bible if you truly claim to believe the Bible.  Presbyterians teach something specific about predestination though, so let’s look at that.

It all comes back to what the Bible says.  The Bible says that:

“No one is righteous—not even one.  No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.  All have turned away; all have become useless.  No one does good, not a single one.  Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.  Their tongues are filled with lies.  Snake venom drips from their lips.  “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.  They rush to commit murder.       Destruction and misery always follow them.  They don’t know where to find peace.  They have no fear of God at all.  [Romans 3:10-18, NLT]

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.  You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.  He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. [Ephesians 2:1-3, NLT]

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.  That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. [Romans 8:8-9, NLT]

The Bible does not ‘paint a good picture’ of us.  It says, among other things, that we are God’s enemies, and we cannot obey God or please Him.

            Having faith in Christ, giving our lives over to Christ, involves agreeing to love God and please Him.  We simply do not do love or please God on our own.   It takes a change of heart.  The Holy Spirit is the one who changes our hearts when He convicts us of sin.  We do not change ourselves.  This is what the ‘old-timers’ meant when they said the Holy Spirit “brings us under conviction.”  He gives us a new heart, and with that heart we believe the gospel and trust Christ. 

            All the rest of the Presbyterian belief about predestination falls out from there.  For example, if the Spirit changes our hearts, then He is the one who decides to change our hearts.  We do not decide, He does; so, He has the first choice.  We are chosen by God to be believers not based on what He sees in us in our sin, but because He wants to love us and put the world right.

            There are many questions that arise, and I could write about this issue for many pages, but I’ll stop with this.  We should be the humblest people in the world.  We are Christians not because we did something right but because God did something for us.  We shouldn’t ‘look down our noses’ at anyone, no matter their belief or their sin. 

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