Living the Christ Life 38: The Golden Chain of Glorification Part 4

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"Paul means that believers know, from observation of God’s past dealings with those who love Him, that he has a mysterious way of working things out for the greatest good. By observing the stories of the saints of old—those called to accomplish His redemptive purposes—believers can rest in the knowledge of this truth. God can take whatever evil may come our way and redeem it for good. Believers can know this because God has been doing it for generations."

Leighton Flowers, https://soteriology101.com/2018/02/14/romans-828-30-foreknowledge-and-predestination/

"Calling" -kaleō

  1. to identify by name or attribute, call, call by name,name

  2. to request the presence of someone at a social gathering, invite

  3. to use authority to have a person or group appear, summon

  4. From the meanings ‘summon’ and ‘invite’ there develops the extended sense choose for receipt of a special benefit or experience, call

Living the Christ Life 37: The Golden Chain of Glorification Part 3

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"PREDESTINATION"- proorizō

Acts 4:28 -------- Jesus' Crucifixion

1 Cor 2:7 -------- Glorification

Eph 1:5, 11 -------- Glorification

So, what is "predestined" in Romans 8:29?

“You will note that there is no reference in these four verses (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5,11) to Heaven or Hell, but to Christlikeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ.”

H.A. Ironside, Full Assurance (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1937), 93-94.

"FIRSTBORN" - prōtotokos (158 times-OT)

       1- literally pertaining to birth order (the first in order).

       2- pertaining to having special status associated with a firstborn (having the birth right, which was a privilege).

       Ex: "of Christ, as the firstborn of a new humanity which is to be glorified, as its exalted Lord is glorified."

-William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 894.‎‎‎

"pertaining to existing superior to all else of the same or related class—‘superior to, above all.’"

-Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 737.

Living the Christ Life 36: The Golden Chain of Glorification Part 2

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Calvinist- "Calvin defined predestination as God’s eternal decree by which He determined by Himself whatever He willed to happen with every person, creating some persons for eternal life and others for eternal damnation. Calvin held to an infralapsarian model of predestination, in which God first understands humans as fallen and therefore lacking the mental faculty to accomplish spiritual good. Then God actively decrees to save some and damn others in a double predestination."

"God is said to set apart those whom he adopts for salvation. It were most absurd to say, that he admits others fortuitously, or that they by their industry acquire what election alone confers on a few. Those, therefore, whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children."
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. III, Sec 23, 1.

Arminian- "Arminius affirmed that election is based on God’s foreknowledge of those who would believe in Christ and persevere in faith throughout their lifetimes. Arminius expressed his own understanding of predestination under four divine decrees.

1. God decreed to create the world and to appoint Christ as Redeemer, Mediator, and Savior to pay for the sins of the world.

2. God decreed to save everyone who would receive Christ and continue in their belief.

3. God decreed to give all future persons the means (i.e., the Word, sacraments, and so forth) to believe in Christ, making grace available to all.

4. God decreed to save particular persons based on His foreknowledge of who would believe and persevere."
Kirk R. MacGregor, “Predestination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).‎‎‎

"PREDESTINE"- proorizō- 

        “to limit in advance” -Strong's #4309 

        “to limit or mark out beforehand; to design definitely beforehand, ordain beforehand, predestine” (1)

        " to come to a decision beforehand—‘to decide beforehand, to determine ahead of time, to decide upon ahead of time’" (2)

This is a word that is derived from two Greek words:

        “Pro”- Strong’s# 4253 meaning “fore, in front of, prior, before”

        “horizō”- Strong’s# 3724 meaning “to mark out or bound, to appoint, decree, or specify.”

         We get the English word "horizon" from this word.

Gordon Olson notes that “this is a very rare word, and there is a serious question as to how it should actually be translated. It never occurred in the Septuagint Old Testament and is found only once in classical Greek literature before the New Testament (Demosthenes) and a few times in secular Greek from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD.”
C. Gordon Olson, Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism: An Inductive Mediate Theology of Salvation, 3rd Edition (Cedar Knolls, NJ: Global Gospel Publishers, 2002), 330.

“You will note that there is no reference in these four verses (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5,11) to Heaven or Hell, but to Christlikeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ.”
H.A. Ironside, Full Assurance (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1937), 93-94.

“God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, ‘What doest thou?’ Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.” 
A.W. Tozer, The Best of A.W. Tozer Book Two (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007), 32.

Living the Christ Life 35: The Golden Chain of Glorification Part 1

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Foreseen = God saw through the corridors of time who would believe and chose those individuals based on their “foreseen faith.” (Classical Arminian)

Foreordain = God set his love on certain unconditionally pre-selected individuals before the world began (“foreloved”) and effectually works to change their hearts so that they want to come to Him for salvation. (Calvinist)

Leighton Flowers, "Proginosko- To 2016/01/07/foreknew-foreKnow Beforehand, https://soteriology101.com/seen-or-foreordained-or-formerly-known/‎‎‎

"KNOW"- ginosko- 
 1- to arrive at a knowledge of someone or something, know, know about, make acquaintance of


2- to acquire information through some means, learn (of), ascertain, find out


3- to grasp the significance or meaning of something, understand, comprehend


4- to be aware of something, perceive, notice, realize



5- to have sexual intercourse with, have sex/marital relations with


6- to have come to the knowledge of, have come to know, know 


7- to indicate that one does know, acknowledge, recognize


*This verb is variously nuanced in contexts relating to familiarity acquired through experience or association with a person or thing.



"FOREKNEW"- proginosko-w/ "pro" being a preposition meaning "before"


1- to know beforehand or in advance, have foreknowledge


2- choose beforehand- Romans 8:29, 11:2, 1 Peter 1:20 & Acts 26:5 are specified, along with general references to Romans 9-11.

Do these instances mean "to choose beforehand" or "to foreordain?"

BDAG, 199-201.‎‎‎

William Lane Craig writes, “It is sometimes suggested that ‘foreknow’ with regard to the elect means ‘choose in advance,” so that foreknowledge and unconditional election to salvation become synonymous. But again there is no linguistic evidence in support of this suggestion. Out of the 770 cases of yada (‘to know’) in the Old Testament, the 660 instances of ginosko (‘to know’) in the Septuagint, and the 220 in the New Testament, the term never carries the sense of ‘choose’ or ‘elect.’”

-William Lane Craig, The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2000), 34.

"What we say about future events being foretold, we do not say it as though they come about by fatal necessity.”
-Justin Martyr (100-165AD)

Quote of Justin Martyr in Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 808.

W.T. Moore- "Our conclusion therefore is that in the latter passage as well as in the former the apostle is referring to a long line of worthy saints whom God, under former dispensations, had acknowledged or approved, and having approved them, He marked them out, called them, justified them and made them glorious."

"To sum up the whole case, this foreknowledge of God is simply his acknowledgment of real historic characters whose faithfulness in the past is referred to as proof that even now all who love God will secure his help and final victory provided they continue in the grace which God has so abundantly provided."

W.T. Moore, Ph.D. President of The Bible College of Missouri.

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