Does God Preselect Our Eternal Destiny?

Mankind was uniquely made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). The Septuagint translation was the authoritative Old Testament scriptures that were read in Jesus’ time. It translates the word “image” from the Greek word “εἰκόνα” for icon. The word “likeness” is translated from the Greek word “ὁμοίωσιν” for similarity. According to St. John of Damascus (675-749 AD), “the expression according to the image indicates rationality and freedom, while the expression according to the likeness indicates assimilation to God through virtue.” Adam was empowered with free moral agency to will and to choose. Man is an icon of God in various aspects. God is Ruler, and man was commissioned to rule over Creation (verse 26). God is Creator, and man was given the capacity to invent, design and build. God is King and man was made for royalty. No wonder King David pondered: “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:4-5). Man was made like God to share His attributes and divine virtues of love, kindness, generosity, mercy, and righteousness among others. At the conclusion of His creative work, God declared that is was all “very good” which is God’s humble manner of describing it as “perfect” (Genesis 1:31). When God blew life into Adam’s nostrils and formed Eve from Adam’s side, he gave them instructions, as a father to his children. The two trees in the midst of the Garden presented two options: perpetual life of communion with God or perpetual life of estrangement from God, or stated in other ways, eternal life vs. eternal death, eternal light vs. eternal darkness, eternal bliss vs. eternal sorrow. God’s desire for man is to live eternally in communion with Him, partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The Church Holy Fathers teach that when Adam and Eve sinned, they retained the image of God (as they still possessed a rational soul), but they lost the likeness of God. That is, they were no longer Godlike or Christlike, since their nature became corrupted. Wanting to know good and evil, in their willful disobedience they soon realized the effects of evil: shame, guilt, and sorrow. Thankfully, God in His foreknowledge set forth a grand plan of salvation, calling for mankind’s redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection, so they could be restored to Adam’s pre-Fall condition, reclaiming the mind of Christ “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

God is outside time and space. He is all-knowing, “declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done…” (Isaiah 46:10). Therefore, God foreknew before the Creation that man would bring corruption and death upon himself, falling for the deception that he can become like God (i.e. Godlike) apart from God (Genesis 3:5). By disobeying God’s commandment, he willingly condemned himself to perdition. But God’s mercy is everlasting, and the Eternal Son willed to save mankind before the Creation. And because all of God’s acts are outside of time (i.e. eternal), the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). God is not willing that any should perish, but that all, not some, should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

God purposed for the Hebrew people to bring the forth salvation to the world through Jesus, the incarnate Word of God. His promise to Abraham to bless the world through sons was brought to fruition through the nation of Israel. Just as with Adam and Eve, the Lord lays before Israel two choices: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). God urges Israel to choose wisely, however, Israel chose death and cursing. By straying from God’s grace, they lost divine protection, ending in foreign invasion and captivity. But several hundred years later, a scepter would rise out of Judah, from the city of David, bringing salvation to the house of Israel and to the Gentile world.

In the Book of Jonah, we read about God wanting to warn the Ninevites of imminent destruction for their wickedness. The prophet Jonah desired to see the Ninevites perish, and opted to seemingly escape from God. It isn’t until after he was swallowed by a large sea animal and jetted out, that he was ready to hearken to God’s redemptive mission for him. Eventually, the Ninevites responded with fasting and repentance to Jonah’s preaching, and were spared by God. This shows God’s mercy unto other peoples, and their choice to repent of their sins.

In these examples there is a common theme: God’s desire for man to choose rightly and His willingness to save them. It is tragic for some professing Christians to develop a doctrine that God created some people for salvation and others for damnation. They misinterpret the scriptures that reference predestination, and in so doing, blaspheme our Holy, Merciful God. The Church never interpreted predestination of an individual, but always with reference to the Church collectively, and always in the context of salvation for those who remained in the Church until the end of their lives or at the return of Christ. The Apostle Paul explains the sequence of salvific events, starting with God’s call for repentance, which means turning to God. Those answer the call are those are who are then justified and ultimately glorified. But, answering the call is a matter of choice, the same choice offered to Adam and Eve, to the nation of Israel, and to the Ninevites. In the New Testament scriptures, Jesus related the parable of the wedding feast of the King, in which many were called to attend. The King clearly represents Jesus, since the parable is about the kingdom of heaven. However, many did not answer the call, mocking or disregarding the invitation. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ‘Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matthew 22:1-10) Those who ignored the first call were the Jews. As a result, everyone else was invited, both bad and good. The point is that the call is an invitation, no one is compelled to accept. Jesus said elsewhere, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). God does not kick-in the door. Moreover, the Apostle Peter tells us that we’re responsible for making our calling a sure thing through growing in the faith: “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10).

Those who unwittingly teach that God chooses some for destruction have adopted a dangerous doctrine. It ascribes to God evil intentions, thereby attributing to God unrighteousness and sinfulness, and in turn, imperfection cancelling Him as God. It also destroys the notion of God being love, since this required that by His very nature, God must consistently employ His love, not sometimes, or else, he is unstable and imperfect, and therefore cancelling Him as God. It makes no sense for God to warn Adam and Eve to avoid the forbidden tree, or to urge the Israelites to choose life, or to admonish the Ninevites to repent, if at the same time, He had already chosen their destruction from the beginning. It also makes no sense to preach the gospel of salvation to the world if God chooses whom He will save. If it’s all a matter of God’s choice, not ours, then repentance as taught by the apostles is irrelevant. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Apostle Timothy: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1Timothy 2:3-4). As Jesus hung on the cross, He looked down at his enemies and prayed for them, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). We are commanded to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” for in so doing, we are perfect just as our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:48). Love and perfection are intertwined, and it is clear to see that God loved the world, even when they didn’t love Him.

Some misinterpret others scriptures that mention God hardening Pharaoh’s heart to suggest that God had pre-chosen his destruction. This explanation fails to account for Hebraisms, which are idioms or expressions of the Hebrew culture and language to emphasize or clarify a point, such as describing a fertile land as a “land flowing with milk and honey.” In Pharaoh’s case, there are verses indicating he chose his own demise: “And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants” (Exodus 9:34). Passages referring to God hardening Pharaoh’s heart is a Hebraism emphasizing that God was able to carry out His ultimate plan despite Pharaoh shutting his heart to God. The Apostle James says: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13). Also, Paul asks rhetorically: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!” (Romans 9:14). We know that God allows circumstances and uses what others do for evil to achieve some other redemptive purpose. The Old Testament patriarch Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and later was unfairly imprisoned for being falsely accused of sexually assaulting Potiphar’s wife. However, he was redeemed after miraculously interpreting Pharaoh’s dream and was promoted to the rank of governor of Egypt, second only to the pharaoh. This allowed him to ultimately save his father and brothers from death by starvation. He rightly communicated to his brothers: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

Some cite the passage: “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, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24). This verse does not say the God prepared the vessels of wrath for destruction, but rather, that He “endured with much longsuffering.” The means He was exceedingly patient, waiting for them to repent from their own wrathful path of destruction, so that He may bless them with the riches of His glorious Kingdom, which had been prepared beforehand, that it so say, before the Creation. And these promises were for both Jew and Gentile, as they are both called to salvation. What God did prepare in advance was the reality that those who answer the call would be vessels of mercy experiencing eternal joy in God’s presence (heaven), while those who reject the call would be vessels of wrath experiencing eternal anguish in God’s presence (hell). However, whether we answer or reject the call is always our choice.

This stresses the importance of rightly dividing the word of truth, and not being swept away by every wind of doctrine. The Holy Church is the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).