R.C. Sproul

The word predestination is a biblical word, and because it's a biblical word, all of those who have been diligent students of the Bible have tried to understand what the Bible means by divine predestination.

As I look at the history of Christian scholarship, we see that every great Christian teacher, every theologian that the church has ever produced at some point or another has had to address this question of predestination.

And though there's wide divergence of interpreting the doctrine of predestination, there's one thing that we can find that every theologian I've ever examined

agrees on, and that is that this doctrine must be treated with great caution.

It's a dangerous subject because the more we study it, the tendency it has to raise more questions than it answers.

And I'm convinced that of all of the doctrines that we struggle with in Christendom, there's none that is more shrouded in misunderstanding and confusion than the doctrine of predestination.

So that in itself calls for a certain kind of sober caution as we approach this subject.

And I would add to the theologian's warning of caution that I think it's also a doctrine that requires an extra measure of charity as we struggle with it.

and that we need to be patient with each other and with those who differ from us in our views of this particular question.

Because I said there is a lot at stake here, and feelings can run very high when we discuss the matter of predestination.

and we ought to be careful to manifest the fruit of God's Holy Spirit among ourselves as we try to deal with it.

Now, I keep saying the doctrine of predestination as if there were only one doctrine of predestination.

or if there even were such a thing as a viable doctrine of predestination.

There are those who look at the question of predestination and state it in categories like this.

They'll say to you, a discussion between Christians would be, do you believe in predestination?

And some people will answer that question either by saying, yes, I believe in predestination, or they will say, no, I don't believe in predestination.

as if everybody understood what we were talking about when we talked about the doctrine of predestination.

It may come as a surprise to some of you that every church that I know of historically, every denomination that I'm aware of historically that has formulated a doctrinal statement of sorts has formulated some doctrine of predestination.

There is a Roman Catholic doctrine of predestination.

There is a Lutheran doctrine of predestination.