R.C. Sproul

That is, to be in a state of salvation or to be in a state of damnation.

And predestination proper is concerned not with those daily questions of whether or not I dropped this chalk on the floor, if that was predestined.

That would fall under the theological heading of providence.

And those questions are legitimate questions for theology, how much God's sovereignty is involved in our everyday actions and activities and so on.

But the doctrine of predestination is concerned about the question of salvation.

And predestination is concerned about something that takes place before we arrive at that destination.

Predestination has to do with God's involvement in the ultimate outcome of our lives.

Now this may strike you as strange, but both Augustinians and semi-Pelagians agree that predestination is something that God does.

predestination has to do with God's choice regarding salvation, God's choice regarding the salvation of people.

And this may also surprise you that both sides agree that God makes that choice about our ultimate destination

before we are even born.

Indeed, at the foundation of the world, as we just read in Ephesians, that God chose certain people before the foundation of the world.

Now, that may surprise you.

John Wesley believed that.

Philip Melanchthon believed that.

But in any case,

Where the point of division is, is at this critical juncture.

On what basis does God choose to save you before the foundation of the world?

Is God's choice to save you based upon His prior knowledge of something that He looks down the quarters of time and sees that you are going to do?

And therefore, looking down the corridors of time, he knows, for example, that you're going to respond positively to the gospel, that you're going to choose Christ when the opportunity avails itself to you.