We can easily prove by the holy Scriptures that the first two propositions are not true. Then, we are bound to admit that the third is true. This is a fixed fact. The question is, when was it fixed in the mind of God? The Scripture says the elect were chosen before the foundation of the world. The point for which we contend is that the fact was fixed by the Lord. It was not simply foreseen as a fact that would arise independently of divine interposition, but it was predetermined. It was God who determined it. This is the kind of predestination to which the Presbyterian Church holds. Whatever objections may be urged against it, we believe it to be taught in God’s Word. There are questions in regard to it which no human being can answer. We are confronted with the question, how fore-ordination and man’s free agency can be reconciled. It is certainly no good reason for the rejection of a doctrine that we cannot fully understand it. Who can understand the Trinity? Who can comprehend the dual existence of our Lord Jesus? Such truths we receive on faith, and not because they are in harmony with reason. But it is not right to require that Predestinarians shall remove objections which apply with equal force to the theological system of those who so bitterly oppose us. For instance, how can fore-knowledge be reconciled with man’s free agency? Whatever God fore-knows must come to pass.
We, too, believe with others, that so far as free agency is concerned, every man on the face of the earth could be saved, if he only had the will to come to Christ. But some will not accept; and that fact was fixed in the Eternal Mind, away back before the foundation of the world, as well as the other fact, that some would accept. It is in vain to say that this result was merely fore-seen. When there was nothing in existence, how could God fore-see anything except what He had determined should be? Permit me to use a plain illustration: Here stands a sculptor before a block of marble. There are millions of possible images and forms in that marble. With his chisel the artist can develop one image. That must first exist as a conception in his mind. After a while the beautiful statue is brought out as the result of a predetermination. Or the sculptor might produce two images—three—four—a hundred. There are millions of possible forms in the marble, but the workman determines what forms he will develop. Applying the illustration, there were millions of possible events or circumstances before the divine Mind. The Lord could have made this world larger or smaller; He could have made Adam a very different being from what he was. But God chose, predetermined, to make this world just the size it is. God selected the events that take place out of millions that might have taken place, as the sculptor chose the images which he would develop. If the Lord did not select, or predetermine, the precise events that occur in time, who did make the selection? Was the All Wise God merely trying experiments? What would we think of a sculptor who should go to work on his block of marble without any conception or plan in his mind? How, then, can we believe that God would place men in the world, and devise the scheme of redemption without selecting the exact results in His own Omniscient Mind? The Lord has His own purposes, and these purposes will be accomplished; and this is predestination. Therefore, I do not hesitate to endorse another article of our Confession of Faith, which has been often assailed with un-christian virulence: “God hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass.”
Here I would observe that the objection is without foundation that, if predestination be true, it is in vain for men to make any effort to be saved. This is a gross perversion of the doctrine. God does not decree that any one shall be doomed to eternal torment who desires to enjoy heaven, and who is willing to accept the terms of salvation. Show me the sinner who is thirsting for the waters of Life, and I will show you one whose name is written in the Book of Heaven as an heir of God. Now, how much broader do we want the plan of salvation, if it embraces all that desire salvation on Scriptural terms? If the sinner is disposed to repent, he has no reason to suppose that he belongs to the reprobate class. But some men want an excuse for continuing in sin, and these are the persons who, Peter said, would “wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction.”
Another argument in support of this doctrine is the fact that Paul mentions, and comments upon the very objections that are to this day urged against the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. It is evident that the apostle taught precisely what the Confession of Faith does. We have to meet the very same objections which he met, and refuted. We know that this doctrine has ever been revolting to men of the world. You remember, when Christ said, “No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him,” some of His disciples “went back, and walked with Him no more.”
I have no doubt the doctrine of predestination will be opposed to the end of time. But it can never be destroyed. You may revise the Confession of Faith till every vestige of it disappears, but that does not blot it out from the pages of God’s Word. To get rid of that doctrine, the whole Bible must be revised from Genesis to Revelation. Strike out from the Scriptures every thing that is said in regard to predestination; expunge every passage from which the doctrine may be deduced by plain inference, and there is nothing left but Universalism.
Predestination and man’s free agency are both taught in the Holy Scriptures. Recognize this fact, and you will find little difficulty in harmonizing passages that may appear to some persons to be antagonistic. Reject either doctrine, and you will run into serious error. There is Fatalism, on the one side; and on the other, there is a broad Liberality of sentiment among men which receives no support from God’s Word. Hence we honestly believe that the position of the Presbyterian Church is the only true way to steer in safety between Scylla and Charybdis.
