Predestination and God’s Sovereignty
Jesus says that hell was created “for the devil and his angels” and not for mankind (Matthew 25:41) …. which further confirms that God sent His only begotten Son to pay the price for sin “for the sins of the WHOLE world.” (1 John 2:2). The LORD is “NOT willing that ANY should perish” but would have “ALL men to be saved.” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9)
Beginning in the early days of the Methodist Revival, John Wesley’s position on predestination became a controversial issue. His friend and partner in ministry George Whitefield was a staunch Calvinist, which meant that he believed that salvation was only available to those who had been elected by God, and that the elect would certainly be saved. Wesley was an Arminian, meaning he believed God’s gracious gift of salvation was available to all, though it could be rejected.
While Wesley and Whitefield began their conversations about predestination in private, it wasn’t long before “pamphlet warfare” flared up as each side began to publish sermons and open letters advocating for their positions. Wesley and Whitefield were able to reconcile to a certain extent, but the passionate and fiery debates left a mark on their relationship, and the Methodist movement as a whole. To this day, many see the predestination debate as an important dividing line in evangelicalism.
Why was John Wesley so resolute in his rejection of the Calvinist approach to predestination? There were two key concerns motivating his thinking on this question.
Two Key Concerns
The first key concern had to do with the character of God. Sometimes people mistakenly think that Wesley’s rejection of unconditional predestination was based on an overly optimistic view of human nature, as opposed to a more robust Calvinist understanding of depravity. In fact, Wesley agreed with the historic Calvinist position on total depravity. The real issue at stake was God’s character, rather than innate human abilities. Wesley felt that the idea of absolute unconditional predestination by divine decree was inconsistent with God’s justice, as well as his love and goodness.
This fundamental difference can be seen in the respective ways in which the Calvinist and Wesleyan traditions have approached the question of divine sovereignty. Generally speaking, the Calvinist tradition has seen sovereignty through the model of a ruling monarch, whereas Wesley conceived of sovereignty primarily through the model of a loving parent. The monarch’s power over his subjects is conceived primarily as an exercise of “will,” and hence, for Calvinists, the fact that some are saved while others are not is explained as a decision of the divine will. On the other hand, a parent’s power over their children is conceived primarily as an exercise of love. From this Wesleyan perspective, it is inconceivable that God, as a loving parent, would eternally decree some of his children to life and others to death.
Wesley’s second key concern related to the character of the Christian life. He worried that preaching a Calvinist approach to predestination would lead to antinomianism – living without any concern for the law of God. If salvation is unconditionally established by an eternal decree, why would any of us concern ourselves with obedience and discipleship?
Wesley felt the Calvinist approach therefore undercut the pursuit of holiness, because the connection between God’s gift and our response is marginalized. In his 1739 sermon, “Free Grace,” which ignited the first round of public controversy with Whitefield, Wesley wrote, “So directly does this doctrine tend to shut the very gate of holiness in general, to hinder unholy men from ever approaching thereto, or striving to enter thereat.”
The Biblical Position
It was on the basis of these two areas of concern that Wesley advocated for his evangelical Arminian position on predestination, which can be outlined in the following six points:
- Total depravity is true in that the fallen human being is completely helpless and in bondage to sin. Yet Calvinists erroneously teach that man has no ability in his depravity to make the choice to obey the divine command to repent and trust Christ.
- The atonement is universal in scope. Christ’s death was sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world, not only an elect few, as proposed by five-point Calvinism.
- Prevenient (or preceding) grace is universally available. God’s grace is present in our lives before we turn to Christ in faith, and this grace restores a measure of freedom so that we can respond to his gracious gift. This is how Wesley could affirm that all human persons were free to respond to the gospel in spite of total depravity—but note that the freedom which humans possess is a measure of freedom (not absolute freedom in all respects), and it is freedom-by-grace, not an inherent endowment of fallen humanity.
- Grace is resistible and can be rejected, to our own destruction. God is actively drawing all people to himself, but his grace is not coercive.
- Predestination is therefore based on God’s foreknowledge, not his will. That is, God corporately predestines all those who respond in faith to salvation, and by foreknowledge he knows who will respond. Yet the response of each person is truly theirs, because God’s foreknowledge does not cause their response.
- Assurance of salvation is given by the Holy Spirit, who witnesses directly to our adoption as children of God through Christ, and whose fruit in our lives also provides confirmation that we are God’s children.
Jason Frost writes:
“What is predestination?
Calvinism Crushed
The Sovereignty of God as Defined by Calvinism vs Scripture [podcast]
Articles
Hypocrites or Disciples?

Is There a Difference Between a Disciple and a Hypocrite?
God-fearing people have integrity. They love the truth and are like Jesus, the table-flipping Son of God – they fearlessly call out and expose hypocrisy and hypocrites (Matt. 10:26-28). Read Matthew 23.
QUESTION RECEIVED:
“If someone loves God, prays, reads the Bible, wants nothing to do with worldly entertainment, loves the truth even when it hurts, but still struggles with a sin, is that person a hypocrite and a liar? I have a few people that say things like that. They say that if someone is struggling with a sin that they really aren’t saved, being saved, born again. However you want to say it. Or they say that if you struggle with sin you don’t love God. I don’t get that at all, because isn’t the spirit at war with the flesh? I don’t know… It’s confusing!” Misty L.
RESPONSE:
The Bible speaks of us “striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4) and that “the flesh lusteth (strives) against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh (Galatians 5:17-18) and so we know that is a war going on in our members. The daily cross is to crucify that old man and his sinful deeds and as we do we are raised up by the Holy Ghost in His victory (Romans 6; 8:12-14, etc.) … we are to “fight the good fight of faith”and yet at times we fail but that doesn’t mean we are hypocrites (1 Timothy 6:12) In fact, as long as we are fighting – learning to live the crucified life – we manifest that we are Christ’s. Peter sinned against Christ in the worst way and Jesus did tell him to “get thee behind me Satan” but didn’t call him a hypocrite as He often called the religious posers, actors, the pharisees (Matthew 23). That’s actually the definition of a hypocrite – a poser or actor. When Jesus foretold Peter that he would deny Christ three times, the Son of God then told him that He would pray for him to be restored (Luke 22:31-32). Again, Jesus never called His disciples hypocrites though He had much opportunity to do so. Furthermore, Paul speaks of those believers who are “weak” in Romans 14-15.
We certainly are commanded to “Be ye holy as I am holy” and to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” and to perfect “holiness in the fear of God.” (1 Peter 1:15-16; 2 Corinthians 7:1) This is accomplished by our submission to the LORD daily – presenting our bodies a living sacrifice – and the power of the Holy Spirit, raising us up in His holiness to bear fruit to the LORD glory (Romans 1:4; 6:1-23; 8:1-14; 12:1, etc.).
On this topic Theodore W. writes:
“It depends on personal attitude toward that sin. If one is struggling, and is humble repenting and praying to God for help, they are in the process of growth in their spiritual life. If they care nothing about sin and God, doing what they please, having NO remorse, then there is a good chance they are in eternal trouble.” Theodore W.
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FEEDBACK:
“Misty asked a very good question. It is sad that so many self professing Christians don’t know the truth to her question. Looking to the Scriptural truth of God’s Word we find all the answers. Thank you brother Todd for all the Scriptures to back up your answer~! PRAISE GOD!” Darlene T.
“We have to keep our eyes on Jesus, and have faith that He will guide us in all things, and that He will give us strength to say no to the devil and his temptations. Thank you, brother, for answering me with gentleness and in truth. God bless you, and all others on this post!” Misty L.
“Amen, it’s such a joy to know that when we accepted the finished work of the cross, we’re no longer slaves to sin, that means we can say no!! and by the power of the holy spirit, he’s provided a way of escape, when we’re being tamped or struggling.” Paula W.
“1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. ( I have met people who tell me they don’t sin, and they go to church and never have been born again, and you can discern that when you talk to them, there is no renewing of their minds, no spiritual words coming from spiritual thoughts.” Diane V.
Support | STORE | Podcasts | Christology | Be Ready in the Morning [podcast] | The Sure Mercies of David [podcast] | That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached [podcast] | At His Feet | Modern Church | Peace with God



Abiding
The Cross Imperative [podcast]

The cross is not about self effort but rather self denial.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Dear LORD Jesus, please take all of me. Have Your way in this life.
“not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42
The cross, the blood of Christ’s cross is what He commanded we take up daily in order to follow Him (Colossians 1:20; Luke 9:23-24). The divine economy is a cross economy and that is the only way one can truly walk with the LORD, pleasing Him in all things. Pouring over the words of 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 is an imperative. Also reading Romans 6 each morning this week, prayerfully. Memorize Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14. John 3:30 and Colossians 3:3.
You have to die if Jesus is going to reign in your life (Romans 6).
Most men pretending to represent Christ are so busy telling people how wonderful they are that they don’t have time to preach that Jesus is the only “Wonderful” One and that we are “desperately wicked” without Christ (Isaiah 9:6; Jeremiah 9:17; John 15:5; Romans 3; 7:17, 24, etc.). The few true servants of Christ are known in that they preach the original Gospel of Christ which begins with us repenting, believing upon Christ, and then abiding, remaining in Him by denying self, taking up the cross daily and following the King (Luke 9:23-24; 13:3; John 15, etc).
Remember how Saul served God partially, didn’t count Him important enough to meticulously do His will, exactly how the LORD instructed him? Read 1 Samuel 15. Saul is ousted and so shall every half-baked fake “Christian” who makes excuses for their sins of ommission and commission – because they have not truly repented, flattened themselves before the Almighty. As was the case with Saul, so shall the LORD declare to all rebels – “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” and Hell awaits (Matthew 25:41).
“So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33
Anyone who is not walking the way Christ mandated, the crucified life, is in rebellion.
“And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23
Saul partially obeyed God and the LORD calls this unrepentant fake offering rebellion, sin, witchcraft, stubborness, iniquity, idolatry. Like Cain, Saul and his half truth partial offering to God were rejected.
Jesus says that to follow Him….
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24
Christ mandates your death and His reigning life in you.
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
“Until I embraced the cross, I had no lasting victory! No seed-bearing fruit, like clouds without rain, all promise but dry bones within. Christ will only indwell a vessel emptied of self and only he can give complete salvation to overcome all sin to be enjoyed at the marriage supper of the LAMB. Til then we press in abiding in Jesus, so that he may work in us his great salvation. (John 15; Rom 6; Php. 2; Col. 3; etc.) I die -> He raises me up.” Jon Crane
It seems that some among us have more faith, more confidence in themselves sinning than they do in God being able to forgive and establish them in His righteousness to overcome all sin. Jesus asks, “WHERE is your faith?” (Luke 8:25). It’s time to re-turn to the LORD, afresh, and to learn to apply the cross.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Recently I saw a clip of a pastor saying that the #1 reason God hates sin is because He loves us and sin separates us from Him. While these things are true, what is missing?
Of holiness, one writer profoundly notes:
“Holiness speaks more to nature than it does conduct. Good conduct is the spontaneous byproduct of the new nature of the new creation man through the cross and death to the old nature. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17-18). To preach holiness as conduct without the new nature through the cross understanding is legalism. Holiness is actually derived from ‘wholeness’ meaning the thorough transformation of the whole tripartite man (1 Thess. 5:23). So many of these ‘holiness’ preachers are preaching nothing but conduct under law. Law arouses sinful passions and causes sin to increase and was given in order to provoke transgressions (Rom. 7:5; 5:20; Gal. 3:20). They are enemies of the cross!”
#1 reason God hates sin – is not because He loves you…. it’s Because He is holy! (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8; 1 Peter 1:15-16). And yes He loves His people also. It’s time to let Jesus reign in all things and cease making everything about us. HE is first.
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. … We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:9-10, 19
Does sin separate one – anyone – from God? Yes. Did God cease to be holy? No.
“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE SEPARATED BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2
“Death” means separation.
“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:22-23
How do we know if we or others are truly “Christ’s”?
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24
Interesting how we never hear verses, divine mandates – essentials, imperatives – such as the scriptural truth below:
“Awake to righteousness, and sin NOT…” 1 Corinthians 15:34
There are a few ministries which declare “stop all sinning,” etc.. Yet how?
How can we possibly preach holiness, something nearly no pastor does today…. and not be preaching the cross, the crucified life as the only answer?
Yes God mandates, requires, and fully expects each of His people to “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). Again, how? The crucified life.
The cross and nothing else is the LORD’s solution to overcoming sin. It’s only when God Himself is raising us upward out of the state of death and burial that victory is transpiring in our lives. Saying we are sinless perfection, praying, reading the Bible, going to church, or fellowshipping with other saints, etc. is not the answer. These are all important and yet the cross is the answer to being right with our God. Nothing else is the answer, nothing is the remedy for sin but the cross of Christ and the one He commanded us to take up (Matthew 16:24-25). There is no other divine prescription for victory over sin but the cross. | Sinless Perfectionism Rebuked
Any man pretending to be a representative of Christ and not regularly preaching the crucified life, is a false teacher (Philippians 3:18-19; Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14, etc.). Such a man is not teaching the original Gospel and so is teaching “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6-9).
Make Romans 6 your spiritual meat each morning this week. Read it prayerfully, asking God to teach you His ways.
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4
YOUR PRAYER: Holy Father, I here and now repent of my wicked sin, my rebellion, my unbelief, not trusting You, self-idolatry, and spiritual adultery. Please wash and cleanse me now dear LORD. Fill me with Your Holy Ghost and use me Jesus in this last hour. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Cross Saturation 101 – Get Saturated Here |
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Abiding
Overcoming the Antichrists Among You [podcast]

Anti as in antichrist means in place of: It’s the “spirit of antichrist” working through Satan’s false ministers that robs the glory from Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:12-15; Colossians 1:18; 2:8-10, 18-19; 1 John 4:1-3, etc.).
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” 1 John 2:18
“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:22
“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:3
“Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” 1 John 2:18-19
anti – a. Against, opposed to. b. Before, predating. c. Usurping, in place of.
“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” 2 John 1:7
We know when “that spirit of antichrist” is working through a rebel when he speaks contrary to God’s Word (John 8:47; 1 John 4:3). “That spirit of antichrist” – anti (in place of) Christ is anything that contradicts His what God’s Word says, working to subvert divinely stated truth while posing as Christ’s minister (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).
OBSERVATION: Jesus, the prophets, and Christ’s apostles never sought to change or reform the false leaders. They rebuked and exposed them and went about the Father’s kingdom business. See Jeremiah 23; Ezekiel 34; Matthew 15:14; 23; Acts; 2 Peter 2; Jude 1. There was the hope of the false leader repenting yet only after being rebuked (Titus 1:13).
It’s a futile endeavor, a waste of the precious resources of our time and energy.
“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Matthew 15:14
More on Antichrists
Overcoming the Beast Within [podcast] | Support | STORE | Podcasts | Light of the World | Evangelism | Jesus, Light of the Word | Compassion in Light of Christ’s Soon Return | Striving Together for the Faith of the Gospel [podcast] | Prepared to be Used of God | The Return of Christ


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