"Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
Texts like these are not to be explained away or overlooked. They are part of God's Holy Word, just as much as "God is love." And if one class of texts is to be twisted or turned away from, why not another? Let us look both in the face, and let us believe them both, whatever difficulty we may find in reconciling them.
Our first duty is to believe, not to reconcile. There are many things which in this life we shall not be able to reconcile, but there is nothing in the Bible which we need to shrink from believing.
"For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt" (Job 11:12).
6. PREDESTINATION AND FOREKNOWLEDGE
"Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11).
It is of some importance that we should settle the real nature of these two things, predestination and foreknowledge, to ascertain which of the two is first. The question is, Does God fix a thing simply because He foreknows it, or does He foreknow it because He has fixed it? There are vague ideas in man's mind at these points. It is well to know the truth with distinctness. I answer, Predestination must be the foundation of foreknowledge. God foreknows everything that takes place because He has fixed it. In proof:
1. The opposite of this is an impossibility. To fix a thing is to make that thing certain to come to pass, which, but for the fixing would not