Quotes: Predestination
c. AD 56 — Paul the Apostle
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”
Significance: Predestination is rooted in God’s eternal choice prior to creation.
c. AD 56 — Paul the Apostle
“Those whom He predestined He also called.”
Significance: Predestination is an unbreakable chain of God’s saving purpose.
c. AD 96 — Clement of Rome
“We are called according to His purpose, not by our own wisdom or works.”
Significance: God’s purpose, not human initiative, determines the call.
AD 177 — Irenaeus of Lyons
“God predestines that which He foreordains, and His foreordination stands firm.”
Significance: God’s predestining will is unchangeable and sovereign.
AD 325 — Athanasius of Alexandria
“The Father has predestined that those in the Son should be adopted.”
Significance: Predestination is tied to union with Christ.
AD 386 — Augustine of Hippo
“They are chosen not because they believe, but that they may believe.”
Significance: Faith is the result, not the cause, of predestination.
AD 418 — Augustine of Hippo
“God’s grace does not find men fit to be elected, but makes them so.”
Significance: Predestination transforms the unworthy by grace alone.
AD 529 — Council of Orange
“No one comes to faith unless he is drawn by the gift of God’s predestination.”
Significance: Predestination precedes and enables faith.
AD 1095 — Anselm of Canterbury
“Those whom the Father has predestined to life will infallibly come to the Son.”
Significance: Predestination guarantees the believer’s coming to Christ.
AD 1274 — Thomas Aquinas
“Predestination is the ordering of some persons to eternal life by God’s eternal decree.”
Significance: Predestination is God’s eternal plan directing individuals to salvation.
AD 1521 — Martin Luther
“Our salvation is predestined by God’s will, not by our own choosing.”
Significance: Human will does not initiate salvation; God’s will does.
AD 1536 — John Calvin
“By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which He determined what He willed to become of each man.”
Significance: Predestination is God’s sovereign determination of human destiny.
AD 1618 — Synod of Dort
“Election is God’s unchangeable purpose by which He chose a definite number of persons to salvation.”
Significance: Predestination is definite, personal, and unalterable.
AD 1654 — Blaise Pascal
“Grace is given to some and withheld from others according to God’s good pleasure.”
Significance: Predestination rests in God’s sovereign freedom.
AD 1678 — John Bunyan
“The elect are chosen in Christ before the world began, and shall be brought to Him in time.”
Significance: Predestination spans eternity past to eternity future.
AD 1741 — Jonathan Edwards
“God’s decree of election is the foundation of all His works of grace."
Significance: Predestination undergirds every aspect of salvation.
AD 1765 — John Wesley
“God’s predestination is His foreknowledge of those who will believe.”
Significance: Wesley affirms predestination but grounds it in foreknowledge, not decree.
AD 1856 — Charles Spurgeon
“I believe in the doctrine of election because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him.”
Significance: Predestination magnifies God’s initiating grace.
AD 1904 — B.B. Warfield
“Predestination is but the determination of God’s eternal purpose in the salvation of His people.”
Significance: Predestination expresses God’s eternal, purposeful will.
AD 2009 — John Piper
“God’s predestination is not based on foreseen faith but creates the faith it requires.”
Significance: Predestination is the cause, not the consequence, of saving belief.
See also: Bible verses
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