Dr. Walter Martin
The Riddle of Predestination
“The riddle of predestination is
insoluble at one juncture because there is an insufficiency of data. God has
revealed to us part of the solution, and part of it He has reserved to His own
knowledge. Therefore, we cannot come to a complete conclusion on all of it
because we do not have enough information.
An
insufficiency of data is not reason to call God’s judgment into question. There are lots of things that He reserves
only to His own knowledge simply because He’s a sovereign God, and He has a
right to do it. Secondly, what information He has made available to us is
always consistent with His character. He will do nothing in eternity contrary
to what He has revealed about Himself in time. He is not schizophrenic…He is
consistent.
Therefore,
in approaching the problem of predestination—recognizing that there’s an
insufficiency of data at certain points—it’s imperative to recognize that our
safest guide past that point is the revealed character of God elsewhere in the
Bible. What is His character like? His character will tell us, I think, the
answer to the riddle of predestination. The character of God has revealed in
the Old and New Testament that He is totally loving and infinitely just, and
that it is totally inconsistent with that character to predestine men to
eternal damnation or to hold them accountable to that which they cannot respond
or do not have the capacity to respond, namely, His grace. In other words, to
say to them, ‘I’ve made you this way and I am offering you salvation, but I
know you can’t respond to Me because I made you this way.’ That’s totally
opposite the character of God. He would never do this.
When Jesus wept over Jerusalem,
He said, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them
that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together,
as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!’ The clear
implication is that they could have responded to Him, but they wouldn’t. I
think, therefore, the whole character of God, in the New Testament
particularly, reveals that He earnestly desired man’s salvation and wanted
their response. It is not that man could not be saved, it’s that they willed
not to. And that, therefore, His character is such that He would never
predetermine them to eternal Hell, but that He has chosen some to eternal life
there can be no doubt. But the bases of that choice, and the reason why He made
it, is never revealed. And that’s the missing data. He chose some to life and
not others. And those He chose, He predestined for eternity and for immortality,
but He has never once in the Scriptures given an answer as to why He did it.
The basis of the choice remains locked up in the divine mind.
So when
you come across a passage such as Ephesians 1:4, ‘According as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world…’ That’s true. And when you come
across the great passages in Romans 8, ‘He predestined us in Jesus Christ…’
It’s true. But you will look in vain in the Scripture for any passage that says
He predestined anybody to Hell. It’s not there. I reject Calvin’s argument,
simply on the basis that it’s inconsistent with the character of God.
[We]
know that [God] didn’t arbitrarily predestine anybody to Hell, so there must
have been a basis for rejecting the others just as there is a basis for
choosing those that are redeemed. Since I have an insufficiency of data from
the Divine Mind on both counts, I am incapable of answering any questions about
how God did it or, for that matter, what basis He used for choice. All I know
is that it is inconsistent with His character to be capricious or arbitrary.”
This was taken from a set of Audio Lectures on CD titled Martin Under Fire. You can purchase this set at www.waltermartin.com
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