The Scriptures definitely teach predestination and it is also a very logical doctrine. If God is the creator of all, surely He must have planned everything that is. If not, how could the Scripture be fulfilled: all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) As the Scripture continues, this purpose is that: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. This enables God to have a family whom He can love.
God determined His elect, and their names were: written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) The timing of His choice is also stated in Ephesians 1:4: He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
I think that it is logically apparent that God would not decide to create a person without first deciding for what purpose He would do so. Otherwise we have a God who does not plan carefully. So God must say in His heart, ‘I want a person like Moses to dwell with Me forever’. He then creates the person of Moses, having in mind the means of his salvation. God's foreknowledge implies more than His knowledge of the future. It means that from the foundation of the world He was acquainted with the character of His elect. He was for example acquainted with the friendship, the love, the trust and the worship of Moses and for this reason created him.
But why does God love some and not others? It is not because God is impressed by good works (although these should not be despised). According to Romans 9:11-13: (the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) it was said unto her . . . Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It does not seem logical to me that if two people were exactly the same, God would love one and hate the other. So I believe that there must have been something about the heart of Jacob that God loved. Since God loves good and hates evil, there must have been some innate goodness in the heart of Jacob which God placed there when He created him.
Perhaps God sees potential for goodness in the heart. As a potter sees not so much the lump of clay, but rather what can be made from it, so perhaps God sees not so much our failings before salvation, but the work of grace He can do in our hearts. And perhaps the reprobate are as clay with lumps; that will not yield to the hands of the potter; therefore God rejects them as useless. These reprobates are they of whom Stephen said: Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. (Acts 7:51)
Some think that because the elect have been predestined to salvation, salvation must depend only upon God's operation and not upon ourselves. But this does not follow logically, because there are two ways in which God can predestine: one is by supplying grace by the Holy Spirit to help us repent and believe; and the other is by creating us with a spirit that will respond to God.
Calvinists advocate that to the elect God supplies irresistible grace by the Holy Spirit, and that this type of grace is not supplied at all to the reprobate. But this seems to be contradicted by a number of Scriptures, which declare plainly that the offer of salvation is made to all, and if this is so, God must call everyone, and this involves grace. John 1:9 says: the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world; And Titus 2:11 says: the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. It is only because the Holy Spirit, through the words of Christ, illuminates all men that the command in Acts 17:30 is meaningful: God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
But most reject God's call to repent, by resisting the Holy Spirit according to Stephen. This is why Jesus says: many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14) So I disagree with Calvinists regarding irresistible grace. I believe that God created the elect with wills that will not resist His grace and the reprobate with wills that will resist His grace. The elect thus cooperate with God whilst the reprobate do not. God knows who are amongst the elect, but we do not. These are those who will of their own free will respond favourably to God. Therefore we must use our free will to respond to God in order to find ourselves a place amongst the elect. The fact that God knows what choice we will make does not impair our freedom to make that choice.
But whilst the elect cooperate with God they should not be under any delusion that they have saved themselves. As Paul tells the Ephesians: you . . . were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1) And according to Romans 3:11: There is none that seeketh after God. But God gave us grace by drawing us to Christ, who said: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. (John 6:44) So it is not so much that we sought God, but that He sought us first. And when we did seek God we were merely responding to His call. So those that are saved can love God with gratitude for having predestined them to salvation.
That God gives us grace to seek Him does not overrule free will any more than a husband overrules his bride's free will when he woos her. God even says to us: thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name . . . For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. (Isaiah 54:5,6)
We should not worry that perhaps we are not in the elect because Jesus said: him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37) Therefore if we desire to come to Jesus, we will be able to.
If God knows who are among the elect before He creates them, it follows logically that He knows who will be among the damned before He creates them. They are evil from their birth, not like simply the weak and foolish of whom it is written: God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. (Ecclesiastes 7:29) But who are the damned and why does God allow them to be born? They are not men, as it says God has made man upright. They look like men, as tares look like wheat, but the damned are demons, who imitate men. Men who are weak and sinful perish without their reward, but demons go to the fire.
It is to reveal His judgement that they are created: The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4) Note that this is not because God has pleasure in their judgement. God says: As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 33:11) But while the death of the wicked does not please God, it instructs man.
Man learns of the power of God to overcome the wicked while the wicked live, and also he learns of the judgement of God when they die, and so the righteous is warned: What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called. (Romans 9:22-24)
Which aspects of God's glory are revealed by His judgement are not stated. But these would include His power and His holiness, which the wicked have rejected.
It would also include God's love for, and therefore vengeance on behalf of, His people. God's people may be comforted to know that: it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. (2 Thessalonians 1:6) The judgement of the wicked also reveals the greatness of God's mercy to His elect.
God defends His right to create the wicked for such purposes. In Romans 9:20,21 we read: O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? The wicked will eventually cease to be, before the miseries of their final punishment, exceed their former joys. God has the right to create or not to create. He therefore has the right to create someone either for eternal life or for temporary existence. While the wicked will be punished for a time after death, this temporary punishment pales into insignificance with the eternal reward for the righteous. And it is for the instruction of those to be rewarded that the wicked are created.
Demons are not in homosexual rallies, bad though these are, but they are in positions of power where they rise to exert cruel oppression over Christians and Jews. The Muslims and Chinese are deluded and one day God will have mercy upon them for their bad deeds, but the Nazis are full of demons.
Not only does God pre-ordain our salvation, but He also preordains our work. God said to Jeremiah: Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5) God also has important work for each one of us. This work may not seem important to the world but it is important to God.
The twelve apostles did not elect themselves to the role of apostleship. Rather Jesus chose them for this work, saying unto them: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit. (John 15:16) Whatever role God has chosen us for, it is our duty to be faithful.