Double Predestination, Part 2

When speaking about double predestination, there are different views to consider.  One view in my estimation is frightening.  It is called the “Equal Ultimacy View.” 

This view bases predestination on the concept of “symmetry.” It tries to see a complete balance between election and reprobation. The key teaching behind this view is this:  Just as God personally intervenes in the lives of the elect to create faith within their hearts so as to enable them to trust in Christ for salvation, so also does God equally intervene in the lives of the non-elect to create unbelief in their hearts so they are forcibly not able to trust in Jesus for salvation.

This view frightens me! You may recognize this view if you’re up on your theology as “Hyper-Calvinism.”  Perhaps, a better rendering would be “Anti-Calvinism.”  Though Calvinism has its own view of Double Predestination, it is not the Equal Ultimacy View, which actually was condemned at the Second Council of Orange in 529 B.C.  

The Equal Ultimacy View or Hyper-Calvinism is what causes many people to see predestination as a horrible concept. This may well be what causes many pastors to not even want to address its teachings to their people.  Although I am a strong believer in predestination and yes, “double predestination,” the Equal Ultimacy View is not what I have come to understand from the Word of God.

However, to be fair to those who hold to this view, they arrive at their teaching from the statements concerning God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. More to come regarding this later.

God’s decrees may be classified into two categories:  Positive and Negative. Positive has to do with God’s active intervention in the hearts of the elect to create faith to trust in Christ.  Negative has to do with God passing over or leaving the non-elect alone.   Notice the words, “passing over,” or “leaving alone,” the non-elect.  These are key words purposefully chosen to explain how God in a Biblical manner deals with the non-elect.

End of Part 2