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with good pleasure. They serve to indicate the fact that God selects a
certain number of the human race and places them in a special relation
to Himself. Sometimes they include the idea of a call to a certain
privilege, or of the call to salvation; but it is a mistake to think,
as some do, that this exhausts their meaning. It is perfectly evident
that they generally refer to a prior and eternal election, Rom. 9:11;
11:5; Eph. 1:4; II Thess. 2:13.

3. THE GREEK WORDS proorizein AND proorismos. These words always refer
to absolute predestination. In distinction from the other words, they
really require a complement. The question naturally arises,
Foreordained unto what? The words always refer to the foreordination of
man to a certain end, and from the Bible it is evident that the end may
be either good or bad, Acts 4:28; Eph. 1:5. However, the end to which
they refer is not necessarily the final end, but is even more
frequently some end in time, which is in turn a means to the final end,
Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29; I Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5,11.

4. THE GREEK WORDS protithenai AND prothesis. In these words attention

is directed to the fact that God sets before Him a definite plan to
which He steadfastly adheres. They clearly refer to God's purpose of
predestinating men unto salvation in Rom. 8:29; 9:11; Eph. 1:9,11; II
Tim. 1:9.

C. THE AUTHOR AND OBJECTS OF PREDESTINATION

1. THE AUTHOR. The decree of predestination is undoubtedly in all its

parts the concurrent act of the three persons in the Trinity, who are
one in their counsel and will. But in the economy of salvation, as it
is revealed in Scripture, the sovereign act of predestination is more
particularly attributed to the Father, John 17:6,9; Rom. 8:29; Eph.
1:4; I Pet. 1:2.

2. THE OBJECTS OF PREDESTINATION. In distinction from the decree of God

in general, predestination has reference to God's rational creatures
only. Most frequently it refers to fallen men. Yet it is also employed
in a wider sense, and we use it in the more inclusive sense here, in
order to embrace all the objects of predestination. It includes all
God's rational creatures, that is:

a. All men, both good and evil. These are included not merely as
groups, but as individuals, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29,30; 9:11-13; Eph.
1:5,11.

b. The angels, both good and evil. The Bible speaks not only of holy
angels, Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26, and of wicked angels, which kept not
their first estate, II Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; but also makes explicit
mention of elect angels, I Tim. 5:21, thereby implying that there were
also non-elect angels. The question naturally arises, How are we to
conceive of the predestination of angels? According to some it simply
means that God determined in general that the angels which remained
holy would be confirmed in a state of bliss, while the others would be
lost. But this is not at all in harmony with the Scriptural idea of
predestination. It rather means that God decreed, for reasons
sufficient unto Himself, to give some angels, in addition to the grace
with which they were endowed by creation and which included ample power
to remain holy, a special grace of perseverance; and to withhold this
from others. There are points of difference between the predestination
of men and that of the angels: (1) While the predestination of men may
be conceived of as infralapsarian, the predestination of the angels can
only be understood as supralapsarian. God did not choose a certain
number out of the fallen mass of angels. (2) The angels were not
elected or predestined in Christ as Mediator, but in Him as Head, that
is, to stand in a ministerial relation to Him.

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