What does it mean for something to be foreordained?

Answer

The term “foreordained” is primarily used in the King James Version or Revised Standard Version of the Bible. It commonly translates a Greek word that means “to know beforehand.” “Foreordained” is employed in verses like Romans 8:29–30 and 1 Peter 1:20 in that context. However, the Greek word is more frequently rendered as “foreknew.”

In passages such as Ephesians 1:4–5, “foreordained” carries a deeper significance, suggesting more than mere knowledge: “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (ERV). Here, “foreordained” translates a different Greek word that signifies “predetermined” or “marked out beforehand.” Other scriptures also affirm that God not only foreknew certain things but predetermined that they would come to pass. Acts 4:28 states that God had “decided beforehand” what would occur during Jesus’ trial. Ephesians 1:11 mentions that believers were “chosen” and “predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”

When “foreordained” is used to denote God’s predetermination of events before their occurrence, we encounter the tension between human will and God’s sovereignty, as demonstrated in His predestination or election of believers. Extensive discussions have taken place on this tension, with the two primary viewpoints falling under the categories of Calvinism and Arminianism. Extreme Calvinism, or hyper-Calvinism, asserts that everything has already been decreed by God and that humans are essentially like robots fulfilling predetermined roles, making evangelism unnecessary. Conversely, extreme Arminianism places all decisions in human hands and portrays God as little more than a bystander, lacking omniscience and the ability to intervene.

Without our permission. Most Christians understand that this tension between God’s sovereignty and human will is only resolved in a supernatural combination of both positions, the truth being somewhere in the middle.

Isaiah 46:9–11 is God’s statement on the matter of things being foreordained: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ . . . What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.” Clearly, God is sovereign. If He were not, He would not be God. How does the fact that He foreordains things fit with the fact of human choice? In the end, we must be humble enough to admit that there are many things about God that are too high for us to comprehend (see Psalm 131).

What we can know for certain is that God has foreordained the way of salvation for “whosoever believes” in His Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16-18, 36;Acts 10:43). God has foreordained that believers will be adopted into His family as children of God «But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: », (John 1:12) and that He will take the responsibility of transforming us into the likeness of Jesus (Romans 8:29-30). God has foreordained that all those born again by grace through faith will spend eternity in heaven with Him (John 3:3;John 17:3;Ephesians 2:8-9). We can rest in the knowledge that we have a Father who is in charge of His universe and that His plan is perfect. “Is there injustice with God? Absolute

“Certainly not!” “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not.”, (Romans 9:14).