The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-1, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

I wasn't raised this way and I was just kind of curious about Predestination. I have heard back and forth that God had a plan. I was just curious about my family members that aren't saved, I thought, "Does God not choose them?"

Answer

I don't have time to go into the whole thing, just let me tell you this, are you a Christian? [Reply] "Yes." You're predestined. The point is this, when you saved you confirm the fact that you are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, until then you don't know. So, you call them to Christ. The Bible teaches both things: Predestination and Human Choice. "You will not come to Me that you might have life," Jesus said. "How often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her brood, but you would not, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem." So, then you have "chosen in Him, before the foundation of the world."

So, you have both doctrines; they coexist together--you leave them there. You try to harmonize them you will get into a lot of trouble. If you try to rationalize them you will find yourself under the bed saying the Greek alphabet. You can't harmonize them, you just have to teach both of them. See, it is like two opposite truths that have to coexist. It is the same thing that you have with Christ: Christ is God and man. What is He, half-God and half-man? No, He is all-God and all-man, you can't be that, but we believe He is. If somebody asks you, "Who wrote the Book of Romans?" and you say "Paul," and I say, "The Holy Spirit,"--we are both right. If somebody says, "Who lives your Christian life?" you say, "I do, I grit my teeth and beat my body into subjection and live it," somebody else says, "Not I, but Christ lives in me,"--both.

See, you have the same kind of divine tension in all doctrine, because when you reduce God to man something is left out and we can't fill in the gap, so all we know is that if we are saved it is because God has chosen us, predestinated us before the foundation of the world, and if we are not saved it is because we refuse Jesus Christ.