WARNING: Why Most Christians Will NOT Survive the Tribulation
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Romans 9G 5:16, my brothers and sisters, there is a doctrine in this book right here in black and white that people hate.
A doctrine that cuts against the grain of human pride and self- worship. A doctrine that doesn’t just offend our intellect, it offends our very flesh. It’s not the doctrine of hell. Because even the ungodly will admit that justice demands punishment. It’s not the doctrine of the Trinity. Because most will just ignore what they can’t understand. No.
The most hated doctrine in the Bible is the doctrine of predestination. Why? Because predestination tells us that God is sovereign and we are not. that he chooses and we don’t get to vote. That salvation is by grace, not grit. Let me walk you through why this doctrine is so offensive to the flesh and yet why it is so glorious to the redeemed.
Predestination is not merely a theological concept tucked away in academic seminaries. It is a direct soulpiercing truth that exalts the sovereignty of God and humbles the pride of man. It strikes at the very core of our self-perception. We want to believe that we are the captain of our salvation. That somehow in our wisdom or morality, we reached up to God and he responded.
But predestination says otherwise. It declares that long before we ever took a breath, long before the foundation of the world, God chose us not based on our merit, our future faith, or our good intentions, but according to the counsel of his own will. And that truth brings God to the highest place and man to his knees. This doctrine exposes one of the deepest idols of the human heart, the desire for self- glory.
We want to be able to look at our salvation and say, “I made the right choice.” But predestination removes the possibility of boasting. It says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead men don’t choose. Dead men don’t reach. Dead men don’t respond unless life is first breathed into them. So when God saves, he doesn’t merely offer a choice and wait.
He raises the dead. He opens blind eyes. He takes hearts of stone and makes them hearts of flesh. That’s not a partnership. That’s a resurrection. Our flesh wants a gospel where we play a part, where we contribute something, even if it’s just the decision to say yes. But predestination says that even our willingness to believe is a gift from God.
As Paul writes in Philippians, it has been granted to you not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. If faith is granted, if belief is a gift, then we cannot boast in it. And that leaves the prideful man outraged because predestination removes the mirror and points us to the throne. People say, “Well, that doesn’t seem fair.
” But fairness would have sent us all to hell. Grace isn’t fair. It’s better than fair. Predestination is not God being unjust. It’s God being merciful to whom he wills. It’s God reserving the right to show compassion where he pleases. And it is only offensive to those who believe they deserve a say in the matter. But the believer, the one who truly understands his own depravity, hears the doctrine of predestination and weeps, not in anger, but in awe, because he knows that left to himself, he would have never chosen God. So when we talk about
