Election and predestination have a very specific application in Scripture. Those terms are applied to those who are
already children of God, but must be transformed into the likeness of Christ. See 1 John 3:1-3.
Christ desires to present unto Himself a perfect Bride (without spot or blemish), therefore He will perfect and glorify the saints before the Marriage of the Lamb at the Resurrection/Rapture.
Which means that every sinner who is genuinely saved has been elected to be perfected in Christ, and this is what God has predetermined, predestinated, and foreordained. This is also why good works have been foreordained for those who are saved (Eph 2:10).
However, the offer of salvation is to
WHOSOVER WILL believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, and God is no respecter of persons.
JOHN 3
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Rev 22:17)
All of the above verses are speaking about the elect of God, they all suggest that believers have a special gift which enables them to believe. No amount of evidence will persuade those who were not born with the gift of belief, they will all go to the grave denying Christ.
Christ said that, they will not believe even if One were to rise from the dead. So no amount of evidence will persuade one who is predestined not to believe, likewise nothing will stop one who is predestined to believe from believing. No threats of death of persecution can make them abandon their faith.
Below are just some of those scriptures which prove that predestination is a true Biblical doctrine.
How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
– Ps 65:4
The Lord has made everything for its own purpose,
Even the wicked for the day of evil.
– Prov 16:4
And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
– Mt 24:31
now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?
– Luke 18:7
So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’
Says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.
– Acts 15:17-18
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
– Romans 8:28- 30
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
– Rom 8:33
for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,
– Romans 9:11
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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
– Romans 9:15-16 (the whole chapter)
God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
– Rom 11:2
In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;
– Romans 11:5-7
but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
– 1 Cor 2:7
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,…
also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
– Ephesians 1:5,11
knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you;
– 1 Thes 1:4
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
– 2 Thes 2:13
Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
– Titus 1:1
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
– 1 Peter 1:2
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.
– Rev 13:8