Predestination…
Again? Really?
October 10, 2025
Yes. Really.
While listening to my audio Bible online (biblehub.com), I stumbled over a translation that made me ask, “What… Again?”
In these verses, 1 Peter 2:7–8, a red light popped up in my noggin — a light that pops up whenever any translation provides a slide towards the doctrine called Predestination — with which, I hope is apparent, that I disagree.
Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. 1 Peter 2:8, NLT.
The ESV says this a little differently: …as they were destined to do.
and the NIV has it worded in similar fashion: …which is also what they were destined for.
Now the core idea of predestination is that when I was born my ultimate destiny was preset — like the “preset button” on electrical devices. So, when I popped out, I needed nothing but to find out how to press the “Enter” button on a Church computer — a church which adhered to that precept (called Calvinism).
In my experienced view, that goes against every historical event in the Old Testament and every lesson which can be derived from them. Even from the very beginning of Mankind and the particular events in the Garden of Eden, God — who I believe knew exactly what He was doing — gave Adam and Eve the power to choose (also called free will), to choose between two very different trees. Remember?
Yes. They chose badly. Yet, because of God’s provision within His long term purposes, individuals can still choose wisely.
Today you are free to choose whatever, whenever, and wherever you want. Right? You can choose to hear, and accept or reject, or even to plug your ears and eyes and go your own way. Right?
Free will. Got it?
So anyways, I decided to double check the translations.
It turns out that the Greek root of the word τίθημι (tithémi) has more about the consequences of your choices… more about where and how one chooses to place themselves in relationship to God, Jesus, and the Bible (properly, in a passive or horizontal posture) — https://biblehub.com/greek/5087.htm. So, Peter was talking about moral impropriety as opposed to moral integrity (uprightness, from the Greek, ‘histemi”).
Here is a related principle from a verse in John 3:19 (NLT):
And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. In this verse, the light relates to uprightness, while darkness relates to moral turpitude, and it indicates by using the word “loved,” that a choice is involved.
Now, going back to Peter’s letter, the very fact that a person can reject Jesus indicates again, the power of choice, that is, free will, negating anything like the notion of predestination.
If I can choose to reject, I can choose to accept. Right? Just like you can choose to agree with my viewpoint. or you can choose to consider it, or you can choose to reject it out of hand. I can choose to stand in the shadow of what the Bible calls”sin,” or I can choose to turn to the light God provides, who is Jesus who rightly claims to be not only the Light, but the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Am I making any sense or not?
Is what I am writing acceptable? Unacceptable?
Your choice.
God didn’t give us a head just to keep our ears apart. So, please choose to at least consider what I have written here.
