Rethinking Predestination: What Election Really Means for God's People and the World

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2019

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Unpacking one of the most debated theological doctrines in church history, Mike Erre flies solo on this episode to dive deep into the Bible’s use of “election” and “predestination” language. Drawing from theologians like N.T. Wright, Tim Gombis, and Scott McKnight, he outlines five key observations that debunk the idea of God arbitrarily choosing individuals for heaven or hell. Instead, Mike reframes election as a communal, missional, and deeply affectionate act from God—a calling to serve rather than a stamp of superiority.

Listeners looking to make sense of scriptural predestination and how it intersects with mission, grace, and the nature of God’s people will discover a thoughtful, accessible, and pastoral perspective that avoids divisiveness while remaining grounded in biblical scholarship.

Key Takeaways:
• God's Election Language Reflects Love, Not Exclusion – Election in the Bible is used to describe God's deep affection for His people, not to condemn others.
• Predestination Is Missional, Not Privileged – God's calling always points outward: His people are blessed to be a blessing, elected for service and not personal privilege.
• Scripture Speaks to Communities, Not Individual Fates – Most election language refers to Israel and the church as corporate bodies, not individuals.
• Romans 9 and Hardening Explained – Paul's metaphors of vessels and hardening don't teach double predestination but reflect God's ongoing mission to reach the nations.
• Election Is Counterintuitive – God routinely chooses the unlikely to fulfill His purposes, turning human expectations upside down.

Notable Quotes:
• "Election talk is God’s love language." – Tim Gombis, quoted by Mike Erre
• “You are blessed to be a blessing.” – Reframing Genesis 12’s call to Abraham
• “It’s not the elect and non-elect. It’s the elect and those to whom the elect are sent.”

Resources Mentioned:
• Ephesians 1 – Read Here
• Romans 9–11 – Read Here
• N.T. Wright – Theologian and scholar on Scripture and early Christianity
• Tim Gombis – Author of The Drama of Ephesians & host of the Faith Improvised podcast
• Scott McKnight – Author of “Reading Romans Backwards”

Join us in rethinking what it means to be chosen by God as we resist reductive theology and embrace the full picture of Scripture’s invitation to participate in God's global mission. Subscribe, leave a review, and follow Voxology Podcast to keep the conversation going.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV
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Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify
Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon
The Voxology Spotify channel: Voxology Radio

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford
Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	That language describes their role in the world.
0:09.2	They were to be bearers of good news.
0:12.5	So really, instead of elect and non-elect, what you have in the Bible is the elect, and
0:19.0	then those to whom the elect are sent.
0:21.6	Hey everybody, Mike here.
0:30.6	Welcome to the show.
0:31.6	So glad you're tuning in.
0:33.6	Flying solo today, neither my son Seth nor Kevin number two were available this morning.
0:41.0	And so I've been saving up a question that I got asked several months ago.
0:46.5	I'd done an interview on Sky, Jatani's podcast, The Holy Post, on the idea of predestination.
0:53.3	Got several emails from that. And,
0:56.7	and so what I wanted to do today was to just talk about predestination. The, the biggest question
1:04.1	is, I got, hey, Mike, what's your view on predestination? And I think that this is a fairly significant topic. We talked about convictions
1:15.7	and beliefs and opinions last time. This for sure is not a conviction level issue. In other words,
1:21.5	I'm not going to break fellowship with people with whom I disagree about how this works. For me, this is belief level. I used to
1:29.9	come, I used to believe in the Calvinistic understanding of predestination. I've come to see that I think
1:37.7	that is really tragically wrong, but I know many Jesus loving good people who hold it. So,
1:46.3	and I'm certainly not the smartest cat in the room.
2:02.6	So it is with a bit of humility, but always with some enthusiasm that I want to present you kind of five different ways or five different thoughts about how scripture uses predestination or what I'm going to refer to as election language. So election language talks about God's choosing as people. And there are all
2:10.0	kinds of different words. Predestination is one of the concepts and words used, but you have
2:14.8	choosing language and adopting language. And you have, so election for me is a slightly bigger category than just the predestination
2:25.6	category.
	...

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