What is the fatalist view of predestination?
The fatalist view claims God has already predetermined each person’s eternal destiny: if someone is meant for heaven, they will get there; if predestined for hell, nothing can change it. It concludes people need not worry or act. That is not what the word predestination is talking about.
Les explains that this persuasion is held by people around us, whom he calls fatalists or whatever. Their idea is: God is already predetermined that if I’m supposed to go to heaven, I’ll get there, and if I’m predestined to go to hell, there’s nothing I can do about it; I’ll be going there, so don’t worry about it. Les warns that this is not what the word predestination is talking about. In his classes over the years, he has had people see what believers are predestined to, within the verse 28 context, where those who love God are called according to His purpose, and whom He foreknew He also predestinated. The surrounding context also says all things work together for good to them that love God.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
More Questions
Is predestination the idea that God already fixed whether I go to heaven or hell and nothing I do matters?
Predestination is not the fatalistic idea that God has already predetermined whether a person goes to heaven or hell so that there is nothing they can do about it.