How are predestination and election connected with foreknowledge?

Most assuredly. In 1 Peter 1:2 we read, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Election, then, is distinct from foreknowledge, though based upon it. God's election or choice is not a blind, fatalistic casting of the lot. That is a purely heathen conception. There is some such legend in connection with Buddha. When men were created it is said that he cast a lot saying, "These to heaven, and I care not; these to hell and I care not." But our God and Father does not act like this. He chooses in the full light of His foreknowledge. Hence no sinner, who ever really wants to be saved, finds the door shut against him because he is not one of the elect. His very desire is the fruit of the Spirit's work. And God's choice, as in the case of Esau and Jacob, is always justified by results. (Compare Rom. 9:12-13 with Mal. 1:2-3).

First, this election is not merely arbitrary, as though God was choosing one to be blessed, another to be cursed, without proper knowledge of all the issues involved. For it is 'according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.' Election is not merely foreknowledge, but it is consistent with the fact of God's foreknowledge. Does this not involve His previous knowledge of the entire future, of the persons so chosen, and of everything concerning them? We have no such knowledge, and we must give Him credit for a wisdom and love that has taken into full consideration all of these things beforehand, so that there is no possibility of mistake. It is not therefore any matter of heartless ignoring of those who are not among the elect. For the message of Divine grace is sent in good faith to all mankind: '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.' John 3:16. There is no right reason why every soul under Heaven should not repent and believe the Gospel. One cannot dare to say that because he was not one of the elect, therefore he could not repent: for the real fact is, not that men could not repent, but that they would not. Consider Matthew 23:27.

God's choice of them — and of us, for both Jew and Gentile come into the same Christian blessings on the same ground, as Paul's epistles show — was characterized by His foreknowledge as Father. What a comfort this is! How far removed it is from the blind fate which is supposed by some to preside over human destiny. God's election is never capricious and the idea of a sinner earnestly desiring salvation, and yet prevented by an adverse decree, is a nightmare of human reason and not Scripture. God chooses, knowing the end from the beginning, and therefore His choice is always right and justifies itself in its results.

If however, election specially emphasizes the blessedness of being personally chosen of God, predestination emphasizes rather the side of the blessing for which the person is destined. The Greek word 'proorizo' is usually translated 'predestine,' but also 'determined before' in Acts 4:28, and ordained before' in 1 Corinthians 2:7. The New Translation uses the expression 'marked out beforehand.' Romans 8:29 has a close connection with what Peter says of election: 'For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.'

Again, it was not merely an arbitrary predestining of one for blessing, another for cursing: rather it was 'whom he did foreknow' that He marked out to be conformed to the image of His Son. With full previous knowledge of the individual, and certainly therefore of everything concerning him, the whole future taken into consideration, as only a Sovereign God can do, He marked him out beforehand for this unspeakably blessed dignity. No one can rightly claim that because he was not marked out for this, therefore it was impossible for him to be saved; for it is because of his own willing rejection of God's grace that he has no part in that grace.

We have, first, foreknowledge (verse 29) mentioned as that which precedes and is to be distinguished from predestination. The Church as a whole, and the individual saints which are its members, were eternally present in Christ before the mind of God. His purpose was to multiply the vessels of His glory. He intended the impartation of His own blessed nature and happiness (so far as either can be communicated to the creature) to those whose everlasting habitation should be His own rest. He foreknew, in love eternal, the several objects of His purpose. The same will, which, in producing the material and natural creation, wrought not at hazard, but according to the knowledge of what was willed, works likewise now in redemption. God knew beforehand what worlds he intended to create. Even so has He foreknown the fashion and the stature of each several child of His love for whom His rest is prepared in Christ. But those whom He thus foreknew in the absoluteness of sovereign purpose, He also predestinated to their appointed blessing. Conformity to the image of His own Son is the destination of the foreknown objects of Divine purpose. It is not glory simply, but the exact similitude of Christ, which is the destiny, and as it were the definition of each individual saint. The pattern of this similitude was ever present with the Father in the eternal light of the Divine counsel, but the displayed realization of it by the principalities and powers in heavenly places was not until the ascension of Jesus as the first-born from the dead.

It is important to observe that the apostle does not speak of a passive or naked foreknowledge (ver. 29) as if God only saw beforehand what some would be, and do, or believe. His foreknowledge is of persons, not of their state or conduct; it is not what, but "whom" He foreknew.

It is the third point which forms the subject of the closing part of chapter 8, which omits the work in us altogether, and brings forward the security, that is to say, what God is for us; which introduces the sovereign power of God acting in grace for us - "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate." In this passage, sanctification and the whole work of the Spirit is therefore omitted (while it is fully brought out in other parts of chapter 8) and the apostle turns to God's foreknowledge, and what He is and does for them whom He foreknew. And mark, the foreknowledge here is that of persons: it is not said "what he foreknew" in them, or that, because of that, they should be predestinated; but "whom he did foreknow, he has also predestinated to be conformed."

There are five links in the golden chain of divine purpose. The first is foreknowledge, which is rooted in the very omniscience of God — rooted therefore in eternity. Next comes predestination: an act of the divine Mind, which destined those whom He foreknew to a certain glorious place long before they existed in time. From other scriptures we know that this predestination took place before the foundation of the world.

The word "predestination" is sometimes thought of as the same as election, but there is a difference. Election refers to the person being chosen, while predestination speaks of his being marked out beforehand for certain blessings, as for instance, "to sonshlp" (Eph. 1:5) and "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Ro. 8:29). Predestination to such blessing is another truth to give great joy to every believer.

προορίζω. 'To mark out beforehand, predetermine.' In Rom. 8:29-30, it forms a link in the chain that connects the foreknowledge of God in the past with the glory in the future. Election is God's choice of individuals; predestination is to a blessing, as in Eph. 1:5, 11, believers are predestinated to the adoption of sons, according to the purpose of God. Predestination does not, as insisted on by some, imply reprobation of some to wrath. God "will have [or desires] all men to be saved," 1 Tim. 2:4; but to ensure some being saved, He predestinated, called, justified, and glorified them in His sovereign purpose.