I would like to begin this article by stating that without reservation I am a Reformed, Scripture
believing child of God.

 I am a child of God whom God through Jesus Christ has "chosen to everlasting life" and that
graciously.  I am a child of God whom God has graciously chosen to everlasting life, and that apart from
any merit or worth of my own whatsoever.  I did not deserve that.  I simply am that by the grace of my God.

 And as I am that, I am a Scripture believing child of God.  I do not tamper with the Scriptures by
adding to them or subtracting from them as is so often done today.  God forbid that I should do that.

 And as I am that, I am a Reformed Scripture believing child of God.  By that I mean that I stand in
the heritage of the Reformed faith as that Reformed faith has been set forth and preserved for us in our
beautiful confessions.  I am not ashamed to be Reformed.  It is simply a fact that there are many today who
are ashamed to be Reformed.  But I am not.  I stand upon the truth of the Word of God as that truth is set
forth in our Reformed Confessions.

 Now, you may say to yourself:  why is this writer saying all of this?  Why does he have to point out
to us that he is a Reformed Scripture believing child of God?  Why?  The answer to those questions,
esteemed reader, is this.  I have emphasized that because I want to assure you that what I have to say in this
article is based upon Scripture and is based upon our Reformed Confessions.  I do not come to you with my
own words.  But rather, I come to you with what Scripture and our confessions have to say.  But most of all,
I have emphasized that to impress upon you that what I have to say in this article I believe.

 What is that I believe?  I believe in Scriptural and confessional truth of predestination, and
predestination as that consists in God's sovereign decree of election and reprobation.  I believe in the truth
of election.  But I also believe in the truth of reprobation.  Yes, reprobation also.  For you understand,
esteemed reader, that to deny reprobation is to deny election.  And to deny election is to deny
predestination.  And to deny predestination is to deny what Scripture and what our confessions say.

 I believe in predestination.  To understand what I mean by that I would ask you to listen with me to
our confessions.  What do our confessions have to say about predestination?  In the first place we read in
our Belgic or Netherlands Confession in Article XVI the following:

 We believe that all the posterity of Adam being thus fallen into perdition and ruin, by the sin of our first parents,
God did then manifest Himself such as He is; that is to say, merciful and just:  merciful since he delivers and preserves
from this perdition all, whom He, in His eternal and unchangeable counsel of mere goodness, hath elected in Christ
Jesus our Lord, without respect to their works:  just, in leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved
themselves.

 Predestination consists in this, that God "delivers and preserves from this perdition all whom He,
in His eternal and unchangeable counsel of mere goodness hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord."  And too,
that it consists in this that God leaves "others in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved
themselves."  I believe what our Belgic Confession says.

 I also believe what our Canons of Dordt have to say.  In Head I, Article 6 we read:

 That some receive the gift of faith from God, and others do not receive it proceeds from God's eternal decree,
"For known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" , Acts 15:18.  "Who worketh all things after the
counsel of His will," Eph. 1:11.  According to which decree he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however
obstinate and inclines them to believe, while he leaves the non-elect in his just judgment to their own wickedness and
obduracy.  And herein is especially displayed the profound, the merciful, and at the same time the righteous
discrimination between men, equally involved in ruin; or that decree of election and reprobation, revealed in the Word of
God, which though men of perverse, impure, and unstable minds wrest to their own destruction, yet to holy and pious
souls affords unspeakable consolation.

 Or again, consider, if you will, what our Reformed fathers have to say in Article 15 of that same
Head of Doctrine.

 What peculiarly tends to illustrate and recommend to us the eternal and unmerited grace of
election, is the express testimony of sacred Scripture, that not all, but some only are elected, while others
are passed by in the eternal decree; whom God, out of His sovereign, most just, irreprehensible and
unchangeable good pleasure, hath decreed to leave in the common misery into which they have willfully
plunged themselves, and not to bestow upon them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but permitting
them in his just judgment to follow their own ways, at last for the declaration of his justice, to condemn and
perish them forever, not only on account of their unbelief, but also for all their other sins.  And this is the
decree of reprobation which by no means makes God the author of sin (the very thought of which is
blasphemy), but declares him to be an awful, irreprehensible, and righteous judge and avenger thereof.

 Strong language is it not?  Indeed it is.  Predestination, our Reformed fathers say consists in this,
that God, in His decree "graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to
believe, while He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy."  I, A, 6
Election and reprobation (predestination) our Reformed fathers say consists in this, "that not all, but some
only are elected, while other are passed by in the eternal decree . . .to condemn and perish them forever, not
only on account of their unbelief, but also for all their other sins." I, A, 15.  Strong Language!  Language
which causes many would be "Reformed" theologians to become filled with disdain and hatred at what our
Reformed fathers say.  Oh, yes, there are many would be "Reformed" theologians who hate what our
Reformed fathers say in our Canons of Dordt.

 But I do not.  And neither may any Scripture believing child of God because what our Reformed
fathers say in our Canons of Dordt is Scriptural.  Their explanation of the truth of predestination is
Scriptural.  In this connection, I call your attention to one very profound passage of Scripture.  I refer
specifically to Romans 9:10-13.  "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac:  For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; It was said unto her, The
elder shall serve the younger.  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."  If you want to
know what predestination is, that is Scripture's, no, God's explanation of predestination.  God's explanation
of predestination is so very plain and easy to understand.  These words are so plain that even our little
children can understand them.  Learned would be "Reformed" theologians cannot.  But I assure you, our
little children can.  What our Reformed father shave to say in our Canons of Dordt is Scriptural.

 Our Heidelberg Catechism also says much with respect to the truth of predestination.  That this is
true is abundantly evident from Lord's Day XXI, question and answer 54.  There we read:

 What believest thou concerning the "holy catholic church" of Christ?  That the Son of God from the beginning
to the end of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to himself  by his Spirit and word, out of the whole human race,
a church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in true faith, and that I am and forever shall remain a living member thereof.

 Now, the question is:  where in this question and answer is the truth of predestination, including
both election and reprobation, to be found?  It is to be found in one brief, but at the same time, very
important phrase.  And that phrase is this, "chosen to everlasting life".  The Church is that body of Christ
which the Lord our God through the Son of God and by His Word and Spirit gathers unto Himself, and that
too, we must notice, "out of the whole human race from the beginning to the end of the world".  But the
point is that the church is "chosen to everlasting life".  And the emphasis, esteemed reader, falls most
emphatically upon the one word "chosen".  The Church, the body of Christ, is a "chosen" Church.  It is an
elect Church which the Lord our God has chosen sovereignly and according to His own good pleasure from
all eternity.  And that is nothing other than the truth of predestination.

 Our Reformed fathers are very Scriptural when they write what they do in this question and answer
of the Heidelberg Catechism.  They do not come with their own words, but rather they come with words that
are thoroughly based upon God's Word.  We read in Ephesians 1:3-6, "Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world . . . Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will . . ."  How
similar those words are to the words which you find in our Heidelberg Catechism.  In complete harmony
with the Scriptures our Reformed fathers in question and answer 54 of the Heidelberg Catechism teach the
truth of predestination.

 But you say:  yes, our Reformed fathers in this question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism
certainly teach the truth of election.  But where then in this question and answer of the Heidelberg
Catechism do you find the whole idea of reprobation?  The answer to that question is that our Reformed
fathers do teach the truth of reprobation.  But they do so by way of implication.  The negative implication of
Lord's Day 21 is that the Son of God from the beginning to the end of the world does not gather, and He
does not defend, and He does not preserve to himself by His Spirit and Word, out of the whole human race,
a people who have not been chosen to everlasting life.  God does not gather and preserve and defend those
who have not been chosen unto eternal life.  And that, esteemed reader, is the truth of reprobation.

 Do you believe that?  I believe that.  I believe that because our time-honored Confessions tell us
that.  But, most of all, I believe that because our God tells us that in His Word.  Before our God we must
bow.  It is my prayer that you who take the time to read this article will also bow before Him, and in so
doing, believe in the truth of predestination.