Predestination = letting someone else run you life...
We saw predestination in the Soviet Union where people knew they were in for misery and they would accept misery as inevitable.
Predestination or the belife in it is a killer of motivation as it creates an attitude of “Why Bother”.
Predestination = Undeserved love and forethought to folks who are undeserving of anything.
It is best summed up in the picture of Roman adoption. A rich Roman farmer has had no children yet wants to pass on the legacy of his name. He would take a slaves child, give it His name and the inheritance of the entire farm before the child even knows it. The child will be lord and master of the farm and has not the foggiest idea that this will be so.
There is nothing the child does to earn it, there is nothing the child even knows to appropriate it. The Adoption is done without the child being a part of it.
It is a wonderful thing. Yet modern man says it is not fair and that everyone should be given everything.
Instead God is just to give modern man his just deserts and answer Him in what is truly fair. That he spurned the evidence of Himself in Creation and the free gift of His Salvation to anyone who believes upon Christ atonement. This is what is fair to all.
Fourteen generations ago my ancestors got off the Mayflower carrying their Geneva Bibles and believing in predestination.
You did not see predestination in the old Soviet Union. You saw resignation. Fourteen generations of believing in predestination, not one generation or family member on welfare, about seven ancestors who fought in the American Revolution one of whom had his head blown off at the Battle of Bennington, an uncle who clawed his way to the top of Mount Suribachi as a USMC linesmen and watched them raise the flag twice. Myself a retired USAF intelligence officer who was in Germany when the wall came down plus a BA, an MA, an MDiv, and a DMin which all required a great deal of motivation and you say belief in predestination is “a killer of motivation” as it creates an attitude of “Why Bother.”
Predestination has enabled me to be a risk taker and put my life on the line for freedom because I have absolute confidence and trust that I belong to my faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not a hair on my head can fall without the will of my Father in Heaven.