Why Does the Bible Emphasize the Importance of Spreading the Gospel If Some Are Predestined to Believe and Others Aren't?
1) Direct Answer
Because preaching is God’s ordained way to call His chosen, to witness to all, and to separate faith from unbelief. Predestination doesn’t cancel preaching—it guarantees a harvest through it.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Commanded: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). “Teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19–20).
- God’s method: “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? … faith cometh by hearing” (Romans 10:14–17). “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).
- Election responds: “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me” (John 6:37). “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).
- Assurance to preach: The Lord told Paul, “I have much people in this city” (Acts 18:10), and he kept preaching.
- Witness and separation: “This gospel … shall be preached in all the world for a witness” (Matthew 24:14). The Word is “a savour of life unto life, and … of death unto death” (2 Corinthians 2:16). “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3).
- Sowing to all: The sower scatters the seed everywhere; the good ground receives it (Matthew 13).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Election determines who will truly respond; preaching is the voice that reaches them. Without the call, the sheep don’t hear; with the call, they come.
- God foreknows the harvest, but He uses our preaching as His tool to bring it in.
- Preaching also leaves a clear witness. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay; the same gospel that saves the believer exposes the unbeliever.
- We preach because He commanded it, we love souls, and we trust God to quicken His own.
4) Reinforcing Statement
So we preach to every creature, calling to repentance and faith. The elect will hear, and all will be left without excuse. Predestination makes the mission certain—not unnecessary.