Michael S. Heiser on Election & predestination
None of the stances fits without misdescribing the figure
Every listed stance was tested against the sources, and each asserts something the figure does not. The reasoning is recorded in full, and it is the content.
"Everyone saved was in fact elect but not all the elect are saved." — drmsh.com, Election, Salvation, Unbelief and Eternal Security. And: "THIS is my definition of sovereignty — God's peerless control over all free decisions."
THE POSITION
Affirms individual election unto salvation and predestination as real, while denying that foreknowledge entails predestination — God foreknows all actual and all possible futures, and 1 Samuel 23 shows him foreknowing things that never happen. The consequence he draws is unusual: the elect and the saved are not the same set. Election guarantees a remnant; it does not exhaust who may believe.
1 Now it was reported to David, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and looting the threshing floors.” 2 So David inquired of the LORD, “Should I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” 3 But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” 4 Once again, David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him: “Go at once to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.” 5 Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, and carried off their livestock, striking them with a mighty blow. So David saved the people of Keilah. 6 (Now Abiathar son of Ahimelech had brought the ephod with him when he fled to David at Keilah.) 7 When Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars.” 8 Then Saul summoned all his troops to go to war at Keilah and besiege David and his men. 9 When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.” 10 And David said, “O LORD, God of Israel, Your servant has heard that Saul intends to come to Keilah and destroy the city on my account. 11 Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, please tell Your servant.” “He will,” said the LORD. 12 So David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” “They will,” said the LORD. 13 Then David and his men, about six hundred strong, set out and departed from Keilah, moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he declined to go forth. 14 And David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God would not deliver David into his hand.
WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Old Testament and Semitic languages scholar (PhD, Wisconsin, 2004), Scholar-in-Residence at Faithlife/Logos, and host of the Naked Bible Podcast. Argued that the Hebrew Bible assumes a real divine council of lesser elohim under Yahweh, and held that this reading defends rather than threatens the deity of Christ.
Cite this page
"Michael S. Heiser on Election & predestination", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/heiser/election (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/heiser/election).