Does God predestine who goes to heaven.

The case for predestinationRomans doesn't say the calling and predestination is to a ministry position. Remember the end result of those who are predestined and called. The end result is that they are justified and glorified. To be justified is to be forgiven of your sins. Justification is part of salvation. So Romans 8 is talking about predestination to salvation.You ignored Ephesians 1. In that passage, it also tells us what we are predestined for. It says we are predestined to adoption as sons. In John 1:12-13, it says, "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, evne to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." So, it is by the will of God, not the will of man, that we become sons of God. To become a child of God in this context is to be among the saved. So Ephesians 1 is clearly talking about predestination to salvation. The whole passage I quoted above bears this out.We also have John 6:37-38, where it says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day." Notice in this passage that our coming to Jesus for salvation is determined by the Father giving us to Jesus. He gives us to Jesus, and as a result, we come to Jesus. And Jesus loses none of those the Father gives him, but raises them up on the last day. So our salvation is predestined by God. The Father determines who he will give to Jesus, and whoever he gives to Jesus will come to Jesus for salvation, and Jesus will raise them up on the last day.The same thing is taught in John 10. Jesus said, "But you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." This passage makes it clear that God predestines us to eternal life. The reason some don't believe in Jesus is because they are not his sheep. That means one has to be Jesus sheep BEFORE they can believe. And how do we become Jesus' sheep? By the Father giving us to Jesus.So John 10 and John 6 both teach the same thing. The Father gives people to Jesus. Then those people are Jesus' sheep. Then those people will definitely come to Jesus. Then those people will be raised to eternal life. It's all determined by the Father. Notice that Jesus explains the disbelief of some in his audience by saying they do not belong to Jesus. They were not given to Jesus by the Father. That is why they do not believe. So whether somebody is saved or not is determined by the Father. These scriptures aren't the least bit ambiguous.The case against predestinationIt is true that there are passages saying God wants everybody to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. But just as we desire things in different ways, so also does God desire things in different ways. For example, I might desire to make a sandwich, and as a result of my desire, I go in the kitchen and make that happen. That is what's called my sovereign desire--a desire that moves me to action. The scriptures say clearly that God does whatever he pleases (Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6). In Daniel 4:35, it says that God "does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?'" What God decides to act, nobody can stop him. He accomplishes his will.Now, if God's will as expressed in 1 Timonthy and Matthew 18:14 was that same kind of will as he expressed in the Psalms and Daniel, it would follow that everybody would be saved. We would have universal salvation. But we know there is no universal salvation since some people will suffer the wrath of God. It follows that God is not expressing a sovereign will in 1 Timothy or Matthew. Rather, he is expressing a moral will. It's a passive will. It's like when we desire that somebody else make us a sandwich. We don't MAKE them get up and go to the kitchen. We just wish they would. In the same way, God wishes that people would turn from their evil and live, but he doesn't MAKE them do it.So 1 Timothy and Matthew do not negate predestination. There is a sense in which God desires all to be saved, but there are only some among them that he actively causes to be saved. As I showed earlier, he predestines some to salvation.Hebrews 2:9 and 1 John 2:2 say that Jesus died for "everyone" and "the whole world." But neither of these passages mean that Jesus died for every individual. The "everyone" in Hebrews refers to the audience of Hebrews--the people this letter was written to. Well, this letter was written to Christians, so when it says Jesus died for "everyone," it means "all Christians.""The whole world," in 1 John doesn't mean "every individual who would ever live." Rather, it means people from all over the world. The gospel had not spread to the whole world yet. That's why John makes a distinction between "us" and "the whole world." The "us" refers to John's audience, and "the whole world" refers to all the predestined who had not heard the gospel yet.Otherwise we'd be left with a contradiction since, as I showed already, God does have a chosen people who he predestined to salvation.