The confusion over who goes to heaven or hell, and supposed predestination to either, is resolved by recognizing the sovereignty of God. This means that He is the Supreme ruler over all of His creation, of the universe in its widest extent, and of the planet earth and all that it contains, from the greatest structure to the most microscopic particle, and over all life wherever it may be found. The Bible says, "Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all" (1Chronicles 29:11). God is under no external influence nor restraint. He posesses supreme power and authority, ruling with impartial justice, grace and love for mankind and desires "that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).
God has seen fit to create us with the power to choose between good and evil, and to rule over the earth (Genesis 1:26). While He permits independent decisions, He sovereignly influences human wills to accomplish His purpose. He will administer the final outcome of those choices, with deliverance for believers and due punishment for unbelieving evildoers (2 Peter 2:9). Today's seeming victory of the evil over the good is the result of sinful man's refusal to believe in and to do the Creator's will. He will allow it to go only so far, until the day which He has fixed, "in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
The righteousness and holiness of God demands that all sin be judged and punished. God's holiness prevents Him from looking upon or approving evil (Habakkuk 1:13), and His justice demands death for every sinner. "For the wages of sin is death . . ." (Romans 6:23), ". . .so death spread to all men . . ." "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 5:12; 3:23). Death is not annihilation nor cessation of being. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, and spiritual death the separation of the soul and spirit from God. God told Adam that he would surely die in the day he would eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). Spiritual death, separation from God, took place in that day when Eve, then Adam, disobeyed by eating the forbidden fruit..But God sought Adam, asking "where are you?" He was still physiclly alive so that God, in his great love, could give him the promise of the Savior (Genesis 3:15), and so that he could pass it on to his descendants. The believing ones have continued to do so 'til this day.
Heaven or hell after this life depends upon whether the individual believes God's good news of salvation through faith (trust) in Jesus Christ as Savior. Those who do not believe are still "dead in (their) trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), even though the Gospel has not yet been preached to them. Jesus said, "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). This requirement applies to all mankind. Those who have never heard do have evidence of God's existence as they view the marvels of creation, "so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:19-20). Also their consciences bear witness regarding right and wrong (Romans 2:15-16). It is possible that someone in some out-of-the-way place may desire to know about the God he sees in creation, but he still needs to hear and believe the message of Christ. "How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher (Romans 10:14)? Our loving God Who searches the hearts is able to arrange for some believer to preach the gospel to that person. There have been instances of missionaries whom God led to a village where they found someone who wanted to know about the true God. Such cases are rare because of the ingrained unbelief of the natural man. This is the reason for the believer's responsibility to go or send someone to preach the powerful word of God (Hebrews 4:12), to break through the sinful resistance and win people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation (Acts 16:31). Anyone in the world can be saved by believing. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). This is the only way a sinner can avoid going to hell.
The question of predestination must be considered in the light of God's thinking which differs from man's. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). God is eternal and thinks in the eternal present. Man, becuse time began with creation, thinks in the time frame: past, present and future. Jesus Christ, who in time gave His life on the cross, paying the penalty for sin, was in the mind of God, "slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8; 1 Peter 1:20), that is, before the world was created, Christ's death was in God's purpose and plan.
Predestination is mentioned primarily with respect to those who have been saved. To say some have been predestinated to be saved implies that others have been predestinated to be lost. This contradicts such statements as, ". . .God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4), and, ". . . not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
God does not force (by predestination or otherwise) His salvation upon anyone who does not want to be saved. He clearly warns the unsaved about their final destiny in hell if they continue in their unbelief, to ". . . fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28), and lovingly pleads with them to ". . . repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
When someone wants to be saved, having heard the gospel, God, who kinows our hearts (Jeremiah 17:10), convicts by His Holy Spirit "of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8). When a sinner repents (turns to God) for salvation through faith in Christ, he is saved, born again, born of the Spirit (John 3:5). It is then he learns that he is predestinated, not to be saved, but "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29). Someone has described it by picturing a wall, too high to climb over, too long to walk around, but with one door just large enough for one person. Over the door is written, "Whoever will may enter." When one goes through and looks back, he reads over the same door, "You were foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, and will be glorified" (from Romans 8:29-30).
All of this was in God's mind in the "eternal present," some say, "in eternity past," and revealed in the Bible for those who are saved in the framework of time for their assurance and encouragement.