Predestination is VERY Real. and its more then just "According to His Foreknowledge." It's According to His WILL :
Psalm 115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Psalm 135:5 For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
Psalm 135:6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
Psalm 135:7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Daniel 4:35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Acts 4:28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Ephesians 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Malachi 1:2–5 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob
3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”
4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’ ”
5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!”
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Romans 9:15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Romans 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Predestination is God’s predetermination of all things.
The doctrine of predestination is presented in Scripture in a variety of ways. The biblical writers affirm it frankly, both with the use of the technical terminology (Eph 1:11) and without (Rom 8:28; 11:36). More often, the biblical writers assume the doctrine throughout the biblical narrative as they trace all events, however small, to God. For example, they will say not merely that “it rained” or that “there was a drought,” but that “God sent rain,” or “God withheld rain,” or that “God sent a famine.” So also with regard to a woman’s childbearing—it is God who both opens and closes the womb (Gen 30:2, 22; Ps 127:3; Isa 66). Apart from his will neither hair nor sparrow falls (Matt 10:29–30). The weather (Job 38:26; Ps 135:5–7; Nah 1:3), animal life (Ps 104:21), inanimate objects (Prov 16:33), the hearts of kings (Prov 21:1), the rise and fall of nations (Isa 40:15–17; Dan 2:21; 4:35), and human life with its many intricate affairs (Ps 139:16; Jas 4:15) are all alike, the outworking of his all-inclusive purpose. Most fundamentally for the biblical writers, predestination is a necessary entailment of monotheism. The God who created all things rules over and directs those things to his intended ends. He does not leave his creation to its own outworking (deism), nor is any part of his creation beyond his control (a notion that would place God beneath his creation). God created all things in order to accomplish his own purpose (Rev 4:11; cf. Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11). Moreover, to affirm that God is a personal God is to affirm that what he does he does intentionally. This “intention” is predestination. To say “God” in the sense of biblical monotheism is to say “predestination.”
Closely related to this is the doctrine of divine sovereignty and the biblical presentation of God as creator-king. By reason of his authority as creator (Ps 24:1), God has rights of ownership over all that is, and by reason of his all-inclusive lordship, his will can never be frustrated. He does all he pleases (Ps 135:5–7), always and without interruption (Dan 4:35). Whatever other powers and authorities exist, they are nonetheless his (1 Chr 29:10–12) and exist to serve his purpose (Rev 4:11).
Predestination is closely related to the doctrine of election, and salvation is the chief (but not sole) focus of this word in New Testament usage. But the two terms are not exact equivalents. Election is God’s choosing whom he would save (2 Thess 2:13); predestination is God’s decree to secure that end. Moreover, predestination is a broader term that may be used of salvation (Rom 8:28–30; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:5) or of God’s foreordained purposing of all things (Acts 4:28; cf. Ps 139:16; Eph 1:11; 2 Tim 1:9). The doctrine of reprobation, which concerns God’s decree to condemn those whom he has not chosen to save, is also closely related.
The doctrine of predestination is also tightly related to the doctrine of divine providence. Predestination is God’s intention and decree; providence is the outworking of that intention and decree. God’s decree is one (Job 23:13) and all inclusive (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11), entailing even the sinful acts of men (Acts 4:28), which he providentially directs to his own praise (Ps 76:10).
Whether predestination is grounded in God alone or considerations outside of himself is the question that divides orthodox interpreters, all of whom affirm “predestination” (it is a Bible word, after all). Arminians stress human freedom, while Calvinists stress divine freedom. The one side affirms a kind of libertarian human freedom, while the other argues that such an affirmation would render God contingent and subject to his own creation rather than Lord over it. Both sides would affirm some level of mystery, but the contrasting human or divine concerns are given interpretive control.
Reformed interpreters point out that the biblical writers never mitigate the doctrine of predestination. Rather, they consistently affirm both divine predestination and human responsibility and ground human responsibility in the willful choice of sinners. Sinners are never forced by God to sin but sin willingly and because of their own evil disposition (Jas 1:13–14). God’s all-inclusive decree entails the sinful actions of men, but the blame for sin remains on sinners, who choose sin (Acts 2:23; 4:28). God stands behind all things but not in the same way: he is the immediate cause of good, but sinners are the immediate cause of sin. The Westminster Confession of Faith famously summarizes the matter this way: “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established,” (III.1.
The doctrine of predestination is presented in Scripture as the deepest ground of trust in God. We can trust God precisely because we know that he works all things according to his own purpose and that nothing could ever come to interfere with that purpose. He not only controls but directs all things to his own appointed ends (Ps 76:10; Rom 8:28; Rev 4:11).