Doctrine of Election Notes

Donnie DeBord

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The Doctrine of Election

There is no real difference between predestination and election—Cottrell, 388

Predestined to service

Jesus—

Patriarchs—;

Moses—

David—

Pharaoh—

Cyrus—

Paul—

God knew before what these men would do for him in his plan—Cottrell, The Faith Once for All, 389.

What is the ordo salutis?

The ordo salutis is the sequential process of redemption from eternity to eternity.

Ordo Salutis

Grudem

1. Election (God’s choice of people to be saved)

2. The gospel call (proclaiming the message of the gospel)

3. Regeneration (being born again)

4. Conversion (faith and repentance)

5. Justification (right legal standing)

6. Adoption (membership in God’s family)

7. Sanctification (right conduct of life)

8. Perseverance (remaining a Christian)

9. Death (going to be with the Lord)

10. Glorification (receiving a resurrection body)

DeBord

1.God’s Gospel Decreed 2.God’s Gospel Manifested 3.God’s Gospel Preached 4.God’s Gospel Applied 5.God’s Gospel Achieved

When does redemption begin?

Redemption must begin in eternity.

Therefore, all is known by God in eternity and initiated by God in eternity.

Since it is “eternal” it is described as an “eternal decree” and linked to God.

Redemption must occur in space-time, so it appears to us differently than in the “divine perspective.”

Salvation must be “worked out” () by each one as we obey the command to “be saved” “Σώθητε” ().

Perspectives

God’s perspective is eternal. Our perspective is time-bound.

The Bible describes salvation from God’s perspective.

The Bible also describes salvation from man’s perspective.

As we study salvation, we must be careful to see both perspectives without over-emphasizing either.

It is a little like watching a football game with someone who already knows what happens.

Perhaps these “perspectives” is where some of the Calvinistic and Arminian differences arise?

Grudem’s Definition of Election

Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure. (Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 670).

Predestination and Election

Does the Bible teach predestination and election?

Those who hold to unconditional particular election may find the following verses difficult: , ; ; , , .

“Many times when a believer hears the words “predestination” or “election” for the first time they immediately object, “That is not in the Bible!” Such an initial reaction is telling, exposing our natural allergy to divine sovereignty. But the truth is simple, predestination is everywhere taught in the Bible and without embarrassment (, ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ).” (M. Barrett, https://credomag.com/2012/06/chosen-by-grace-alone-matthew-barrett/”

BIG QUESTION: Conditional or Unconditional?

“Does God, before the foundation of the world, elect certain persons to salvation on the basis of the faith or merit he foresees in them or does God elect certain persons to salvation according to his sovereign good pleasure alone? In other words, is election conditional or unconditional?”

https://credomag.com/2012/06/chosen-by-grace-alone-matthew-barrett/

Arminius in Declaration of Sentiments:

1.God eternally wills to save all sinners, and therefore has decreed to appoint his Son Jesus Christ as Savior. 2.God eternally wills to receive into favor all who repent and believe. 3.God eternally wills to appoint the means by which sinners are able to come to faith and repentance (salvation depends on sinners’ willingness). 4.God eternally decrees to save those particular persons whom he foreknows will believe and persevere in believing in response to the gospel

https://credomag.com/article/the-first-main-point-of-doctrine-unconditional-election/

Summary of Arminius’ position:

“Though God wills absolutely and antecedently to save all fallen sinners, he wills relatively and consequently to save only those particular persons whom he foreknows would believe and to damn those whom he foreknows would not”

“On the one hand, God’s universal will and intention to save all fallen sinners is frustrated or thwarted in the case of all those who persistently refuse to respond in faith to the invitation of the gospel. And on the other hand, God’s decision to save the elect is dependent upon, or in consequence of, their choice to believe and to persevere in doing so.”

https://credomag.com/article/the-first-main-point-of-doctrine-unconditional-election/

“Arising from within the Dutch Reformed Church, the followers of Jacob Arminius issued their Five Points of the Remonstrants in 1610: (1) God’s election of sinners is conditional (based on foreseen faith); (2) Christ died to make salvation possible for every person; (3) all human beings are born in sin and therefore incapable of being saved apart from grace; (4) this grace is offered to all and may be resisted; (5) it is possible for regenerate believers to lose their salvation.” (Michael Horton, The Christian Faith, 562.)

“Largely removed from the Western controversy between Augustine and Pelagius, the East nevertheless teaches an ordo salutis that is similar to that of Arminianism, with “preparatory grace and means sufficient for the attainment of happiness” given to all. “In the exposition of the faith by the Eastern Patriarchs, it is said, ‘As [God] foresaw that some would use well their free will, but others ill, he accordingly predestined the former to glory, while the latter he condemned.” Michael Horton, The Christian Faith, 562.

Calvinistic position put forth at Dort

The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that others do not, stems from [God’s] eternal decision. For all his works are known to God from eternity (; ). In accordance with this decision he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his chosen ones and inclines them to believe, but by his just judgment he leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in this especially is disclosed to us his act—unfathomable, and as merciful as it is just—of distinguishing between people equally lost. (Article 6)

“Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery.” (Dort, Art. 7)

“This same election took place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen, but rather for the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, and so on” (Art. 8).

Is predestination and election deterministic?

According to Grudem (Systematic Theology, 674-675).

“By contrast to the mechanistic picture, the New Testament presents the entire outworking of our salvation as something brought about by a personal God in relationship with personal creatures. God “destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (). God’s act of election was neither impersonal nor mechanistic, but was permeated with personal love for those whom he chose. Moreover, the personal care of God for his creatures, even those who rebel against him, is seen clearly in God’s plea through Ezekiel, “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” ()”

When talking about our response to the gospel offer, Scripture continually views us not as mechanistic creatures or robots, but as genuine persons personal creatures who make willing choices to accept or reject the gospel. Jesus invites everyone, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” () Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 675.

Horton says, the election which is manifested by the effectual calling of the sinner to grace is not coercive. “The problem is not the power to will and to do, but the moral determination of that willing and doing by slavery to sinful autonomy. The will is moved by the mind and affections; it cannot act in isolation. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (). Michael Horton, The Christian Faith, 567.

Westminster Confession states, “God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.” Before the fall, the will was entirely free to choose good or evil, but after the fall, humanity “has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation,” rendering every person “dead in sin … not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.”

The will is liberated, not violated. “If it be compelled,” says John Owen, “it is destroyed.” The classic terminology of effectual calling (rather than the more recent term, “irresistible grace”) already indicates a more communicative model of divine action than causal grammars imply. John Owen, The Works of John Owen, 3:319.

“God “bends and determines” the will, but …God “moves the will to attend to the proof, truth and goodness of the word announced” [Dort]. Jesus immediately qualifies his statement “No one can come to me unless the Father … draws him” with a quote from : “And they shall all be taught by God.” On this he provides the following gloss: “Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (). Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, 520, quoted in Vanhoozer, “Effectual Call or Causal Effect?” 120.

Our personal decisions to believe or not believe in Christ have eternal consequences in our lives, and Scripture is quite willing to talk about our decision to believe or not believe as the factor that decides our eternal destiny. Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 675.

OBJECTIONS TO THE CALVINISITIC DOCTRINE OF ELECTION

Foreseen faith or foreordained faith?

Jack Cottrell affirms, “Through his foreknowledge God sees who will believe upon Jesus Christ . . . then even before the creation of the world he predestines these believers to share the glory of the risen Christ.”

God predestined those who would choose him-The Faith Once and For All, 394-395

To “foreknow”

To “foreknow” does not connote choosing—Cottrell, 396

To “foreknow” does denote “acknowledgement, experience

Foreknowledge, according to Cottrell, “is not equivalent to election or choosing, and that in and it refers to nothing more than the cognitive act by which God knew or identified the members of his family (as distinct from all others) even before the foundation of the world. He identified them by the fact that they were (would be) the ones who met (would meet) the required conditions for salvation” (Cottrell, 398).

Predestination and election therefore are based on God’s foreknowledge of what individuals would do.

Concurrence (avoid Arminian and Calvinistic extremes)

There can be “divine and natural causality together without denying either: “In truth all our works are thy doing, O Lord our God” (). “You must work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you, inspiring both the will and the deed, for his own chosen purpose” (; Origen, De Princip. III.1, ANF IV, pp. 302–8, 323 f.). Accordingly, God’s concurrence does not do away with the efficacy of natural causes—on the contrary, it empowers and enables secondary causes.

Thomas C. Oden, The Living God: Systematic Theology, Vol. I 282.

“God does not simply operate our wills or directly will for us instead of allowing us to will. That would hardly be consistent with the stress in Scripture on God-given responsible freedom. If God were omnicausally and absolutely determining every event at this moment … freedom would not be real, and therefore any assumption that persons are responsible for themselves would not be true. The biblical affirmation that in God we “live and move and have our being” () implies neither that God’s being is constricted to finite being nor that human self-actualization is displaced or annihilated by the being of God. These are misconstructions of providence found in both pantheistic and fatalistic distortions of Christian teaching (Hippolytus, Refutation VI, ANF V, pp. 74–99; Pope, Compend. I, p. 447; Bavinck, DG, I; cf. Wieman, and Brightman in PSG).” Thomas C. Oden, The Living God, 283.

Election rejects human choice

Election does not view human choices as true choices

Election makes humans robots

Election means that the lost never had a chance to believe

Election is unfair for those not chosen to believe

God wills to save everyone

God elected a group (those in Christ) not individuals (Shank, 45, 122, 50, 55)

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