Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Rom. 8 ~ 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Is the Doctrine of Predestination biblical?

Eph. 1 ~ 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will…11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Rom. 9 ~ 10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls)…

Is the Doctrine ofElection biblical?

Rom. 11 ~ 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

The question is…

What is meant by the terms "predestination" and "election"?

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

"That eternal act of God whereby He, in His sovereign good pleasure, and on the account of no foreseen merit in them, chooses a certain number of men to be the recipients of special grace and eternal salvation."

Louis Berkhof,Systematic Theology

"Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, He hath, out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault, from their primitive state of rectitude, into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom He from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect, and foundation of salvation."

Definition: Unconditional Election

The Canons of Dort, 1619

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon at His Best

(compiled by Tom Carter)

"Your damnation is your own election, not God's. We are lost willfully and willingly, lost perversely and utterly, but still lost of our own accord, which is the worst kind of being lost. From the Word of God I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom. He that perishes chooses to perish. We hold tenaciously that

Moderate View of Unconditional Election:

salvation is all of grace, but we also believe with equal firmness that the ruin of man is entirely the result of his own sin. It is the will of God that saves: It is the will of man that damns. All true theology is summed in these two short sentences: Salvation is all of the grace of God. Damnation is all of the will of man."

R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God

"The Reformed view teaches that God positively or actively intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation…The rest of mankind He leaves to themselves."

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

"Many professing a desire to defend the Deity from an invidious charge admit the doctrine of election, but deny that any one is reprobated... This they do ignorantly and childishly, since there could be no election without its opposite reprobation. God is said to set apart those whom he adopts for salvation. It were most

Moderate View of Unconditional Election:Hard View of Unconditional Election:

absurd to say, that he admits others fortuitously, or that they by their industry acquire what election alone confers on a few. Those therefore whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause than he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children."

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

"By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of those ends, we say that he has been predestined to life or death."

Calvinist definition of predestination:

Lorraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of

Predestination

"The doctrine of absolute Predestination of course logically holds that some are foreordained to death as truly as others are foreordained to life. The very terms "elect" and "elections" imply the terms "non-elect" and "reprobation." When some are chosen out others are left not chosen. The high privileges and glorious destiny of the former are not shared with the latter. This, too, is of God. We

believe that from all eternity God has intended to leave some of Adam's posterity in their sins, and that the decisive factor in the life of each is to be found only in God's will."

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Matt. 11 ~ 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Rom. 8 ~ 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Eph. 1 ~ 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will…11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…

Eph. 1 ~ 12 …that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

1 Tim. 5 ~ 21 I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.

Is. 42 ~ 1 "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,     My Elect One in whom My soul delights!     I have put My Spirit upon Him;     He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles."

Are all "elect" saved?

John 6 ~ 70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

Matt.23 ~ 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

"The prime point is that the election of the church is a corporate rather than an individual thing. It is not that individuals are in the church because they are elect; it is rather that they are elect because they are in the church, which is the body of the elect One … A Christian is not chosen to become part of Christ's body, but in becoming part of that body [by free will, exercising faith] he partakes of Christ's election?"

Forster and Martin, God's Strategy in Human History

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

The Remonstrance, 1610

"God has decreed to save through Jesus Christ, out of fallen and sinful mankind, those foreknown by Him who through the grace of the Holy Spirit believe in Christ; but God leaves in sin those foreseen, who are incorrigible and unbelieving."

Definition: Conditional Election

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

1 Tim. 2 ~ 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2 Pet. 3 ~ 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Shedding Light on Calvinism and Arminianism

Part Three,"The Conditions of

Election"

Matt. 11 ~ 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.