Election

In recent weeks our Sunday evening services have been devoted to teaching core doctrinal beliefs. I have utilized different men in our church (all are seminary graduates) to assist me in the teaching. I taught the most recent lesson on the doctrine of election. If you are interested you can hear that message here.

Regrettably, this doctrine has been hotly debated among Christians usually generating more heat than light! Perhaps it is naive on my part but I do believe one reason for this is focusing on defense of either Calvinism or Arminianism as opposed to focusing on the Bible. At the end of the day, our calling is not to bring individuals to embrace either of these. Rather, the command of God’s Word is to bring men to Christ.

Timothy George, in Amazing Grace God’s: Initiative-Our Response (LifeWay Press 2000) provides a brief but insightful summary of Calvinists and Arminians. Calvinists get their name from John Calvin and Arminians were followers of Jacob Arminius. George points out that while Calvin’s name is forever linked with the doctrine of predestination he himself warned against parading the message of election before novices in the faith. Only God knows whom He has elected to salvation, we are to share the gospel with everyone. It appears that Calvin’s followers went far beyond what Calvin actually taught on predestination. For Calvin, predestination was a fact of Scripture, but not the controlling principle of all doctrine. Likewise, Jacob Arminius was much closer to the ideas of Calvin than to some of his latter-day followers. Arminius believed that predestination was based on God’s foreknowledge of foreseen faith. He did believe in the teaching of justification by faith alone.

Again, I would suggest that the emphasis is not in defending either John Calvin or Jacob Arminius. There is a place for that discussion but the message we proclaim, love, and defend is the gospel- the good news that Jesus Christ came from heaven, lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross bearing in His body the full penalty of our sins, was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day. All who repent of sin and place their faith in the perfect work of Christ can and will be saved.

Does God have an elect people? Yes, Scripture is overwhelmingly clear on this. (John 6:44; Acts 13:48; Ephesians 1:4-6; 2 Timothy 2:10; Revelation 17:8). But, only God knows who they are. We are to offer Christ to any and all and urge all to repent of sin and trust Christ alone for salvation assuring that Christ will save anyone who comes to Him. Let’s make sure we are passionate about the gospel; not Calvinism or Arminianism.