Election

This is a paper I wrote for Bible. The numbers stand for documents that give ideas which are shown at the end.
The doctrine of election is one of the most contested tenants of Christianity as we know it. In order to understand election it is important for one to understand all of its teachings, tenants, and origin so that one can decide for one’s self whether of not this doctrine is truly verifiable and in essence correct and worthy of being taught. It is also to understand how it is verified, what the opposition to this doctrine claims, God’s reason for creating it and in truth its very nature.
The doctrine of election is in fact a small part of the doctrine of predestination. Predestination is the doctrine that states that God has for-ordained all things. Election is predestination regarding the saving of souls or salvation. This doctrine also states that god knows all things that are going to happen and that have happened. This doctrine will be key in understanding the rest of this essay on election. Election as sad as it may seem cannot exist without the rejection of some people. If God were to allow everyone to go to heaven election would not be election, it would be a form of universal grace. As Psalm 78 expresses it, "He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim; but chose the tribe of Judah” this shows that in both election and predestination God chooses some and some are abandoned. Once again this choosing is necessary due to the fact that without it grace would exist for all people and although it is available to all, if it was freely given without any trial or requirement our God would be almost too merciful. God’s choosing of who goes to heaven and who does not helps to give each of us an individual loving relationship with God that is even furthered due to the fact that we are aware of our being chosen. If God were to simply extend meaningless grace to everyone no one would God would not be able to say we were chosen special and we would owe him nothing. This would tare at the very fabric of our lives since a personal debt to God is part of the reason many Christians continue to serve him. If God did not choose some but gave free redemption to all without asking anything in return our God would actually be less great because of his almost wimpy way of handling things, making everyone happy. This choosing by God is not however arbitrary or random. This choosing is according to God’s perfect will that is beyond our understanding and beyond our possible comprehension. Election like predestination is a doctrine that we must take on faith. We cannot no matter how hard we try understand or make complete sense of either doctrine. God has left some things that are to complex for us to understand. This faith forces us to become closer to our God or abandon him. Both glorify Him so our reactions to his doctrine matter little in the long run. God surely has reasons for electing some and abandoning others but the truth is that he is glorified by both and his reasons and ways are beyond our understanding, we must simply have faith that God has a purpose in all that he does.
Another common question is, “what role does God actually play in salvation?”. God has many and actually all of the roles in the process of salvation, so he does not stop at electing those who are going to be saved. The Lord’s first and primary role in the process of salvation is the role of creating a way for people to be justified. The way he did this was by sending his one and only son to die on the cross, which was a perfect sacrifice that expunged all of the sins that anyone will ever commit who believes in Jesus as the son of God. So even for those that the Lord has elected to be among the chosen do not have a proverbial “free ride”.
Now as I have previously stated neither this nor the doctrine of predestination are particularly agreeable to the hearts and minds of men. However, we should be glad that this doctrine, and the entire religion are disagreeable to man. If a religion or set of doctrine are agreeable or enjoyable that can mean only one thing, that it was created by men. We should rejoice in the idea that this doctrine is uncomfortable. “It should be pointed out that the design of every false scheme and system of religion is to depict the character of God in such a way that it is agreeable to the tastes of the carnal heart, acceptable to depraved human nature.”(1) That statement illustrates one of the key ideas behind proving the validity of election. No man would invent a doctrine that is counter to his desires as a completely depraved human being. Humans by nature strive to achieve glory and power. This doctrine is completely counter to that belief as is predestination. Both of these doctrines praise the Lord for the total control He has and the total lack of control we have as human beings. " In Romans 9:23 election is referred to as a preparing to glory, this simply means that God through the Holy Spirit prepares our hearts and minds for his word so that we can in fact receive the word of God and not be hostile to it. Without God working on our hearts and minds our total depravity would make us incapable of receiving the message of God. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:3, 4). This verse although somewhat long is arguably the only verse necessary to prove that election is in fact a true doctrine. This verse clearly without any room for misinterpretation states that God had chosen those he was going to save before he had even created the world. Further more the reformed idea of unconditional election (3) continues to defy the wishes of men. Salvation based off no action that have or are going to commit is one of the most un-human ideas I have ever heard of. Men already hate the idea of someone else deciding their fat, but someone else deciding their faith off no personal preference or experience, men will not even buy a used car without taking it for a checkup and a test drive.
Already we have gone over what election is in a nutshell, what role God plays in it and how it can be defended with and without scripture. The next topic to be discussed has already been touched on but needs to be described further. What needs to be addressed is why election is even necessary. Many people have said that just doesn’t really matter since missionaries and evangelists are responsible for bringing people to Christ. But the truth of the matter is that no person can come to Christ without the Holy spirit working on their heart. In the book of exodus pharaoh sees many miracles but refuses to believe them or release the Jews. Then when the Lord takes his restraining hand away from pharaoh’s heart pharaoh gives in to his totally depraved human nature and attacks the Jews. This shows the depravity that is in the heart of every human being. The human heart is a scary thing, when unrestrained it strives only for selfish means such as glory or wealth, even violence. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden sin nature entered the hearts of everyone on the earth, and everyone one who is born on the earth. It says in the Bible that we are all born into sin and must be reborn through Christ to be saved. However the sin that we are born into also effectively keeps us from doing what is necessary to save ourselves from hell and eternal separation from God. Our actions in the Past make it impossible for us to save ourselves, “we have been save through faith”. That is why we need a savior, we are not pure. And we need election for the same reason, we are not pure enough to choose the truth for ourselves. So actually rather than angrily disputing election we should rejoice in it. Even though some do perish praise the Lord for he has mercy on some of us.
Another problem many people have with election is the idea that their loving merciful God would not damn someone to hell. The straight truth is that he would though. doesn’t a potter have the right to set some pots aside for special use and keep others for everyday. We cannot understand why God would do this but he does and we need to accept that he is God and has supreme rule over his creation and that right to do whatever he sees as fit, even if we think it is unfair or unjust. He is glorified by both and we have know right to criticize the ultimate creator and ruler of the universe.
As previously mentioned, election is a sub-category of predestination but in order to defend election which I have already done I must now defend predestination since you cannot have one without the other. I shall begin by brining into view what the world would be like if predestination were not true and our horribly wicked sin natures were allowed to play out. If the Lord did not restrain our hearts ever at any time the world would be a much scarier place. As previously mentioned pharaoh was driven mad when God’s restraining hand was lifted from him, now imagine that on a world wide scale. People everywhere would lack restraint of any kind. The world has shown us over and over again what atrocities man is capable of when left to his own devices. So if God has predestined everything many people ask, “why is there suffering and evil.” There are many answers to this question. One of the more popular answers is the blueprint world view (2) this view basically states that evil exists in the world because it is better for the creation in the long run, God could have made the world sinless but it was better in the end to have sin. This view claims to address the problem of a purely good God and a sin nature being allowed to take hold, bit it seems to skirt the edge to closely for my liking. Other theories range from God not actually being all powerful to God being a sort of divine watchmaker that set the earth in motion and then stepped back, the latter is called theistic evolution. Another argument I am familiar with is the idea that God is simply beyond good or evil. The idea behind this theory is the idea that once one becomes very wise the line between good and evil fades and nothing is really evil but in fact different, that is why the wise rarely call things evil (4). However one of the best arguments I have heard that today makes the most sense is the idea that evil exists simply in instances where our free will (which does exist some how) gets the better of us and God releases his restraining hand. Then it is important to see that evil exists but God combats and seeks to help us to combat it by giving us the way of the cross. We must simply believe in Jesus and he forgives our sins, therefore evil exists not due to the will of God but due to the will of man that he lets us have. Even to a more extreme degree who are we to question him in any are, even this one. We have only our depraved universe to question his will by, and our depraved views and ideas are just that, depraved. God does have a perfect will for us but we do to ur very sinful nature seek to make it what seems better to us but instead end up completely destroying God’s perfect will and replacing it with our own wrong and sinful plan for how we feel things should be. So in this way God is perfect, we have simply corrupted his perfect will but he gives us a way out through Christ.
An important result that comes from election is justification, justification is simply put, the act of God declaring us righteous by our faith in Christ (6). Then after our initial faith and justification, sanctification occurs (5). Sanctification can be defined as, the process by which the Holy Spirit sets us apart to be like Christ in all that we do, think, and desire(6). It is necessary to understand the full process by which we are made acceptable to Christ rather than just parts of the process. Predestination can become an excuse for some for their poor or mediocre behavior but it is not an excuse, it is a solemn doctrine.
As I have just mentioned predestination has become an excuse for some who have resigned themselves to the idea that since the Lord has for-ordained things they do not need to try to do their best at anything, and when they fail they say that it was God’s will for them. This is called fatalism and it is not a legitimate theological belief. The Lord clearly states that we are to do whatever we do to the glory of God. The Lord is not glorified, satisfied, or pleased when one of his children fails to do what they have been told to do and then they blame their sinful actions on God. And that just what fatalism is, it is blaming God for your shortcomings and not only is it incorrect it is blasphemous since you are accusing a perfect and holy God of causing you to do something that is against his very nature.
In this paper I have covered every aspect of election. I have covered the difference between election and predestination. I have covered all of the possible flaws with election from how a perfect God could have a corrupt creation to where election can be found in the Bible. I have even covered God’s role in election and why it is important to us as Christians. The steps that come after and during election have been covered and abuses of election and predestination like fatalism have been shot down. Election has been covered and I hope it has been an enlightening experience.

1. Pbministries.org
2. IS GOD TO BLAME? Gregory A. Boyd, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois
3. WHAT IS REFORMED THEOLOGY? R.C. Sproul, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan
4. Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis Harper San Francisco, a division of Harper Collins Publishers
5. John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan
6. The Verbal Tutelage of Mr. Hervey