Election
& Predestination
Systematic Theology
I.
General Definitions
a.
Predestinate –
determine beforehand
b.
Elect– selected;
chosen
c.
Reprobate
–unapproved in need of proving again
d.
Foreknew – to know
beforehand
II.
The Calvinistic
View: Unconditional Election
a.
Man stands totally depraved and unable to come
to God on his own (see last lesson’s notes)
b.
God therefore
chooses before the creation of the earth (predestination) those who will go to
heaven (elect) and those who will go to hell (reprobate). This choice is not based upon anything the
person will do. The numbers of each are
frozen and cannot be changed.
c.
Definitions
i.
Predestination: “The decree of God, whereby he fore-ordained
some of mankind to eternal life, and refused or passed by others.” – Christopher
Ness
ii.
Election: “All who will be finally saved, were chosen
to salvation by God the Father, before the foundation of the world, and given
to Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace.” – John Dagg
iii.
Reprobation: “Asserts that God eternally hates some men;
has immutably decreed their damnation; and has determined to withhold from them
Christ, grace, faith, and salvation.” – David Engselma
iv.
Preterition: The
view held by some Calvinists that God does not create men for destruction but
rather creates them in sin, chooses some for salvation, and merely passes the
others by.
d.
Scriptural basis
includes:
i.
Romans 9 for
reprobation – “Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated.” (Rom 9:13)
ii.
John 6 for
election – “This is the will of Him who
sent Me, that of all that he has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on
the last day.” (John 6:39)
iii.
Acts 13:48 for
election – “all who were appointed to
eternal life believed.”
III.
The Arminian View
a.
God knows ahead
of time who will accept him and persevere in faith and
obedience until the end.
b.
God then elects
those individuals and predestinates them to salvation.
c.
Election is then
unto Salvation but based upon foreknowledge.
d.
Scriptural Basis
includes Romans 8:29 – “For those God
foreknew he also predestinated to the likeness of his son.”
IV.
The Biblicist
View
a.
Election is generally corporate and is a sign
of rank and privilege, not deliverance from damnation.
b.
Predestination is
“a divine act of God whereby God makes that goal (Adoption or Son-placing)
certain for the believer.” – Andrew Telford.
c.
God uses the Holy
Spirit to “convict the world of guilt in
regard to sin.” (John 16:8).
d.
All men are
convicted, not all men will respond. God
offers salvation to “whosoever will”
(Rev 22:17), “any man” (John 7:37), and
“whosoever believeth” (Acts 10:43,
John 3:16, 1 John 5:1, and Romans 9:33).
e.
Those that do
respond will be “in Christ” and thus gain the title elect and become predestinated—through the sealing of the Holy
Spirit (Eph 1:13-14)—to be conformed to the image of Christ.
V.
Adoption
a.
Adoption is NOT salvation. It is not becoming the son/daughter of
God. Romans 8:23 says, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the
first-fruits of the Spirit [Christians],
groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of
our bodies.”
b.
Spiritual
adoption is “a definite act of God whereby God sets a goal for the believer.” –
Andrew Telford.
c.
The word
translated “adoption” really means “Son-placed”
d.
Son-placing in
the Roman world was not the introduction of a new family member by means other
than birth but rather something that happened to a son born (or adopted) into
the family. At age 21 a child’s parents
took him to the market place before the public.
He was “son-placed” and from that time on could sign his own name to
legal documents and had the full authority of a man.
e.
The Bible defines
adoption as “The redemption of our
bodies.” (Romans 8:23b).
f.
Christians are
made sons/daughters at the moment of their second birth. They are not son-placed until the Lord
returns. 1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends,
now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made
known. But we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
g.
Not only are we
sons but we are also heirs (Gal 4:7) to “an
inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade—kept in heaven for you.”
– 1 Peter 1:4. This inheritance is our
placement as sons in heaven.
VI.
Predestination
a.
The term is only
used in 4 verses (2 chapters) and never in reference to the Calvinistic definition
of it.
b.
Predestination is
not unto salvation but unto adoption
i.
Ephesians 1:5 – “In love he predestinated us to be adopted
as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
ii.
Romans 8:29 – “For those God foreknew he also predestinated
to be conformed to the likeness of his Son that he might be the firstborn among
man brothers.”
c.
Predestination is
the divine act where God makes adoption a certainty. It is our guarantee that once saved, we will
always be saved. Before the foundation
of the world, God chose that believers in Christ (“us”, the Church) should
stand before Him blameless.
VII.
Election
a.
Election of
Christ – used to denote value
i.
Isaiah 42:1 – “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my
chosen one in whom I delight;” Also Mat 12:18.
ii.
1 Peter 2:6 – “For in Scripture it says, ‘ See, I lay a stone in
b.
Election of
c.
Election
referring to the Church
i.
The word rendered
elect or chosen is always in reference to the Church or those who are already
saved. It is never used to refer to the
unregenerate elect depicted in Calvin’s system.
ii.
It can be
corporate as in 1 Peter 1:1-2, “To God’s
elect, strangers in the world…who have been chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God….” Where he is referring to the whole of the Church
(also 1 Peter 5:13)
iii.
Or as a title
such as in 2 John 13, “The children of
your chosen sister send their greetings.”
iv.
Christ is elect
and the Church is his body (Eph 1:22-23).
Individuals are not in the Church because they are elect but are elect
because they are in the Church.
VIII.
Specific Passages
a.
Act 13:48 is
problematic because of the choice of words used by the translators. The Latin-Vulgate (used at the base text for
the King James and studied by people like Calvin) used the term “pre-ordained”. The actual Greek word can indicate either an
internal or external appointment. It
would be better rendered “disposed” and could mean those who accepted as in the
parallel passage Acts 2:41, “Those who
accepted his message were baptized.”
b.
John 6 will be
discussed in detail when dealing with Irresistable Grace but it is important to
note that this isn’t a passage written about Gentiles but Jews. There was some remnant of Jews (Rom 11:5) who
followed the ways of God rather than the ways of man. It was these who were already God’s and whom He
gave to Christ. Gentile believers were then
added to this number. John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives me will come to
me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” This is why Christ says that at His death he would
“draw all men to myself.”
c.
Romans
9-11 is an interlude in the book
of Romans to discuss the fate of the Jews at Paul’s time. Romans 9 discusses
God’s historical actions regarding the nation of