The most disturbing thing about Calvinism is that God has chosen some people to be saved and those people will be saved no matter what, and only them will be saved. Others will perish because God did not choose them.
It is called unconditional election, irresistible grace, and limited atonement.
It disturbs people because they think it would be unfair for God to do this, and the way they try to resolve it is to say God does not interfere with man's will.
Before this is resolved, let's talk about Arminianism. The problem with it is that it says everything depends on man's will. Salvation is extended to all by God and it depends on whether we accept or reject it.
I have found that many are more comfortable with this.
Let me stand with Spurgeon and defend Calvinism today. Not Calvinism really, but unconditional election; because LIMITED ATONEMENT IS SIMPLY INCORRECT AND UNTRUE. Jesus died for all men, not only for some.
BUT THERE IS THE ELECT. There is such a thing as the election of God. And it is unconditional. God has made provision for all to believe, but He has specifically elected some to believe. That is the truth. He chose some before the foundation of the world. He did NOT choose ALL.
And this is very important. It is NOT that the elect are those who must believe and can never reject Him, which is another error in Calvinism represented as "irresistible grace". Biblical grace is prevenient, not irresistible. Prevenient grace is overwhelming and abundant, but it is not by force and it DOES NOT TAKE OVER MAN'S WILL. It can be refused. Paul did not say "I could not say no. I had no capacity to refuse the Lord". No. He said "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. I do not frustrate the grace of God. I put my body under so I won't be castaway". He actively and wilfully cooperated with the grace of God, but could take any credit for it because it was God who initiated it all, working in Him everything He was working out. It all began with God, NOT WITH HIM. That is prevenient grace. God is always previous.
The fact of man's freewill to choose for himself or herself must never make you forget that God is sovereign and that God's sovereignty is not subject to man's freewill. He can do as He pleases and no one can ever question Him. God is not predictable. A predictable God is no God at all. There is no formula for preempting God except faith. He is faithful, not predictable. They are not the same thing. The day you understand God, you have failed. He will surprise and shock you out of your skin and He will be forever right and you wrong
Never for once believe that because salvation has been extended to all men, God has not chosen some men. If you are struggling with this, you can stop NOW. It is a futile and fruitless struggle, for, unconditional election is a reality. God has the right to choose a man just because He wants to choose him. Not because the man is good or is going to be good or because it is fair or unfair.
He HAS THE RIGHT! He is God. Even in an organisation, it is not everything the CEO does you understand, but he is mostly right and you are wrong. You can always trust the CEO of the whole universe, but you will not always understand what He does. If you are a believer you must know this. Not everything is up for discussion, but everything is up for believing and trusting. If you think of God doing as He pleases and you quickly add that but God won't do this or that because He is love, you are talking about Goldilocks. Not God.
In John 17, Jesus categorically said He wasn't praying for the whole world, but for those God had given Him. There is an all in the plan of God, and there is a...
Some.
And this some is not dependent on what man will do or not do, it is dependent on what God has decided to do or not do, without asking for man's input.
God's blessing went to Jacob's 12 children, and not to Esau. You could say His intention was to bless the whole world, but Esau lived outside the blessing
Some.
Were Jacobs sons less profane than Esau? No! Did Esau sell his brother to slavers like Reuben and Judah and the others? Did he lie to and deceive his father like Jacob did to Isaac, or as Jacob's sons did to him?
Didn't Judah sleep with an unknown woman whom he thought was a prostitute? Is that not profanity?
What did Saul do that was worse than what David did so that God rejected him?
Did Saul kill a man and take the man's wife?
What did Judas do that was worse than what Peter did?
Did Judas swear he had never ever met Christ in his life?
Was it Peter's choice that saved him?
IT WAS NOT.
God chose all these people and chose to show mercy on them.
God chose Paul. If Jesus appears to a staunch unbeliever and cleric from another religion and knocks him off his horse, introduces Himself and the fellow is blind for three days; how many do you think will resist His salvation?
That's how Jesus got Paul. He arrested Him and said "Time's up, you hard-headed heathen. Hands up!"
Galatians 1:15
But WHEN IT PLEASED GOD, WHO SEPARATED ME FROM MY MOTHER'S WOMB and called me through His grace,
Galatians 1:16
To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
Separated him NOT on the way to Damascus, but from the womb. Paul said this thing was decided even from his birth, before he could open his eyes or draw his first breath; before he persecuted the first saint. What did Paul do or choose to deserve that arrest by Jesus? Do you know how many a strong believer will result from a similar encounter if the Lord does the same for Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus? Why hasn't Jesus done this for every staunch unbeliever or enemy of Christianity?
Anyone who does not understand that God's sovereignty and purpose according to election is not secondary to man's will is on what Nigerians call a long thing. Not knowing what God's justice means, has caused some to mix it up with His mercy even to taking it for granted as a right to be saved.
Romans 9:18
Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Romans 9:19
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"
Romans 9:20
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
Romans 9:21
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
In the example given about Esau in the 13th verse of Romans 9, God rejected Esau before He was born or before He threw away anything. What Esau was going to do did not enter into that. It was not of his willing or not willing it nor by his efforts or the lack thereof, but a matter or God's mercy, which was not shown Esau. Thats on one side. What Esau did is the secondary matter (Hebrews 12:16&17).
Unless someone has not read it properly.
Let it be said add that if God threw you into hell, He would be right. He would be most right; and you would be wrong. Once you cannot understand that, you can never understand God or His faithfulness or His grace. Unmerited favour. Isn't that one of the simplest meanings of grace? Unmerited means not merited. Yet sometimes we act as though it is merited favour. There's nothing we did to deserve God's salvation. It's all because of Christ Jesus. God does not owe you or me anything. Let that sink in. Otherwise, confusion is on the way, and then offence. Such people get offended with God, and then disillusionment sets in.
That's where Arminianism is wrong.
Everything DOES NOT boil down to man's will. Man's will is never first nor is it last in anything God is doing. God is the Beginning and the End. He is always previous. God's will is first and last, and out of it proceeds God's mercy with which man's freewill may choose to interact with or not.
Just like it seems at first glance that the new testament is a fulfilment of the old testament, but when we consider that the old is a shadow and you can't have a shadow if there was not already an existing substance producing that shadow, we realise that the new testament preceded the old. We realise that all the dealings of God in the old testament were drawn from eternal realities already perfected in the Son before Adam was formed.
We realise, that Christ is not only the Omega or the End, but that He also is the Alpha or Beginning, of all things testamentary. That Abraham was asked to go offer Isaac to portray that the God of the earth would offer up His only begotten Son, but having climbed the mount found a lamb there signifying that the Lamb had already been slain from the foundation of the world.
So it is with the sovereign will of God. It seems that it is a result of what we here choose, but again I say, God is always previous. He is first and last. We are in the middle. He declares the end from the beginning, and then calls us into what He has started and finished. We think that whatever we bind on earth shall then be bound in heaven and so also for the loosing, but I think this version does justice best to the fact that binding and loosing is entrusted to those who have come into the will of the Father, so that when they bind and lose here, His will is being done on earth as it is already in Heaven.
Matthew 18:18
(Christian Standard Bible)
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.
(Amplified Bible)
Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven.
.
So if everyone in a classroom had caught a disease and I entered the class with the antidote, more than enough for everyone, and many times over. I stand in front of the class and place the antidote down and announce "Come and freely take. Everyone. Don't refuse this. Take it and be healed"
(That is where Calvinism misses it with their limited atonement error. The gospel is for everyone. Jesus died for everyone and made provision for everyone.)
Now, having made that general announcement, I take some of that antidote and go to 12 people and give them myself saying "Take this". It's not because of anything they have done or will do, it's simply my choice. And IT DOES NOT MEAN THEY CANNOT REFUSE AND SAY "NO".
John 6:70
Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, yet one of you is a devil"
They can. However, it is far less likely that they will, because they have been shown more grace than others, and that NOT of themselves. It is the GIFT of God.. who has chosen them specifically.
That is unconditional election.
And it is a biblical fact.
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