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For this round I'll go over a few passages that are important to the question raised, what is predestination/election based on. I'll focus on passages I believe support that the belief or faith of free will creatures is the condition God set to be predestined to salvation.
The inherent problem with these disputes is that you can always interpret the supposed "free will" passages in light of the supposed "absolute predestination" passages, and vice versa. Many folks I know have discovered this the hard way, and simply shy away from the discussion.
...Of course, that doesn't mean all interpretations are equal...
There are a few passages that imply that man is has a choice-- Nay, a choice is demanded by God:
"For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.
"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." Deuteronomy 30:11-20.
This is not the best passage, since it deals more with obeying the law and inheriting the promised land. After all, the law doesn't justify, but only condemns (Rom. 3:20). Still, if they had chosen life, and by extension placed their faith (loyalty) in God, they would have been given the grace sufficient to love and obey God in general, and by that faith would be saved spiritually as well as physically.
(Jesus said) "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30.
Here, we have an invitation, which was probably to the Jews (who were under the heavy burden of the law, Acts 15:10), though certainly would be applicable to anyone in general. "Rest for one's soul" is probably referring to salvation (cf. God's rest, Heb. 3:7-4:11). This passage forces us to ask, if the decision is not up to us, why does Jesus make an invitation as though we had a choice to make?
And who can forget the vine parable!?:
(Jesus said) (1) "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. (2) Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. ... (4) "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. (5) I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (6) If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." John 15:1,2,4-6.
My, that's a lot of theology compacted in one passage! Let's see what we have:
v. 1: Jesus establishes the framework for the lesson. He uses a vine that bears fruit to compare His relation to the Father (vine and vinedresser, respectively), and later Him and His followers.
v. 2: Those who fail to bear fruit are removed. Those who do are pruned to bear more fruit. Fruit, here, is analogous to works that are pleasing to God (some object this advocates works-salvation. in a moment, I'll show that this isn't the case).
(v. 3: Jesus declares the Twelve (minus Judas) clean. This is comparable ceremonial cleanliness as laid out in the Law)
v. 4, 5: Here, we see:
- A command to abide in Jesus (implied, by faith, John 5:24, 6:35).
- One cannot please God apart from abiding in Jesus.
- Jesus shifts the analogy to vine and branches (it is worthy to note that, properly, there is no distinction between a vine and it's branches: they are seen as a unity. This speaks volumes of the tightness of a relationship Jesus desires with us).
- Those who abide in Jesus, will produce fruit.
- Apart from Jesus, we cannot hope to please God (that is, do nothing).
From these observations we see a few application points:
- Man can not save himself, but must rely on Christ.
- Faith justifies, but saving faith produces works. Failure to produce works indicates lack of faith.
- One must choose to abide.
Jesus spoke a parable which is quite relevant in this context:
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."'
"But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.
"But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.'
"Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
"For many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22:1-14.
Interestingly, there is no indication that the king utilized a lesser call to those who were originally invited than those who he had brought in from the streets. But what is important here is the last section about the man without the wedding clothes. Apparently for feasts in the Middle East, kings may provide appropriate garments for those who couldn't afford them.1 The man had no excuse for not having wedding clothes on, as evidenced by his speechlessness. Now if the wedding clothes represent "putting on Christ" (cf. Rom. 13:14), then we our presented with something that should be most troublesome to Calvinists. The man received the same invitation, and indeed the same calling, as everyone else in the parable, and is even provided the necessary garment, yet insults the king by choosing not to wear it. Why was this person not chosen, but others in the feast were? It was exactly because he didn't put on the provided wedding garment. He was not elected due to His insult of the King's grace, while others were elected because of their loyalty.
Interestingly, this passage also applies to our future discussion of Grace. The person who is drawn (called) by God, is granted the necessary provision of grace (the wedding garment), yet finds himself speechless in his own culpability for rejecting God's (the king's) grace. (See Prevenient Grace)
But of course, the Calvinist will no doubt dispute all of the above, preferring to force fit these passages into their interpretation: "we decide to be saved because God has predestined us to do so." Of course in so doing, they render the passages irrelevant. (If you were predestined to, Jesus had no more reason to say "abide in me" than "spam, spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam." [Monty 3:16, SHV].) Nevertheless, this is seldomly convincing, so it is time to cement the issue of conditional predestination once and for all.
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. John 3:14.
"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." John 6:40
Here we see purpose; we see, the will of God, the mystery revealed. the Temple curtain has been sheared from top to bottom, figuratively speaking. Christ has been lifted up (figurative of his death; cf. John 12:32 and the crowd's response in 12:34), so that whoever believes will be saved... not to save a few handpicked individuals, but any who comes to Him. The will of the Father is that whoever believes shall have eternal life. God's will is not to pick some and not others based on some unrevealed plan, but to choose to save those who, after being drawn to him, choose to believe. indeed, the latter is within John chapter 6, which seems to be a pinnacle section of scripture for Calvinists.
Thus, it is evident from Scripture that it is Biblical to hold that God elected individuals Christians according to His will to be with Him in life eternal. This was God's will all along. Of course, there is but one passage which may redeem Calvinism's Unconditional Election; but as we will see, their understanding of it is way off...
Published: Array
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