By unconditional election
Calvin meant that some are elected to Heaven, while others are elected
to Hell, and that this election is unconditional. It is wholly on
God's part and without condition. By unconditional election Calvin
meant that God has already decided who will be saved and who will be
lost, and the individual has absolutely nothing to do with it. He can
only hope that God has elected him for Heaven and not for Hell.
This teaching so
obviously disagrees with the oft-repeated invitations in the Bible to
sinners to come to Christ and be saved that some readers will think
that I have overstated the doctrine. So I will quote John Calvin in
his "Institutes," Book III, chapter 23,
"....Not all men are
created with similar destiny but eternal life is foreordained for some
, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being
created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he is predestined
either to life or to death."
So Calvinism teaches that
it is God's own choice that some people are to be damned forever. He
never intended to save them. He foreordained them to go to Hell. And
when He offers salvation in the Bible, He does not offer it to those
who were foreordained to be damned. It is offered only to those who
were foreordained to be saved.
This teaching insists
that we need not try to win men to Christ because men cannot be saved
unless God has planned for them to be saved. And if God has planned
for them to be eternally lost, they will not come to Christ.
There is the Bible
doctrine of God's foreknowledge, predestination and election. Most
knowledgeable Christians agree that God has His controlling hand on
the affairs of men. They agree that according to the Bible, He selects
individuals like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David as instruments to do
certain things He has planned. Most Christians agree that God may
choose a nation-particularly that He did choose Israel, through which
He gave the law, the prophets, and eventually through whom the Saviour
Himself would come- and that there is a Bible doctrine that God
foreknows all things.
I have often said, "Did
it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurred to God?". God in His
foreknowledge knows who will trust Jesus Christ as Saviour, and He has
predestined to see that they are justified and glorified. He will keep
all those who trust Him and see that they are glorified. But the
doctrine that God elected some men to Hell, that they were born to be
damned by God's own choice, is a radical heresy not taught anywhere in
the Bible.
I have in my hand a
booklet entitled TULIP written by Vic Lockman. In the booklet Mr.
Lockman attempts to prove the five points of Calvinism. Under the
point, Unconditional Election, he quotes Ephesians 1:4, but he only
quotes the first part of the verse: "He hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. " However, that is not the end of the
verse. Mr. Lockman, like most Calvinists, stopped in the middle of the
verse. The entire verse reads: "According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love." The verse says nothing about being chosen
for Heaven or Hell. It says we are chosen that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love
Under the same point,
Unconditional Election, Mr. Lockman quotes John 15:16, "Ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you." Again, Mr. Lockman, like most
Calvinists, stops in the middle of the verse. The entire verse reads:
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that
ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it
you."
The verse says nothing
about being chosen for Heaven or Hell. It says we are chosen to go and
bring forth fruit, which simply means that every Christian is chosen
to be a soul winner. The fruit of a Christian is other Christians.
Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;
and he that winneth souls is wise."
Nowhere does the Bible
teach that God wills for some to go to Heaven and wills others to go
to Hell. No. The Bible teaches that God would have all men to be
saved. Second Peter 3:9 says that He is "not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance." First Timothy 2:4
says, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth."
Those who teach that God
would only have some to be saved, while He would have others to be
lost are misrepresenting God and the Bible.
Does God really
predestinate some people to be saved and predestinate others to go to
Hell, so that they have no free choice? Absolutely not! Nobody is
predestined to be saved, except as he chooses of his own free will to
come to Christ and trust Him for salvation. And no one is predestined
to go to Hell, except as he chooses of his own free will to reject
Christ and refuses to trust Him as Saviour. John 3:36 says, "He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Nothing could be plainer.
The man who goes to Heaven goes because he comes to Jesus Christ and
trusts Him as Saviour. And the man who goes to Hell does so because he
refuses to come to Jesus Christ and will not trust Him as Saviour.
End of Chapter Two
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