The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election
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Consider the last commission of Christ. Before our Lord left the world He said to His apostles, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Good news was thus to be proclaimed to every human being. If the commission meant anything it meant this, that God was honestly and earnestly desirous of saving every one. And this is in beautiful harmony with the exhortation in Isaiah: “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. xlv. 22). It is also in keeping with the words of Jesus recorded by John: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John iii. 16); and with what the apostle Peter says, that “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter iii. 9); and with what the apostle Paul says, that God “will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. ii. 4). But whilst the commission to preach the good news is in harmony with these express statements, it is out of joint and incongruous with the Calvinistic doctrine of election, that God wishes only a few of the human family saved.
Consider the Holy Spirit’s Invitation. In Revelation xxii. 17, it is written: “And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.” Whilst we are so constituted that we cannot believe a proposition the terms of which we do not understand, and whilst there is much that is inscrutable in the Spirit’s work, yet the passage just quoted clearly means, if it means anything, that the Holy Spirit invites all to come and drink of the life-giving water. We cannot doubt His sincerity. When all are invited to drink, it is implied that there is water for all, and that it is free to all, and that they have power to drink. We may not ask one to drink at an empty fountain without being guilty of the sheerest mockery; and neither may we ask the wounded and disabled man, who cannot walk a step, to come and drink, without being guilty of the same. This invitation of the Spirit, then, is inconsistent with the Calvinistic notion that His converting grace is limited. Says the late Dr. John Guthrie, “Was it antecedently to be supposed that a Divine Father who loves all, and so loved as to give His own and only-begotten for our ransom, and that the Divine Son, who as lovingly gave Himself, would send the Divine Spirit mediatorially to reveal and interpret both, who should not operate in the world on the same principle of impartiality and universality? What philosophy and theology thus dictate, Scripture confirms. Christ promised His disciples an interpreting and applying Spirit, who should convince the world. Prophets predicted, and Pentecost proved, that God was pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. These influences were, in their largest incidents, soul-saving; through being moral, they were resistible. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, said Stephen, and the Holy Ghost himself saith to-day, Oh that ye would hear His voice; which He would not do if faith came by another sort of influence which He only could give, and which He did not mean to give till to-morrow, or next year, or not at all! In that last and most gracious of Gospel invitations, which the incarnate Himself utters in Rev. xxii. 17, among other inviters, the Spirit says, come! and says it to all; which surely, as He is the Spirit of truth, He would not do, if not a soul could come till He himself put forth an influence which He had predetermined to bestow only on a select and favoured number. The ugly limitation will not do. The work and heart of the loving Spirit are, and must be, as large as those of the Father and the Son, whom He came to reveal.” (Discourses, Ser. X.)
The objections thus tendered to the Calvinistic theory of election are sufficient separately, and much more so collectively, to condemn the dogma. We impute no motives to the honoured men who hold the doctrine. They are doubtless as sincere in their belief as we are in ours. It did seem to us, at one time, that God could convert men if He wished it; but the dictum of Chillingworth—“the Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants,” overturned that idea. The words of Jesus, “How often would I have gathered thy children together, . . . but ye would not,” showed that Jesus was wishful to save the people; but His wish was not realised, because they “would not.” And the Bible and philosophy are in harmony. We could easily conceive, that were certain individuals to be taken by almighty effort from one sphere, and placed in another, they would be converted. Christ confirms this idea. He said, “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Mat. xi. 21). But as God loves all equally with the love of compassion, this exercise of miracle in one case would lead to the exercise of miracle in another. And what would this involve? It would simply lead to the overturning of God’s moral providence, which is based upon, and carried on in conjunction with, the highest wisdom. Parents may often be found sacrificing their wisdom to their love, but it is not so with God. All His attributes are in harmony. Justice is not sacrificed to love, nor love to justice. There is thus, in the Divine character, a firm and unchanging basis for the most profound veneration and the most intense affection.
Regarding the particular illustration of the people of Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon, and why Christ had not done mighty works there, Dr. Morison has remarked, “It was not befitting our Saviour to become incarnate at all times, or even at two different epochs in the history of the world. And when He did appear at a particular epoch in time, ‘the fulness of the time,’ it was absolutely necessary that He should live and work miracles, not everywhere, but in some one limited area or locality” (Com. on Mat., ad loc.)
CHAPTER VII.
THE SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF EVANGELICAL ELECTION
Although there is much confusion of thought regarding election viewing it from a Calvinistic standpoint, the word itself is simple enough, as is the doctrine when viewed in the light of Scripture.
The Word.—According to Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon, the verb to elect (eklego) means, “To pick or single out,” especially as soldiers, rowers, &c. In the middle voice, “to pick out for one’s self, choose out.” Robinson says it means “to lay out together, to choose out, to select.” In N. T. Mid., “to choose out for one’s self.” Parkhurst gives as its signification, “to choose, choose out.” It has a variety of applications in the Scriptures, just as it has in our common everyday life. It was applied to the Jewish nation, regarding which it was said, “The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth” (Deut. xiv. 2). The term comprehended the whole nation, and no one will contend that the choice spoken of indicated that every Jew was safe for eternity. It was applied to the apostles, but this did not thereby secure infallibly their salvation. Judas fell away, and hanged himself. Paul declared that he had constantly to watch himself, lest he should become “a castaway.” It is applied to David, “But I chose David to be over my people Israel” (1 Kings viii. 16). It is used also in reference to “place:” “As the place which the Lord your God shall choose” (Deut. xii. 5). The prophets of Baal were asked to “choose” a bullock, “and call on the name of their gods” (1 Kings xviii. 23). These and other applications of the word are quite sufficient to show that the term is not necessarily connected with the choosing of a few men to eternal salvation, and implying a faith-necessitating work of the Holy Spirit. And something is gained when we have gained this. Were we therefore asked whether we denied election? we should be quite entitled to ask, to what kind of election did our questioner refer? since there are several kinds referred to in the Holy Scriptures, and a special kind outside of Scripture, entertained by the followers of John Calvin.
Evangelical Election. a Process.—Seeing that the word “elect” means to “pick out,” “to choose, to lay aside for one’s self,” it may denote either an act or a process, according to the object elected. If I select a book from the library, or choose an apple from the tree, the election thus exercised is simply an act, The book elected and the apple were entirely passive, having no will in the matter. But suppose I want two servants: I go into the market where a number are standing waiting to be employed. I find two, and explain the nature of the service, and state the wages and the rules of the house. One of the two accepts, the other refuses. I go forward on my mission, and find another. I state to him what I stated to the two already mentioned. He agrees, and is engaged. I have chosen—“elected”—the servants; but it was a process, not a simple act. Other wills came into play which differentiated the election in the one case from the other, and the concurrence of the two wills completed the matter. It is written in the word: “Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. vi. 17, 18). This brings the matter plainly before us. There is the Divine exhortation, human concurrence, and the result—adoption. It is an absurd and unreasonable supposition to imagine that God deals with rational and responsible creatures as He does with vegetable and irrational brutes, which He does if the theory of irresistible grace is maintained.
The Author of Evangelical Election.—There would not be need for any remark on this subject, were it not that objection may be urged against the view just stated, that it makes man the author of his election. In a secondary, yet important sense, he has to do with his election. But God is the Prime Mover and Author of evangelical election. The scheme of redemption originated with Him. He tells men that He earnestly desires their return, and upon what terms He will graciously receive them. If they consent He will take them out from amongst the condemned, “select them,” “elect them,” and place them among His children. The Bible confirms this view: “God hath from the beginning chosen you” (2 Thes. ii. 13.) “God our Father has chosen us in Him” (Eph. i. 3, 4.)
The Objects of Evangelical Election,—The people of this country are frequently engaged in elections. We elect men for the School Board, the Town Council, and for Parliament. When we record our vote we do so for a definite object. What, then, are the objects which God has in view in evangelical election? The apostle Peter states them in his first epistle. He says, “Elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.” (1 Peter i. 2.) In other words, they were chosen, having become believers, to the blessings of justification and sanctification,—the one having reference to their state, the other to their character.
How to Enter among the Elect.—This has been the great puzzle to those educated under the teaching of Calvinistic divines. They read in the Bible that God wishes all men to be saved, but they are told that this means all the elect. At times they are “offered” a Saviour, but they are told that in order to believe in Him they need the irresistible influence of the Holy Ghost. If they are amongst the favoured ones, it will come to them in due time; but if they are not, then no prayers, no cries, no tears can alter the Divine decree. How long will men stand by a system unknown to the Christian church for 400 years, and alike repugnant to the reason and the whole spirit of the Gospel, and fitted to plunge the honest inquirer into endless perplexity?
“Oh! how unlike the complex works of manHeaven’s easy, artless, unencumber’d plan,No meretricious graces to beguile,No clustering ornaments to clog the pile;From ostentation as from weakness free,It stands like the cerulean arch we see,Majestic in its own simplicity.Inscribed above the portal from afar,Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,Legible only by the light they give,Stand the soul-quickening words—‘Believe and Live.’ ”Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians tells us how they entered among the elect. His words are: “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes. ii. 13.) They were thus among the elect, and we are told how it came about. The Spirit had brought the Gospel message to Thessalonica by his accredited agent, the apostle Paul. In that message the people were told of God’s infinite love—that He loved them, and that the Saviour had died for their sins. He testified to Jesus as mighty to save, to save any—to save all—to save to the very uttermost. He convinced them that they stood in need of a Saviour, and that Christ was the very Saviour they required. These were two great phases of the Spirit’s work—viz., to produce conviction in the mind of the sinner, and to point out Jesus as the Lamb of God which hath taken away the sin of the world. The Thessalonians, under His gracious testimony, believed the record, or, as it is said, “the truth,” and became the chosen of God—His elected ones.
That this is true may be seen from the way in which sinners enter into God’s adopted family. It will be admitted that all who are in God’s adopted family are in a saved condition—in the same state, in short, as are the elected ones. But how do men enter into this adopted family? It is stated in John i. 12, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” To believe on His name is just to depend upon Him alone for salvation. The apostle Paul in writing to the Galatians says, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. iii. 26.) Each one had personally to believe in Christ, or to say as Paul said, He “loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. ii. 20.)
It may be said that this makes the way too easy, too simple. It is simple to us indeed, but it cost the Divine Father the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son; it cost the Divine Son His sore agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and His offering up of himself upon the cross. But the simplicity of the way of salvation is implied in such passages as, “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;” and, “Hear and your soul shall live.” The reason why it is easy is this,—the meritorious work of salvation, the work upon the ground of which we get into heaven, is not our feelings, nor our own works, but the work, the finished work of Christ.
The system advocated in this treatise may be objected to on the ground that it makes man the arbiter of his own destiny. There is no doubt that it really does so. But is this a good ground for rejecting it? We think not. Let it be remembered that all through life man has to exercise the power of election—choice. He has to do so in regard to a profession or trade, in regard to securities, and in respect of marriage, and it would only be in harmony with what he is constantly doing, were he called upon to “choose,” or decide, upon matters affecting his spiritual condition. Is he not, moreover, the maker of his own character? This is his most precious heritage, more valuable than thousands of gold and silver. But how is it made? By single volitions on the side of the right, the true, and the good. And is not the life that is to come a continuance of the life that now is? And if we exercise choice in the making of our characters, this is the same as being the arbiters of our destination in eternity. And what is thus plain to the intelligence is confirmed by the Scriptures. Their language is, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve;” “Wilt thou not from this day say unto me, My father?” They thus clearly make the matter to turn on the “will.”
It may be said that the view for which we have been contending, does not give the Christian the comfort of heart which the system opposed does. But the primary question with an honest inquirer should not be, which view of a subject is the most agreeable? but, what is the truth upon the point? It is possible in religious life, as in social, to live in a fool’s paradise. But what more comfort could a man desiderate than is given by the Holy Spirit? The Christian may be poor and deformed, but God loves him all the same as if he were rich as Crœsus, and in form had the symmetry of the Apollo Belvidere. He may be tried as silver is tried in the fire, but the Lord will sit as the refiner, and not suffer him to be tried above what he is able to bear.
But what about the security of the believer? The covenant being made between Christ and the Father is well ordered in all things and sure, according to the system of Predestination. “Once a saint, a saint for ever,” it has been said. The Christian, it is argued, may make slips, even as David did, but he cannot fall finally away, for every one that Christ died for will be ultimately saved. Now if all this were true, then doubtless a sense, or feeling if you will, of security would be gained. When Cromwell was dying he is said to have asked his chaplain whether those who once knew the truth could be lost, and being answered in the negative, he replied, “Then I am safe.” Now, it is not agreeable to be constantly on the watch-tower looking out for the foe, or to have to tread cautiously among the grass lest you should be bitten by a rattlesnake. But a man may imagine himself to be secure when he is not. Many of the shareholders and trustees involved in the late Bank catastrophy thought they were secure; but they slept upon a slumbering volcano, and many lost their all. They thought that they were secure, but it was a dream from which they were awakened to a terrible reality. So in religion. A man under the shadow of a theory may think himself safe, whilst his gourd is only the gourd of Jonah, a thing that withers under the heat of the sun. The feeling of security is very agreeable; but how, if strict Calvinism is adhered to, is any man to get intelligently amongst the elect? If Christ has died only for a few, and the names of these are kept a profound secret, how can I believe that I am among that few? We cannot believe without evidence. If we do, our faith is the faith of the fool—a dream, a conceit, and nothing more. Before a man, upon the theory of strict Calvinism, can believe that Christ died for him, he would require to get a list of the elect. This not being forthcoming, many poor men are waiting for the touch of the Almighty’s finger to work faith within them, and place them among the happy number of the saved. But in so waiting they are under a perfect delusion. As a matter of fact there are many excellent Christian men who contend earnestly for the creed of Calvinism. They read in the Bible that God is willing to take sinners back through Christ, and they come to Him, and consecrate themselves to His services, and then battle for limitation. But in accepting Christ as their Saviour they shut their eyes to the doctrine of their creed, and acted on the declarations of the word of God. We rejoice that they are Christians, but maintain, nevertheless, that in believing they acted illogically.
But to return to security. What more security could any one desire than the word of Christ?—“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John x. 27, 29). Our Lord is here speaking of external foes, and declares that no enemy is strong enough to take His sheep from Him. But men enter His service freely, and freely they remain. He has no slaves in His household. His people are attached to Him because they see in Him a concentration of all that is noble and good. His self-sacrifice for them has won their hearts, and inspired them with devotedness to His person. That it is possible to fall away we admit, from the fact that man is a free being surrounded with temptations; and also because we find throughout the Bible earnest exhortations to watchfulness, which would be quite useless except upon the possibility of letting the truth slip from the mind. Hymenæus and Alexander made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim. i.); and Paul had to keep his body under, lest he himself should become a castaway. But the possibility of falling away should not disturb the equanimity of any Christian for a moment. As free creatures we have the power of throwing ourselves into the river, or the fire, or in many other ways taking our own life; yet the possession of this power in nowise disturbs our tranquillity of soul, or mars our peace of mind. It were, no doubt, more pleasing to the flesh to have no fighting, no struggle, no watching; but we must accept the logic of facts, and they clearly indicate that the Christian life is a battle all the way to the gates of the New Jerusalem. But in this spiritual contest, the thews and sinews of the soul are made strong. By failing to realise the ideal of what a Christian should be, believers feel the need of Christ’s presence, and the help of the Holy Ghost, and sympathise with the sentiments of the hymn.
“I could not do without Thee,O Saviour of the lost,Whose precious blood redeemed meAt such tremendous cost;Thy righteousness, Thy pardon,Thy precious blood must beMy only hope and comfort,My glory and my plea.“I could not do without Thee;I cannot stand alone,I have no strength or goodness,No wisdom of my own;But Thou, beloved Saviour,Art all in all to me,And weakness will be powerIf leaning hard on Thee.“I could not do without TheeNo other friend can readThe spirit’s strange deep longings,Interpreting its need;No human heart could enterEach dim recess of mine,And soothe, and hush, and calm it,O blessed Lord, but Thine.Having entered by faith into the family of God, or in other words, amongst the elect, it becomes the sacred duty of the believer to be careful to maintain good works. He must remember that the way to heaven is not strewn with roses. He is Christ’s freeman; but it is with spiritual freedom as with civil, “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Neither is it an artillery duel, or firing at long range; it is ofttimes a grapple in the fosse for victory or death.
But the Christian—the elected one—has not to fight life’s battle alone. The Holy Spirit having led him to Jesus carries on the good work in his heart. He tells him that he is dear to God; that he is His son, “His jewel;” His “portion;” that God will never leave him nor forsake him; that his strength shall be equal to his day; that his foot shall never be moved; and that God, who hath given up for him His son, will with that Son freely give him all things. By being faithful unto death he shall at last receive the crown of life, which shall never fade away.
THE END