FREE WILL VERSUS ELECTION
Election
Definition - Action of God in choosing those who will be saved as members of the body of Christ
Many biblical uses:
Israel-Deut 4:37; 7:7
Cyrus-Isa 45:1-4
Christ-Isa 42:1
Tribulation saints-Matt 24:22
Believers in Christ today-Col 3:12; Titus 1:1
Harmony with God’s character:
Love-John 3:16; Eph 1:4-5
Wisdom-Jude
Eternal purpose-Rom 8:30; Eph 1:4
Self glorification-Eph 1:12-14
God’s desire for all to be saved (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9)
Scriptural support:
Pre-temporal choice
Unconditional
John 6:44; 15:16; Acts 13:48; 16:14; 26:18; Rom 8:28-30; 9:6-24; Rev 13:8; 17:8
Those included...Group-Eph 1:4-5; 1 Pet 1:12...Individual-Jer 1:4-5; Gal 1:15-16; Rom 16:13; 2 John 1, 13
Those not included-Rom 9:22; 1 Pet 2:8
Human responsibility:
John 3:16; Acts 2:23; 16:31; 17:30; Rev 22:17
Ryrie A Survey of Bible Doctrine 118- “There are unsaved elect people alive today, though the elect are now lost and will not be saved until they believe.”
Product of election = good works-Jer 1:4-5; Gal 1:15-16; Eph 2:10
Many biblical uses:
Israel-Deut 4:37; 7:7
Cyrus-Isa 45:1-4
Christ-Isa 42:1
Tribulation saints-Matt 24:22
Believers in Christ today-Col 3:12; Titus 1:1
Harmony with God’s character:
Love-John 3:16; Eph 1:4-5
Wisdom-Jude
Eternal purpose-Rom 8:30; Eph 1:4
Self glorification-Eph 1:12-14
God’s desire for all to be saved (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9)
Scriptural support:
Pre-temporal choice
Unconditional
John 6:44; 15:16; Acts 13:48; 16:14; 26:18; Rom 8:28-30; 9:6-24; Rev 13:8; 17:8
Those included...Group-Eph 1:4-5; 1 Pet 1:12...Individual-Jer 1:4-5; Gal 1:15-16; Rom 16:13; 2 John 1, 13
Those not included-Rom 9:22; 1 Pet 2:8
Human responsibility:
John 3:16; Acts 2:23; 16:31; 17:30; Rev 22:17
Ryrie A Survey of Bible Doctrine 118- “There are unsaved elect people alive today, though the elect are now lost and will not be saved until they believe.”
Product of election = good works-Jer 1:4-5; Gal 1:15-16; Eph 2:10
The following is a paper I, Bryan D. Stallings, personally wrote. I am sharing it with you that it might further aid in your studies. To copy/paste this paper and submit as your own is PROHIBITED!
The Bible exists as a story of the relationship between humans and God. The people that lived the story and wrote it down believed this relationship was special. God made certain promises to them as well as sustained and corrected them. There existed times of exaltation and punishment; but, in every case, God held them in consideration. Where these people forced into doing Gods’ Will or did they have a choice in the matter? This remains extremely powerful but problematic. This is known as free-will or election. The subject of free-will versus election remains amongst the most difficult topics for today’s society. There exists hardly a more jumbled maze that has long put the very minds of philosophers and theologians, old and new alike, to work with more labor than fruit. However, nothing remains more important to a person than freedom of choice. We choose what movies to see, books to read, and to whom our vote is cast. There exists the ability to set goals and move towards those goals. Nevertheless, these remain only surface freedoms. Now, election, by contrast, refers to an idea that a person, group, or nation have been selected by God to be saved from amongst many for both revelation and responsibility as members of the body of Christ. The existence of biblical uses in election remains outstanding. It also harmonizes with the very character of God, which includes love, wisdom, His eternal purpose and desire for all to be saved. By simple observation, the mind has the power to choose anything and remains capable of choosing. People have wondered over the years whether their choices and actions might be determined by fate or by God, by laws of physics or laws of logic, by heredity and environment, or by unconscious motives or psychological or social conditioning.
The problem of the free-will remains in the two words themselves. If a person should ask if their ‘will’ is actually ‘free’ they have separated ‘the will’ as a faculty in of itself and it may or may not be ‘free’ in its proceedings. Meaning, is man ‘free’ to make decisions and choices of his own without outside assistance making him a creature of option? If then ‘the will’ is ‘truly free’, can man live without, or choose, to live without sin? I would rather express free-will as thus, that free-will exists as what appears to be the most agreeable for it appears most agreeable to the mind making the mind the determining factor in that choice. What has influence to render an object in view of agreeable? Is it not only what appears in the object viewed, but also in the manner for which the view, the state, and circumstances of the mind that views it? This choice remains in the spectrum of good or bad, God glorifying or God defying, which brings up an interesting question, is fallen man so affected by sin that he needs help in making decisions, or can he make the conscience decision to sin or not sin all on his own?
The Arminianists, founded by a Dutch theologian named Jacobus Arminius, state that man remains seriously affected by The Fall; however, his existence is not one left in a state of total spiritual helplessness, or depravity, for God graciously makes the possibility for every sinner to repent and believe without the interference in man’s free will. Free-will exists as man's natural and given state and so it was not lost during The Fall. Depending on how he uses it, man’s free will dictates his destiny. He may possess the ability to choose good and evil, spiritually speaking; he is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power, or free will, to choose Gods’ sufficient grace (ascribed to all men) or resist perish and does not have to be regenerated before he can believe. As defined by Arminius free will remains limited by Gods’ sovereignty; however, Gods’ sovereignty allows men to decide the acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus through faith while at the same time allowing him to refuse to accept. However, faith remains man’s act, which goes before the new birth and his gift to God, while being man’s contribution to salvation. Robert P. Lightner, author of the book Sin, The Savior, and Salvation, sums Arminianism into this one statement “While the Arminian acknowledges the scriptural teaching of man’s lost condition, he softens that teaching by his doctrine of sufficient grace.”[1] However, can man actually make his own decisions and chose in the direction for which he desires?
A man named David C. Pellett states in his article named “Election or Selection? The Historical Basis for the Doctrine of the Election of Israel” that if the people where chosen then everything subsequently was chosen. He writes that...
“If the people were chosen, then the land was chosen, the climate was chosen, and a whole series of historical events were chosen, for all of these factors were at work, not once, but in each successive generation, eliminating some people but including others who were aliens, forging a people capable of serving the purposes of God.”[2]
This statement brings into focus the existing of a certain doctrine that cannot exist without the fundamental understanding of The Bible and seriousness of which is The Doctrine of Election. Like it or not, The Doctrine of Election remains and always will remains a Biblical doctrine. The The Old Testament states that Israel is the chosen people of God. Proof of this exists in Deuteronomy 4:37[3] and 7:7[4]. The Doctrine of Election not only refers to a group of people but also to particular individuals such as Christ in Isaiah 42:1 where The Prophet Isaiah writes...“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one {in whom} My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” [5]
Isaiah repeats this in when he writes...
“Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. “I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. "For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen {one,} I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.”. (NASB) [6]
In The New Testament, Jesus speaks on The Doctrine of Election when He refers to the tribulation saints in Matthew 24:22[7]. Paul establishes this doctrine later in The New Testament when he speaks to the believers in Christ in Colossians 3:12[8] and to Titus in Titus 1:1[9]. The Doctrine of Election remains harmonized with Gods’ very character. Examples of this exist as follows: His love in John 3:16[10], His wisdom in The Book of Jude, His eternal purpose in Romans 8:30[11] and Ephesians 1:4[12], and His desire for all to be saved in 1 Timothy 2:4[13] and 2 Peter 3:9[14]. Unfortunately, the very history of election remains a very regretful one indeed. When the Israelites entered by force the land of Canaan, they “...utterly destroy[ed] them...”[15], “[took] only the women...children... animals...as booty...”[16], “...[while] not leav[ing] alive anything that breathes”[17] and believed that God had elected them. Even the Carolingians, led by Charlemagne in their mission in The Christianizing of northern Europe, marched into Saxon territory and hung a ton of people in one day believing they were as well the elect of God.
Calvinists go in the complete opposite direction of Arminianism and state that because of The Fall, man remains unable to believe The Gospel. He is a sinner and remains dead, blind, and deaf to all the things of God with a heart of deceptiveness. His will is not free and remains in bondage to his evil, sinful nature. Therefore, he will not choose good over evil, spiritually speaking. Consequently, man needs to be regenerated by The Spirit in making him alive spiritually and giving him a new nature. A man’s faith is not a gift nor contribute to salvation but is a gift Gods’ gift of salvation. There exists many Scriptural references supporting this view and they are as follows: Genesis 2:16 and 17, Job 14:4, Psalms 51:5 and 58:3, Isaiah 53:6, Mark 7:21 – 23, Romans 8:7 – 8, Ephesians 2:1 – 3, and Titus 1:15.
Through the years of wondering whether choices and actions remain determined by fate, God, or human intervention one thing stands clear even to the layman. The Scripture reveals that humanity lost its true freedom when Adam fell. Man cannot do anything to please God, gain His approval, nor change his own direction from hating God to loving God. John 8:34 reveals that all humanity exists as slaves to sin coupled with the lost of true freedom after The Fall, sin remains our bondage. There still does exist the right to choose and all humanity chooses to sin therefore making them bondage to sin. Martin Luther and John Calvin, great theologians of their respective times, stress this very fact. Luther writes...
“I wish that the word ‘free-will’ had never been invented. It is not in The Scriptures, and it were better to call it ‘self-will’, which profiteth nothing.”...and further states...“Free-will is plainly a divine term and can be applicable to none but The Divine Majesty only...wherefore, it becomes theologians to refrain from the use of this term altogether...” [18]
The only true freedom that a person ascertains remains in redemption as the person is regenerated and begins the sanctification process enabling him to do things that exist as pleasing to God. Then and only then is man able not to sin and the bondage to such is broken.
Footnotes:
[1] Robert P. Lightner, Sin The Savior and Salvation (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1991), pg. 109.
[2] Election or Selection? The Historical Basis for the Doctrine of the Election of Israel By David C. Pellett, pg. 155
[3] “Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. ”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[4] “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples...” New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[5] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Isaiah 42:1.
[6] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Cyrus – Isaiah 45:1 – 4.
[7] “...but for the sake of the elect....”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[8] “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved...”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[9] “...for the faith of those chosen of God...” New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[10] “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[11] “...and these whom He predestined, [and] called...He also justified...He also glorified.”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[12]“... just as He chose us in Him...that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[13] “...who desires all men to be saved...”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[14] “The Lord...not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[15] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Joshua 11:20. Brackets added for emphasis.
[16] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Deuteronomy 20:14. Brackets added for emphasis.
[17] Ibid, Deuteronomy 20:16. Brackets added for emphasis.
[18] Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986), pgs. 233 – 234.
The Bible exists as a story of the relationship between humans and God. The people that lived the story and wrote it down believed this relationship was special. God made certain promises to them as well as sustained and corrected them. There existed times of exaltation and punishment; but, in every case, God held them in consideration. Where these people forced into doing Gods’ Will or did they have a choice in the matter? This remains extremely powerful but problematic. This is known as free-will or election. The subject of free-will versus election remains amongst the most difficult topics for today’s society. There exists hardly a more jumbled maze that has long put the very minds of philosophers and theologians, old and new alike, to work with more labor than fruit. However, nothing remains more important to a person than freedom of choice. We choose what movies to see, books to read, and to whom our vote is cast. There exists the ability to set goals and move towards those goals. Nevertheless, these remain only surface freedoms. Now, election, by contrast, refers to an idea that a person, group, or nation have been selected by God to be saved from amongst many for both revelation and responsibility as members of the body of Christ. The existence of biblical uses in election remains outstanding. It also harmonizes with the very character of God, which includes love, wisdom, His eternal purpose and desire for all to be saved. By simple observation, the mind has the power to choose anything and remains capable of choosing. People have wondered over the years whether their choices and actions might be determined by fate or by God, by laws of physics or laws of logic, by heredity and environment, or by unconscious motives or psychological or social conditioning.
The problem of the free-will remains in the two words themselves. If a person should ask if their ‘will’ is actually ‘free’ they have separated ‘the will’ as a faculty in of itself and it may or may not be ‘free’ in its proceedings. Meaning, is man ‘free’ to make decisions and choices of his own without outside assistance making him a creature of option? If then ‘the will’ is ‘truly free’, can man live without, or choose, to live without sin? I would rather express free-will as thus, that free-will exists as what appears to be the most agreeable for it appears most agreeable to the mind making the mind the determining factor in that choice. What has influence to render an object in view of agreeable? Is it not only what appears in the object viewed, but also in the manner for which the view, the state, and circumstances of the mind that views it? This choice remains in the spectrum of good or bad, God glorifying or God defying, which brings up an interesting question, is fallen man so affected by sin that he needs help in making decisions, or can he make the conscience decision to sin or not sin all on his own?
The Arminianists, founded by a Dutch theologian named Jacobus Arminius, state that man remains seriously affected by The Fall; however, his existence is not one left in a state of total spiritual helplessness, or depravity, for God graciously makes the possibility for every sinner to repent and believe without the interference in man’s free will. Free-will exists as man's natural and given state and so it was not lost during The Fall. Depending on how he uses it, man’s free will dictates his destiny. He may possess the ability to choose good and evil, spiritually speaking; he is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power, or free will, to choose Gods’ sufficient grace (ascribed to all men) or resist perish and does not have to be regenerated before he can believe. As defined by Arminius free will remains limited by Gods’ sovereignty; however, Gods’ sovereignty allows men to decide the acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus through faith while at the same time allowing him to refuse to accept. However, faith remains man’s act, which goes before the new birth and his gift to God, while being man’s contribution to salvation. Robert P. Lightner, author of the book Sin, The Savior, and Salvation, sums Arminianism into this one statement “While the Arminian acknowledges the scriptural teaching of man’s lost condition, he softens that teaching by his doctrine of sufficient grace.”[1] However, can man actually make his own decisions and chose in the direction for which he desires?
A man named David C. Pellett states in his article named “Election or Selection? The Historical Basis for the Doctrine of the Election of Israel” that if the people where chosen then everything subsequently was chosen. He writes that...
“If the people were chosen, then the land was chosen, the climate was chosen, and a whole series of historical events were chosen, for all of these factors were at work, not once, but in each successive generation, eliminating some people but including others who were aliens, forging a people capable of serving the purposes of God.”[2]
This statement brings into focus the existing of a certain doctrine that cannot exist without the fundamental understanding of The Bible and seriousness of which is The Doctrine of Election. Like it or not, The Doctrine of Election remains and always will remains a Biblical doctrine. The The Old Testament states that Israel is the chosen people of God. Proof of this exists in Deuteronomy 4:37[3] and 7:7[4]. The Doctrine of Election not only refers to a group of people but also to particular individuals such as Christ in Isaiah 42:1 where The Prophet Isaiah writes...“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one {in whom} My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” [5]
Isaiah repeats this in when he writes...
“Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. “I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. "For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen {one,} I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.”. (NASB) [6]
In The New Testament, Jesus speaks on The Doctrine of Election when He refers to the tribulation saints in Matthew 24:22[7]. Paul establishes this doctrine later in The New Testament when he speaks to the believers in Christ in Colossians 3:12[8] and to Titus in Titus 1:1[9]. The Doctrine of Election remains harmonized with Gods’ very character. Examples of this exist as follows: His love in John 3:16[10], His wisdom in The Book of Jude, His eternal purpose in Romans 8:30[11] and Ephesians 1:4[12], and His desire for all to be saved in 1 Timothy 2:4[13] and 2 Peter 3:9[14]. Unfortunately, the very history of election remains a very regretful one indeed. When the Israelites entered by force the land of Canaan, they “...utterly destroy[ed] them...”[15], “[took] only the women...children... animals...as booty...”[16], “...[while] not leav[ing] alive anything that breathes”[17] and believed that God had elected them. Even the Carolingians, led by Charlemagne in their mission in The Christianizing of northern Europe, marched into Saxon territory and hung a ton of people in one day believing they were as well the elect of God.
Calvinists go in the complete opposite direction of Arminianism and state that because of The Fall, man remains unable to believe The Gospel. He is a sinner and remains dead, blind, and deaf to all the things of God with a heart of deceptiveness. His will is not free and remains in bondage to his evil, sinful nature. Therefore, he will not choose good over evil, spiritually speaking. Consequently, man needs to be regenerated by The Spirit in making him alive spiritually and giving him a new nature. A man’s faith is not a gift nor contribute to salvation but is a gift Gods’ gift of salvation. There exists many Scriptural references supporting this view and they are as follows: Genesis 2:16 and 17, Job 14:4, Psalms 51:5 and 58:3, Isaiah 53:6, Mark 7:21 – 23, Romans 8:7 – 8, Ephesians 2:1 – 3, and Titus 1:15.
Through the years of wondering whether choices and actions remain determined by fate, God, or human intervention one thing stands clear even to the layman. The Scripture reveals that humanity lost its true freedom when Adam fell. Man cannot do anything to please God, gain His approval, nor change his own direction from hating God to loving God. John 8:34 reveals that all humanity exists as slaves to sin coupled with the lost of true freedom after The Fall, sin remains our bondage. There still does exist the right to choose and all humanity chooses to sin therefore making them bondage to sin. Martin Luther and John Calvin, great theologians of their respective times, stress this very fact. Luther writes...
“I wish that the word ‘free-will’ had never been invented. It is not in The Scriptures, and it were better to call it ‘self-will’, which profiteth nothing.”...and further states...“Free-will is plainly a divine term and can be applicable to none but The Divine Majesty only...wherefore, it becomes theologians to refrain from the use of this term altogether...” [18]
The only true freedom that a person ascertains remains in redemption as the person is regenerated and begins the sanctification process enabling him to do things that exist as pleasing to God. Then and only then is man able not to sin and the bondage to such is broken.
Footnotes:
[1] Robert P. Lightner, Sin The Savior and Salvation (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1991), pg. 109.
[2] Election or Selection? The Historical Basis for the Doctrine of the Election of Israel By David C. Pellett, pg. 155
[3] “Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. ”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[4] “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples...” New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[5] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Isaiah 42:1.
[6] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Cyrus – Isaiah 45:1 – 4.
[7] “...but for the sake of the elect....”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[8] “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved...”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[9] “...for the faith of those chosen of God...” New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[10] “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[11] “...and these whom He predestined, [and] called...He also justified...He also glorified.”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[12]“... just as He chose us in Him...that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[13] “...who desires all men to be saved...”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[14] “The Lord...not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”, New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997).
[15] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Joshua 11:20. Brackets added for emphasis.
[16] New American Standard Bible, (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1997), Deuteronomy 20:14. Brackets added for emphasis.
[17] Ibid, Deuteronomy 20:16. Brackets added for emphasis.
[18] Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986), pgs. 233 – 234.
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