Why a Baptist will never hold to a doctrine of Calvinism or Augustinian Predestination

Isaiah 53:6 says “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Noted Evangelist Loren Dawson says “This verse begins and ends with ‘all.’ If the first ‘all’ is without exception, and it is, what gives us the right, what hermeneutic or homiletic gives us the right to say that the last all is just for a few selected ones? That kind of shoots limited atonement in the foot doesn’t it. ... God doesn’t make that choice, you make that choice! The only thing in this world that is needed to bring down that idol of TULIP Theology is knowing that God in sovereign grace gives man a choice and then holds men accountable to that choice! That just shoots their idol in the head and it all comes down just like Nebuchadnezzar’s idol of gold and the wind blows it all away.”

The gross error found in 5 point Calvinism permeates our theology with a poison. That poison has paralyzed soul winning, intercessory prayer, our knowledge of God's will and our knowledge of God. The idol of gold has been killed. “Concerning the Five Points of Calvinism, Lorain Boettner has stated on page 59 of his book, “The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination,” 'prove any one of them true and all of the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned!' Since Mr. Boettner is considered an authority on the subject, I would encourage you to follow his advice and abandon the system when you find one of the Five Points to be wrong.¹”

The idol has been brought down. This work is intended to make the pieces turn into 'the chaff of the summer threshing floor' (Dan 2:35) and stir the wind that carries them away, that no place can be found for them.

“The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.²” The author who benefited me most concerning the errors of Calvinism was without doubt Samuel Fisk in his book “Calvinistic Paths Retraced.” Fisk's editor describes the work with three words; Scriptural; Scholarship; and Thoroughness. Having spent 30 years bumping into the ugly doctrine of Calvinism in Baptist Churches, I found that Fisk gave expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in me for utterance. Concerning such struggles, Oswald Chambers goes on to say “If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. ... Struggle to re-express some truth of God to yourself, and God will use that expression to someone else.” .... “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (II Tim 2:15) May my struggles find the expression in this short booklet which will clarify a gross error in soteriology that has plagued Christians since its inception in the mind of St. Augustine (AD 354-430). That error is in considering some chosen and elected for salvation, and some chosen and elected for damnation. The doctrine of election has even been that distorted in some Regular Baptist Churches that I have attended. This booklet is dedicated to the hope that it will keep some from partaking in the crippling poison of that error and give expression to a truth that has been struggling in you for utterance.

This effort was prompted by the airing of Dr. R.C. Sproul's series called “Predestination.” The error broadcast in that airing inflamed righteous indignation and sent me on a quest to express the truth concerning the Biblical doctrine of election. Thank you Dr. R.C. Sproul! Your error has initiated the struggle and it has been for my betterment.

To see what Biblical election is all about, lets first examine the election of Israel. Israel was elect, a chosen nation of people. They were elected to do three major deeds. To deliver the Messiah to humanity. Through Israel we trace the chosen seed. This righteous seed goes through individuals, tribes, kings, harlots and Moabites. For seed purposes, the Bible says that Jacob was loved and Esau was hated. The seed traced from Abraham through Judah, through David but not Solomon, and eventually to the Messiah. The seed line is a major drama of the Old Testament narrative. Israel was a elect to deliver the written precepts of God to mankind. (Romans 3:1-2) Through Israel the 39 books of the Bible's Old Testament were written and preserved, and through them the 27 books of the Bible's New Testament were written³. Thirdly, Israel was elect to show to the whole world that “the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut. 6:4, Mark 12:29) and that the world's polytheism was idolatry. In Mark 12:29 Jesus called this the first of all the commandments, and through Israel this message of monotheism was manifest to the world. The election of individuals and of people in the Old Testament was thus an election to accomplish a task. Nowhere in this election of a people to do these tasks is an individual soul elected or predestined to an eternity in heaven or an eternity in hell. Election in the Old Testament is always for service, to work the purposes of God in this life, here on this earth.

As in the Old Testament where individuals are chosen to accomplish three major tasks on this earth, so in the New Testament God has individuals chosen to accomplish three major tasks on this earth. Those with this tasking are called the elect. They are not chosen because of merit, not chosen at birth but they become the chosen when they are born again into the body of the elect one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are 'in Christ' are as elect as the Christ. They were not chosen to be 'in Christ' but once 'in Christ' through their new birth, they are the elect for 3 major tasks. They are elect in Him to be his witnesses to a lost dying world. Acts 1:8 says “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” They are elect in Him to be the manifestation of Christ to that lost dying world. Thirdly they are elect in Him as a people to temple the Holy Spirit of God in this world as the Spirit reproves the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. As before this election is for service to work God's purposes in this life on earth. Nowhere in this election is an individual soul elected to an eternity in heaven or an eternity in hell. Further, nowhere is any individual elected or chosen prior to his acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour.

So how has Christendom so readily departed from this Biblical representation of who the elect are? How have even Baptist succumbed to teaching that God foreknows who will be saved and who will be last, thus sealing fates for eternity? In studying the Biblical doctrine of election we will find that Augustine was wrong when he read into scripture the predestination of individual souls into heaven. We shall see that John Calvin, who systematized this error into a theology and saw it permeate the Geneva Bible did a great travesty to truth and theology. It will be clear that the reformed theologian who preaches election as the predestination of individual souls into heaven or hell is so twisting the Bible doctrine of election as to make some two fold more the child of hell. So too the Baptist who believes and preaches the individual election of souls to heaven or hell is dabbling in error and false teaching which malign his very election to service as a witness to the world, as the manifestation of the love of Christ in the world and as a temple of the Holy Spirit to reprove the world.

Nowhere in Scripture is an individual elected to be in Christ. But those that are in Christ are elect. Once 'in' they are the elect for special service in this world. One is does not enter the kingdom of God because he was elected to be so (Eph 2:8-9 says “for by grace are ye saved” not by election), but one is elected because he is born into the kingdom. (Eph 2:10 says “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”) One does not get in by election (John 3:14-19), but once 'in' one the elect and tasked to service. In Col 3:12 the Bible clarifies that election is for work not for justification “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” Now that we are in the kingdom of God, whosoever wills that are installed by grace through faith and that not of election, we are to behave as elect ones with work to do. Again, How does one get 'in'? You must make an individual decision of your will to accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom 10:13) Once 'in' you are elected to service for your Lord, as you walk here in this life. Ergo election is to service here not to salvation in heaven.

Can I get a witness? Yes, several. In Subjets Of Sovereignty by Andrew Telford⁴, he says:

“Nowhere in the Bible is Election connected with the salvation or damnation of a human soul. ... The most important phase of Election pertains to service ... Election has to do with service. It is God's elect who serve him.”

In The Theology Of The New Testament” by George B. Stevens⁵ (pp 380-386), it is stated

“What was the nature and the purpose of this divine election of Israel? I answer that Paul conceives of it as a historic action of God in setting apart the Jewish nation to a special mission or function in the world as the bearer of his revelation to all mankind. ... These chapters (Romans 9-11) speak of election to a historic function or mission, not of eternal destiny. ... Theology has often applied these ideas to the subject of man's final destiny. Whatever may be the logic of such an application, it is exegetically⁶ unjustifiable. ... Paul does not teach the doctrine of predestination which Calvin taught, nor does he teach the doctrine as held by historic Calvinism.”

And in “Word Studies In The New Testament” by Marvin R. Vincent⁷, Vincent clarifies:

“ 'Ekloge' election ... and kindred words, to 'choose', and 'chosen' or 'elect', are used of God's selection of men or agencies for special missions or attainments; but neither here (1Thes 1:4) nor elsewhere in the N.T. Is there any warrant for the revolting doctrine that God has predestined a definite number of mankind to eternal life, and the rest to eternal destruction.”

In the pages that follow the Biblical doctrine of election will be explored. It will differ greatly from Reformed theology because it will be based on Biblical exegesis rather than on Augustinian error. It will contend with and dis-spell the Calvinistic theology and the reformed TULIP (Total Depravity; Unconditional Election; Limited Atonement; Irresistible Grace; Perseverance of the Saints) that sprang from the fertile protestant ground of misrepresented Scripture from a vulgar Vulgate⁸, and the erred doctrines that came from Alexandria Egypt.

The errors of Calvinism have crept into our Churches unawares. Directly they have quieted soul winners, halted street preaching, bus routes, mission outreach and visitation efforts. Indirectly the tentacles of these errors have entangled our understanding of how an individual comes to Christ. They have given us the idea that God foreknows who will be saved, and it is all fixed in the future. Thus some Baptists, who are supposed to be people of the book, have gotten the ill conceived notion that their salvation was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Baptists have tangled into an idea that their lives are mapped out before the world was created. Such ill notions are from Calvin's theology book not from God's Holy Bible.

After we establish a Biblical doctrine of election we will explore the origins of the errors of Calvinism back through the St. Augustine's departure from the faith. Some Scripture's will be detailed and some dangers of this error will then be exposed. This treaties will clarify and show that there are not two views of election, Calvin and Armenian, but three, Calvin's error, Armenian's reactive over correction, over emphasizing free will and lastly the Biblical treatment of the doctrine of election and foreknowledge. May God bless you in your studies of this latter view.

The Bible teaches that salvation through the atonement of Christ is available and free to every individual, that every responsible⁹ individual has the free will, the moral aptitude and the moral requirement to accept the redeeming act of the Lord Jesus Christ. No soul can accept this atonement for their sin except the Father draw him (John 6:44¹⁰), but God is not willing that any should perish (II Pet 3:9¹¹). God has given each and every man “the True light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:8-9¹²), Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them, (Rom 1:18-20¹³) and that “the righteous God trieth the hearts and reigns” of every man, to bring them to an acceptance of His free gift of Salvation. (Psalm 7:9, Isa 1:18, Jer 17:10¹⁴)

In assembling the Bible doctrine on election a first and foremost consideration must be what the Bible says about the availability of salvation to man. If God has preordained some for salvation and some for destruction as Calvinism declares, then the offer to the 'whosoevers' of humanity is not valid. A doctrine of election must allow the preponderance of Scriptures which insist on the volition and moral agency of man. From the fall in the garden, man was given the knowledge of “good and evil” and the option and ability to choose between the two. The poet puts this truth to prose:

Even Marvin R. Vincent, the noted Presbyterian Calvinist acknowledges this truth. In his famous Word Studies in the New Testament he writes:

“That the factor of human economy is too obvious to require reproof. It appears in numerous utterances ... and in the entire drift of Scripture, where man's power of moral choice is both asserted, assumed, and appealed to.¹⁶”

Those who would study scripture without the blinders of Calvinism see this blatant truth. In The Philosophy of Christianity Dr. L.S. Keyer succinctly says:

“That man has a conscience which distinguishes between right and wrong and a free will by which he is able to choose between them, scarcely seems to require any argument, seeing that he functions in this world as a moral being... His whole experience tells him that he is a free moral being.¹⁷”

Of course a doctrine of election that violates this free-will of man to choose his destiny would make missionary efforts futile. Notice the rigorous attention to this dilemma detailed by Steve R. Morris, Independent Baptist Missionary to Mexico:

When God says 'Whosoever will may come...', it means literally what God says. God is making a legitimate offer of salvation to all of mankind. He is not saying what He really does not mean. God cannot 'command all men everywhere to repent.' and know that since He has already condemned certain people to hell, and they have no choice in the matter (as Calvinism falsely teaches), and therefore they can not repent. In other words, the Calvinist would say He is not really making a legitimate offer. He is not really saying what He means. No, salvation is freely offered to all who will repent and believe. All who choose (and this is a key thing, we all have a free will) to repent and receive Christ are the "elect". You have to make a choice "multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision..." ... God gives us a free will. Otherwise, you could accuse God of being unjust, because if we really have no free will, we are not responsible for our wrong choices. It says that Pharaoh "hardened his heart" several times before it says that then God hardened his heart.”

The major dilemma with the Calvinistic teaching is it's elimination of man's free will. Even R.C. Sproul, an avid advocate of 5 point Calvinism¹⁸, when teaching on this subject admitted that he did not have time to address man's free will under this topic and that he could answer no questions about volition of man under his discussion of Augustinian Theology, and Calvinism. He did, however, admit that this was a major issue in the consideration of election.

In Dr. Alan Richardson's book An Introduction To The Theology Of The New Testament there is an extended section on “the elect of God.” In his analysis of the Old Testament use of election he concludes “election in the OT is to service of God in this world and has nothing at all to do with salvation in the world to come.¹⁹” Coming to NT terminology he says “A proper understanding of the New Testament doctrine of election in Christ will dispel the sombre and frightening mistakes of post reformation theories about predestination, double predestination, reprobation and the rest of the lingering errors of medievalism, from which the rise of Biblical science has happily set us free... Election refers to God's purpose in this world,... In the NT, as in the OT, election is a matter of Service, not of privilege²⁰” On Rom 9:14-24 Dr. Richardson writes “the passage is not saying anything at all about ultimate salvation in the world to come ... Election may be defined as the action of God's grace in history ... God's salvation itself is unearned, a free gift, so also is the privilege of serving God's purpose as an elected vessel of his design.²¹”

The Scriptures we have already looked at clarify that, man must make his own choice because salvation is available to the 'whosoever.' The Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election states that God's choice of who to save was made in eternity past and was not conditioned upon man's ability, life or future response to God's gracious offer of salvation. Such a statement violates a salvation available to 'whosoever believeth.' Scripture declares that every man is given adequate Light to make a choice and is without excuse. This stands in stark contrast to the Calvinist doctrine of total depravity that states mans spiritually and totally dead state from the fall affects every area of his life and person wherein he cannot even call out to God even as a dead man cannot speak. Scripture declares that salvation is available to all, i.e. to whosoever will accept it. This stands in stark contrast to the Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement that states the subjects of Christ's atoning work on the cross are identified as only the elect; Jesus did not die for all the world; “God purposed by the atonement to save only the elect and that consequently all the elect, and they alone, are saved.²²” Scripture declares that God is not willing that any should perish but men perish of their own volition. This stands in stark contrast to the Calvinist doctrine of irresistible grace, that states the Holy Spirit actually, controllably and supremely brings to salvation all the electand only the elect. In the simple examination of what the Scripture states about the availability of salvation and the obligation of every man to choose for themselves, any Bible student can bring into question every Calvinist doctrine of election. Here with but a few Scriptures we refute 4 out of 5 of the Calvinist's theological ideas.²³ Ideas that can not coexist with a sound understanding of salvation as portrayed in the doctrine of soteriology, taken directly from Scripture. Next we will see that no unregenerate man could be elect, one gets elect only by being placed into the only Elect One.

The Bible teaches that every man is born in sin, born unsaved and unregenerate, (Isa 53:6, Rom 3:10-12,23²⁴) and that no man is chosen, elected, or predestined towards his soul's salvation. There is only one man born into this world without sin, the man Christ Jesus. He is the only elect one at birth and he is the only one elect before the foundation of the world (1Pe 1:20²⁵) He was elect, not for individual salvation but for the work of redemption. (1Pet 2:4-6²⁶) Consequently, nowhere in the Bible is an individual man chosen, elected, or predestined to receive the salvation of their soul. (Acts 17:30²⁷) Thus, at no time is man chosen, elected or predestined to enter into Christ or to receive eternal glory in heaven. He must so enter by his own volition, and his own acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 10:11-13²⁸) Thus, at no time is man chosen, elected, or predestined to enter into eternal damnation. He must so enter by his own volition and his own rejection of the Light of God. (John 3:18-19²⁹)

A foundation stone in understanding the Bible doctrine of election is in the understanding that there is only one elect, foreordained, chosen individual, the man Christ Jesus. Even in his transliterated name, the Christ (Greek), the Messiah (Hebrew, same word) we find his anointing, i.e. his election. If another human is elected, it is because he is 'in' this Chosen One and partakes in His election. It is not because he was elected any time prior to his entry into Christ. He became elect when placed in Christ and he is placed in Christ by his new birth which made him instantaneously converted, justified, regenerated (or quickened), indwelt and baptized (a Greek transliteration meaning 'immersed') 'in' the Lord Jesus Christ. (Do not equate or confuse the latter with water baptism, the two are completely separate entities.) Prior to one's salvation man is neither elect, chosen nor predestined. When one receives salvation they receive all three by virtue of their being 'in' Christ.

This concept has been confused in previous illustrations whereby a sign is posted at the doorway of the Cross of Calvary. The sign says “Whosoever Will” on one side but once passing through the door and looking back at the sign the reverse side says “Elect of God.” This illustration can allude that the 'whosoever' was elect all the time, but didn't realize it untill the receipt of salvation. No, no; prior to salvation there is no election or predestination resting on any soul. They inherit their election and predestination with the eternal life that they inherit. It all comes in one package.

If one could ever be elect for a salvation experience, then clearly from the Bible that election would take place prior to the foundation of the world, be unchangeable, and that ones fate would be sealed even before their conception! This is not found in the Bible. Clearly from the Bible there is

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (I Pet 1:18-21, emphasis added)

Quite self explanatory here, that The Lord Jesus Christ is the one 'foreordained before the foundation of the world', not the fate nor destiny of individual souls.

Consider Mt 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Here, the progressive revelation of God is illustrated as there are 'things' kept secret from the foundation of the world, but not elect individuals.

Consider Mt 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Here it is the 'kingdom prepared' that was from the foundation of the world, again no reference to individuals being selected for that kingdom.

Consider Joh 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Again it is Christ himself that is referenced as present and loved before the foundation of the world.

Consider Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And Heb 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

No individual souls are chosen from the foundation in these references. Christ was, and his work was; individual souls were not.

How about 2Ti 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Here there is a solid foundation for what God knows, but clearly here we can see that only those 'that nameth the name of Christ', nor were they His before they took His name, are known to be His; i.e. the knowing of them is not necessarily from the foundation of the world in this sentence, nor did he know them in this sense, before they named the name of Christ.

But what of Re 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And also Re 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

There are a total of eight references to this 'book of life'³⁰ in the Bible. Its existence has been interpreted in three ways 1) that it contains the names of those who are elected for salvation from the foundation of the earth (you can guess from previous discussion that our Biblical understanding of election will cause us to reject that interpretation.) 2) that it contains the names of all humans and those who reject Christ and then die have their names blotted out, this view springs from an idea that none of the 8 references seem to indicate the writing of new names into the book while some talk of blotting names out, and it nicely covers a consideration of those who never reach an 'age of accountability.' and lastly, 3) that as one is born again God writes his name in the book and there is now a new name written down in glory.

Where it touches this doctrinal analysis the only problematic verse could be Rev 17:8. In order to fit well with our systematic analysis of election so far it is preferred that Rev 17:8 be read as a reference to the book that existed before the foundation of the world as mentioned in 13:8 and not as a book of pre-written names existing before the foundation of the world. Thus the book existed from the foundation of the world, but the names are written in or blotted out as a matter of God's real time record keeping, not as a pre-written fatalist description of who would get in. We shall see in this study that some extend God's foreknowledge to a level of knowing man's individual choices. But even with taking this man made extension with God's foreknowledge, it is still in no way causative. Even using God's non-causative foreknowledge to interpret Rev 17:8 with a pre-written book of life, containing preselected names who would receive God's grace is dangerously fatalistic with insufficient room for God's “whosoever will may come.” (We shall establish in section 6 that extending God's foreknowledge to every infinite detail of future events or decision of man, is without Scriptural basis and grossly restricts mans free will to act responsibly) Thus Rev 17:8 is interpreted as having a “book of life from the foundation of the world” with names being written in and blotted from as time goes on, as indicated in other Scriptures. Notice also the context of this reference is talking about the tribulation saints, (or in this case particularly those who are not the saints,) saints which do not get into heaven in the dispensation of Grace as the Church, the body of Christ, but saints who are won to Christ and then sealed with a seal in their foreheads as in Rev 7:3. These saints are treated differently in Scripture than those won to Christ and added to his Church during the pre-rapture dispensational age of grace.

Thus the only Bible verse that may be problematic for the harmony of this doctrine of election is Rev 17:8, and this reference is clearly speaking of tribulation saints, and of a book of life that existed (not completely written) before the foundation of the world. The preponderance of other Scriptures require that the interpretation of this single verse be conformed to the majority. And this explanation does not hinder the understanding and clear indication that God did not pre-ordain some souls to be saved and some to be lost. He only pre-ordained His Only Begotten Son, and him slain from the foundation of the world. We thus become elect, chosen and predestined by being 'in' the only Elect One.

The Bible teaches that 'the elect', 'the chosen', and 'the predestined' referenced in the Bible are those who are 'in Christ' with no reference made to the free-will decision that positioned them 'in Christ'; and that their now being in Christ makes them 'the elect³¹' as part of the corporate body in Christ, (Rom 8:33, Col 3:12, 2Joh 1:1,13, 1Pet5:13³²); it makes them 'the chosen³³' for sanctification, holiness, witness and service in His name (Luke 6:13, Eph 1:4, Acts 9:5, 1Thes 1:4³⁴); and it makes them 'the predestined³⁵' elect who will be conformed to the image of his Son. (Rom 8:29-30³⁶) Thus, men are not chosen to be in Christ, but by virtue of their being in Christ they become 'the elect', as He was and is The Elect, they become 'the chosen' as He was and is The Chosen, and they, by virtue of their being in Christ, are now 'predestined' to be conformed to His image and His purposes.

To examine this statement we shall examine every occurrence of these words in the New Testament. Before doing that it will be helpful to get a good definition for 'corporate.' To counter the obvious error of an individual soul's election for salvation some have promoted a 'corporate election' solution for every occurrence of these 3 terms. Such a solution will be shown suitable and it is far better than the error of Calvinism, wherein individual souls are elected for salvation before birth and then regenerated before conversion! In the Biblical doctrine of election there is no individual selection for salvation, however, there is often a corporateness in the use of these Bible terms, and Christians are corporate by definition.

“cor·po·rate (kôr“p…r-¹t, kôr“pr¹t) adj. 1. Formed into a corporation; incorporated. 2. Of or relating to a corporation: corporate assets; corporate culture. 3. United or combined into one body; collective: made a corporate effort to finish the job. 4. Corporative. [Latin corpor³tus, past participle of corpor³re, to make into a body, from corpus, body. See kwrep- below.] --cor“po·rate·ly adv.

cor·po·ra·tion (kôr”p…-r³“sh…n) n. Abbr. corp. 1. A body that is granted a charter legally recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members. 2. Such a body created for purposes of government. Also called body corporate. 3. A group of people combined into or acting as one body.³⁷”

Obviously our salvation is an act that makes us “United or combined into one body.” We are put into the body of Christ and are thus, now a corporation, by this definition. In exegesis the treatment of terms 'elect', 'chosen' and 'predestined' easily falls into this corporate provision. Being 'in Christ' makes you part of the body of Christ and this body is 'elect'; this body is 'chosen'; this body is 'predestined' corporately. In any instances where an individual election could be considered it is important to see that there is no exegetical room for being elect for salvation into Christ, only being elected because one is 'in Christ.'

With that as a backdrop let's examine every occasion of the words 'elect', 'chosen' and 'predestined' in the New Testament. This may seem tedious but should be undertaken for completeness. First let's examine the word 'choose'. Most clearly showing it's meaning in the Luke 6:13 reference,

First, the word: Choose Strong's Concordance³⁸ Number 1586, eklegomai or eklegomai is pronounced ek-leg’-om-ahee. It is a verb; translated 21 times in New Testament as 'choose' 19 times, 'choose out', 1 time, and 'make choice' 1 time for the 21 total usages.

Definition: eklegomai Choose out; to pick out, choose, to pick or choose out for one’s self a) choosing one out of many, i.e. Jesus choosing his disciples b) choosing one for an office.

The first use of this word #1586 is found in Mark 13:20 as follows: Mark 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen <1586>, he hath shortened the days.

Here, the context is the tribulation period that is to be upon the earth, and the word, chosen clarifies who 'the elect' are. These are saints, i.e. saved ones, in the tribulation period, who are thus not technically part of the Church, which was previously raptured (1 Thes 4). (Although not technically part of the Church they are saints that are to be part of the first resurrection according to Rev 20:5-6 ) In our previous introduction to these saints we have seen that Scripture often treats these saints differently than those saved and made part of the pre-rapture body of Christ. In our study here, we note that it is a reference to those who are saved, not a reference to any who are to get saved in the future. Thus the chosen in Mark 13:20 are not chosen for salvation, but chosen for service because they are clearly already 'in Christ.'

A second use of the word #1586 is: Lu 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose <1586> twelve, whom also he named apostles;

Here again, the chosen are not chosen out of the unsaved masses of mankind, they are not chosen for salvation, but chosen from amongst the disciples for service. Thus the chosen in Luke 6:13 are not chosen for salvation, but chosen for service because they are, at this point, the followers of Christ. Recall that one of them is Judas.

The third and forth use of word #1586 are: Lu 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen <1586> that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. And Lu 14:7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out <1586> the chief rooms; saying unto them,

In these two verses we see man doing the choosing. This is not germane to our examination except to understand better the usage of this word throughout the Scriptures.

The 5^th and 6^th use of word# 1586 are: Joh 6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen <1586> you twelve, and one of you is a devil? And Joh 13:18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen <1586>: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

In John we have four references dealing with the choosing of the twelve. Clearly, in chapter 6 and 13 Judas was one of the chosen 12. But Judas was not chosen for eternal salvation, clearly he was chosen for service, that the scripture would be fulfilled. Was Judas, then chosen for eternal destruction? No! Judas was chosen for service in the Kingdom of God, even though, in the end he did not become a part of the Kingdom of God. Judas is an example of one who was 'chosen' but did not receive salvation. Such salvation was available to him, he could have made a volitional choice to receive the Christ. Yeah he, who saw the miracles, and did the miracles with Christ, of all people, should have believed in the Saviour. In the end, he did not, but God used him just the same, and in the end used him as the betrayer. We find in Judas, then a curious 'election.' He was not a believer, and thus not part of the elect body of Christ, and not called the elect. Indeed in these two verses it is pointed out clearly that though Judas was chosen for service, he was not “in Christ” and thus was never referred to as elect. In order to be elect you must be “in Christ.”

Use number 8 and 9 of word# 1586 are: Joh 15:16 Ye have <1586> not chosen <1586> me, but I have chosen <1586> 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. And Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen <1586> you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

In John 15 we see the disciples being 'chosen' linked with their being 'ordained.' Because of their being chosen they do not fit into this world. Notice here the difference between choosing and ordaining. It is the difference between selecting and investing with authority. Clearly the two are linked here, the chosen, as we have stated are invested with authority because they are given a task to do in this life. Clearly, again this election has to do with their service not the salvation of the soul. Thus the chosen in John 6, 13 and 15 are not chosen for their eternal salvation, but chosen specifically for tasks that Christ wanted performed here on this earth.

The 10^th through the 16^th use of word# 1586 are found in Acts as follows: Ac 1:2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen <1586>: Notice here the apostles were chosen for service.

Ac 1:24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen <1586>, Notice here they were chosen for service.

Ac 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose <1586> Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Notice here they were chosen for service.

Ac 13:17 The God of this people of Israel chose <1586> our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. Notice here the fathers of Israel were chosen for service.

Ac 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice <1586> among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. Notice here the Gentiles were chosen corporately not individually.

Ac 15:22 Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen <1586> men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren: Notice here they were chosen for service.

Ac 15:25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen <1586> men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, Notice here they were chosen for service.

Upon examination of every reference in the book of Acts which uses the word eklegomai <1586> you see that there is not one reference to being chosen for salvation. In Acts 15:7 there are those chosen to hear the gospel and we must reiterate that the Gentiles were chosen corporately to be recipients of the gospel, God speaks of this corporate choosing in the Old Testament. (Isa 11:10; 42:1,6; 49:6,22; 60:3,5, 11) Every other usage in the book has to do with being chosen for service. Note that in Acts 13:17 the choosing is towards the fathers of Israel, and we have already demonstrated that such choosing was not towards salvation of the soul but towards the tasks set before a chosen people. Thus the chosen in the book of Acts are not chosen for their eternal salvation. Upon going through half of the New Testament with this word study there is a precedence being set that must be weighed into the use of this word through the epistles. That precedence is that God's choosing is not about salvation but about service. Let's then follow this word through the epistles.

The 17^th, 18^th and 19^th use of the word# 1586 is in Paul's first letter to Corinth: 1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen <1586> the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen <1586> the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And 1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen <1586>, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

Should one take these references in Paul's letter to Corinth to mean a choosing for receipt of salvation, one would be sloppy in their exegesis. Clearly it is our election to be His witnesses, our ordaining to be heralds of the gospel that is in direct view with this usage. Calvinist avoid this letter to Corinth while they develop the exegetical fog around their theology.

The 20^th use of word# 1586 is a Calvinist favorite found in: Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen <1586> us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

If there is any meat on the bones of the Calvinists theology they try to develop it here in Ephesians 1. In this portion however, we see the language of corporate election, not the individual soul's selection for salvation. Also in Ephesians 1:5, and 11 we see the explanation of our predestination which is also in this corporate sense.

Impressions men start with are going to be hard to shake off. We all know and teach that Noah's Ark landed on Mt Ararat, but it takes great effort to say that the kangaroo and platypus came from the Middles East. We have been taught otherwise from our youth. Here in Ephesians chapter 1 we will state that every chosen and predestined one is already found 'in Christ' before they can be called 'chosen' or 'predestinated,' but our predisposition about election will require that we say that several times and that we consciously dismiss what many of us have been taught from our childhood.

In verse 4, then, we can see that the 'us' that were chosen before the foundation of the world are those that make it into Christ by volitional faith (the only way in), and thus, that this corporate collection of believers were chosen to be holy and without blame before him in love. This need not be individuals chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world as the Calvinist's have taught us from our youth. Corporate election better fits this context. Remember that this is Paul's introductory material which is to be fully developed in subsequent chapters. In those chapters Paul makes know the 'mystery' “that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel;” (Eph 3:6) This is clearly a case of corporate election, and so is Ephesians 1:3-14. That these new Gentile believers at Ephesus were, by virtue of their being 'in Christ', as chosen as anybody, is the context of Paul's challenge to them that they “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” Ephesians 1:3-14 demands another careful reading in view of the whole context of the epistle. Doing so clearly brings out the corporateness of the choosing and predestination. The corporate body of those 'in Christ' are chosen “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (verse 1:4-5) This is not to be read as individual selection of some to be saved and some to be lost. This is clearly a use of selection and predestination in the corporate sense. The Calvinist will argue against such use of corporate election because it does not answer every use of the words 'chosen', 'elect' and 'predestined.' But the corporate election explanation clearly fits this portion of scripture.

Lastly for the 21^st use of the word eklegomai <1586> we find: Jas 2:5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath <1586> not God chosen <1586> the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

At this point in our word study it should be easy to see that the chosen in James 2:5 are not chosen for the receipt of salvation, not chosen to be the sole recipients of eternal life, but chosen because they are 'in Christ' chosen because they are ”them that love him.” In context this is given in a lesson about shewing favoritism toward the rich. Strange that man's theories should turn it's use towards the favoritism of the Calvinist's 'elect for salvation.' This is clearly, not the intent of James.

In the examination of all 21 usages of the word chosen, word# 1586, eklegomai, there is not one instance where individual souls were chosen for salvation. Each use has to do with choosing for service in the Kingdom of God here on this earth and in this life.

Another word study in order here is the use of the word, eklektos J. Strong number 1588, used 23 times in the NT. In J. Strong's definition below you can again see the strong overtones of Calvinism bleeding into his definition 1a1 of the word:

“1588 eklektos eklektos ek-lek-tos’ from 1586 eklegomai ; adj ; translated 23 times in NT as -elect 16, chosen 7; 23 total

1a2) the Messiah in called "elect," as appointed by God to the most exalted office conceivable

1a3) choice, select, i.e. the best of its kind or class, excellence preeminent: applied to certain individual Christians “ (from J. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance)

Mt 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen <1588>.

Mt 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake <1588> those days shall be shortened.

Mt 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect <1588>.

Mt 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect <1588> from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Mr 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake <1588>, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

Mr 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect <1588>.

Mr 13:27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect <1588> from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Lu 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect <1588>, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Lu 23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen <1588> of God.

The use of the word throughout the gospels clearly mandates the understanding that the 'elect' are those who are in Christ, that is His Church, and not inclusive of those who have not yet received Christ. Again enhancing the doctrine that you only become elect by entering into Christ, by volitional faith. None of these verses allow that the elect are elect prior to their salvation. Notice in this usage that all the called are not elect, i.e. Some did not enter into Christ, even though they were called. The last verse makes reference that Christ is 'the elect.'

Ro 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect <1588>? It is God that justifieth.

Col 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect <1588> of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

The use of the word 'elect' in these 3 verses again mandates the understanding that the 'elect' are those who are in Christ, and not inclusive of those who have not yet received Christ. Again this enhancing the doctrine that you only become elect by entering into Christ, by volitional faith.

1Ti 5:21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect <1588> angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

Here the use of the 'elect' towards the angels falls into line with the doctrine that the elect are chosen for service not chosen for salvation. Angels have no salvation available to them.

2Ti 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for <1588> the elect’s <1588> sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This may seem to be our first problem verse with this doctrine. Notice that in this rendering, however, the elect are the 'corporate elect' as used previously by Paul. Rendered in that way Paul endures for the 'body of Christ', that 'they', the unsaved, may be added to the body of the elect. Paul is persuading them to be placed in Christ, not because of their election but by their volition. At any rate the emphasis of this portion of scripture is on the striving, the laboring and the enduring for the gospel's sake, not on an idea that there are 'elect' out there who still need to be saved. We shall not surrender it willingly but the Calvinist's have used the context of 'the elect' here to allude to the possibility that some 'elect' have not yet attained salvation. The preferred rendering is that there are some individuals out there who, gone after with tears and endurance, would become part of the elect, thus we should strive, labor and endure for the elect's sake.

Tit 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect <1588>, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

1Pe 1:2 Elect <1588> according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

In these two verses we see the 'elect' referenced again in the corporate sense. This especially clarifies Peter's usage here. Those 'in Christ' are elect because of the corporate position in him, and that corporate position was in the foreknowledge of God. Individual decisions for salvation are not found in the foreknowledge of God in this reference. What is found in the foreknowledge of God, is the existence of a body of believers called the 'elect.'

1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen <1588> of God, and precious,

1Pe 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect <1588>, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

In these two verses of Peter the 'elect' is clearly used for 'The Elect One' the Lord Jesus Christ. We gain our 'elect' status by entering into 'The Elect One', not from a predestined selection of a few for salvation.

1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen <1588> generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:.

Clearly here the corporate election of the saints in this verse is compared to the corporate election of Israel. As Israel was chosen for a particular mission and called upon to be a peculiar people, so to those who are 'in Christ' are chosen for a particular mission and called upon to be a peculiar people.

2Jo 1:1 The elder unto the elect <1588> lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

The Apostle John here is addressing the believer, those who have already come to Christ, not those who are yet unsaved. Thus he calls them the elect, for they are 'in Christ', they are 'in The Elect One.' Clearly this is also the case in the last use of the word 'elect' in Rev 17:14.

Re 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen <1588>, and faithful.

Now seven times the word election is found in the NT as a noun. Again do not mind the Greek verbage if you are not of mind to, but it is included here to ensure completeness in the discovery of each useage. Let us examine each usage and the J. Strong Lexicon definition of:

1589 eklogh ekloge ek-log-ay’ from 1586 eklegomai ; noun; translated 7 times in the NT as -election 6, chosen 1; 7 total

1a) of the act of God’s free will by which before the foundation of the world he decreed his blessings to certain persons

1b) the decree made from choice by which he determined to bless certain persons through Christ by grace alone [again note J. Strong's Calvinistic bias]

Ac 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen <1589> vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

Clearly here Paul was not chosen for salvation but for service as has always been the use of the term. There will be those who argue that he must have been chosen before the Damascus road experience, some will argue he was chosen before the foundation of the world, but this is conjecture which is not borne out in the text. Here, in Acts 9:15, Paul was a chosen vessel after he was born-again and in-Christ.

Look now at some verses in Romans 9-11 where Paul expresses his burden that Israel be saved, and reasons about God's grace and fairness toward His chosen people.

Ro 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election <1589> might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Ro 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election <1589> of grace.

Ro 11:7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election <1589> hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded

Ro 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election <1589>, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.

Consider here the theme of this section of scripture. Paul is expressing his concern that God's chosen people, chosen for service (Rom 9:4), chosen as the seed of Christ (Rom 9:5), are missing out on salvation (Rom 9:32). The Israelites system of works and service was blinding them to the free grace of God. This dilemma is the theme of these three chapters. It does not seem fair that corporate Israel, God's elect would reject 'so great salvation' and Paul wrestles with this but remains firm”O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”, vrs 20. The election contained in this section is continually in reference to the OT election of the Jews and never for their election toward eternal salvation. In fact the troubling theme of this section is that the OT elect do not accept this eternal salvation. Chapter 10 follows up with the clearest verses ever penned about this eternal salvation being available to the 'whosoever' of verse 11 and verse 13. Rom 10:11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. ... 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Back in chapter 9 Paul argues “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness” Rom 9:30-31. This is Paul's dilemma in this section and it brings out very powerfully that election is for service not for salvation. New Testament election is for saints for service to their new King, not for sinners for repentance, because “God is not willing that any should perish” and “whosoever will may come”. When they come, they will be part of the New Testament elect, and should an Israelite come, as Paul's heart throb sounds in these chapters, they will also be part of the New Testament elect in Christ. Twice blessed as it were, to be the elect of the Old Testament and to be the elect of the New Testament. “For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: ... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Rom 10:11-13

Notice in I Thes 1, Paul is addressing the labour of believers when he brings up the election of these saints. They are not elect for salvation, they are elect for service.

2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election <1589> sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Again it is clear that the calling and election in this section of Scripture are to service not to salvation. Notice in verse 5-7 the saints are to add to their faith, virtue and knowledge etc. In all these uses of the word 'election', whether in verb or noun, it is never talking about election for salvation. It is ever about election for service. Clearly this is the theme of election throughout the book, there is no election for individual salvation found in the Bible, only in the theology books tainted by Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrines.

One last use of the word as an adjective and our examination of the term is complete.

4899 suneklektos suneklektos soon-ek-lek-tos’ from a compound of 4862 sun and 1586 eklegomai; adj; translated 1 times in the NT as - elected together with 1; 1 total.

1Pe 5:13 The church that is at Babylon, elected together with <4899> you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

Clearly, here the elect are the church, the church are the saints and the saints are all 'in-Christ' and called to service.

We believe that those incorporated into the body of Christ by their faith, conversion and new birth are necessarily predestined “to be conformed to the image of (God's) Son,” and being sealed by the Holy Spirit of God this destiny is certain. This destiny of the believers was predetermined by God and is completely in the corporate sense with no individual souls predestined outside of their volition.

J. Strongs word# 4309 proorizw proorizo pro-or-id’-zo from 4253 pro and 3724 orizw ; verb; translated 6 times in the NT as -predestinate 4, determine before 1, ordain 1; 6

3) to foreordain, appoint beforehand (from J. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance)

Ac 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before <4309> to be done.

Ro 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he <4309> also did predestinate <4309> to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Ro 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate <4309>, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The themem of Romans chapter 8 is the function of the Holy Spirit in the believers life with an emphasis on assuring that one is truly indwelt by Christ. This can be seen by highlighting the occurances of the word 'if' in verse 9-13 . Verse 14-17 go on to establish how one knows if they are 'in Christ' and verse 18-25 deals with the believers “earnest expectation” and hope. Verse 26-28 addresses our infirmities and dealings with “all things” and in verse 29and 30 we find Paul reakoning that God will certainly take care of his own. Notice that this care, foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification is towards God's people corporately in this context. Notice also that calling is to service as previously established, and the justification and glorification are in the perfect tense indicating the ongoing aspect of their working. Thus in Romans 8 the predestination is not towards an individual pre-destined to salvation or justification, but is unequivocally in the corporate sense, i.e. That the body of believers, found in the body of Christ, are foreknown corporately, are predestined corporately, are called to service corporately, are being justified corporately and are being glorified corporately. Romans 8:29-30 is none other than a corporate predestination of the saints and is never, never to be construed as individual unsaved souls predestined for salvation!

1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained <4309> before the world unto our glory:

Notice here what was predestined before the world, ... it is “the hidden wisdom.” In other words it was pre-ordered that man would have only part of the wisdom of God revealed in a progressive revelation. Thus mystery would be revealed, and some mystery will remain. It will remain until we see him face to facce. Now, looking through a glass darkely, our perfect understanding of things of an infinite God are darkened by our finite mind and His finite revelation. Awesome.

Eph 1:5 Having predestinated <4309> us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated <4309> according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

As stated earlier, Ephesians chapter 1 is a mainstay for the Augustinian and Calvinist. They will continue to lood at these verses as individual soul election and individual soul predestination despite the clear context of their corporate usage. This introduction and the clear development of thes concepts in the body of this epistle are clearly not addressing anyone but those who are already born again into Christ. The choosing and the predestination found in Ephesians chapter one, follow the choosing, election and predestination of saints throughout the Bible as the corporate 'in Christ' and not as individual choosing of lost souls for salvation. You become elect by being 'in Christ.' Those 'in Christ' are predestinated for certain things. And you can get 'in Christ' only be a volitional act of your will to believe, confess, and call on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have done so you are predestinated. If you have not done so, your fate is not predetermined but rests on your decision to accept the only begotten Son of God. To not accept, you remain condemned before God. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved. He that believerth in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.” (John 3:17-18) Become a believer and you become predestinated.

We believe that God has Sovereignty and this Sovereignty speaks of God's supreme, permanent authority in the universe, in this world and in nations of this world. Man, created in God's image, however, is given the self governing authority to freely make moral, ethical and operational decisions for himself. Attributing the decisions of man to the Sovereignty of God trivializes his permanent and supreme authority and removes man's responsibility for his own decisions. God, in His Sovereignty has created man with a free will and although He knows the heart of man in general, He ponders the heart of man (Prov 5:21, 21:2, 24:12) and allows mans free choice. Although He knows the direction of man in general, He places choices before man and reacts in real time to the direction man chooses. Although He knows mans natural course of rebellion, He intervenes divinely to accomplish His purposes. Although this divine intervention can change an individuals course, and/or the course of a nation, God's intervention will work His divine ends and God's intervention is always intended to turn man from sin and toward righteousness, without violating mans free will and self governing choice.

In this chapter we shall briefly examine the sovereignty of God, and only partially separate that from God's omniscience which will be examined in greater detail in the next chapter examining God's foreknowledge. By Sovereignty we mean that God exercises supreme permanent authority and control over all things. By 'supreme' we mean that there is none higher. By permanent we mean that he has always been and will always be sovereign. By authority and control we mean that God alone authorizes every action and not action s occur without his authorization and that he is in control of every action (and every circumstance surrounding an action) and that no action occurs but what he is in complete control. By all things we mean all his created things, to include the breath of the righteous and the wicked, the burning hydrogen of our sun and every star, the ant on the oiled pole of our hummingbird feeder and the bird hovering at it's spigot. He authorizes and is in control of the electrons orbiting every cluster of protons and neutrons, if there truly are such particles, and the forces of gravity, magnetics and nuclear energy by which all things consist. Such infinite authority and control is too wonderful for us of finite mind, and such is the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah God.

Now, with such an unfathomable infinite sovereignty in view, we must state that God created man in his image and after his fashion, to have a free decision making, path choosing, volitional will. In order for it to remain free and volitional it must remain outside of the direct control of an otherwise sovereign God.

It is crucial that I understand this last statement. Understanding this concept of mans volitional will frees me from the error of Calvinistic theology that is rooted Augustinian misconception about free will. For man to maintain his position as a free moral agent, God cannot impose a direct control of his will. We shall see this in Scripture as we examine God's use of in-direct control of nature and all creation to bring about his will and purposes in mankind. When God is in direct charge of every part of his creation except the will of man, we find him well able to direct mans ways when that is his desire.

In Deut 7:20 and Joshua 24:12 we find an excellent example of God making people willing to leave his promised land wihout use of the sword of his chosen people Israel. He did not use mind control on the Amorites, He simply controlled the hornets in the land and the Amorites made a free volitional decision to vacate the premise. I have do0ne the same on several occasions back on the farm. Hornets can be very persuasive. God can be more so.

Calvinism characteristically carries with it the fatalistic view that God's sovereignty makes men nothing more than pieces on an eternal chess board wher God is playing a game, and we are but pawns in the sovereigns hand. No, not so, Indeed God cannot make man do one thing or the other, go one way or another even thing one thought or the other, or else he will violate the free volitional will that he has placed in man in making him a free moral agent. Understanding this makes us cognizant that God did not, and can not create or cause evil, rebellion or sin. He made man a free moral agent, placed him in a garden with that freedom, wherein the opposer of God persuaded man towards a decision. That decision plunged man into death and a sin nature. God did not cause that decision but he authorized it, he allowed it of his free moral agents, yeah He even accommodated it and before the foundation of the earth he had a plan to redeem that act of sin.

If I wanted my molding clay to be hardened I would withhold water from it and qallow time and sunshine to dry it out some. You would say that I hardened my clay. I didn't. I withheld the water from it and it hardened as was the nature of it. Consider again that for man to maintain hid free moral will God cannot directly impose upon that volitional will. Now consider that in Exod, 4:21, 7:3,13,14,22, 8:19, 9:7, 12,35, 10:1,20,27, 11:10, 14:4, 14:8 God hardened Pharaoh's heart. (in 8:15,32,and 9:34 Pharaoh hardened his own heart and some use these references to justify or somehow rationalize the other 15 heart hardening references. I would not long rest on such a shallow argument.) God did not use mind control on Pharaoh. God hardened Pharaoh's heart the same as I hardened clay. I hack off and let nature take its course. God did not reach inside of Pharaoh and twist some brain cells to make Pharaoh's heart hard. He simply backed away his heart softening presence from him and the nature of Pharaoh took over to harden his heart. Again God cannot withdraw the free moral agency given to any man. But he can withdraw his gracious hand and let them harden as is their nature.

In continuing with our insistence that God cannot directly impose upon mans volitional will we must examine Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial. We shall contend that for cases of fulfilled prophecy God brings special influences to bear in order to secure the result. (Let's not be so presumptuous as to think that what God did to fulfill his prophecy he must do for you or I) Such special influences come to bare on Judas and Peter. But we can still contend that God did not use mind control or rob Judas nor Peter of their free volition will. We thus contend that, in his sovereignty, God used his control over all the circumstances involved in Judas's betrayal and Peters denial, but did not cause either. Again it was the withdrawal of his gracious hadn and presence that let Judas do what was in his nature, and to allow Peter to do what was in his nature to do.

Agustus H. Stong worte much on the omniscience of God in his book “Systematic Theology.” He sys of God's perfect, eternal and immediate knowledge that “Since God knows things as they are, he knows the necessary sequences of his creation as necessary, the free acts of his creation as free, the ideally possible as ideally possible. God knows what would have taken place under circumstances not now present:... (page 284)

Thus God's perfect, eternal and immediate knowledge of all things to include our very thoughts (Psalm 139:2 “understandeth my thoughts afar off” ) and God's sovereign control of all things animate or inanimate, make him well equipt to bring specail influences to bear in order to secure the fulfillment of prophecy concerning Judas' betrayal and Peters denial. Thses he used without creating or causing the act of man but in authorizing and allowing it to come to pass via mans volitional will.

The emphasis then of this short examination of God's sovereignty is to insist that such sovereignty cannot impose on mans free volitional will, and cannot author wickedness nor sin. When God created man as a free moral agent he colunrarily surrendered some sovereignty in that he does not have direct control over the mind of man but excersizes indirect control to fulfill his prophecies and accomplish his purposes.

In that God can not author wickedness the following anonymous story illustrates so well:

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are then God is evil."

The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that Christian faith was a myth.

"What kind of a question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.

According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct?

Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

We believe in God's foreknowledge whereby God foreordained some events for certain before the foundation of the earth. Because there are only five of these events called out by Scripture, and because fixing all future events with a foreordained certainty, as done by theologians of the past, makes all things fixed in providence and is fatalistic and because locking all events into providence or fate robs man of his free agency and robs God of his intervention in man's free will decisions, we believe that there are events and things in the future that are not yet decreed by God and are thus not foreordained and thus remain outside of God's foreknowledge. Man's ability to choose his destiny in eternity, his course in life, his course in any one day and his minutest decision or action, is not, and cannot be locked into the certainty with which these five major events are certain. God's Word indicates the five are certain, and the prophecy he gives surrounding these certain/fixed events are certain, foreordained and brought to pass by his sovereignty. But God's Word also indicates clearly that man has the free agency to determine his own 'fate'. Man can determine his own daily 'fate' and his own eternal 'fate' and they, then cannot be fate, cannot be decreed, and are not foreordained or foreknown! The fatalistic God that foreknows/foreordains every detail of our life, our death and our eternity springs from Augustinian, Catholic and Calvinistic theology and not from Scripture. Scripture ALWAYS shows God working with individuals in a present tense with ample opportunity for changing their future, and NEVER with a fatalistic, foreordained unchangeable future. Thus, God's sovereignty and God's foreknowledge cannot by decree or by causative action, infringe on mans free will to choose. God, instead, works in the heart of man to accomplish his purposes and God works in all of his creation to accomplish what he has foreordained. From the Bible you can be certain that ones destiny, and ones neighbor's destiny may be changed by your actions, your choices and your prayers on any given day. What drives the reformed theologian into this certainty of every minuscule event in our future is their misrepresentation of the doctrine of election and the necessity that God must decree who gets in (Calvinism) or must at least foreknow who gets in (Arianism) and there by he must be in control (sovereignty) of every infinite detail of our existence. Such is not supported in Scripture.

To construe from a study of God's omniscience and foreknowledge that God has plotted out every detail of ones life is sheer folly that is not supported by Scripture. Augustus H. J. Strong contrasts his own folly here with this footnote:

“Aristotle maintained that there is no certain knowledge of contingent future events. Sceinus, in like manner, while he admitted that God knows all things that are knowable, abridged the objects of the divine knowledge by withdrawing from the number those objects whose future existence he considered as uncertain, such as the determinations of free agents. These, he held, cannot be certainly foreknown, because there is nothing in the present condition of things from which they will necessarily follow by natural law. The man who makes a clock can tell when it will strike. But free-will, not being subject to mechanical laws, cannot have it's acts predicted or foreknown. Milton seems also to deny God's foreknowledge of free acts: “So, without least impulse or shadow of fate, Or aught by me immutable foreseen, they trespass.” (Systematic Theology pp____ )

We shall examine some scripture that fully illustrates this concept and detracts from a notion that God foreknows and has predetermined the events in our individual lives. But a vivid and present illustration of it can be found in Mt 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. In this verse God is revealing how valuable we are to him and revealing his infinite omniscience. I would point out that this is present tense omniscience. You cannot imply from this verse that God knows how many hairs you will have in your head tomorrow. In fact if you grab a handful right now and enter into a silent debate about weather to tug on them or not, Aristotle and Sceinus ventured that God does not know which choice you would make, it is your free will as a free agent to pull them out, and God does not know how many hairs you will have in the next seconds; it is not knowable for a free agent. If you did pull, God knows exactly how many were pulled and how many you have left in your head. This is present tense omniscience. All of the Scripture used to support God's omniscience are present tense circumstances and do not infringe on mans free agency to choose. The theologian argues that God knew before hand whether you would pull them out or not, but Scripture does not support such supposition. Such a supposition dashes against man being a free moral agent, and it is hypothesized without supporting Scripture. God's omniscience is always rendered in the present tense, not extended to future acts except where it touches his only begotten son and the five things that He clearly foreordained. Lets examine the Scriptures.

Examine with me how the Bible uses the word “foreknow.” J. Strong's word# 4267 shows up only 5 times in Scripture, and it's noun 'foreknowledge', is used only twice. First note J. J. Strong's definition for the word:

Again note J. Strong's bent toward the error of Calvinism shows in the definition, we have already demonstrated that there are none “elected to salvation” ... only “elected to service.” Also note the synonymous use of foreknow and fore-ordain giving credence to the fact that in Scripture God does not foreknow something without being the causative agent that fore-ordains or decrees that it comes to pass. Thus in this treatise to foreknow is to foreordain and to foreordain is to decree. This is true in Scripture, but reformed theologians sometimes try to differentiate the three because of their infinitesimal decreeing /foreknowing/foreordaining.

Another word Predestinate 4309 proorizw proorizo pro-or-id’-zo v AV-predestinate 4 (Rom 8:29,30, Eph 1:5,11), determine before 1 (Acts 4:28), ordain 1(1Cor 2:7); 6 times in the NT. Is treated elsewhere in this treatise. We examine only Acts 4:28 under our consideration of God's foreknowledge.

Before examining the five things called out in God's foreknowledge lets look at how the word is used fore man's foreknowledge. First in:

Ac 26:5 Which knew <4267> me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

Notice in this context that the word is used of a foreknowledge that the Jews had of Paul's manner of life from (his) youth. This foreknowledge was human and looks back on what was known not ahead with a knowledge of the future. This is an important aspect of God's foreknowledge as well. The second use of the word in this sense is:

2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before <4267>, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.

Again here is the use of the word to show something that is known before, not in predicting the future, or knowing before time, but in knowing before in time. Let's now examine the 5 things that God foreknew, and foreordained, and decreed that they would come to pass.

We believe that God foreknows, foreordains, or pre-decrees 5 major events as specifically called out in Scripture. First, it was foreordained before the foundation of the world, that Christ, the only begotten Son of God, would be sent into the world to redeem man. (1Pe 1:20 Who verily was foreordained <4267> before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,) We want to be careful separating what is foreknown from what is foreordained. The two spring from the same Greek word and must logically coincide but an abstraction often accompanies our understanding of their difference. Here, it should be said that many many events are prophesied about the foreordained events. These prophecies are revealed details about how God will bring to pass what he has foreordained. The individual prophecies are never called 'foreordained' or 'foreknown' in the Scriptures. If the Scriptures do not confuse the foreordained with the prophesied detail we should not either. All the major theologians intertwine the foreordained (only 5 specifically called out in Scripture) with the prophesied events (which provide details and bring about the foreordained) with the workings of God (i.e. Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated from Rom9:13, and Malachi 1:1-3). They then use this three strand cord of foreknowledge/ foreordaining/ decrees to rope in a theology that God 'foreknows' how your day will go tomorrow, what decisions you will make, and the number of hairs you may or may not end up with next year. They will tell you that God 'foreknows' whether your aunt, father, or child will get saved or will not get saved and that such an event is cast in stone and unalterable in God's plan. They will say that God knows the last person to get saved before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he cannot return until that last one gets in. They will say all kinds of these things were predetermined, yeah even predestined before the foundation of the world. The Bible provides no evidence of this kind of wild speculation. It says that Christ's first coming was foreordained before the foundation of the world, nothing more.

Secondly, God 'foreknew' that his people, Israel would be used in his plan. Ro 11:2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew <4267>. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,... God's use of the chosen nation Israel, the seed of Abraham, was specifically foreknown by God. This was not called out to be foreknown before the foundation of the world. Again the theologian presumes via their logic that anything that is foreknown by an infinitely omniscient God, must have been foreknown from the foundation of the world, but such is a step is man's logic and not a revelation of the Holy Scriptures. We shall not deny this eternal foreknowledge/fore-ordination of the existence and use of a nation called Israel, but we cannot completely support it with Scripture. In Scripture the use of the nation of Israel is called out to be in God's foreknowledge, but not specifically called out as being in God's plan in existence before the foundation of the world.

Thirdly, the Bible specifically states that God's foreknowledge included that his Son would be crucified and slain by the wicked hands of man. Ac 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge <4268> of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Acts 4:26-28 also declares that this deed was “determined before to be done” using the Greek word 4309 proorizw proorizo pro-or-id’-zo, verb, to predetermine. Herein you can see that foreknowledge and foreordaining and decreeing of God are directly connected in this context. An additional revelation about this event is that it was also wrapped in the 'determinate counsel' of God. Thus the crucification was worked into history by a determination and purpose of God. Just because this was so for the crucification, 'the determinate counsel of God' does not necessarily apply to all other foreknown events, and it should especially not be applied to my running out of gas on I-190 in downtown Chicago at 11:30 PM this week. Running out of gas involves more of my free will decisions, neglect and stupidity, and no determinate counsel or foreknowledge of God. Let me say again that 'no foreknowledge of God' was involved in my running out of gas. This does not imply that God did not know I would, but that my placing it into God's foreknowledge and making it a predetermined/predestined determinate counsel of God, even going so far as the theologian and saying it was decreed before the foundation of the world, trivializes God, trivializes God's plan, and trivializes the things that are specifically revealed to be in his foreknowledge and determinate counsel. I should say here, in that my wife, Beverly, and I both foreknew that such would happen eventually there was a gallon of gas kept in my trunk.

Forth, God 'did foreknow' that 'them that love God' would, through all things, be conformed to the image of His son. Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. :29 For whom he did foreknow <4267>, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. This scripture does not state that God, foreknew the individuals who would choose to be 'in Christ.'(vrs 8:1) But that He foreknew that those found 'in Christ' (vrs 8:1) would be conformed. This is an important distinction, and is a reoccurring theme of this thesis. The coming to salvation is not the theme of Romans 8. The theme is what becomes of us, once we are born-again, i.e. converted, justified, quickened, indwelt with the Spirit, and baptized into the body of Christ. Once this has occurred we are predestined. Prior to it's occurrence we are given a call, a call to repentance, a call that says “Whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” If we accept that calling God saves us and we become, at that point, predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Be careful that you do not with these Scriptures, come up with the Calvinistic theology that you or your mom were individually chosen for salvation, nor that God's foreknowledge holds a fatalistic assurance that you or she will or will not be saved. No such doctrine is found in Romans, particularly not in Romans chapter 8. Here the destiny of those who get into Christ by the new birth is found in the foreknowledge of God. As a believer, there is a place prepared for you in God's foreordained plan. That plan is not individualistic but is for all believers. It is simply where the believers will end up and God knew it beforehand. Whether or not one will end up as a believer is not foreordained by God but left as a whosoever will decision of man.

The fifth and last event specifically called out in the N.T. As belonging in God's foreknowledge is that a corporate group of people that by their free will became believers in answer to the call “whosoever will,” ... that these people would be the elect for service 'through the sanctification of the Spirit' just as Israel was elect for her service. 1Pe 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge <4268> of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Again this election is described here as belonging to believer. The unsaved never fall into a category of elect or unelect. The decision is always their to be made and every one who has the 'true light' lighten them (John 1:9) can be part of this elect by being part of 'The Elect One', Jesus Christ. All believer are elect for obedience and for service. No unbeliever is elect in this sense, but stand condemned (John 3:16-18) until they become believers (John 3:36)

Only these five specific events are called out in Scripture as belonging in God's foreknowledge. Only these five can be defended with Scripture as being foreordained. Only these five and no others can be called decrees of God which are called out in the Bible. From this list of five the theologians begin to add their own list of things that by man's rational thinking 'must have been' a decree of God. Things that they argue must also have been decreed. Things locked into his plan from the foundation of the world.

We thus believe and understand that events locked into the foreknowledge of God, things foreordained by God, things contained in a theologians 'this must come to pass' decree of God, cannot be altered by the free will decisions of man. Thus we understand that the decrees of what must come to pass, the fore ordination of God, His foreknowledge of events that would transpire is in direct contrast to a mans free will to choose his own path in life. God's foreknown events will be brought about and are unavoidable and are unalterable. When we try to make every event that will happen tomorrow, that is, every minute event of our individual life, something that is locked into our fate by the foreknowledge of God, we do error and remove our God given ability to 'choose you this day' the course of our life. We so loose the responsibility that rests on every choice that determines our own destiny, our own consequences. If it is so, that God can reel through time back and forth as we would reel an unalterable movie film, if God can know every detail of our individual existence with the same locked in certainty that I know the details and the ending of the movie “It's a Wonderful Life.” then such events are unalterable by any decision or choice that I could make. God is not so shallow as to reel through unalterable films of our life. Thus, despite the theologians insistence through decrees and foreknowledge that my every breath is predetermined and locked in, to include my last breath and the very time and place of my death, such fatalism cannot be supported by Scripture or by logic. Such locked in, destined events of the future are unalterable by any prayer that I could pray; such events can not change even as God put two paths before me this day. Thus, despite the teachings of the theologians trained in Calvinistic theology, God did not decree nor hold in his foreknowledge as a foreordained event, that I would on this date set at my son's table and pen these words with a Zebra F402 ball point pen. We cannot hold to the Westminster Confession that “

God
did from all eternity, by the most just and holy counsel of his own
will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.

”

The Bible is replete with evidences that God lays decisions before a man and waits for his choice before determining his next move. Such choices should not be trivialized by fussing with the idea that '

well
God knew what would be chosen and already had his fate assured
anyway

.' Such evidences dictate the freeness of the free will of man and preclude the fatalistic fore ordination of God for every detail that the reformed theologian locks in decrees of God. The Bible never locks such into decrees, fore ordination nor foreknowledge.

Let's first look at some Scriptures that demonstrate a God who is dynamically working out his plan in real time and then we will look at the Scriptures that these theologians take out of context to develop their theories about every thing being in God's foreknowledge and God's decrees.

When reading any accounting of God's dealing with man it is obvious that God takes action based on what the man thinks does and says. Scripture indicates that God does change his plan and intentions while his attributes never change. Scriptures indicate that God does not foreknow (thus foreordain) individual infinitesimal details, actions and decisions of men though he knows the heart of man. The theologians who believe otherwise struggle endlessly with Genesis chapter 6 where it “repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” or chapter 11 where 'the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded” and therein made a cecision about what 'they' (the Godhead, for it says “Let us go down and there counfound ... “) would do in re-action to this new development.

Now they have applied two words for these Scriptures that confound their theory of decrees. The first is to call them “antinomies” wherein two seeming contradictory laws are both true. The problem with this use is they have no grounds on which to make their 'Law of Decrees' a standing law to begin with. The second word they introduce is 'anthropomorphic' or 'anthropopathic' wherein human motivations, characteristics behaviour and feelings are attributed to God so that we can better understand God's essence. Thus, in essence they say, God does not bave eyes nor ears, though the Bible says he does, God does not 'change his mind' though the Bible says he does and God does not 'come down to see' though the Bible says he did. These are just written, they say, so us mere humans can comprehend an uncomprehendable God that the theologians have bedun to comprehend for us.

At the very least I am unfomfortable with this tactic and contend that God making man in His image and after His likeness carries a lot more weight than their 'anthropomorphicism.' God does not deceive in His word so that man can understand better. I just believe that when the Bible says “God repented” (i.e. changed his direction) that 'God repented'. I believe that when God 'came down to see' for himself, .... that God 'came down to see” for himself.

God said “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” (Gen 18:17-18) and we have revealed a God who is making a decision about what to tell Abraham because of developing events. He goes on in this self debating decision making process and says :”19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” His decision to tell Abraham is based on His knowledge of Abraham in present tense time and NOT on any ability of knowing the future in every infinitesimal detail. God then closes this chapter with an intimate dialog with Abraham “face to face as a man speaketh unto a friend.” (Spoken of Moses and God in Exod 33:11) Was this dialog vain and meaningless to God, intended only to play out a plan of God and manipulate a man named Abraham? Or was God “pondering the heart of man” and speaking “as a friend speaketh unot a friend?” The Bible reveals the latter and contradicts the former time and again.

In the prolog to the poetry written by “a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job;” we find a contest between God and Satan in its initial framing. This marvelous accounting is hated by modernists and rejected by scholors but if it were inaccurate, the Lord Jesus Christ, the manifestation of God on Earth, would have been obligated to point out the error instead of insisting that every jot and title was profoundly accurate and permanent. In this prolog, if the contest was real and genuine, God knew Job and his integrity, not the infinitesimal details that were to unfold in the contes. God knows “the end from the beginning” to be sure, but God does not 'reel the film of time ahead, check the future then come back and set up a contest with Satan like a schoolboy who cheated on a final exam. God knew Job, yes, tis true, but he watched as the contest unfolded in revealing detail and he responded with a real time input that is most revealing about the God we worship. To say that God foreknew and Sovereignly controlled every detail, every decision , every word of wisdom that would be spoken is to trivialize the whole accounting into worthless rubbish. No, indeed, this was a genuine real contest that took place and speculating that God 'did from all eternity .. freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass' is but desensitizing us to the reality that God works with us in the present tense and re-acts to the acts, thoughts and prayers the emit from our body, soul and spirit. Reading the epic poem of Job in one sitting will convince any reasonable skeptic that God is making this up as it goes along in time, based on the thoughts and actions of men.

Examine this revealing Scripture in Isa 48:4-7 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; 5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. 6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. 7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Clearly here God created some new things to deal with Israels actions, things that were not from the beginning. The calvinsit doctrine of decrees cannot be more clearly denied than it is in this Scripture. God is making up his plans as he goes and deals with your action or inaction, your thoughts or decisions in real time and details are not all laid out from the foundation of the world they depend on actions that man takes within his free will. That God decreed, foreordained or foreknows every thing that will happen in the future necessitates fixity, i.e. future events are fixed, they are certain. In Scripture there is very limited fixity and a majority of fluidity i.e. future events are dynamic, they are dependent on mans actions, thoughts, and prayers.

This fluidity is easily demonstrated in four clear dynamic areas. First, God dynamically changes the future around based on our prayers. One Bible example being the prayer of Hezekiah in II Kings 20. As powerful as any other “thus saith the LORD” in Scripture, this one says “Set they house in order; for thou shalt die and not live.” God had determined that Hezekiah's time had come and his death was imminent. Nest verse we find that Hezekiah “prayed unto the LORD” Next verse God changed his plan; dynamically changed it based on a prayer, and turned his prophet on his heal to announce the change of plan.

Now the fatalist Calvinist reasons here that God knew from the foundation of the earth that Hezekiah was going to pray and that God was going to extend his life. But no such nonsense is communicated in the Scripture. God, here, changed what he said he was going to do, and God changed what we was going to do. Yet the Scripture states “hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall be not make good?” (Num 23:19) Calvinists take this out of contest and make it say God cannot change his plan. But God did change his plan. It is fluid not fixed. They will dig out and quote the Scripture that says “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Gather of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17), Psalms 102:25-27 also give them an indication that God will never change, but clearly here God changed what he was going to do with Hezekiah and his prayer. Tis is easliy resolved by reading these passages in context and realizing that they speak of some specifics and cannot be used as a blanket rule to eliminate God's changing his mind in Genesis chapter 6 II Kings chapter 20 and Jonah 3:9 Where the Ninevites said “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” If you are not predisposed to the fixity of Calvinism and opposed to His fluidity as portrayed in His dealings with man you have trouble with their question. Any Bible student knows that God did so repent in the next verse of Jonah 3 “10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

While examining Hezekiah's prayer in II Kings lets look at an instance where God dynamically changes the future around based on the zeal of a King. Chapter 13 verses 18-19 shows that Joash did not have enough zeal in smiting upon the ground. The number of victories Joas was alloted was according to the number of times he smote the ground. He only got three. (verse 25) God acted according to the zeal of Joash. God did not warn him that his zeal in smiting the ground would determine God's decision about victories over Syria, but unless the Bible is purposely misleading in this chapter, God dynamically made a decision that altered future. There is no indication of possibility that these three victories over Syria were predestined, foreordained or foreknow at the foundation of the world, or at the birth of Joash or on the day before Joash met with Elisha in verse 14. No, God developed His plan dynamically based on Joash's zeal at Elisha's death bed. If the accounting of this Scripture is accurate God is making up his plan daily on the basis of the actions of men. We can thereby conclude that only a very few events are sealed in God's foreknowledge and things impacted by mans choices or decision are not foreordained but fluid. So too, ones decision to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord of their life.

Again if the Bible is not meant to deceive us then Exodus 32:9-14 shows a God that can dynamically change His plan around based on intercessions of man. Was this an idle manipulation offer that was given to Moses? Could God have abandoned the 12 son's of Israel at this point and made of moses a great nation or was this a God playing with the mind of Moses? If Exodus 32's accounting is accurate then God's offer to Moses was genuine and the intercession of Moses arranged the dynamic planning of God. We believe the Scriptures do intentionally lead us into error, and they thus show a plan that is dynamically changing in many areas, even here in an area as holy as the promise made to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. God's plans are not fixed they are fluid.

Lastly, it can be easily demonstrated that God dynamically alters his plan based on the actions of man. None so emphatically demonstrates this aspect of God changing His revealed plan than Jonah chapter three that was already referenced. Here the Bible clearly states that “God saw their workd, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” In this instance God's plans are dynamically altered by the prayers, and fasting and repentance of the Ninevites. The very shallow arguments about God foreknowing they would repent and foreknowing that He would alter His direction remains just that, very shallow. Every indication of Scripture is that there are only the five called out events foreknown in God's plan. Not even all of the five were foreknown before the foundation of the world, and God is dynamically altering our future based on your thoughts, acts and prayers in every other detail.

Clearly as we read Scripture it emphasizes God's dynamic fluidity in future events or our lives and never a static fixity of what our future holds. But how can the 1000 years of theology toting a God who 'unchangeably ordains whatsoever comes to pass' be so absolutely wrong? Look with me how they twist Scripture to support their ill gotten theory.

The reformed theologian defines decrees of God as “That external plan by which God has rendered certain all the events of the universe, past, present and future.” (Systematic Theology by Augustus H. Strong pp353) They develop this idea from a few verses that say God has a purpose ... if a purpose he must have a plan ... if there is a plan and he is a perfect infinite omniscient God, it must be a perfect, infinite omniscient plan, ergo every trivial detail of my life and your life is locked into God's perfect, infinite, omniscient eternal plan. Included in this lock down of every event of the universe is whether you will or will not receive Christ as your Saviour in your brief time in God's planned out universe. As Augustus goes on to state. “While God's total plan with regard to creatures is called predestination, or fore ordination, his purpose so to act that certain will believe and be saved is called election, and his purpose so to act that certain will refuse to believe and be lost is called reprobation.” Such an ill fated excursion in logic cannot be supported in Scripture. “They” say that the Scripture declares that all things are included in divine decrees and use in their shallow defence the verses which talk of God's purpose. They use Isa 14:26-27 “26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” But any Bible student could look at the context of this and notice this is for the promised destruction of Babylon and the breaking of the Assyrian in Isa 14:24-25. And any Bible student can discern that this is not something that was purposed “before the foundation of the world” but derived by God in real time, based on the faulty free will decisions and actions of a nation of peoples. God in this text, even uses the faulty decisions and actions of Babylon (14:4) to provide us a 'proverb' that personifies Lucifer himself (vr 12-17) and highlights that man is entangled in a battle (ongoing in real time) of the ages, in which the people of Babylon must face a consequence of following the wrong influence ... not the decree ... the influence, not the foreordained plan, the consequence of a wrong free will decision. Clearly here in Isa 14:26-27 to purpose deals only with his foreordaining Israel (one of the five forordained/foreknew events revealed in the N.T. As foreordained) and the stretched out hand deals with God's real time intervention in the affairs of nations to secure his purpose. To see this one must only read this whole chapter in context. The reformed theologian reads it in pretext.

They use Isa 46:10-11 “10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” But they miss the clear context of this scripture that God is continuously, in real time, acting on the remnant of Israel to 'carry ' them (vr 3-5) into his foreordained purpose to “place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.” (vr 13) This falls directly in line with the only 5 things foreordained and confounds any idea that every detail of the universe is fore-ordained, especially as it deals with the rebellion and idolatry of Israel, the theme of this text. No, God is working with man in time to bring about his purpose, and God is changing things in time as they come up. This Scripture demonstrates that God will work directly with man, in real time decision making and action taking to ensure his foreordained events (there are only 5 revealed in Scripture) come to pass in the end. Thus it declares that despite the free will of man and his bungling of 'my purposes' “I will do all my pleasure.” Notice again the present tense decision making and actions of God. This gives no indication that every detail of the universe is ordered and fatefully falling in place, but that God is working in real time to “bring it(the end) Ito pass.” “Declaring the end from the beginning,” and “My counsel will stand.” in no way justifies that every minute detail of the universe is pre-decreed by God.

'They' say Dan 4:35 “35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” supports infinitesimal decreeing. But again this shows the real time working of God to accomplish a limited plan containing certain events, and that he cannot be thwarted in what he has purposed to do. Further it declares that the inhabitants of the earth are so minuscule as to not even fall into consideration. Tha is quite the opposite of the reformed theologian insisting that every decision of man must be decreed into some infinite perfect plan.

'They' use Eph 1:11 “11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:” but this too shows a God working, i.e. deciding, acting and reacting in real time to bring things into the counsel of his will. There is thus no predecreeing of minute details of any one, much less of the whole universe, in any one of these Scriptures. The reformed theologian is driven to the false supposition in order to bolster his errant Calvinistic theology that the Sovereignty of God is what determines whether one gets saved or one gets damned.

90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.” This speaks of all 'things' that abide by his laws ad that all 'things' are his servants. If you would construe the 'things' to include free moral agents then it is obviously recorded and today visible that some of his servants are not doing his will, nor following his plan for their lives.

Augustus (pp355) even tries to imply that the four spirits of the heavens coming out from between wo mountains of brass is an implication of “fixed decrees from which proceed God's providential dealings.” Augustus knows full well that brass represents God's judgments. If it were mountains of stone he might have slight credence but none with mountains of brass found in Zech 6:1.

The reformed theologian tries to use Scripture to imply that every good act of man is directly decreed by God because in Isa 44:28 it says “28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” and Eph 2:10 says “10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Clearly both of these Scriptures touch direct prophecy and areas where God's foreknowledge / fore ordination / decree are directly in view. Thus these Scriptures cannot be used to imply that God knew before hand the decisions which I would make in todays rains storm upon upstate New York wherein I could be thus writing or out fishing, especially in that I often fish in the rain.

The reformed theologian tries to use Scripture to imply that every evil act of man was foreknown / foreordained / decreed by God because Gen 50:20 says “20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” or 1Kings 12:15, 24 says “15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. .... 24 Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.” Again these Scriptures all detail the present tense real time workings of God to bring about what he had foreknown / foreordained / decreed, and there are yet only 5 of those events called out in Scripture. Examination of Acts 4:27-28, Rom 9:17, 1 Pet 2:8, Rev 17:17 show this same misapplication as they build a straw house containing every infinitesimal decision of the wicked and lay it at the feet of God's decreeing. Their errant doctrine of election drives them to such audacious twisting of Scripture.

In Catholic doctrine if you died suddenly without an ability to get to your priest, who can absolve mortal sin, or do your indulgence that could clean your slate before departing this life your are in an unfortunate eternal mess. They invented purgatory to help your kin do something about your mess. How and where you died became an important religious concern for people, and it was there fore taught as doctrine that the time and place and circumstance of an individuals death was already predetermined and unalterable. Such an unsupported idea came from such a ludicrous doctrine that one would think the reformed theologians would have discarded it with his revolt against indulgences. Not so. The reformed theologian holds that every detail of your death and the day of your departure is sealed in a decree from God. Such a doctrine somehow appeals to our nature. “It was just his time to go.” they say. I have always held that some people go well before their 'time' because they did things to their body or motor vehicle that only idiots would do. The reformed theologian takes one verse of the Bible, Job 14:5, and try to teach that the time of your death is certain and chosen. Again, in context any Bible student can see that this Scripture is talking about how little man can do in his short and terminal time here. It is not that his days are numbered and hisdemise is predetermined, it is that his life is 'bounded' (bounded by 70 years in Psalms 90:10) and departure final (cf Job 14:10) Now read this argument in context and note the shallowness of the reformed theologians argument.

Job 14:” 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. 5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; 6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

7 ¶ For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. 10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?”

There will be those too who insist that since Jesus knew the intimate details of the Apostle John's death in John 21:22 that he therefore must know every detail of every individuals life. Again, in context it is obvious that John 21:22 has no such reference to God decreeing even the time of John's death, not to mention that every individual is not specially chosen and ordained as an apostle was. The Bible never indicated that the individual events of every individual life or every individual death is dictated in any decree of God. Such an ideology only comes from the erroneous need to dictate how God elects some to salvation and God elects some to damnation. The whole necessity of God making certain every act of man (Calvinism) or of God foreknowing and thus fore planning for every act of man (Armenianism) is completely removed with a proper Biblical understanding of the doctrine of election.

The fallacy in this teaching abut decrees, fore ordination and foreknowledge can be most readily seen in this line of thinking. If the date, time and circumstance of death is locked with certainty in the foreknowledge of God, then there is nothing that you can do to change it. If you take steps one way or another to change it, they contend that an infinite God “foreknew” what you were going to do and nothing really changed. God, they say, can see and foreknow every detail of the future and every molecule involved in your death. They spend volumes of ink to try and prove that such teaching about foreknowledge (found nowhere in the revelation of God) does not infringe on the free-will or the free moral agency of man. They try to differentiate between mans 'potential' to be 'self determining' and his actually 'becoming' 'self determining' all while locked in the decrees of God. They readily admit that this abstract teaching about God's controlling of our life has adverse effects on mans actions. Augustus sites this example (p361) “The farmer who, after hearing a sermon on God's decrees, took the break-neck road instead of the sage one to his home and broke his wagon in consequence, concluded before the end of his journey that he at any rate had been predestined to be a fool, and that he had made his calling and election sure.”

The massive theological struggle with a concept that God must control or foreknow every intimate detail of every individual life fills volumes of theology books and swells the halls of seminaries with debate. grandiose philosophy and detailed mechanism has been examined to explain how God controls every event with sovereignty in order to enact his will about who gets 'in' and who gets 'burned'. Whether one sides with the most diluted form of Calvinisms decrees as described by what B.B. Warfield calls 'congruism' and mystery (Benjamin B. Warfield “The Plan of Salvation” pp90-91) or delves into Armenian foreknowledge methods using the intricacy of DNA whereby God foreknows via one of the over 30 million combinations of one of the 47 chromosomes of man, the very maching like mechanism that makes him move his finger left or right in any given circumstance! (Such a 'man is a machine' analogy comes from Millard J. Erickson's “Christian Theology” pp 358) the quagmire of the whole debate springs from their erroneous doctrine of elections. The simple truth is that individuals are not mechanical puppets acting out decrees (Calvinism) or a fore-ordained movie clip (Armenianism). Individuals can make choices that change their future. Individuals can speak up for Christ and change the eternal destiny of their neighbor. Individuals can pray a prayer and secure from God a change in their circumstance. Individuals can enter a prayer closet and change the direction of a loved one or a nation.

The reformed theologian contends through endless rhetoric that man does have a free will, that prayer does change things, and the the Bible does say “whosoever will”, all the while he locks man into infinite levels of decrees and foreknowledge which enables him to say God elected some to go to heaven, ans some to go to hell. They call their man made conflict between free will and sovereignty a mystery as grand as the unity of God and the triune distinctions of the God head; gnosticism and agnosticism; the humanity of Christ and his incarnate deity...” etc. (Allen, “Religious Progress” pp110) This conflict, however, is entirely man made. The Bible never states, principles, no intimidates that every individual decision nor act of man is accounted for in a predecreed or preknown plan of God. The whole debate, as con grueled as it is, stems from Calvin's misconstrued theory about election of saints. There is no Biblical evidence that the eternal decision of a man is certain in one direction or another. The extension of this certainty to include every finger movement of a man in some infinite divine plan defies all logic of a rational free moral agent, and defies the clear Biblical truth that prayer, talking to God, changes things.

A proper understanding of the doctrine of election frees us from this ludicrously and causes us to be the life changing witness' and prayer warriors that God intends us to be. They continue to argue otherwise, but what one believes forms a basis for what one does. When you believe that God already knows or has determined who will get saved and who will not get saved, it will effect your witness, your pursuit of souls and your prayer for souls. When you believe that every detail of every life is laid out in a divine plan and is certain forever, you will not be a prayer warrior that changes the course of souls on nations. Don't you believe it. We herein implore that you get a Biblical understanding of the doctrine of election and thereby forgo the foreboding idea that souls are already predestined. When in actuality what you pray and then say can make all the difference in the world.

In the circular reasoning of man, God foreknows who will get saved and who will be cast into hell. As that circular reasoning spirals into infinity God knows with certainty the day and hour of your death and what your finger movements will be next week. No such foreknowledge is supported in scripture. In scripture foreknowledge and fore ordination and decreeing of God are synonious and only pertain to 5 events. In the Bible God's omniscience is always in the present tense and the alpha and omega never steps out of the present tense to work his will. He also never steps on the free will of man to work his will. His will is that “whosoever will may come.” You have His word on it.“It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”

In conclusion of this needed analysis of foreknowledge it is obvious that we need to take a re-read of the Bible with an eye open to the fact that God is making this up as he goes along. God changes his plan in accord to man's freewill decisions. Reading Scripture with this insight can change our daily walk and witness for Christ. The things that happen are not set in a granite of foreknowledge, but depend on your thoughts, your prayers, and your actions. This is obvious in Scripture. We can thus conclude that:

1) The things yet to happen in your life are not sealed nor firmed up in fate nor in foreknowledge, not even your "appointed time" to die is appointed.
2) God is dynamically making this up as we go, as you act he reacts to change your world.
3) The eternal fate or destiny of souls is not foreknown by God it is changeable dependent on mans actions, man's witness, man's prayers.

4) God's actions in your world and in your circumstances, are based on your reasoning with Him, based on your zeal for Him, based on your prayers to Him, and based on your actions because of Him. So act on that. Prayer does indeed change things. It can even change the eternal destiny of souls.

“It is the singular and distinguished honor of the Baptists to have repudiated from their earliest history all coercive power over the consciences and actions of men with reference to religion. They were the proto-evangelists of the voluntary principle.” Herbert S. Skeats, English historian

Augustinian error fell from St. Augustine ( AD 354 -480) in two major areas, the first in the doctrine of the church, the second in the doctrine of salvation. The two areas of error met where salvation was compulsory, or forced upon a soul by infant baptism and/or by the two swords of the Church, and/or by the Sovereignty of God. All the errors of catholicism are in embryo stage in the teachings of Augustine. So to is the predestination errors of Calvinism. These errors came to full and wretched bloom in the Roman Catholic Imperial Church of the medieval period. When Constantine (AD 306-337) saw the political advantage of replacing the mandatory Roman paganism with a mandatory 'Christian' paganism he locked arms with the Roman Church and brought a second sword, a steel sword, into the mix. The Church at Rome took the allegorizations of Augustine and concluded with him that Jesus said to sell your garments and buy swords and that two swords are sufficient (Luke 22:38) Under Constantine's 'one state ordered religion' for 'one unified empire' scheme God's Sword of the Spirit, wielded by the Roman Church, united with Man's Sword of Steel wielded by a magistrate to force the Kingdom of God upon all the Roman Empire. What became called Constantinianism, (or compulsory Christianity, vs. voluntary salvation by faith via free will) is found in its embryonic stage in Augustinians theology. Leonard Verduin writes in “The Reformers and Their Stepchildren” @1964 p 64,

“It was Augustine, he perhaps more than any other, who supplied the Constantinians with arguments from the Scriptures (or rather with arguments fastened upon the Scriptures) where by coercion was rendered theologically respectable. The expression found in Luke 14:23, “Constrain them to come in,” rendered in Latin Compelle intrare, was exactly what he needed in his running battle with the Donatists.

“The followers of Donatus were offering to secede from the “fallen” Church and to go their own way, a step which the advocates of “Christian sacralism” (Constantinianism) could not permit, for it would strike at the very heart of their dream of a faith common to all in the empire. Hence they let it be know, early in the conflict, that schism would bot be permitted but would be opposed, if need be with arms. Thereupon the Donatists pointed out that this would be to deviate from the policies of the Master, who had not raised a finger, much less a sword, to restrain people from going away. More than that, when a sizable group walked out He had confronted His disciples with the wistful question, “Do you not also want to go?”

”To this line of thought – the cogency of which had not escaped him – Augustine replied:

“I hear that you are quoting that which is recorded in the Gospel, that when the seventy followers went back from the Lord they were left to their own choice in this wicked and impious desertion and that He said to the twelve remaining 'Do you not also want to go?' But what you fail to say is that at the time the Church was only just beginning to burst forth from the newly planted seed and that the saying had not yet been fulfilled in her “All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve him.” It is in proportion to the more enlarged fulfillment of this prophecy that the Church now wields greater power – so that she may now not only invite but also compel men to embrace that which is good.” (Augustine's Letter to Donatus, No. 173 as printed in Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, ed, Philip Schaff, Vol. 1.)

”Here we have an early representation of the notion that the Church of Christ was intended by its Founder to enter into a situation radically different from the one depicted in the New Testament. Here we have the beginnings of the notion , which reigned supreme in the minds of men all through the medieval times, that part way into the Christian era a change was intended by the King of the Church himself – a change whereby the world of apostolic times would become obsolete. This change was identified with the Constantinian innovation. This idea set forth by Augustine controlled the thought and the theology of European man all through medieval times. It led to all sorts of theological absurdities ... “

The theological absurdity that God preselected individual souls for salvation and forces his will on them with an irresistible grace is but one of the problems of Augustinian's compulsory salvation theology. His compulsory salvation via infant baptism, via 'be baptized' or 'be burned' or via God's Sovereignty has caused many a Baptist, Anabaptist, Donatist, Waldensian, and Believer their martyrdom. Baptists needn't lean toward it in any form today, especially not in the realm of election or foreordained salvation of some individuals..

Augustine gets worse in his error as he continues to allegorize and misconstrue scripture as follows:

“This (namely the ”enlarged fulfillment” idea which now puts the Church in position to coerce) He (Christ) shows plainly enough in the parable of the wedding feast; after He had summoned the invited ones ... and the servants have said “It has been done as you ordered and yet there is room” the Master said “Go out in the highways and hedges and compel them to come in in order that my house may be full.” Now observe how that it was “bring them in” and not “compel them,” by which the incipient condition of the Church is signified, during which she was but growing toward the position of being able to compel. Since it was right by reason of greater strength and power to coerce men to the feast of eternal salvation therefore it was said later ... “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.” (Augustine's Letter to Donatus, No. 173)

He goes on with his theology of coercion into the kingdom with this taunt to Donatists:

“And so if you (Donatists) were strolling quietly outside the feast of eternal salvation and the unity of the holy Church then we would overtake you on your “highways”; but now that you verily by many injuries and cruelties which you perpetrate upon our people, are full of thorns and spines, now we come upon you in your “hedges” to compel you. The sheep which is compelled is coerced while it is unwilling, but after it has been brought in it may graze as its own volition wills. (Augustine's Letter to Donatus, No. 173)

Leonard Verduin, researching for the “Calvin Foundation” itself, shows in his book these scripture twisting, aberrant theology forming quotes of Augustine. He also demonstrates his antecedent role in Constantinianism, or compulsory salvation by a sword wielding, infant baptizing Church. We, here, understand them as forming another large theological blunder concerning compulsory salvation in the doctrine of predestination that would bloom into its ugly TULIP under John Calvin. Again we reiterate in the Bible/Baptist doctrine of election that salvation is always a free will voluntary decision of a free moral agent. It is never compulsory. It is never to be coerced, not by a Roman sword, not by the baptism of an infant, not by a decree of God, not be a doctrine of election , not by a foreordaining of individuals to salvation, and not by a fatalistic foreknowledge of God. Not coerced, nor mandated in any way by man nor God it is ever left as the voluntaryanism of “Whosoever will may come.”

The Latin Vulgate Bible was translated by Jerome between 382 and 405 AD. This translation, a contemporary of St Augustine's fallacies contained many translation errors which seeded misinterpretations in both Catholicism and then, in turn Calvinism.

In his “General Introduction to the study of the Holy Scripture” F.E. Gigots, a leading catholic authority states

“The Vulgate can be charged, indeed, with innumerable faults, inaccuracies, inconsistencies and arbitrary dealing in particulars... the high place the Vulgate holds even to this day in the Roman Church, where it is unwarrantably and perniciously placed on an equality with the original.” (pp324-5)

Samuel Berger goes on to point out more specific errors in “Cambridge History of the Bible” Vol III p 414, saying

“We might also point out certain number of passages in which the translation assumes a dogmatic or moral bearing which seems to be outside that of the original. Those are serious defects in our translation of the Holy Writ. ...Well known examples of 'far reaching errors' include the whole system of Catholic 'penance', drawn from the Vulgate's “do penance” ... when the Latin should, of coarse, have followed the Greek “repent.” Likewise the word “sacrament” was a mis-rendering from the Vulgate of the original word “mystery.” Even more significant, perhaps, was the rendering of the word “presbyter” (elder) as “priest!” ...

“Thus the Vulgate became the most vulgarized and bastardized text imaginable.” ...

“This Vulgate was taken to England and became the basis of the Christianity with such deep root in that rich soil ... error and all.”

In his book “An Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the NT, p128, A.T. Robertson says of Henslow's book “he has a striking section on 'the Vulgate as the source of false doctrines.' It is difficult to estimate the influence of the Vulgate on all modern versions...”

The term 'predestination' alas comes from Vulgate. In Acts 13:48, the Vulgate has 'praeordinati' unfairly; Augustine's English for 'destinati' is a much too strong a word and 'as many as were ordained (praeordinati) to eternal life believed' is used off hand to 'prove' election of individuals. You see, Vulgate error invades Calvin's doctrine of Election.

Acts 2:47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (prosetiyei touv swzomenouv kay hmeran th ekklhsia )

Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. (kai episteusan osoi hsan tetagmenoi eiv zwhn aiwnion)

Dean Henry Alford, student of the original Greek (in “The NT for English Reading Acts” p745) renders this verse “as many as were disposed to eternal life,” then adds “by whom so disposed is not here declared!”

Samuel Fisk has a whole section showing this error and demonstrates in part with:

“Bishop Wadsworth himself, a gifted linguist, authority on the Vulgate and commentator on the text of the NT (The New Testament in the Original Greek, with Introduction and notes”) states “It would be interesting to inquire, what influence these renderings in the Vulgate version had on the minds of some, like St. Augustine and his followers in the Western Church, in treating the great questions of Free will, Election, Reprobation and Final Perseverance. What also was the result of that influence on the minds of some writers of the Reformed Churches who rejected the authority of Rome, which almost canonized that version, and yet in these two important texts (Acts 2:47, and 13:48) where swayed away by it (the Vulgate) from the sense of the originals.”

“The tendency of the Eastern (Greek) Fathers who read the original Greek was in a different direction from that of the Western school; and Calvinism can receive no support from these 2 texts as they stand in the original words of inspiration, and as they were expanded by the primitive Church” (from “The Acts of the Apostles” p108)

“On Acts 2:47 Cooks Commentary says “The A.V. Was unhappy in following the Vulgate here” ... and on 'were ordained' in Acts 13:48 it states “the A.V. Has followed the Vulgate. Rather 'were set in order for, i.e. 'disposed for eternal life'; as in the Syriac, or the passive of this verb being used as equivalent to the middle.”

We see from this very brief examination that translation errors in the Latin Vulgate greatly propagated the error of individual election first conceived by St. Augustine. The gross error plummeted through centuries of Roman Catholic salvation by coercion and took root in John Calvin's fertile ground of misconceptions concerning the Scriptures.

When one assembles a system of theology that contradicts a preponderance of Scriptures the system needs to be modified. Much of systematic theology is based on our logical assembly of a knowledge of God. When our logic bumps into some verses which contradict our thinking our tendency is to gloss over these Scriptures with shallow explanations. Our preference is to keep our system of logic in working order rather than tweak it to conform to the 'non-conforming' verses. It has been said that we do not need systematic theology, just use the Bible as our theology book. In truth we need to resolve principles and revelation into a system of understanding that first conforms to the Bible, then fits our logical understanding. Calvinism twists Scripture to maintain mans logical persuasion.

Indeed there are often apparent antinomies which require reasonable explanations before they will reasonably fit in our finite minds. An antinomy is “A contradiction between principles or conclusions that seem equally necessary and reasonable.” We find Scripture which says “Nothing is impossible with God.” and we logically conclude that “God can do anything.” All well and good, but we stump many people at the county fair with the riddle “Can you name three things that God cannot do?” A frequent answer is “God can do anything!” But God cannot lie; God cannot change; and God cannot let you into His heaven without your accepting His only begotten Son. Our systems of thinking often need to be expanded or corrected to account for all Scripture principles. Such correction needs to be done with the doctrine of election.

A prevalent need to allow a doctrine careful explanation of certain Scriptures can be illustrated with our doctrine of baptism, which gave Baptists our title. Believers who held staunchly to Scripture when compromising churches began baptizing infants for the forgiveness of sin, separated themselves from this error. Water baptism and the new birth of salvation are distinct in Scripture and need to be kept distinct. There is no salvation in water baptism no matter how many insist otherwise. There is no washing away of sin, original or otherwise, with water no matter how insistent Roman Catholicism is. We insist that it is not a part of Salvation as explained in the Bible, and justly so. However, Catholics know the verses well “1Pe 3:21 The like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us” Their whole doctrine of salvation hinges on the water of baptism because the Bible says Ac 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” Although we know from scripture that Salvation is not accomplished by baptism, and we know that there is no water that could wash a sin away we will have to delve into these couple of verses that seem to state otherwise. We do that with careful exegesis, always letting Scripture interpret Scripture.

So too, when we know the Bible is clear about the volition of man for the salvation of his soul, we will have to clarify some verses which seem to indicate otherwise. The important part, again, is that we get the system of doctrine correct and aligned with the preponderance of Scripture and not let a couple 'stray verses' sway the truth. The basis for Catholic doctrine is that their baptismal water washes sin away. It is in error. The basis for Presbyterian doctrine is that some unsaved, unregenerate souls are elected for salvation from the foundation of the world. It is in error. It is necessary to carefully examine those scriptures that seem to support Calvinism and understand their context without stepping into Calvin's error of thinking that individual soul's are elect for salvation or elect for destruction.

When the erroneous doctrine of election is adapted prior to Bible exegesis the errors begin to compound. Examine here the scriptures used in Easton's Revised Bible Dictionary under 'Election of Grace' and then under 'Predestination' and notice the swift compounding of the error. They content that since God decrees the destiny of individual souls, he must decree every detail of human life, every detail in the whole universe thereby gets erroneously placed in a decree of God.

1. of the election of individuals to office or to honour and privilege, e.g., Abraham, Jacob, Saul, David, Solomon, were all chosen by God for the positions they held; so also were the apostles.

2. There is also an election of nations to special privileges, e.g., the Hebrews # De 7:6 Ro 9:4

3. But in addition there is an election of individuals to eternal life #2Th 2:13 Eph 1:4 1Pe 1:2 Joh 13:18 The ground of this election to salvation is the good pleasure of God # Eph 1:5,11 Mt 11:25,26 Joh 15:16,19 God claims the right so to do # Ro 9:16,21 It is not conditioned on faith or repentance, but is of soverign grace # Ro 11:4-6 Eph 1:3-6 All that pertain to salvation, the means # Eph 2:8 2Th 2:13 as well as the end, are of God # Ac 5:31 2Ti 2:25 1Co 1:30 Eph 2:5,10 Faith and repentance and all other graces are the exercises of a regenerated soul; and regeneration is God's work, a "new creature." Men are elected "to salvation," "to the adoption of sons," "to be holy and without blame before him in love" #2Th 2:13 Ga 4:4,5 Eph 1:4 The ultimate end of election is the praise of God's grace # Eph 1:6,12

We have already examined each of these Scriptures to refute the election of individual souls for Salvation. Salvation must be based on obedience of God via mans free will and such a free will decision is available to all. The Calvinist carefully stacks the deck here, carefully avoiding the 'whosoever will' verses and twisting the verses on election to imply that they have something to do with how one gets saved. One gets saved by their free will acceptance of God's eternal Son. Once saved they are in an army of elect ones who are elect for a purpose and service in God's kingdom, not elected for a salvation experience.

This word is properly used only with reference to God's plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered "predestinate" is found only in these six passages, # Ac 4:28 Ro 8:29,30 1Co 2:7 Eph 1:5,11 and in all of them it has the same meaning. They teach that the eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional decree or "determinate purpose" of God governs all events. This doctrine of predestination or election is beset with many difficulties. It belongs to the "secret things" of God. But if we take the revealed word of God as our guide, we must accept this doctrine with all its mysteriousness, and settle all our questionings in the humble, devout acknowledgment, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight." For the teaching of Scripture on this subject let the following passages be examined in addition to those referred to above;

1. exalts the majesty and absolute sovereignty of God, while it illustrates the riches of his free grace and his just displeasure with sin.

2. It enforces upon us the essential truth that salvation is entirely of grace. That no one can either complain if passed over, or boast himself if saved.

3. It brings the inquirer to absolute self-despair and the cordial embrace of the free offer of Christ.

4. In the case of the believer who has the witness in himself, this doctrine at once deepens his humility and elevates his confidence to the full assurance of hope"

Again notice the leap from Scripture as they gloss over theses 6 important verses and excuse them all as supporting their 'Decreeing All Things” kind of god, when in context none of them make this undefended leap. They connect all of them to a man's personal salvation experience, when none address individual salvation. Their preconceived intention that God, in his Sovereignty chose some for salvation and some for damnation over rides all honest examination of these Scriptures. Hodges 4 points puts exponential emphasis on 1) the sovereignty of God in his selection of who gets grace, 2) that God's grace is somehow exalted by His doing the choosing without the 'whosoever will' doing the choosing, 3) That election brings man to self despair rather than Christs sermon on the mount bringing man to self despair, and lastly that 4) a misnomered doctrine of election is somehow humbling to those who are hand chosen to get in as they repeat the phrase 'not by merit just by random selection' No, indeed, their ill fated doctrine that God elected some to get in and some to get hell is unjust, ungodly and not-Scriptural no matter how much rhetoric they engage.

"The decrees of God are his eternal, unchangeable, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, conditions, successions, and relations, and determining their certain futurition. The several contents of this one eternal purpose are, because of the limitation of our faculties, necessarily conceived of by us in partial aspects, and in logical relations, and are therefore styled Decrees." The decree being the act of an infinite, absolute, eternal, unchangeable, and sovereign Person, comprehending a plan including all his works of all kinds, great and small, from the beginning of creation to an unending eternity; ends as well as means, causes as well as effects, conditions and instrumentalities as well as the events which depend upon them, must be incomprehensible by the finite intellect of man. The decrees are:

3. comprehend all things that come to pass # Eph 1:11 Mt 10:29,30 # Eph 2:10 Ac 2:23 4:27,28 Ps 17:13,14

4. efficacious, as they respect those events he has determined to bring about by his own immediate agency; or

5. permissive, as they respect those events he has determined that free agents shall be permitted by him to effect. This doctrine ought to produce in our minds "humility, in view of the infinite greatness and sovereignty of God, and of the dependence of man; confidence and implicit reliance upon wisdom, rightenousness, goodness, and immutability of God's purpose."

These decrees are fictitious. They are derived in the mind of the theologian and nowhere in the Scriptures of God. They imply fixity. God's revelation from Genesis to Revelation implies fluidity. They imply fatalism. God's word reveals dynamicism. They contend for the unchangeable. God's word in teaching us to pray contends that He can and will change things. They contend that the destiny of your soul is sealed before the foundation of the earth. God's word contends that “Whosoever Will” may come, and that the destiny of your soul is only 2 ways sealed. First, it is sealed when you receive Christ as your eternal Lord and Saviour of your soul. He then seals your destiny and you become predestinated. Secondly when you draw your last breath in this life in rejection of the loving sacrifice of His dear Son, the Bible says your doom is sealed in that breath. “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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18) Herein there are but two ways one can seal his eternal fate. And herein God did not seal it. Man must in his free will as a free moral agent make his own choice. God has drawn on the heart of every man. God has called every man to repentance and salvation. Whether I move my fingers left or right today is not something that has decreed in before the foundation of the earth. The ludicracy of such teaching and the rhetoric that is engaged to defend it is telling. God's plan for your life today is locked into nothing but fluidity. The opportunities for you to be conformed to the image of His dear Son loom before us each day. God has provided great opportunities, knows great possibilities, prepares great places for your service to him each day,... don't entertain a theology teaching that your choice to participate yeah or nay is locked up in his decree or even in his foreknowledge. Such is not borne up in Scripture.

We need to practice good Biblical exegesis on determining a doctrine of election and predestination, John Calvin and St. Agustine did not. Presbyterian and Reformed theologians do not.

When man develops and defends an errant doctrine to such a degree that Calvinistic doctrine has been taken, you can guess two things about the error. First, it is an error that appeals to the heart of man. There is something in it's core that appeals to the rebellion in man and thus it holds an attraction that causes it to catch on and grow and take on a life of it's own. For example, the doctrine of religious works is such an errant implant in the heart of man. It is not in the Bible, that a man can do enough good in his life that he deserves to go to heaven, but such is the expectation of the religious masses. Catholic doctrine expands on the error with a system of doing sacraments, penance and indulgence to combat the mortal and venial sins we will do. The Protestants all propagate such a concept that at the pearly gates Peter will weigh in with our good and our bad as we wait and hope the scale tips to our favor. Even United Methodist doctrine (though protestant, they are called out here because they used to preach the saving gospel that the Wesley brothers found) today says you must receive Christ 'and he will help you be good enough' to get in. You can't get in without Jesus, they will say, but Jesus don't save you, he just makes it possible for you to be good enough to get in. Such a doctrine of works salvation is a broad gate and wide path, and many there be that go in thereat. Religion is attractive to our old nature of doing something for ourself and doing it religiously. So to is the Presbyterian doctrine of election and predestination attractive to our old nature that says “It is not my fault”,... “it was the serpent that beguiled me,” “it is the woman you gave me,”... “it is God's election that determines who will not accept Him, it is not my lazy witness, it is not my lost zeal, lost testimony, nor inept prayer life.” Both of these errors are rooted deep, both form the wide gate of the majority, both are un-Scriptural, and both are filling the legions of hell with souls. Both need to be combated by Baptists who will contend for the faith. The former is battled on every Baptist front, but the latter has seeped into our Baptist circles and marinates our soul winning witness in lethargic laziness. The regular Baptists weigh in with 2, 3 or 5 points of the error and think themselves justifiably scholarly and Scriptural. They will not cast out the Presbyterian reformed TULIP and resort to the pure Baptist doctrine, that your neighbor, your spouse, your loved one is a 'whosoever' and must make a decision for Christ themselves and that decision can rest entirely on your witness, your testimony, your walk, and your closet of prayer. No predestination, no election, no selection before the foundation of the world. No hanging it on the way it was 'meant to be' in any kind of decree of God, nor foreknowledge of God, nor providence of God.

Fisk lists these “Ten ill effects of rigid Calvinistic thinking” with which I whole heartedly agree.

Thanks for your comments, I’m pursuing Fisk’s book via my local library. Looking forward to it’s arrival. I am still digesting your and other comments and material. I am searching out stable ground to put my feet on in this arena. The Presbyterian theologian that responded to my letter to Dr. Sproul said that small minds should not dabble with this theological issue and we Baptists should just let Spurgeon be our sole spokesman. I don’t think he meant that as a complement in any way. I’ll contend that my mind is small but God can enlightened it as much as any mans. My small mind reads God’s grand book and no inkling of their doctrine of predestination is found there. (the dangling prepositional pronoun is intended here, ... or is it there and is it an adverb?)

We stand straddling these two great and aged battle lines. Good footing is a premium in this stand. The Bible drives us to stand here in the middle looking over to the Armenian side; seeing truth and dangerous error, looking over to the Calvin side seeing truth and dangerous pitfalls. I am taking some steps through this swamp. The old paths are often rutted and seeping with mud and water. There is ample solid ground for this walk through this swamp, but my feet are wet and muddy just the same. The footing I am standing on is way over into Armenian territory, and I am most appreciative of your objective inputs. My research is initially intended to move me through three arguments drafted below.

Argument 1: No Individual Soul Election. Corporate election needs better definition which will cause it to engulf all of Paul’s election and predestination considerations. As Israel is a chosen people for God (corporately, not individually), God, through the letters of Paul, lets us understand the mystery that Gentiles are now part of that choosing and election. When I speak of corporate election it is in reference to God choosing, before the foundation of the world, that Gentiles would be ‘grafted into’ his chosen. This is in itself a marvelous truth, but it also captures Paul’s wordings in Romans, in Ephesians and in 1 Thes 1:4. This gets us away from the distasteful dilemma that God chose individual souls before the foundation of the world. Such an ugly presumption is forced upon us by the logic of theologians, not by the scriptures. The antinomy is thus created in our minds not in God’s book or character. The whole trouble of the doctrine of predestination, weather done by arbitrariness of God or by prescient foreknowledge of God, is that it utterly obliterates mans will, and cannot then account for the clear scriptures that “Christ died for ALL” and that “God is not willing that any should perish.” The concept of corporate election, perhaps better called Gentile election is a far superior rock to stand on than individual soul election, especially for Paul’s corporate letters to Gentiles.

Argument 2: Grace to All. The prescient view that God chose individuals for election based solely on his foreknowledge is demeaning to the doctrine of Grace. I will have to go with RC Sproul on this one. If your theology forces you to believe in individual soul election wherein the choosing of the elect individuals was done before the foundation of the world, the Augustinian view makes God unjustly arbitrary, and the prescient view makes God’s choosing based on ones net mental worth, albeit future worth. Both are ugly and both send tentacles of error throughout the Bible and throughout ones world view. Again, it is mans theology that forces one down this dark alley, not the Scriptures. Dr. Sproul was badgered into that alley with four years of Presbyterian college and then his first year of Seminary. He went against his will, fighting for truth and clutching his Bible, but he lost his grip on the Old Book and went down the alley of darkness called the Doctrine of Predestination. The darkness is blinding whether it is Augustianian (arbitrary) or Prescient (foreknowledge) based. The predestination of all souls, individually elected souls to an eternity in heaven with God, and individually un-elected souls to an eternity in hell away from God, is dark and ugly because the Bible shines no light there, and the revelation of God does not go there. Revelation, instead teaches that man, created in the image of God, chooses his destiny.

Argument 3: Man's Free Will. Every man who reaches an ‘age of accountability’ is given enough sovereign life, and enough illuminating light to make a faith based decision which determines his eternal destiny. This statement is easily supported from the pages of God’s revealed word. It is logically supported by anyone who has seen individual choices change ones destiny. It clashes sharply with the theologian who insists that God must be in charge of every individual decision in his universe, or jeopardize sovereignty. It clashes with the fatalism that theologians build into their mosaic of a God who fore knows every individual detail of my life and even knows those details before the foundation of the world. This theological model of an infinite God fits well into the finite mind of man, but does not begin to unravel the revealed fact that God has allowed man to make up his own mind concerning His only begotten Son. We know that ones destiny hinges on what one individually chooses to believe about the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given enough light for each to make the choice, for “that was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” God has given you enough ‘sovereignty’, enough individual self determination to choose your own destiny. He tugs on the ‘self determination controls’ of every man for He has revealed that “all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” Some reins (i.e. the Apostle Paul’s) God tugs with great determination and elicits great response, but God tugs on every man’s reins just the same. Clearly individual OT souls were elect or chosen by God as concerning the seed of His Christ, Jacob over Esau as the argument goes. Clearly an apostle was chosen or elect by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles, ... and I believe the 12th, the replacement for Judas, and the 12th name on the foundation stone of The City. But don’t make these elections dictate that God chooses and predestines the eternal destiny for every soul born into this world. There is ample scripture to refute such Presbyterian doctrine and refute it without the time honored antinomy which muddies the theologins glass of swamp water.

A clear glass of water in the midst of the theological swamp is my quest. I believe this doctrine needs revisited and more clearly expounded. Clearly for my regular Baptist brothers that are getting grossly entangled in Calvinism it does. Clearly for Dr. R.C. Sproul who is uncomfortable at best and sometimes even remorseful that he quit his fight and ‘aqueoused’ into their doctrine of predestination. And even for Dr. John M. Duncan, ruling elder in the PCA, who contends that Spurgeon worded the sole Baptist position against their hallowed doctrine. Likely as not I, with my small mind and small flock, will not be able to expound a clearer stand than that of Spurgeon. But armed with a great book, and equipped by an infinite God, I know there is greater exposition to be formed. Exposition that makes an individual’s destiny rest on what he chooses to do with Christ. Exposition that allows my prayers to change the destiny of my lost loved one. Exposition that I will preach to my small flock so they can pray an effectual destiny changing prayer for their children, and their children's children. It is not all predetermined. God does move, or stay his hand based on prayers of his saints. God does ponder the heart of man. He does “see the reins and the heart” and does declare “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This doctrine of predestination robs souls of hope, closes doors of opportunity, and denies scripture truths. It is an evil of our day. It spreads tentacles of deceit and laziness. It needs to be exposed to the light of Scripture.

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done - "It is finished."

"Ask, and it shall be given you."-Matthew 7:7
We know of a place in England still existing, where a dole of bread is served to every passerby who chooses to ask for it. Whoever the traveller may be, he has but to knock at the door of St. Cross Hospital, and there is the dole of bread for him. Jesus Christ so loveth sinners that He has built a St. Cross Hospital, so that whenever a sinner is hungry, he has but to knock and have his wants supplied. Nay, He has done better; He has attached to this Hospital of the Cross a bath; and whenever a soul is black and filthy, it has but to go there and be washed. The fountain is always full, always efficacious. No sinner ever went into it and found that it could not wash away his stains. Sins which were scarlet and crimson have all disappeared, and the sinner has been whiter than snow. As if this were not enough, there is attached to this Hospital of the Cross a wardrobe, and a sinner making application simply as a sinner, may be clothed from head to foot; and if he wishes to be a soldier, he may not merely have a garment for ordinary wear, but armour which shall cover him from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. If he asks for a sword, he shall have that given to him, and a shield too. Nothing that is good for him shall be denied him. He shall have spending-money so long as he lives, and he shall have an eternal heritage of glorious treasure when he enters into the joy of his Lord.
If all these things are to be had by merely knocking at mercy's door, O my soul, knock hard this morning, and ask large things of thy generous Lord. Leave not the throne of grace till all thy wants have been spread before the Lord, and until by faith thou hast a comfortable prospect that they shall be all supplied. No bashfulness need retard when Jesus invites. No unbelief should hinder when Jesus promises. No cold-heartedness should restrain when such blessings are to be obtained.

I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ’Here am I! Send me’
—Isaiah 6:8

God did not direct His call to Isaiah—Isaiah overheard God saying, ". . . who will go for Us?" The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. "Many are called, but few are chosen" ( Matthew 22:14 ). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear "the voice of the Lord" continually asking, ". . . who will go for Us?" However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, "Now, you go." He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, "Here am I! Send me." Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard-"the voice of the Lord." In perfect freedom we too will say, "Here am I! Send me."

Total depravity does not mean that every man is as bad as he could be or that no unredeemed man can do any good deed or honorable act. Depravity addresses man's spiritually dead condition because of the fall. Total addresses the fact that man's depravity has affected every area of his life and person. 4

God's choice of who to save was made in eternity past and was not conditioned upon man's ability, life or future response to God's gracious offer of salvation.

Sometimes called Particular Redemption, the subjects of Christ's atoning work on the cross are identified as only the elect. Jesus did not die for all the world. “God purposed by the atonement to save only the elect and that consequently all the elect, and they alone, are saved.” R.B. Kuiper, “For Whom Did Christ Die?”, p. 62

Sometimes called Effective Grace, addresses the belief that the Holy Spirit actually brings to salvation all the elect.

I have been listening to your broadcast on Calvinism and am praying that you continue your struggle through this topic until you arrive at the truth that Jesus died for all of us, i.e. died for ‘whosoever’ will receive him, that God can save anybody, and that God is not willing that any should perish. As you freely confuse and intermix corporate election and individual soul election the struggle you are having with God seeming capricious is animated in this series. That is unfortunate for you and your listeners. As you endeavor to explain and defend Augusts' gross error in Soteriology my prayer is that you and your audience will see your animated wrestling match with the truth. Individual souls were not predestined before the foundation of the earth, mankind was! More particularly Gentiles, corporately, like those in Ephesus were predestined and elect. My Bible says that Christ died for all, my Bible shows that God made man in his image with his own individual sovereignty, and my Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish. My Bible clearly departs from Augustus’ theory of soteriology. Don’t miss these departures in your current study, I can’t wait to hear from you which is right, my Bible or Calvin’s TULIP. When you stay on the subject of what the Bible teaches I enjoy your lessons on WMHR in Syracuse immensely. When you go and paint yourself into the Reformed corners of Augustian theory I feel bad for you. God is not capricious, there is a sovereignty of man and your gonna have wet paint on your feet and a mucked up paint job on your broadcast.

May God Bless you as you struggle with this truth, and may God make crystal clear His ‘whosoever’ truth despite the muddy water in your current broadcast.

Greetings from Virginia! I appreciate your letter to Dr. Sproul. While I don't agree with everything you said (I believe I was individually elected -but it was not an unconditional election but a conditional election according to 1 Peter 1:2) I do agree with most of it. I humbly suggest that you consider a good spell checker, especially when writing men of educational ability. Misspelled words detract from the authority of the argument.

IPeter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

The book that I have most appreciated on this subject is "Calvinistic Paths Retraced" by Samuel Fisk. My copy is paperback - 240 pages. It's value to me is in it's amount of footnoted references and quotes. My edition carries a 1985 copyright. ISBN 0-914012-25-8 Biblical Evangelism Press My last contacts in getting copies (I have used it as a reference in college classes I teach) were: Robert Sumner 512-776-2867

I am on the eastern shore of Maryland at a quaint village called Oxford. 15 couples from the church I pastor are meeting here tomorrow (I'm typing this on Thursday evening)for our marriage retreat.

I hope you've had a great week and will have a blessed day on Sunday. I'll intersperse my comments/answers regarding Calvinism below..in [ ]

Thank you for the help. I do have a spell checker but have grown so accustomed to my thorn that sometimes I don't take the time to use it. You are right, Dr. Sproul will likely not be as forgiving of this thorn as my wife. I shall hunt down the book you recommended, "Calvinistic Paths Retraced" by Samuel Fisk.

I wish to explore further your own belief that you are individually elected by a conditional election. Were you individually elected for salvation before the foundation of the world?

[I believe so. The words "elect" and "choose" and "chosen" all have to do with God's choice to save me as a person. He did so before the foundation of the world. He chose me to salvation. He elected me to salvation.]

You mention conditional election, was it possible for you to fail to meet a condition and thereby individually foil this eternal foreknowledge of God?

[No, God is all-knowing. He knew everything I would and will do before the foundation of the world. He would have known that I was going to fail to meet whatever condition He decided to establish. God foreknew mankind's sin and every man's specific sins, what it would cost to redeem from among mankind the individuals whom He would save, and who would repent and believe when convicted. On the basis of His foreknowledge He elected whom He would save. He elected to save every one who believed. Peter said that we are "elect according to (kata, preposition meaning "down from" and "dominated by")the foreknowledge of God."]

I am dealing with issues I have long wrestled against in GARBC Churches which adopted Calvinism or portions thereof. [Samuel Fisk, author of "Calvinistic Paths Revisited" was a GARBC - he was fighting to keep Calvinism out of the GARBC.]

I am settling into the position that God made man with a sovereignty of his own, and that often God ponders the heart of man (individually.) (Prov 5:21, 21:2, 24:12) This would imply that God's foreknowledge is intact for mankind, but individually he has left man a sovereign will.

["Did it ever occur to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?" I wish that were original with me! I don't believe that anything happens in my life specifically or in the world generally that God didn't know about before the foundation of the world. He is omniscient.]

My staunch opposition to Calvinism has likely swung me to the opposite side making all my regular Baptist friends nervous about my stand, but I am clearly in the bounds of Bible doctrine where I stand, i.e. dismissing individual soul election of the masses (some were certainly elect for his purposes form the womb, some even from the foundation of the earth, but not I, and though you do have a tremendous ministry for Christ, I wonder if you might be a 'whosoever' as well), and settling in on corporate election. Corporate election works well for each of Dr. Sproul's scripture references.

Such is my premise. I know your schedule because you are a Pastor and teacher, but if you could find the time to more clearly state your position on election and predestination I would appreciate the help. I know Augustus' stance, and I have a record of Calvin's reformed theology. Dr. Sproul words his position well. What peeks my interest here is how this reformed theology has crept into Baptist Churches and damaged the Thursday nights and Bus routes. For a short time, in my youth I was a member of "Sovereign Grace Baptist Church." Thirty years later I wish to eradicate Tulips, or at least expose their roots and let them die out of Baptist flower gardens. Where does Pastor Aylestock weigh in here? You could be a good independent Baptist ballast that keeps my sailboat on keel. I need a couple. I wouldn't topple my sailboat into Arminianism, but would sure lean hard toward the sovereignty of man with all corporate election and no (after the apostles) individual soul election for this age.

[1 Thessalonians 1:4 - Paul knew they were elect of God. Is he talking about a corporate election? No, the context reveals that he is talking about their salvation experiences. God does not save a corporate group, He saves individuals. His election was based upon His foreknowledge. God did not reveal through Peter at that point exactly what He foreknew. My belief is that He foreknew how I would respond to Him when the gospel was presented and the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin. John 6:64 speaks of Jesus knowing from the beginning who would NOT believe. I believe He made His choice of saving me based upon His knowledge of my belief. I'll attach some notes on this issue. It is a great study! I teach a course entitled "Theological Systems" which deals with Calvinism, Arminianism, Reformed Theology and Dispensationalism. It is, of course, a survey class. Have a great day.]

[Personally, I think Arminius gets an unfair deal. When I read a summary of what he believed, I find it in agreement with almost all independent Baptists I've known over the years...except that he wasn't sure if it were possible for a genuine believer to become an apostate and be damned. His lack of certainty did not deal with losing one's salvation or works having a part of keeping one saved. Rather, it dealt with the ability of a person to renounce Christ and become apostate.]

Thanks again. Look forward to hearing from you, as you get the time or the interest. God Bless

I trust you have had a good Thanksgiving season. I've been too busy with family (I have 3 children in full-time service who all came together, with spouses and my grandchildren, from their places of ministry to celebrate Thanksgiving together) to read it. I skimmed the first few paragraphs. Interesting.

I did note in what I have read, though, that you seem to have accepted the theology of the Protestants (seeds planted by Augustine) regarding the doctrine of the church. Biblicists (Baptists) have historically understood that you are a member of the church, the body of Christ, by water baptism. It was Augustine and the Catholics who confused the doctrines of soteriology and ecclesiology and ended up with salvation = membership in the church. The protestants further refined the doctrinal confusion with their fine-tuned doctrine of two kinds of churches... one that you get into at salvation and the other at some time after that. Jesus didn't know of two kinds - He established one kind. For some articles about this doctrinal departure from historic Biblicist/Baptist theology, see our web site under "Articles" (find the link at the bottom of the home page).

I got into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. I got into the body of Christ through water baptism.

Those who are 'in Christ' are as elect as he. They are chosen to be his witnesses to a lost world. They are chosen to be the body and manifestation of Christ in that world. They are chosen people to temple the Holy Spirit of God in this world as he reproves the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Nowhere in this election of a people is an individual soul elected or predestined to an eternity in heaven or an eternity in hell. The election is for service to work the purposes of God in this life on this earth.

>>>>> I'd be careful about the interchange of "elect" and "predestined." I do believe the Word of God is clear that the saved are the elect, but it is even more clear on those who are "predestined." The only ones ever spoken about being predestined to anything are those who are saved. God never speaks about predestining the unsaved to anything, thus:

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Ephesians 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

And the elect, praise the Lord, are so according to God's foreknowledge, which does not, of necessity imply activity on God's part to bring this to pass:

1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

Saint Augustine was wrong when he read into scripture the predestination of individual souls into heaven. John Calvin, who systematized the error into a theology .... Once 'in' you are elected to service for your Lord, as you walk here in this life. Election is to service here not to salvation in heaven.

>>>>>Let's just for the sake of argument suppose for a moment that pre-temporal personal election is a Biblical fact. So what? That still leaves unchanged Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen. I knew of a man who was a classic 5 pointer, however he was also the absolute best soul-winner I knew of. You say that sounds absurb, how could that be? Simply because he realized all his theology does not change our COMMAND.

And frankly, even if "P-T P election" is true, unless you can tell me who are supposed to comprise the elect, then you'd better get busy simply being about the work God has graciously granted to you -- "Go ye and preach" -- and leave to God that grand purview of salvation, where it so rightfully and righteously belongs.

Wasn't it Spurgeon who said if the elect had a stripe of a certain color running down their back he would scour the city, trying to see under men's shirts for the stripe, and preach to them. But, since no stripe exists, all he was left to do was obey the Gospel Commission, and "go preach to every creature."

Can I get a witness? Yes, several. “Nowhere in the Bible is Election connected with the salvation or damnation of a human soul. ...

>>>>> For a long time I found Rom. 9.22 difficult. I didn't want to vassilate, but as I understood the verse, the KJ translators had correctly noted that God was saying there, by saying "fitted to destruction," that He would be the One doing the fitting, since it is a passive verb.

That was until I taught Romans verse by verse to a couple who desired to understand the Word better, and wanted to go through Romans. Wow, what a light going on in my head when I stopped focusing on that portion of the verse, and viewed it in the entired context of the section, especially to wit: that Paul is hypothetically speaking -- If God wants to damn some, and glorify others, what are you to say He can't? NOT that Paul is saying that is what God is doing, but he is making the point that a Sovereign God can make what ever choices He deems best, and His creation has no place to speak a difference of opinion with Him.

Praise the Lord He has chosen "whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Grow in grace & knowledge, go in peace, serve with love,
Pastor Timothy Shumer ~ Colosse Baptist, Parish NY @ www.colosse.org Journal @ www.timshumer.bravejournal.com/
God answer's knee-mail..."Set your affection on things above" [Col. 3:2]

Predestination is a debated topic. Yet the Bible is clear about the doctrine of election and its importance to our perspectives on God and man, and the nature of their contributions to salvation.

Because of the widespread neglect of this doctrine, many people cite Chosen By God not only as their introduction to Dr. Sproul's teaching, but also as the resource that profoundly shifted their attention to and understanding of the predestining grace of God. R.C. shows how election is entirely compatible with human freedom, dignity, and responsibility. One of Ligonier's most significant and popular books, Chosen by God shows why all serious Christians cannot afford to ignore this important biblical doctrine, but instead should embrace God's initiative in Salvation.

Study Series $6 Six 30-minute messages: * Everyone Believes this Doctrine * God's Sovereignty * What is Free Will? * Man's Radical Fallenness * Does God Create Unbelief? * The Divine Initiative Chosen by God Paperback , 213 pages

Predestination is a debated topic. Yet the Bible is clear about the doctrine of election and its importance to our perspectives on God and man, and the nature of their contributions to salvation.

8/31/2004 [4 star rating]excellent and easy to read “Chosen by God" is excellent and easy to read. It tells us the biblical truth about God's plan of the election of his people and the controverse “tulip". Neither can RC Sproul nor does he want to write with the brilliancy of a Martin Luther or John Calvin, that's why I give him only 4 stars. God bless RC Sproul and Ligonier ministries!

8/28/2004 [5 star rating]excellent I read this book in less than a week. It incorporates the basic tenets of Reformed Theology and is a nice refresher course. RC is an excellent communicator. Examples to drive home a point are excellent. This book humbled me to think that God has called me to faith to Himself. PTL 3/8/2004 [3 star rating]Thought provoking and easy to read I read this book in one sitting. It is very thought provoking and worth reading. Personally I don't agree with Dr. Sproul's conclusions. I believe he, like all Calvinists, miss the clear intent of scripture by taking passages having to do with temporarily hardened Jews and applying them to a soteriology for all mankind. However, if you are looking for a clear, concise and well written book on the reformed view of salvation this is one is worth reading. 9/1/2003 [5 star rating]Educational unveiling of election The ideas covered in this book were deep enough to challenge ones preconceived views. Anyone seeking an objective presentation can receive it within the covers of this book. However, it is understood that the author has an opinion that concurs with views expressed. I appreciate the end of chapter summaries as well, they bring closure to the thoughts discussed throughout the chapter and make for a nice group study guide. 3/17/2003 [5 star rating]wonderful I finished reading this book in less than one week. It treats the tough topic -- predestination --in such an intriguing, enlightening and biblical way that I just could not wait to see what the author would bring up in the next step. The summary at the end of each chapter is helpful to aid the readers to keep track. If the Lord will, I would like to see it translated into my native language -- Chinese. I am convinced that it will help other Chinese believers just as it has helped me.

If an event is fore known by an infinite God and it does not come to pass, then it was fore known in error ergo a fore known event must come to pass; it is fixed; and cannot be changed even by God, else it does not fit the definition of fore known. Baptists have continuously refuted Calvin’s Unconditional Election of souls but have then fallen victim to Augustinian Theology’s error of degrees by saying “But God knows who will be saved and God knows who will be lost.” Continuing they may go so far as to say God knows every detail of every life; has a fixed date for your appointment with death and that these things are fore known, even fore known before the foundation and thus fixed and thus unchangeable. I have even heard Baptist say that God is not bound in time but reels the film strip backward and forward at his discretion, that he can thus look at my next Tuesday and the events therein are fixed. That is Calvinism and not Bible. Is such doctrine found in the Bible? When I played my 8 year old son in chess I knew the end from the beginning, yet he still had the freedom to move the pieces according to the rules as he pleased. Knowing the end form the beginning does not constitute fore knowing every event that will happen but reacting to any situation to bring about the ending. I contend God dynamically works his plan in real time, rather than following an Augustinian model that teaches God fore knows every detail of every individual life and death for every second of their existence. Clearly if it is fore known it is fixed and unchangeable and that slippery slope swallowed many a Baptist into the throws of fatalism which quagmires Calvinists.

Please help untangle this web by responding to each question with a sentence or very short paragraph. In my book “The Biblical Doctrine of Election” I am attempting to draw a line between what is foreknowledge thus fixed and what is flexible thus dynamically alterable. (book in draft reviewable at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/baptist/speakreformed.html ) The line should also divide what the Bible teaches from what our rational has read into the situations because of preconceived Augustinian notions that God knows everything. In my Bible God’s omniscience is always present tense, i.e. It never says he knows my hair count for next Tuesday. When applicable please site helpful Scriptures in support of your answers. Your inputs are for my personal research and individual comments may be published but will not be attributed to you without your permission. Please consider with me:

1) In Genesis 6:6 it repented the LORD that he had made man... What does this mean?

2) The offer made to Moses in Exod 32:10 wherein God would consume the 12 tribes of Israel and raise up from Moses a great nation, .. Was this a legitimate offer?

3) When God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto (Nineveh) and he did it not ... In Jonah 3:10 did He?

4) When Joash the King of Israel only smote the arrows three times in II Kings 13:18, did God actually base his response and plans for Benhadad on that choice of Joash (vr 25)

5) When the Lord came down to see for himself in Gen. 11:5 and 18:21, did he actually?

6) Does God fore know every soul that will be saved in the future, when does he know it and is this knowledge changeable?

7) If God fore knows every salvation decision can our intercessory prayer for an individual’s salvation change their eternal destiny?

8) Since the Bible only clearly defines 5 things that were known from the foundation of the world; what all would you add to that list?

9) Does God fore know when you will die? Are your individual actions involved in that date?

Fisk, Samuel, Calvinistic Paths Retraced. (Printed by Biblical Evangelism Press @1985)

Strong, James J. S.T.D., L.L.D., The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Test of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books

3 Although some have hypothesized that Luke's Greek background indicates he was not Jewish by birth. They speculate that he was thus a Gentile and a non-apostle who authored two New Testament books, the Gospel According to Luke and The Acts of the Apostles. Since tradition says he was a Jew of Antioch and a Jew of the dispersion and, in any event, Luke wrote under the auspicious of the Apostle Paul, a Jew of Jews, we shall leave such wild hypothesizing alone in this work

6Exegesis def. (from Greek) Critical explanation or analysis of a text. To interpret.

8The Latin Vulgate of 405 AD was the Catholic accepted Bible. It is filled with translation errors, but dominated Western Christianity until the original Greek texts were incorporated from the Eastern Byzantine Manuscripts used in the Greek Textus Receptus and the 1611 translation of the AV known as the King James Bible.

9It is readily contended that some mental age of accountability must be attained before a genuine acceptance or rejection of God's atoning offer of his only begotten son can be transacted. A death prior to this accountability would result in heaven, as it did for David's son. (II Sam 12:23) At the very least it would lean on the question “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? (Gen 18:25) A death prior to this accountability horribly confounds and is disingenuous to Calvin's doctrine of election.

10Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

112Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

12John 1:8-9 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

13Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 ¶ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

14Psalm 7:9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Jer 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

15The Cross and the Crossing by John Onenham (as quoted by Samuel Fisk Chapter 3)

16Vincent, Marvin R. Word Studies in the New Testament Vol III, p. 136

18Audio Series “Predestination” by R.C. Sproul from Ligonier Ministries, The Home of “Renewing Your Mind” Orlando, FL.

19Richardson, Dr. Alan, An Introduction To The Theology Of The New Testament p. 272

23TULIP has as its premise 1)Total Depravity, 2) Unconditional Election, 3) Limited Atonement, 4) Irresistible Grace, 5) Perseverance of the Saints

24Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Rom 3:10-12 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one. Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

251Pe 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

261Pet 2:4-6 ¶ To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

27Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

28Rom 10:11-13 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 ¶ For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

29John 3:18-19 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

30 'book of life' referenced in Php 4:3, Rev 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 15, 21:27, and 22:19

32Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Col 3:12 ¶ Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; II John 1:1 ¶ The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; 13 The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen. I Pet 5:13 The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

34Luke 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; Eph 1:4 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: Acts 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. I Thes 1:4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

36Rom 8:29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

37The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.

38Strong, James J. S.T.D., L.L.D., The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Test of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books