How arrogant can Christians be? Some think of themselves as royalty that were chosen by God from among the masses for special treatment!
About the doctrine of election, it is written:
First of all, we (Calvinists) must affirm that all Christians believe in election; if you believe the Bible, you believe in election since it is taught both directly and indirectly in so many passages. So the question is not whether we believe in election, but rather how we understand the meaning of the word. (Lutzer on the “Doctrine of Election,” Moody Church Media)
Although Lutzer never defines election in that article, he adds:
Ephesians 1:4 reads, “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” Such verses—and there are many others—teach that (1) God made the choice as to who will be saved, and that (2) it was made before the creation of the world. (ibid)
Rather than ideas which support election, Lutzer refutes the verses which he accused others of misunderstanding. It could not possiblly be them that misunderstands but half of the Christian community which he denies are Christians when he wrote, “We must affirm that all Christians believe in election,” whatever that is, he does not say, but you must believe in it.
Recently, I wrote an article on the eleven “must be’s” from Holy Scripture. None of those say you must believe in election.
Lutzer ends the first passage implying that so many do not understand the word “election.”
Nowadays, we think of an election as when the majority votes among several candidates like a democracy. Indeed, Adam and the woman had no say in the matter of their own souls that would be saved, so that left the Image of God (Jesus) as the judge, to wit:
The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. (John 5:22)
Well Jesus just happened to be there before the foundation of the world, so the “Word” Jesus (John 1) is the judge.
So, who were the “candidates” in the running in the beginning? Paul asked, “Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain” (1 Cor 9:21).
Now there are many ones that receive the prize, but in the beginning, there was one, one.
What is the prize?
Therefore I (Paul) endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Tim 10:2)
Paul wrote, “before the foundation of the world,” so where should we look for that election? Before the foundation in the world!
Looking in the Book of Genesis, do you find any type of election? I did and God predetermined the order of importance by “Divine Selection.”
The elect are those who were predestined to obtain salvation, defined as in Christ with eternal glory.
Both the male and the female “Adam” were made in Christ: In the Image of God (Gen 1:27). They were one flesh, or one kind (Gen 2:24).
God would not separate them, would He? So, God elected both the male and the female of their kind.
When did God do that? The first mention of the “elect” was in the Hebrew (“mine elect;” Isa 42:1), meaning chosen. There was no campaigning at all. God had sovereignty — He and only Him chose the two Adams to put His Image into them.
Chosen among whom? All the other kinds that came before them.
Now consider the term from scripture, “before the foundation of the world” (Ephes 1:4).
“World” in the Greek is the cosmos (kosmos) and “before the foundation” is pro katabole — at the first conception of the cosmos; i.e. God planned the elect before He started the Creation, and the Creation was all for the elect.
Human beings were His prototypes and to them alone, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Gen 1:26).
Now consider that none the other kinds, but mankind, had dominion. God chose to do that because He was the Sovereign.
Charles Darwin defined selection as well — “natural selection.” In that theory the fittest would survive, and the fittest in his opinion were the most numerous: that would be mosquitos, viruses, and bacteria.
Divine selection was by the fewest of the number of the possibilities; they would survive because they had Christ in them. Mankind was predestined just was Paul wrote:
For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. (Rom 8:29)
Adam and his wife conformed to the Image of God and so they were the “sons of God” — the elect, “sons” meaning genetics. Their kind by genetics would be favored.
Looking back before the foundation of the world, who alone did God foreknow? He planned both the male and female Adams. Their kind was to have dominion, so they were the chosen ones.
Dominion in the Hebrew is rada; literally “to crumble-off” (Strong’s Dictionary). There was the so-called “election.” Mankind was the kind that crumbled off God, being made in His Image.
I found the only “election” that could be found and before the foundation of the world.
There were further crumbling throughout the generations:
1.
About
the Hebrew people God said, “You are an holy people unto the Lord your God, and
the Lord has chosen you (their kind) to be a peculiar people unto
Himself, above all the nations (all the other kinds) that are upon the
earth, (Deut 14:2) and
2. About the appointed (Christians) Paul wrote, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light… and are now the people of God, who now have obtained mercy… (who) are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Pet 2:9-10)
Noah became the husbandman. His people crumbled off first and they became the elect. Next came Abraham who became the husbandman, and his people became the elect. Finally, came Jesus and Him as the “Husbandman” and His people became the elect.
So, as you Calvinists sneer your noses at the rest of us, but we too share the Image of Christ! Unlike Lutzer, non-Calvinists will not exclude others who must be, not elected, but born again in the manner of the first two Adams before the foundation of the world.
And it should be noted; so far as the covenants go, even the elect failed, and so it goes for Christians:
As Jesus warned: “For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” (Mark 13:22)
The first elected were seduced, so don’t be so arrogant to think you cannot be!
You can be!
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