I was brought up in a church which taught many good things from the Word of God, for which I thank God. But as we grow and seek God, we may discover that many of the things that we were taught are systems of INTERPRETATION of the Word of God, and not the Word of God itself. There is a difference, and the difference is important. What is at stake here is nothing less than the knowledge of the character of God. Is God a capricious tyrant who planned that most of humanity should be lost and damned by His own choice, while blaming the victims, or is He is holy and loving Father, who invites wilful rebels to repent, be adopted into His family and to be part of His plan of eternal salvation through a specific role which He has chosen? The answer to this is important, for it affects our view of God.
Perhaps there is no subject which has been made as mysterious as the subject of "divine election". The term "elect" and its derivatives are frequently found in the Scriptures, and so it is important to understand what is meant. To elect means to choose, and the choice spoken of is GOD's choice. God makes choices, and the Scripture plainly teaches that He makes choices in relation to people. What I believe is vitally important is to realise what KIND of choices God makes concerning people. There are many who teach that it is God, not you, who choose whether you will be eternally saved, or lost. They say the choice about your destiny is all made by God. At the same time they say that you are fully responsible for your choices, for your lostness. Thus God is the one who chooses you to be lost or saved, but if He chooses you to be lost, or merely creates you a helpless sinner and then leaves you unhelped in your lostness, YOU are to blame for that. Is it right to blame a lemon tree for producing lemons? The more you think about such a scenario the more you can't help rebelling against it, but there are millions of people who have embraced this very idea about God over the years. Indeed it IS possible to interpret portions of Scripture to support such an unpleasant scenario, and on the internet you will find hundreds of people who do exactly that. What I am to show is that these interpretations of Scripture are based on certain false ASSUMPTIONS that it is the eternal salvation of individuals that is being referred to, rather than something else - which would be the specific task or assigned role in God's plan of individuals or nations.
If like me you have been brought up in these systems of theological thought which I now oppose, you are likely to reject each and every alternative explanation of the Scriptures I offer, no matter how plausible and reasonable the interpretation seems. This is because you will believe that all the other Scriptures which I have not treated so far in your reading can only be interpreted in another light, and thus "the whole of Scripture" by which you actually mean "the whole of your theological system" is not in harmony with the particular interpretation I am bringing forth. It will take some time to dismantle this system, piece by piece, and it cannot be done in one short article. But if God wills, I will write more and more on this subject. I believe it is important because it is actually very hard to love a God who manifests indifference and/or enmity to the vast majority of His created children, whilst showing favor to a tiny majority who continue pretty much in their wretched selfishness anyway. It is hard to love a God who it is claimed, does everything from start to finish in the Christian life, and yet who seems to do such a poor job in cleansing his children from the power of sin, whilst simultaneously demandin
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Post new comment