What is the Doctrine of Unconditional Election?

 

The 9^th in the series of 16 short video clips by RC Sproul that I have been commenting on in my recent blog posts is titled: “What is the doctrine of Unconditional Election?” The transcript begins as follows:

“I think the Bible is very clear that not everybody is saved.”

The Bible teaches that everybody could be saved, if they chose to believe and repent. If they are not, it is entirely their choice, not God’s:

Mark 16:

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

I trust what the Bible teaches. He continues:

“And I think it is also clear that God has the power and the ability to save everybody.”

He would be surprised to know that he doesn’t! There are certain things that God cannot do. He cannot contradict his own word; he cannot lie (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Mal. 3:6; Rom. 11:29; Titus 1:2; Jame 1:17). He cannot violate his own covenants, laws, promises, vows, obligations, and decrees. When he says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15–16), he means what he says, he cannot violate that principle. When he says, “They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28), he means what he says. He cannot violate that principle. He cannot change it to, “they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done good, unto the resurrection of damnation”. It is an eternal and immutable decree. It cannot be changed, not even by God! He would become a hypocrite and a liar, and an unreliable and untrustworthy being if he did. He cannot contradict his own word, his immutable and eternal decree. He continues:

“If he wants to intervene—people say, well he has to leave their wills alone. Well, I think the sinner in hell would do everything he could, and give everything he can, to have had his heart changed by a creative act of God the Holy Spirit, in order to rescue him from hell.”

Too many errors and false premises in there. Firstly, the sinner in hell has already had his chance. There is no law, no decree, no scripture that says that he can have a second chance. The laws and decrees of God are eternal and unalterable; they cannot be changed, annulled, abrogated, or cancelled. Secondly, that statement presupposes that man’s will is not free, that God can “change” it if he wants to. That is his false Calvinistic presupposition, that would need to be proved to be accepted as true, not assumed or taken for granted. He makes that false presupposition throughout his arguments. He continues:

“I think God can save everybody; …”

Sorry, he can’t! for the reasons given above. He continues:

“… just like on the road to Damascus Jesus appears to Saul, while Saul was breathing out fire. He didn’t do that for Pilate, he didn’t do that for Caiaphas.”

He didn’t do it for Peter, James, or John either. That proves what? How many other people did he do it for, apart from Paul? I don’t recall any others in the Bible. Paul was an exceptional case, and the Bible explains why. He was a “chosen vessel” to bear God’s name “before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). And as far as “breathing fire” is concerned, he says that he “obtained mercy” because he did it “ignorantly” (1 Tim. 1:13). His intentions were good, as far as he knew them at the time. He thought he was serving God that way. You can’t compare his case with that of Pilate or Caiaphas. God didn’t “change his will”. God chastened him; and he changed his own will. He continues:

“When God called Abraham out of Mesopotamia, he didn’t call Hammurabi.”

For a good reason. It was because “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:5). He didn’t say that of Hammurabi.

Genesis 22:

15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

Abraham passed all the tests; Hammurabi didn’t. He continues:

“God is a God who elects for his purpose, and he sets a plan for his sheep.”

God elects people according to their righteousness. He doesn’t elect them by some arbitrary act of predestination, as in the heresy of Calvinism. He continues:

“He knows his sheep, and he prepares salvation for his sheep, and he sends Christ to lay down his life for his sheep.”

His “sheep” are those who choose to believe and repent of their sins. They become his “sheep” by their own choices and actions, not by some arbitrary act of predestination from God. He continues:

“I ask people, why does God save you? The only reason I can give for any salvation at all, is the love of God the Father for God the Son, that Christ may see the ‘travail of his soul, and be satisfied’.”

According to the Bible, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). That is the biblical answer to why anybody is saved. As far as “travail of soul” is concerned, that expression is used in scripture to refer to the Atonement of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:11). Since the Atonement is already accomplished, Jesus need not to be experiencing any further “travail of soul” in the future. He continues:

“Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus talks about those whom the Father has given him; none of those will be lost. All of those come to him, and all of those are preserved by him.”

That refers to his “sheep,” who become his “sheep” by their righteous choices and actions—by believing in him and repenting of their sins. See above. He continues:

“Now I say to my Arminian friends, If I bought into your theology, I would sleep in tomorrow morning; I would not care about preaching the gospel; I would not care about evangelism, because I would have no hope for the salvation of a single person on this planet. Why? because in your view all that God does is make salvation possible; whereas in what I believe is the biblical view, God makes salvation certain for his people, for his sheep.”

That is the most illogical and irrational reasoning and argument that I have heard for a long time. God makes salvation both possible for all, as well as certain for those who choose to believe and repent. The gospel is preached because faith comes by “hearing the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). It doesn’t come by predestination, according to the heresy of Calvinism. If I were a Calvinist, and believed in predestination, then I would want to “sleep in,” and not do any preaching or evangelizing. But since luckily I am not, I think my preaching can serve a purpose in winning souls to Christ.

That video clip also omits something else that is worth mentioning. When RC Sproul was alive, and used to discuss the doctrine of “election” from the Arminian point of view, he used to characterize it disparagingly in terms of God “looking through the corridors of time!” The Arminian theological position is that God “elects” people according to his foreknowledge of their faithfulness to the gospel, which is the correct biblical doctrine. RC Sproul used to refer to that doctrine disparagingly in terms of God “looking through the corridors of time,” to see who would be righteous. The answer is that God doesn’t “look through the corridors of time”. There is no “time” with God. God sees the whole of the past, present, and future as one great ever-present now, and makes his choices and decisions accordingly.

RC Sproul is sold out lock, stock, and barrel to John Calvin, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, JI Packer, John Gerstner, and all the Calvinistic divines of his day as well as before his day, and obtains his theology from them. He is not obtaining it independently and directly from God or from the Bible.