Is Unconditional Election Fair?

 

This is the 10^th video from the 16 short clips by RC Sproul that I have been commenting on in my blog. It is titled: “Is Unconditional Election fair?” The transcript begins as follows (words in square brackets added):

“I honestly believe that election is rooted and grounded in eternity, in God’s plan, and in God’s desire. From all eternity God has determined [by an arbitrary decision] to save a certain number of people from this world, and that he works to bring them to salvation. And I don’t think that I can change God’s mind on that; I don’t think there is anything I could do to make myself elect, if in fact I were not.”

That is the classic Calvinistic theological position of course, which is heretical and entirely false, and has no basis in scripture. The Bible teaches differently:

2 Chronicles 19:

7 Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.

Acts 10:

34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Romans 2:

11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

Ephesians 6:

9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

Colossians 3:

25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons [with God].

1 Peter 1:

17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

“No respecter of persons” means that God does not discriminate, he does not have “favourites”. He treats everyone alike, on an equal basis, and judges them fairly. He uses the same standards with which to judge everyone alike, and reward or punish them accordingly. He doesn’t treat one person more favorably than another, for any particular reason (or for no reason at all). “Taking of gifts” in 2 Chronicles 19:7 means that he does not “accept bribes”. He cannot be “bribed” to treat one person more favorably than another. He uses the same standard of judgement for all. If the Calvinistic doctrine of “Unconditional Election” were true, that would contradict the above scriptures, and make God a “respecter of persons,” which is heretical, unbiblical, and false. The Bible teaches that God judges everyone equally and fairly, according to their works, good or bad, and rewards or punishes them accordingly:

Matthew 7:

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

John 5:

28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [salvation]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Matthew 16:

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Revelation 22:

12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Luke 6:

47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Luke 12:

47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

Matthew 25:

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

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:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

2 Corinthians 5:

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

1 Corinthians 3:

8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

1 Corinthians 6:

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Romans 2:

6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew [or Christian] first, and also of the Gentile [or pagan];

10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew [or Christian] first, and also to the Gentile [or pagan]:

11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Galatians 6:

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

James 1:

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Romans 14:

12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Revelation 20:

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Psalm 62:

12 Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.

Proverbs 11:

31 Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.

Proverbs 24:

12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?

All of these verses speak against the doctrine of Unconditional Election, which makes Calvinism 100% false, heretical, and unbiblical. He continues:

“But again, when I say that to people, they say that is not fair! This is exactly the objection that the Apostle Paul anticipated in the ninth chapter of Romans, when he talks about these the doctrine of election, and the difference between Jacob and Esau: Jacob of I loved, Esau have I hated—before they were ever born, before they had done anything, good or evil, that the purposes of God might be made manifest, that God may be glorified. And the immediate objection that Paul anticipates is, there is unrighteousness in God? Let me just say for a minute, I take comfort in that, because every time I teach the Reformed doctrine of election, people protest me in the same manner: That is not fair!”

Paul was notorious for saying things that are “hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). Building your theology on a few misconstrued passages of Paul, to the exclusion of 99% of the rest of the Bible that teaches something different, is not the right way to go about it. He continues:

“And I have never heard anybody say to an Arminian, ‘That is not fair!’ Because Arminianism certainly escapes the idea of divine election based on God’s sovereignty, rather than on our performance.”

That depends on how you define “sovereignty”. Nobody denies that God is “sovereign” over his creation. The question is whether the Calvinistic definition of it is right or not. Calvinism defines “sovereignty” to mean meticulous predestination and predetermination of all of man’s future choices and decisions, thus reducing mankind to mere robots (despite his protestations to the contrary); and reducing God to a puppet-master pulling all the strings behind the scene; and thus depriving mankind of all moral responsibility, and turning God into a tyrant responsible for all the chaos and evil in the world. It is hard to imagine a more damnable heresy that has ever been invented since Christianity came into existence. He continues:

“And so that gives me comfort that I am understanding Paul. And then Paul goes on to say, as he reminds the people what God had said through Moses: I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy.”

Another badly misunderstood verse. The declaration that he will “have mercy on whoever he has mercy,” is not a declaration that he does so arbitrarily, without regard to the person’s moral rectitude, righteousness, or worthiness. No such assumption by the passage is required or justified. He continues:

“God does not owe salvation to anyone, and nobody suffers unjustly at the hands of God.”

Not so if Calvinism were true. That is exactly how God would be behaving if Calvinism were true. But since luckily it isn’t, God is rescued from the charge. And God certainly does “owe salvation” to those who follow his instructions to obtain it. When it says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), he owes it to those who fulfill the condition to provide the outcome—the salvation of their souls. He would be a hypocrite and a liar if he failed to fulfill the promise, when they had met the required condition. He continues:

“Remember that when God gives his decree of election, he is looking through his own foreknowledge at a fallen world, where every human being is estranged from him; …”

According to his own meticulous predestination and predetermination that is, which cancels out everything that he has just said, or tried to say. And it looks like Calvinism does believe in the “corridors of time” after all!—except that in Calvinism it is called “foreknowledge,” but in Arminianism it is called “corridors of time!” He continues:

“… and to some he gives the gift of salvation, others he passes over, he gives them what they deserve. So one group gets mercy, the other group gets justice. But no one receives injustice, because there is no unrighteousness in God.”

According to his own meticulous predestination and predetermination of course. I am neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian; but after listening to or reading all the arguments, I conclude that Arminianism is a far more respectable, biblically oriented, and inherently honest theology than Calvinism is. So the final verdict is that Unconditional Election is not only “unfair,” it is also deeply unbiblical, heretical, and false.