by Dr. C. D. Cole
Table of Contents
Part I - Bible
Doctrine of Election
Introduction to Part I
Introduction to Election
General Remarks to Disarm Prejudice
Some False Views Examined and Refuted
The Doctrine Defined, Explained and Proved
Objections Considered and Answered
Part II - Questions & Answers on Election
Introduction to Part II
Letter One by Mrs. Marjorie Bond
First Reply by Dr. C. D. Cole
Letter Two by Mrs. Marjorie Bond
Letter Three by Mrs. Marjorie Bond
First Reply by Dr. C. D. Cole
I have been
richly blessed by the writings of Dr. C. D. Cole. He was a great doctrinal
preacher, with the gift of putting his words into writings. Brother Cole has
departed this life and is with the Lord now. He lived to see his Second Volume
published on Sin, Salvation, Service. In fact he died reading the book.
The Bryan Station
Baptist Church is printing his writings. His son has given us permission to
print them and this is the next in a series of what we hope to print. Part I has
been in print before and we are just reprinting it as it was. Part II of this
booklet will be dealt with later on in this booklet in an introduction to the
same.
May the Lord
bless His word as it is read by those that search these pages.
Alfred M
Gormley
Pastor: Bryan Station Baptist Church
Election! -- What
a blessed word! What a glorious doctrine! Who does not rejoice to know that he
has been chosen to some great blessing? Election is unto salvation -- the
greatest of all blessings. And strange to say, this is a neglected truth even by
many who profess to believe it, and others have a feeling of repulsion at the
very mention of this Bible-revealed, God-honouring, and man humbling truth.
Spurgeon said, "There seems to be an inveterate prejudice in the human mind
against this doctrine, and although most other doctrines will be received by
professing Christians, some with caution, others with pleasure, yet this one
seems to be most frequently disregarded and discarded." If such were true in
Spurgeon's day, how much more so in this our day. Concerning this doctrine there
is an alarming departure from the faith of our Baptist fathers. Touching this
article of our faith Baptists have come to a day when they have a Calvinistic
creed and an Arminian clergy.
But there are
some who love the doctrine of Election. To them election is the foundation dug
deep for the other doctrines of human redemption to rest upon. They love it
enough to preach it in the face of criticism and persecution. They will
surrender their pulpits rather than be silenced on this precious tenet of the
once delivered faith. But all who love the doctrine were once haters of it,
therefore, they have nothing in which to take pride. Every man by nature is an
Arminian. It takes the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God,
taught by the Holy Spirit, to cause a man to love the doctrine of election. How
deeply important that believers should be learners. To do this we must
acknowledge the superior wisdom of God whose thoughts are not as our thoughts.
The Bible was given to correct our thinking. Repentance is a change of mind
resulting in a change of thinking. We are not to come to the Bible as critics;
the Bible is to criticize us. We cannot come to the Bible infallibly, but by
grace we can come humbly. May grace be given to every writer and reader that we
may have the right attitude of heart before God. The surest evidence of a saved
state is to have the right attitude towards the Word of God. Dear reader, let
the writer warn you against "poking fun" at any doctrine of the Bible.
The doctrines of
grace have found expression in two systems of theology commonly known as
Calvinism and Arminianism. These two systems were not named for their founders,
but for the men who popularized them. The system of truth known as Calvinism was
preached by Augustine at an earlier date, and before Augustine by Christ and the
Apostles, being especially emphasized by the Apostle Paul. The system of error
known as Arminianism was proclaimed by Pelagius in the fifth century. Between
these two there is no middle position; every man is either one or the other in
his religious thinking. Some try to mix the two but this is not straight
thinking. To say that we are neither Calvinistic nor Arminian is to evade the
issue. Paulinism is represented by either Calvinism or Arminianism. The true
system is based upon the truth of man's inherent and total depravity; the false
system is based upon the Romish dogma of free-will.
GENERAL REMARKS TO
DISARM PREJUDICE
There is no
doctrine so grossly misrepresented. Brother A.S. Pettie's complaint against The
enemies of total depravity is equally applicable here, when he says, "From
hostile lips a fair and correct statement of the doctrine is never heard". The
treatment that the doctrine of election receives from the hands of its enemies
is very much like that received by the primitive Christians from pagan Roman
Emperors. The ancient Christians were often clothed in the skins of slain
animals and then subjected to attack by ferocious wild beasts. So the doctrine
of election is clothed in an ugly garb and held up to ridicule and sport. We
will now try to strip this glorious truth of its false and vicious garment with
which enemy hands have robed it, and put upon it the garments of holiness and
wisdom.
1. Election is
not salvation but is unto salvation.
"What then?
Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election (elect)
hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded"
(Rom. 11:7). "God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation" (2 Thess. 2:13). Now then,
if the elect obtain salvation, and if election is to salvation, election must
precede salvation. Men are saved when they believe on Christ not when they are
elected. Roosevelt was not president when he was elected, but when he was
inaugurated. There was not only an election to, but an induction into the
office. God's elect are inducted into the position of saintship by the effectual
call, (the quickening work of the Holy Spirit) through which they become
believers in the Gospel. See:
1 Cor 1:29
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
2 Thess 2:13-14
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you
by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Election is
not the cause of anybody going to hell, for election is unto salvation.
Neither is
non-election responsible for the damnation of sinners. SIN is the thing that
sends men to hell, and all men are sinners by nature and practice -- sinners
altogether apart from election and non-election. It does not follow that because
election is unto salvation that non-election is unto damnation. SIN is the
damning element in human life. ELECTION HARMS NOBODY.
3. Election
belongs to the system of grace.
In Paul's day
there was a remnant among the Jews who were saved according to the election of
grace (Rom 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace.). The attitude of men towards election
is the acid test of their belief in grace. Those who oppose election cannot
consistently claim to believe in salvation by grace. This is seen in the creeds
of Christendom. Those denominations that believe in salvation by works have no
place for the doctrine of election in their confessions of faith; those that
believe in salvation by grace, apart from human merit, have not failed to
include election in their written creed. One group is headed by the Roman
Catholics, the other group is headed by the Baptists.
4. Election does
not prevent the salvation of anybody who wants to be saved.
But the
distinction needs to be made between a mere desire to escape hell and the desire
to be saved from sin. The desire to be saved from hell is a natural desire --
nobody wants to burn. The desire to be saved from sin is a spiritual desire
resulting from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, and God's electing grace
is the very mother of this desire. To represent election by saying that God has
spread the Gospel feast, and a man comes to the table hungering for the bread of
life; but God says "No, this is not for you, you are not one of my elect", is to
misrepresent the Holy Doctrine. Here is the truth -- God has spread the feast
but the fact is nobody wants to come to the table. "They all with one consent
began to make excuse". God knew just how fallen nature would act, and He
took no chance on His table being filled, so, He tells His servant to go out and
compel them to come (Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out
into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be
filled.). Were it not for the redemptive work of Christ there would be no
Gospel feast; were it not for the compelling work of the Holy Spirit there would
be no guests at the table. A mere invitation brings nobody to the table.
5. Election means
that the destiny of men is in the hands of God.
Many of us have
regarded as an axiom the statement that every man's destiny is in his own hands.
But this is to deny the whole tenor of Scripture. At no time is the destiny of
the saint in his own hands, either before or after he is saved. Was my destiny
in my own hands before I was saved? If so, I regenerated myself; I resurrected,
by my own power, myself out of a state of sin and death; I am my own benefactor
and have nobody to thank but myself for being alive and saved. Perish such a
thought! By the grace of God I am what I am.
John 1:13
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God.
Eph 2:1-10 And
you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: 2 Wherein in time
past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of
works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them.
2 Tim 1:9 Who
hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began,
James 1:18 Of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures.
Is my destiny in
my own hands now? Then I will either keep myself saved or I will lose my
salvation. The Bible says we are kept by the power of God through Faith.
1 Pet 1:15 But
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation;
Psa 37:28 For
the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for
ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
John 10:27-29
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto
them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no
man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Phil 1:6 Being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Heb 13:5 Let
your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye
have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
If my destiny is
not safe in my own hands after I am saved then how could it be thought to be
safe in my own hands before my conversion?
The saint dies,
his body is consigned to the grave and becomes a dust-heap. Is his destiny in
his own hands then? If so, what hope has he of ever coming out of the grave with
an immortal and incorruptible body? None at all if his destiny is in his own
hands.
Such a theory,
that the destiny of the saint is or ever has been in his own hands, reverses the
very laws of nature and implies that water can rise above the level of its
source; that man can lift himself into the attic by his boot-straps; that the
Ethiopian can change his colour, and the leopard can remove his spots; that
death can beget life; that evolution is true and God is a liar. The theory that
one's destiny is in his own hands begets self-confidence and self-righteousness;
the belief that destiny is in the hands of God begets SELF-ABNEGATION AND FAITH
IN GOD.
6. Election
stands or falls with the doctrine of God's sovereignty and man's depravity.
If God is
sovereign and man is depraved, then it follows as a natural consequence that
some will be saved, none will be saved or, all will be saved. The practical
results of election are that some, yea many, will be saved. Election is not a
plan to save a mere handful of folk. Christ gave Himself a ransom for many.
Mat 20:28 Even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many.
Rev 5:9 And
they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
God's sovereignty
involves His pleasure
John 5:21 For
as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son
quickeneth whom he will.
Mat 11:25-27
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy
sight. 27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the
Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
His power
Job 23:13 But
he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that
he doeth.
Jer 32:17 Ah
Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and
stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Mat 19:26 But
Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God
all things are possible.
And His mercy.
Rom 9:18
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he
hardeneth.
7. The elect are
manifested in repentance and faith and good works.
These graces,
being God-wrought in man, are not the cause but the evidences of election.
1 Thess 1:3-10
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; 4 Knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. 5 For our gospel came not unto you in
word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as
ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And ye became
followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost: 7 So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in
Macedonia and Achaia. 8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only
in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is
spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. 9 For they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God; 10 And to wait for his Son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the
wrath to come.
2 Pet 1:5-10
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue
knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you
that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar
off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the
rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if
ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
Phil 2:12-13
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but
now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
Luke 18:7 And
shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he
bear long with them?
The man who
doesn't pray, who has not repented of his sins and trusted Christ, and who does
not engage in good works has no right to claim that he is one of God's elect.
SOME FALSE VIEWS
EXAMINED AND REFUTED
Many professing
Christians really have no view of election. They have not given it enough
thought and study to even have any opinion about it. Many have erroneous views.
We shall notice some of them.
1. The view that
men are elected when they believe.
This view is
easily refuted for it is contrary to both common sense and Scripture. Election
is to salvation, and therefore, must precede salvation. It is nonsense to talk
about electing a man to something he already has. The man has salvation when he
believes and hence election at that point would not be necessary. ELECTION TOOK
PLACE IN ETERNITY; SALVATION TAKES PLACE WHEN THE SINNER BELIEVES.
2. The view that
election pertains only to the Jews.
This view robs
Gentiles of the comfort of Rom 8:28-39.
Rom 8:28-29
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,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, Paul,
who was an apostle to the Gentiles, says that he endured all things for the
elect's sakes that they might obtain salvation.
2 Tim 2:10
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
3. The view that
election took place in eternity, but that it was in view of foreseen repentance
and faith.
According to this
view, God, in eternity, looked down through the ages and saw who would repent
and believe and those who He foresaw would repent and believe were elected to
salvation. This view is correct in only one point, namely, that election took
place in eternity. It is wrong in that it makes the ground of election to be
something in the sinner rather than something in God. Read Eph 1:4-6 where
election and predestination are said to be "According to the good pleasure of
His will" and "To the praise of the glory of His grace".
Eph 1:4-6
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: 5 Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the beloved.
This view thought
the popular one with the majority of Baptists today, is open to many objections.
(i) It denies
what the Bible says about man's condition by nature. The Bible does not describe
the natural man as having faith.
1 Cor 2:14 But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
John 3:3 Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Both repentance
and faith are gifts of God, and God did not see these graces in any sinner apart
from His purpose to give them. "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to
be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of
sins", Acts 5:13 "When they heard these things they held their peace, and
glorified God, saying, `Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life'", Acts 11:18. "In meekness instructing those that oppose
themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement
of the truth" 2Ti 2:25. See also:
Eph 2:8-10 For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them.
1 Cor 3:5 Who
then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the
Lord gave to every man?
Election was not
because of foreseen faith, but because of foreseen unbelief. It is not the
election of God's faithful ones, but the faith of God's elect, if we are to keep
Scriptural words
Titus 1:1
Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith
of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
(ii) It makes the
human race differ by nature, whereas, the Bible says, we are all by nature the
children of wrath and all clay of the same lump.
Eph 2:3 Among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others.
Rom 9:21 Hath
not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour, and another unto dishonour?
Men are made to
differ in the new birth.
John 3:6 That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
(iii) It perverts
the Scriptural meaning of the word "foreknowledge".
The word as used
in the Bible means more than foreknowledge about persons, it is the
foreknowledge of persons. In Rom 8:29,30, the foreknown are predestined to the
image of Christ, and are called, justified and glorified. In 1Pe 1:2, the word
for "foreknowledge" is the same as "foreordain" in the twentieth verse of the
same chapter, where the meaning cannot be "foreknowledge" about Christ. God's
foreknowledge about persons is without limitations; whereas, His foreknowledge
of persons is limited to those who are actually saved and glorified.
(iv) It is open
to the strongest objection that can be made against the Bible view.
It is often
asked, "If certain men are elected and saved, then what is the use to preach to
those who are not elected?" With equal propriety we might ask, "If God knows who
is going to repent and believe, then why preach to those who according to His
foreknowledge, will not repent and believe?" Will some repent and believe whom
He foreknew would not repent and believe? If so, He foreknew a lie.
Right here is the
weakness of much of modern missions. It is based upon sympathy for the lost
rather than obedience to God's command. The inspiration of missions is made to
rest upon the practical results of missionary endeavour rather than upon the
delight of doing God's will. It is the principle of doing a thing because the
results are satisfactory to us.
If we are
faithful, God is as pleased with our efforts as when there are no results.
Ponder
2 Cor 2:15-16
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in
them that perish: 16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to
the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
The elect prior
to their conversion are known only to God. We are to preach the gospel to every
creature because He has commanded it. He will take care of the results. Compare
with:
Isa 55:11 So
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the
thing whereto I sent it.
1 Cor 3:5-6
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as
the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the
increase.
John 6:37-45
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will,
but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father's will which hath
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me,
that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 41 The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42 And they said,
Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it
then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 43 Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 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.
45 It is written in the prophets,
And they shall be
all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the
Father, cometh unto me.
It is ours to
witness; it is His to make our witnessing effective.
THE DOCTRINE
DEFINED, EXPLAINED AND PROVED
What is election
as the term is used in the Bible? Election means a choice -- to select from
among - to single out - to take one and leave another. If there are a dozen
apples in a basket and I take all of them there has been no choice; but if I
take seven and leave five there has been a choice. Election, as taught in the
Bible, means that God has made a choice from among the children of men. In the
beginning God set His choice upon certain individuals, whom He gave to His Son,
and for whom Christ died as their substitute, who in time hear the Gospel and
believe in Christ to life everlasting. Let us amplify by raising three very
pertinent questions.
1. WHO DOES THE
ELECTING?
Who chooses the
persons to be saved? If men are chosen to salvation, as the Scriptures affirm,
who does the choosing? There must be a selection or universalism. The language
of Scripture seems peculiarly definite in reply to this question. Mark 13:20
speaks of the ELECT, whom He ELECTED, rendered in our version, "The elect's
sake whom He hath chosen". The word election is associated with God not with
man. God is the CHOOSER, His people are the CHOSEN, and grace is the source. The
theology, that God votes for us, the Devil votes against us, and that we cast
the deciding ballot is entirely outside the pale of Scripture teaching, and is
almost too ridiculous to notice.
John 15:16 Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen 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.
2 Thess 2:13
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
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:
2. WHEN WAS THE
ELECTING DONE?
For the answer we
are shut up to the Scriptures. But the BIBLE answers with sunlight clearness. In
Eph 1:4 we read that "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world".
The expression, "before the foundation of the world"is found in Joh
17:24, where it speaks of the Father's eternal love for the Son, and in 1Pe
1:20, where it refers to the eternal determination of the Divine mind concerning
the death of Christ. There are many similar expressions. ELECTION IS ETERNAL!
Rev 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.
2 Thess 2:13
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
2 Tim 1:9 Who
hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began,
3. WHY WAS THE
ELECTING DONE?
Was it on the
ground of something good in the sinner? Then nobody would have been elected for
there is none good. Holiness is not the cause but the effect of election. We are
chosen that we should be holy not because we are holy (Eph 1:4). Nor, as we have
already seen, is election in view of foreseen repentance and faith. Election is
the cause of repentance and faith and not the effect of these graces. To say
that God chose men to salvation because He foresaw that they would repent and
believe and be saved is to attribute foolishness to the infinitely wise God. It
is as if the president should issue a decree that the sun must rise tomorrow
because he foresees that it will rise; or as if a sculptor should choose a
certain piece of marble because he foresaw that it would make itself into the
image he wanted. We challenge any Arminian to raise these questions and get his
answers from the Scriptures.
OBJECTIONS
CONSIDERED AND ANSWERED
Many are the
objections brought against this doctrine. Sometimes the objectors are loud and
furious. Alas! that so many of these objectors are in Baptist ranks. To preach
this old-fashioned doctrine of our faith as did Bunyan, Fuller, Gill, Spurgeon,
Boyce, Broadus, Pendleton, Graves, Jarrell, Carroll, Jeter, Boyce Taylor and a
host of other representative men of our denomination is to court the bitterest
kind of opposition. John Wesley himself never said harsher words against this
blessed tenet of our faith than do some so-called Baptists of today. Arminianism
that offspring of popery, has had an abnormal growth in the last decade or two
as the adopted child of a large group of Baptists.
1. IT IS OBJECTED
THAT OUR VIEW OF ELECTION LIMITS GOD'S MERCY.
Right here we
criticize the critic, for he who makes this objection limits both God's mercy
and power. He admits that God's mercy is limited to the believer, and to this we
agree; but he denies that God can cause a man to believe without doing violence
to the man's will, and thus he limits God's power. We believe that God is able
to give a man a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7) and make him willing in the day of His
power. (Ps. 110:2) At this point we must face two self-evident propositions.
First, if God is trying to save every member of Adam's fallen race, and does not
succeed, then His power is limited and He is not the Lord God Almighty. Second,
if He is not trying to save every member of the fallen face, then His mercy is
limited. We must of necessity limit His mercy or His power, or go over boots and
baggage to the Universalist's position. But before we do that, let us go "to
the law and to the testimony", which says, "I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion...Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy and whom He will
He hardeneth" (Rom 9:15-18). It needs to be said for the comfort and hope of
great sinners, that God's mercy is not limited by the natural condition of the
sinner. All sinners are dead until God makes them alive. He is able to take away
the heart of stone. No man is too great a sinner to be saved. We can pray for
the salvation of the chief of sinners with the assurance that God can save them
if He will. "The King's heart is in the hands of the Lord as the river of
water; He turneth it whithersoever He will" (Pr 21:1). We rejoice to say
with Jeremiah that there is nothing too hard for God. We can pray for the
salvation of our loved ones with the feeling of the leper, when he said,
"Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean"(Matt 8:2). When Robert
Morrison was about to go to China, he was asked by an incredulous American if he
thought he could make any impression on those Chinese. His curt reply was, "No,
but I think God can." This should ever be our confidence and hope when we stand
before sinners and preach to them "CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED".
2. ANOTHER
OBJECTION TO ELECTION IS THAT IT MAKES GOD UNJUST.
This objection
betrays a bad heart. It would obligate the CREATOR to the CREATURE. It makes
salvation a divine obligation. It denies the right of the potter over the clay
of the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour. By the
same parity of reasoning it makes the governor of a sovereign state unjust when
he pardons one or more men, unless he empties the prison and turns all the
prisoners loose. Our view of election is in harmony with what even the Arminians
allow to be proper and just for a human governor. All can see that a governor,
by pardoning some men, does not harm others, who are not pardoned. Those who are
not pardoned are not in prison because the governor refused them a pardon but
because they were guilty of a crime against the state. Isn't God to be allowed
as much sovereignty as the governor of a state? Salvation, like a pardon, is
something that is not deserved. If it were deserved, then God would be unjust if
He did not bestow it upon all men.
Salvation is not
a matter of justice but of mercy. It wasn't the attribute of justice that led
God to provide salvation but the attribute of mercy. Justice is simply each man
getting what he deserves. Those who go to hell will have nobody to blame but
themselves, while those who go to heaven will have nobody to praise but God.
Rom 9:22-23
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he
had afore prepared unto glory,
3. IT IS AGAIN
OBJECTED THAT OUR VIEW OF ELECTION IS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF WHOSOEVER WILL.
But the objector
is wrong again. Our view explains and supports the doctrine of "WHOSOEVER
WILL". Without election the invitation to "WHOSOEVER WILL" would go
unheeded. The Bible doctrine of "WHOSOEVER WILL" does not imply the
freedom or ability of the human will to do good. The human will is free, but its
freedom is within the limits of fallen human nature. It is free like water;
water is free to run down hill. It is free like the vulture; the vulture is free
to eat carrion, for that is its nature, but it would starve to death in a wheat
field. It is not the buzzard's nature to eat clean food; it feeds upon the
carcasses of the dead. So sinners starve to death in the presence of the bread
of life. Our Lord said to some sinners, who were in His very presence "Ye
will not come unto me that ye might have life" (Joh 5:40). It is not natural
for a sinner to trust in Christ. Salvation through trust in a crucified Christ
is a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek; it is only the
called, both Jews and Greeks, who trust it as the wisdom and power of God.
1 Cor 1:23-24
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the
Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Here is a
physical corpse. Is it free to get up and walk around? In one sense, yes. It is
not bound by fetters. There is no external restraint. But, in another sense,
that corpse is not free. It is hindered by its natural condition. It is its
nature to decompose and go back to dust. It is not the nature of death to stir
about. Here is a spiritual corpse -- a man dead in trespasses and sins. Is the
man free to repent and believe and do good works? Yes, in one sense. There are
no external restraints. God does not prevent but offers inducements through His
Holy Word. But the corpse is hindered by its own nature. There must be the
miracle of the new birth, for except a man be born from above he cannot see or
enter into the Kingdom of God.
John 3:3-5
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's
womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
It is painful to
some of us to see our brethren forsake the faith of our Baptist forbears at this
point and join the ranks of the Roman Catholics and other Arminians. If anyone
doubts this charge let him read the article of faith adopted by the Catholics at
the council of Trent (1563). I quote their statement on the freedom of the human
will -- "If anyone shall affirm that since the fall of Adam man's free-will is
lost, let him be accursed." But alas, in this day, such a spirit is not confined
to the Roman Catholics. Horatius Bonar makes the following quotation from John
Calvin: "The Papist theologians have a distinction current among themselves that
God does not elect men according to their works which are in them but that He
chooses them that He foresees will be believers."
Ah, the real
trouble with the objector is not election; it is something else. His real
objection is to total depravity or human inability to do good. I can do no
better here than to quote from Percy W. Heward of London, England. He says, "It
seems to me that the majority of objections to God's sovereign grace, to God's
electing love, are actually objections to something else, namely objections to
the fact that man is ruined. If you probe beneath the surface you will find that
very few object to election. Why should they? Election harms no one. How can the
picking of a man out of doom harm anyone else? The real objection at the present
day is not to election, though that word is made the catchword of sad
controversy -- the real objection is to that fact which is revealed in Psalm 51,
that we are shapen in iniquity, that we are born sinners by nature, dead in
sins, until, as we read concerning Paul in Galatians 1, 'It pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son
in me...' Ah, beloved friends, we deserve nothing but doom. Acknowledge this
and election is the only hope. Acknowledge that we are poor lost sinners, dead
in trespasses and sins, only evil continually; acknowledge that there is in man
no natural spark to be fanned into a flame but that believers are born again of
incorruptible seed which the Lord places; acknowledge that if anyone is in
Christ that there is a new creation, for we are His workmanship, having been
created in Christ Jesus; - and election must be at once recognized."
Every real
believer on his knees subscribes to our view of election. You cannot pray
ascribing some credit to self. Sovereign grace will come out in prayer though it
may be left off the platform. No saved man will get down on his knees before God
and claim that he made himself to differ from others who are not saved, but with
Paul he says, "By the grace of God I am what I am." And in praying for
the lost we supplicate God to convict and convert them. We do not depend upon
the freedom of their wills but beg God to make them willing to come to Christ,
knowing that when they come to Christ He will not cast them out.
John 6:37 All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.
A Methodist
minister once went to hear a Presbyterian minister preach. After the sermon, the
Methodist said to the Presbyterian, "That was a pretty good Arminian sermon you
preached today." "Yes," replied the Presbyterian, "We Presbyterians are pretty
good Arminians when we preach and you Methodists are pretty good Calvinists when
you pray." MORE TRUTH THAN POETRY HERE!!
4. IT IS ALSO
OBJECTED THAT OUR VIEW OF ELECTION IS A NEW DOCTRINE AMONG MISSIONARY BAPTISTS.
The fact is that
it is so old-fashioned that it has about gone out of fashion . The ignorance
betrayed in such a claim is indeed pitiable. In refutation we resort to two
sources of information (a) Confessions of faith; (b) Statements of
representative preachers and writers.
(a) CONFESSIONS
OF FAITH
The Waldenses
declare themselves as follows: "God saves from corruption and damnation those
whom He has chosen from the foundation of the world, not from any disposition,
faith or holiness that He foresaw in them, but His mere mercy in Christ Jesus
His Son, passing by all the rest according to the irreprehensible reason of His
own free-will and justice." THE DATE OF THIS CONFESSION WAS 1120!!!
The London
Confession (1689) and the Philadelphia Confession (1742) read as follows: "By
the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are
predestined or foreordained to ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ, to the praise
of His glorious grace; others being left to act in their sins to their just
condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice."
The New Hampshire
Confession (Article 9): "We believe that election is the eternal purpose of God
according to which He graciously regenerates, sanctifies and saves sinners; that
being perfectly consistent with the free-agency of man, it comprehends all the
means in connection with the end; that it is a most glorious display of God's
sovereign goodness, being infinitely free, wise holy and unchangeable; that it
utterly excludes boasting and promotes humility, love, prayer, praise, trust in
God, and active imitation of His free mercy; that it encourages the use of means
in the highest degree; that it may be ascertained by its effects in all who
truly believe the Gospel; that it is the foundation of Christian assurance; and
that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves demands and deserves the utmost
diligence."
(b)
REPRESENTATIVE PREACHERS AND WRITERS!
John A. Broadus,
former president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: "From the divine
side, we see that the Scriptures teach an eternal election of men to eternal
life simply out of God's good pleasure."
A.H. Strong,
former president of Rochester Theological Seminary: "Election is the eternal act
of God, by which in His sovereign pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit
in them, He chooses certain of the number of sinful men to be recipients of the
special grace of His Spirit and so to be made voluntary partakers of Christ's
salvation."
B.H. Carroll,
founder and first president of the Southwestern Baptist Seminary: "Every one
that God chose in Christ is drawn by the Spirit to Christ. Every one predestined
is called by the Spirit in time and justified in time, and will be glorified
when the Lord comes." Commentary on Romans, page 192.
J.P. Boyce,
founder and first president of Southern Baptist Seminary: "God, of His own
purpose, has from eternity determined to save a definite number of mankind as
individuals, not for or because of any merit or works of theirs, nor of any
value of them to Him; but of His own good pleasure."
W.T. Conner,
professor of theology, Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas: "The
doctrine of election means that God saves in pursuance of an eternal purpose.
This includes all the gospel influences, work of the Spirit and so on, that
leads a man to repent of his sins and accept Christ. So far as man's freedom is
concerned, the doctrine of election does not mean that God decrees to save a man
irrespective of his will. It rather means that God purposes to lead a man in
such a way that he will freely accept the gospel and be saved."
Pastor J.W. Lee,
of Batesville, Miss.: "I believe that God has foreordained before the foundation
of the world that He would save certain individuals and that He ordained all the
means to bring about their salvation on His terms. Men and women are not elected
because they repent and believe, but they repent and believe because they are
elected."
To the above list
of well known and honoured Baptists we could add quotations from Gill, Fuller,
Spurgeon, Bunyan, Pendleton, Mullins, Dargan, Jeter, Eaton, Graves, and others
too numerous to mention. It is sadly true that many of our pastors hold election
as a private opinion and never preach it. We personally know a number of
brethren who say that election is clearly taught in the Bible, but that we
cannot afford to preach it, because it will cause trouble in churches. This is
worse than compromise: it is surrender of the truth. It is a spirit that leads
preachers to displease God in order to please men. The writer believes that
silence upon this subject has wrought more harm than open opposition to it.
Those who openly oppose election will, sooner or later, make themselves
ridiculous in the eyes of all Bible loving Baptists.
5. IT IS FURTHER
OBJECTED THAT OUR VIEW OF ELECTION MAKES MEN CARELESS IN THEIR LIVING.
It is said that
belief in the doctrine leads men to say, "If I am elect, I will be saved; if I
am a non-elect I will be lost, therefore, it matters not what I believe or do."
The same objection has been persistently made against the doctrine of the
preservation of the saints. This is bald rationalism. It is the setting of human
reason against divine revelation. It takes no account of the operation of the
grace of God in the human heart. If Baptists surrender election on such a
ground, to be consistent, they will have to surrender the doctrine of
preservation on the same ground. Election does not mean that the elect will be
saved whether they believe on not, nor does it mean that the non-elect will be
damned regardless of how much they may repent and believe. The elect will be
saved through repentance and faith, and both are gifts from God as already
shown; the non-elect do not repent and believe.
The objection we
are now considering is simply not true to fact. Believers in election have been
and still are among the most godly. Augustus Toplady challenged the world to
produce a martyr from among the deniers of election. The Puritans, who were so
named because of the great purity of their lives, with few exception (if any),
were believers in personal, eternal, unconditional election, and of course, in
the security of the believer.
Modernism, that
spawn of the pit, is rapidly adding to the number of its adherents, but they are
coming from the ranks of Arminianism. Others have challenged the world to find a
single Higher Critic, or a single Spiritualist, or a single Russellite, or a
single Christian Scientist, who believes in the absolute sovereignty of God and
the doctrine of election. Without an exception these awful heretics are
Arminians to a man. This is a significant fact that is not to be winked at.
6. OBJECTORS
CLAIM THAT OUR VIEW OF ELECTION DESTROYS THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS.
They boldly
assert that if unconditional election should find universal acceptance among us
that we would cease to be a missionary people. There is an abundance of
historical evidence with which to refute this claim. Under God, the father of
modern missions was William Carey, a staunch Calvinist.
Andrew Fuller,
first secretary of the society that sent Carey to India, held tenaciously to our
view of election. It did not destroy the missionary spirit of these men. "The
proof of the pudding is in the eating." Belief in election did not destroy the
missionary spirit in Judson, Spurgeon, Boyce, Eaton, Graves, Carroll and a host
of other Baptist leaders. The Murray church, which Dr. J.F. Love called the
greatest missionary church on earth, heard election preached by Boyce Taylor for
nearly forty years. The greatest missionary churches among us today are those
that have been purged from the heresies of James Arminius.
Election is the
very foundation of hope in missionary endeavour. If we had to depend upon the
natural disposition or will of a dead sinner, who hates God, to respond to our
gospel, we might well despair. But when we realize that it is the Spirit that
quickeneth, we can go forth with the gospel of the grace of God in the hope that
God will cause some, by nature turned away, to be turned unto Him and to believe
to the saving of the soul. Election does not determine the extent of missions
but the results of it. We are to preach to every creature because God has
commanded, and because it pleases Him to save sinners by the foolishness of
preaching. We believe more in election than the Anti-mission Baptists. We
believe that God elected means of salvation as well as persons to salvation. He
did not choose to save sinners apart from the gospel ministry.
Rom 1:16 For I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Election gives a
saneness to evangelism that is greatly needed today. It recognizes that sinners
"believe through grace" (Acts 18:27) and that while Paul may plant and
Apollos may water, God gives the increase. Arminianism has had its day among
Baptists and what has it done? It has given us man-power, but robbed us of God's
power. It has increased machinery but has decreased spirituality. It has filled
our churches with Ishmaels instead of Isaacs by its ministry of "sob stuff" and
with the methods of the "counting house".
If this little
tract need further Scriptural support, the following Scriptures will give it:
Psa 65:4
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that
he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy
house, even of thy holy temple.
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.
John 6:37 All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.
John 6:44-45
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. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall
be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of
the Father, cometh unto me.
John 17:1-2
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the
hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him.
Mat 11:25-26
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy
sight.
1 Cor 12:3
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by
the Holy Ghost.
2 Cor 10:4
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strong holds;)
Part two of this
booklet on the Bible doctrine of Election consists of a correspondence between
Mrs. Marjorie Bond (widow - now Mrs. Milton Moorhouse), and Dr. Cole. The
letters are self-explanatory. I have written to Mrs. Moorhouse and she has
graciously given me permission to use the letters to be put into this booklet.
Since the thoughts of Mrs. Moorhouse run in the same channels as the rest of the
people that question the doctrine of election I have decided to leave it as near
as it was written in their correspondence. I have taken some of the remarks out
that do not pertain to this doctrine and have tried to leave it so that it would
be instructive and interesting.
Dr. Cole is now
with the Lord. Before he departed this life he sent me this material to see if
it could be printed. I believe that this booklet will be a great help to those
that are honestly desiring to know the true teaching on this doctrine. God
richly blessed Bro. Cole in that he was able to put his thoughts into easy to be
understood language. It is our privilege to be able to print Dr. C.D. Cole's
writings.
To the persons
that read this booklet, our prayer is that you might see the greatness of our
Lord, and that you might see as James declared in Acts 15:18 "Known unto God
are all His works from the beginning of the world". Also as Paul says in
Eph. 1:11 "Who worketh all things after the council of His own will." Our
heart is made glad and to rejoice in the fact that God chose me to salvation. If
it were not for the doctrine of election, Baptists would have used worldly means
to bring men to Christ. But Baptists, down through the ages, have been
mission-minded, knowing all the while that all are responsible to come to Jesus
when the gospel is preached and yet knowing that no one would be saved but God's
elect (John 6:37). Jesus said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them and they follow me". The doctrine of election will make us
mission-minded because we know that our preaching is not in vain in the Lord but
will prosper wherein it was sent. Paul said, "I endure all things for the
elects sake" (1Ti 2:10).
May the Lord
bless this booklet and cause many that heretofore have not understood this
glorious doctrine to see that our salvation from beginning to the end is of the
Lord, and that all that know Him would praise Him for His abundant mercy shown
toward His people.
Alfred M.
Gormley
Pastor: Bryan Station Baptist Church
Lexington, Kentucky
June 26, 1968
LETTER ONE BY MRS.
MARJORIE BOND
1505 Scotland
Street
Calgary, Alberta
October 5, 1959
Dr. C.D. Cole
746 W. Noel
Rt. 2
Madisonville, Kentucky
My Dear Dr. Cole:
Although I am a
total stranger to you, my parents have known Dr. Shields over the years and take
"The Witness" regularly. As a result of an article of yours which I read therein
several years ago, I feel that I must write you to seek further light on this
matter of Election.
Your article
opened up a completely new line of thought for me; like most people, I did not
subscribe to it at all (at first) but was challenged by it, even though much
disturbed. Since then, I have reverted to it time and again and finally this
autumn hot down to studying it in dead earnest! I read what I could of Spurgeon
on the subject, Dr. Shields, and also borrowed a copy of Strong's Theology which
I found rather heavy going! All in all, I have become so obsessed with this
doctrine that I can scarcely think of anything else. And yet there is so much
that I do not understand. I know that the "heart is deceitful above all
things" and perhaps mine is deceiving me when I say that I really think the
questions that arise in my mind do not stem so much from a reluctance to admit
total depravity as they do from my inability to reconcile the doctrine with
other passages of Scripture.
I had always
thought that election and predestination was something that the Presbyterians
were a little "off" on (excuse the bad grammar!). It never occurred to me that
there was so much Scriptural evidence for it, or that Baptists believe it!
However, I did feel that if this doctrine was taught in the Scripture, as it
seemed to be, than I should know more about it and should believe it, whether I
liked it or not and whether I fully understood it or not.
My mind goes
round and round like a squirrel in a cage, until I am really exhausted. About
the time I think I understand it and accept it, Satan seems to raise fresh
doubts to plague me. It leaves one almost breathless. As after a close brush
with death, to think that one might not have been elected! Truly, as
never before, I can see that our salvation is all of grace. I always thought,
when we spoke of salvation as being wholly of God's grace, that it meant that
His plan or idea to save us was unmerited favour, since nothing in us merited
His ever desiring to save us; and also, that it was a gift for which we
could never possibly work or acquire sufficient righteousness to merit. But
obviously grace embodies more even than this. When you realize that a person
wouldn't even want salvation unless he were elected, then you realize how
tremendously indebted we are to grace -- for it is grace through and through.
I have wondered
sometimes if the objections which we feel towards Election are directed more
towards the idea of God's complete sovereignty than towards total depravity. It
seems to go against human nature to think that God can do what He likes with us
and we are powerless to do anything about it.
I almost hesitate
to put into words some of the objections which have come to my mind lest I
should be guilty of blasphemy or sacrilege; for I have always been taught that
it is a very serious thing to criticize God. And yet, in the interests of
clarifying my thinking, I feel that I must confess to you some of the points
about election that are troubling me and which seem to contradict other
Scriptures and other doctrines.
Also, I teach a
Young Women's Bible Class and we have been studying this subject (the blind
leading the blind, I am afraid). We are to have an evening discussion of it on
November 5th so I should like to clear up some points in my own mind before that
time.
Perhaps the
easiest way for you to answer would be for me to put my questions in point form:
1. Most people
feel right away that Election is unjust. I realize, from your pamphlet, as well
as from Scripture, that God doesn't owe it to us to save anyone and further,
that He has a right to bestow the gift of salvation on whom He will. But somehow
the feeling persists that if a person doesn't even get a chance to accept
or reject salvation, he "goes to bat with two strikes against him" so to speak.
Before studying
Election, I always thought that if anyone were even remotely interested in being
saved, then, in response to prayer by interested relatives or friends, the Holy
Spirit would operate on that person's heart and bring him under conviction to
the place where he would decide for or against Christ.
But, ifthe
only people who are going to accept Christ are those who have been "ear-marked"
for salvation ahead of time, then, one feels that the rest of the race haven't
had a chance, even of refusing. To what extent are they responsible for being
lost?
One woman in my
class, from the southern states as a matter of fact, said to me afterwards, "If
this teaching is right, it makes everything seem so hopeless. I thought
anyone could be saved; that the decision was theirs. But if God has decided
ahead of time, they haven't a chance, no matter how much we pray for them".
I tried to point
out that the whole race was lost anyway, regardless of Election. That Election
of some did not mean that the others were any worse off than they would have
been without Election. And yet -- with a part of me -- I know how she feels,
because periodically, in spite of all my praying for light, I have the same
feeling...that if you are not elected, you just don't stand a chance. You feel
as if the whole matter has been taken out of your hands and you aren't given an
equal chance with others.
I understand all
the argument about the governor of a prison, too, and agree with it with my
head! But my heart keeps saying that while it is true a man is not in prison
because the governor hasn't pardoned him, but rather because of his own
wrongdoing, nevertheless, the lack of a pardon keeps him there!
Is there
Scripture to support the interpretation that if we were not elected, we would
never have the faintest interest in salvation? I know from Romans 8:7,8 as well
as other passages, that in our natural state we are at enmity with God. But I
always thought that if the Holy Spirit operated on a human heart, say of someone
who was showing interest in becoming a Christian, that that person then had a
chance to decide whether or not to be saved. But evidently, the Holy Spirit
doesn't even work on the heart of anyone who has not been elected ahead of time.
Is there Scripture for that?
2. If God chooses
only certain people for salvation, or enables only certain people to avail
themselves of salvation, then what do you do with verses like John 3:16? I
thought Christ died "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2) not
just for the elect. Spurgeon seem to think that He died only for the elect.
And what about
such verses as "He is not willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance" and again "but now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent". If man is powerless to repent unless he is elected, and God does
not elect him, how is man responsible for not obeying God's command to repent;
and, furthermore, how can it be said that God is not willing for any to
perish if He doesn't enable all to be saved?
3. How do you
explain the fact that sometimes a person is under great conviction but decides
against salvation? Were they or were they not elected? My father, who passed
away in July, was a great Christian layman and doctor and led many souls to
Christ in his offices and through lay preaching. He told me a story which he
either read or witnessed himself -- I have forgotten which. But a young woman
attended some revival meetings night after night and appeared to be deeply
moved. In fact, it was apparent to the preacher that she was under deep
conviction. The last night, when the call was given, she slipped from her place
and left the building. A worker followed her and heard her say, looking up to
the stars, "I do not want to be a Christian. Why can't You leave me alone? I am
enjoying life and my good times and I am not prepared to change my way of
living. Holy Spirit, please leave me alone and don't bother me again". And, with
a chilling laugh, she walked off into the night. She was killed in an accident a
few hours later, if I remember rightly.
Now, what I want
to know is this: was she elected, and if she were not, how did she get under
conviction in the first place? Would the Holy Spirit waste time, so to speak,
convicting someone of sin whom God had not even elected? If she were elected,
why didn't she come? I thought election meant that you had to come whether you
realized it or not. Is it possible for certain people to be chosen for salvation
but for them, in the exercise of their free wills, to reject it?
4. Also, please
explain the verse "many are called, but few are chosen". If that verse
said "many are called but few accept" I could understand it. But I do not
distinguish between "calling" and "choosing". I would have thought they were the
same.
5. Finally, in
spite of all the arguments to the contrary, I find myself caught up in a sort of
fatalistic attitude -- that what is to be will be. Perhaps this stems more from
my reading on the sovereignty of God than from Election. But I find myself
arguing thus, "If God has a plan for every individual and every nation, if He
ordains the powers that be, and sets up kings and disposes of them, etc., if He
is completely sovereign, then He is going to work out His will regardless of
Satan's efforts to thwart Him or man's failure to his part".
You say that
because Election is a secret matter, we must witness anyway and leave the
results to God. True. But on the other hand, I can't see that it matters whether
we know or whether we don't since God knows who is elected and will save a
person whether we do our bit or not. Just because I fail to witness, God is not
going to be thwarted in His design to save certain people. The very fact that
God has chosen them is sufficient to ensure that they will be saved whether we
witness or not, for the simple reason that God is sovereign and has already
elected them for salvation. I agree that I don't know who is elected and who is
not. But I don't have to. They are going to be saved anyway if God wills it.
I read in
Strong's Theology that our prayers never change God's mind, the idea being that
as we grow in our Christian experience and live closer to God, we shall learn to
pray for those things that are according to God's purpose for us; therefore He
can answer our prayer.
But again -- if
He has plans for individuals or nations, they will be brought to fruition
without our prayers. If this is so, then, what we think have been answers to
prayers are only the fulfilment of a divine plan that would have been
accomplished quite as well without our prayer. But, because we cannot see the
future, we think we have prevailed with God and so we say He has answered our
prayer. But, since He planned a certain course for us, it would have come about
that way in any event. Do you see what I am trying to say?
I always thought
that, to a certain extent, we did prevail with God providing we were not asking
for something outside of His will -- by that I mean His pleasure or permissive
will rather than a fixed, premeditated plan. I guess I thought, for instance,
that if a loved one were sick and the Lord didn't have any actual decision made
that that was the time they were to die, He would spare their life in answer to
prayer. But according to sovereignty, the reason He spared it was simply because
He wasn't ready for them to die yet, therefore my prayer had nothing to do with
it. They would have recovered in any event. If that were His foreordained plan,
or died if that were His plan.
If prayer doesn't
change God's mind, then what use was there in Abraham interceding for Sodom and
Gomorrah? God would have saved 50 or 40 or
This is a
terribly long letter and I do apologize for being so wordy. But this subject is
too vast, I guess, to be covered by correspondence. How I wish I could sit down
and talk with you.
I am keeping a
copy of this letter so that I can refer to it when your answer comes. I do hope
you will not think I am imposing on you; but your pamphlet has really stirred me
up. I can see where election is indeed a wonderful doctrine if only it didn't
seem to contradict other Scriptures.
I hope and pray
that you can give me more light and that you won't be offended with such a long
letter from a stranger.
With heartfelt
thanks in anticipation of your reply, I am
Yours sincerely,
Signed: Marjorie
Bond
(Mrs. Marjorie Bond)
746 West Noel
Madisonville, Kentucky
October 20, 1959
Mrs. Marjorie
Bond
1505 Scotland Street
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
My Dear Mrs.
Bond:
Greetings in the
Name of His whose Name is above every name! Your good letter under date of the
5th, was duly received. And it could not have reached me at a busier time, which
accounts for my delay in making reply. I am a clerk of Little Bethel
Association, and your letter came the first day of our annual meeting. There was
a lot of work in preparing for the meeting, and much more work in getting the
material in the hands of the printer. At first, I thought I would write briefly,
stating my situation, and promising to get to it as soon as possible. And then
it occurred to me that I might save this time in the hope of getting to the
matter before the time you mentioned ran out. I trust you will not take my delay
as evidence of indifference on my part. Moreover, due to infirmities of age, I
do not have the capacity for work I once enjoyed.
First of all, let
me commend you for your honest attitude towards the doctrine of ELECTION and
related subjects; and may I also congratulate you on your grasp of these
doctrines. I rarely receive such a well-written letter on any subject. You put
your problems in a clear perspective, which makes it easier to deal with them.
And I can answer sympathetically because your problems are also my own problems.
Much as I would like to solve them for you, I fear my efforts will be
disappointing.
I believe you are
unduly disturbed over your inability to harmonize all that is in the Bible. This
Book is the revelation of the Infinite and the finite mind cannot understand to
perfection all that God has revealed. To be able to do so would be an argument
against the Bible as God-breathed, and reduce it to a mere human production.
Moreover, the determination to harmonize apparent contradictions is sure
to result in one of three things, found in actual life. One will either ignore
Sovereignty on the one hand, or human responsibility on the other hand, or else
be plagued with a disturbed mind as you confess to having. On the one side are
the so-called Primitive Baptist (Hardshells), who cannot reconcile human
inability with responsibility in the matter of repentance and faith. And so they
emphasize the doctrines of sovereignty, the Divine decrees, and human inability,
and ignore the Scriptures which command sinners to repent and believe the
gospel, hence they have no gospel for the lost. On the other hand there are
those who preach the doctrines of human responsibility and the command to repent
and believe, and have nothing to say about human inability, the Divine decrees,
and sovereignty. Here in my own church and association, as well as throughout
the South generally, there is little heard of Election, Depravity, and
Sovereignty in salvation. It is because the brethren feel they cannot preach
both; that the two are beyond reconciliation -- the one being true, the other
must be false. Now, in your case there is both the determination to accept all
Scripture and to harmonize them, resulting in a confused and disturbed mind. Let
us, at the risk of being called inconsistent, take all the Scriptures whether we
can harmonize them or not. Dr. J.B. Moody ( one of my fathers in the faith) used
to say, that if one waited to accept the doctrines until he could harmonize
them, he would never accept them; the way to harmonize them is to receive them
without question, and they will harmonize on the inside of the soul. This may
not be exactly true, but it will be of help. I am not saying that we should make
no effort to harmonize seeming contradictory doctrines, but I do warn against a
persistent determination to do so. With this introduction, I will now take up
your questions in their order.
1. It is true
that most (I would say all) people feel that election is unjust. This is not
strange since the carnal mind is enmity against God. People may love a god of
their own invention, but only born-again believers can love a Sovereign God who
does what He will with His own (1 John 4:7). God's rights with the sinful human
race are the rights of a potter over the clay. We can readily see that the
criminal has no claims upon the human court, and it is just as true that the
sinner has no claims upon an offended God. Moreover, to say that election is
unjust is to put salvation on the basis of justice, thus robbing every sinner of
any hope.
When we find
people who seem to be interested in salvation, we are encouraged to think they
are of the elect, for the elect are not saved without becoming interested in
salvation. When we pray for their salvation, we are not asking the Holy Spirit
to put them on the fence where they may fall off on either side. They are
already on the wrong side -- the attitude of ignorant rejection of Christ -- and
we pray that He may translate them from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom
of His dear Son (Col. 1:13). We pray for their conversion to faith in Christ,
that they may not be left to the choice of a depraved nature. Why He does not
convict and convert everybody we preach to and pray for is due to His
sovereignty and not to His weakness. We do not pray to a weak God. However, we
must distinguish between the desire to be saved from sin and the desire to be
saved from Hell. Nobody wants to burn, but the desire to be saved from sin is a
holy desire created by the Holy Spirit. When He creates such a desire His
further work of conversion will follow, but we cannot assuredly determine the
motive of the desire.
You ask to what
extent are they (the non-elect) responsible for being lost? They are responsible
for all the sins they commit and for their sinful nature also. What one does is
a revelation of what he is. This is not apparent to our sense of justice. I
cannot see how God can justly hold me responsible for the exercise of a sinful
nature inherited -- for a nature I had nothing to do with acquiring -- for a
nature I was born with. If I were to sit in judgment on God (perish the thought)
I would say that it is not right to punish me for an inherited sinful nature. I
accept my responsibility for sin even though I cannot understand the justice of
it. Those who have not been "ear-marked" for salvation fall into two groups --
those who have the gospel preached to them, and those who never hear of Christ
as Saviour. Those who have the gospel preached to them are responsible for all
their sins, including the sin of rejecting Christ, while those who never hear of
Him are free from the sin of rejecting Him, although they are guilty of other
sins for which they are held responsible. The heathen who have never heard the
gospel will not have to answer for the sin of unbelief. Whether we can
understand it or not, the sinner in all his depravity and helplessness is
accountable to God.
The woman in your
class who remarked that the doctrine of election makes everything so hopeless,
adding that she thought anyone could be saved; that the decision was "theirs",
might be answered this way. Anyone can be saved who is willing to be saved God's
way through faith in Christ, but nobody, left to himself, wants to be saved this
way. God's way is foolishness to him
1 Cor 2:14 But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
2 Cor 4:3-6
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
Rom 10:1-3
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be
saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God.
The decision is
"theirs" but the decision to trust Christ is the result of a renewed mind -- the
result of grace in the soul. Paul speaks of the time when he thought he ought to
do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 26:9). In the
telling of his conversion he ascribes it to the grace of God
1 Cor 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me
was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but
the grace of God which was with me.
Gal 1:14-16
And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation,
being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,
16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen;
immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
There is no
self-salvation, either in providing it or applying it. The work of the Spirit in
us is as essential as the work of Christ for us. Paul says that the Jews were
asking for a sign (they wanted him to perform a miracle) and that the Greeks
were clamouring for wisdom (they wanted him to philosophize), but without
catering to the wishes of either, he preached Christ crucified. Salvation
through faith in a crucified Christ was to the natural Jew a scandal, and to the
Greek it was foolishness. Those effectually called by the Holy Spirit were able
to see the power and wisdom of God in such a plan of salvation
1 Cor 1:22-31
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks
foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For ye see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Why God does not
effectually call more than He does is not due to inability but to sovereignty.
As I say in my article on election, we must either limit God's power or His
mercy, or go over boots and baggage to universalism. If God is trying to save
everybody and does not succeed, He is not almighty; if He is not trying to save
everybody His mercy is not universal. Romans 9:18 makes it clear that His mercy
is limited and is sovereignly bestowed. Deserving mercy is a contradiction of
terms. The flesh in us -- remnants of depravity -- rebels at this aspect of
Divine sovereignty. The writer is aware of this, just as you seem to be.
2. There are
passages like John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2 which seem to teach that Christ died for
every individual. However, the word "world"rarely ever means every
individual of the human race. The word "world" is sometimes used to
distinguish between the saved and the lost (1 John 5:19); between the Jew and
the Gentile (Rom 11:11-15) and between the few and the many (John 12:19). I
believe John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2 teach that Christ died for Gentiles as well as
Jews. He died for men as sinners and not as any class or kind of sinners. The
Jews thought their Messiah, when He came, would deliver them and destroy the
Gentiles. John says that He is the propitiation or Mercy-seat for all believers
regardless of class or colour. In other words, Christ is no tribal Saviour. If
we think of Christ's death as substitutionary, then I agree with Spurgeon, that
He died for the elect only. If he died as the substitute for every individual,
then every individual would be saved, else His death was in vain. Now I believe
there is a sense in which Christ's death affects every person. By His death He
bought the human race, not to save every individual, but in order to dispose of
every individual. The right to judge this world is Christ's reward for His
suffering. All judgment has been committed unto the Son (John 5:22). In the
parable of the hid treasure, Christ is the man who bought the field (world) for
the sake of the treasure (the elect) for the sake of those given Him by the
Father (Matt 13:44). See also John 17 and 2 Peter 2:1. Incidentally, the word
for Lord in 2 Peter 2:1 is Despot (Gk. despotes), and indicates more authority
than Kurios (Lord).
In 2 Peter 3:9,
the apostle is explaining why the Lord has not returned to this earth, the
reason being, that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. This refers to His will of purpose. It is God's
purpose that all should come to repentance and be saved. In longsuffering He
waits until all the "us-ward" have been brought to repentance. The
"us-ward" are described as those who had obtained the like precious faith
(1:2); who had been given all things that pertain to life and godliness (1:3);
and who had escaped the corruption that is in the world (1:4). In 2 Peter 3:15,
the apostle tells the same "us-ward", that they are to account the longsuffering
of the Lord as salvation. Christ's longsuffering towards the elect keeps Him on
His mediatorial throne until all have been saved. Had He come sooner than
planned, many of the elect would not have been saved. I have been a Christian
for 51 years, and if He had come before my conversion, I would have perished in
my sins. It is not His will of purpose that any of those given to Him by the
Father shall perish. The words "all" and "every" are hardly ever
used in the absolute sense.
Mat 3:5-7 Then
went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about
Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when
he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto
them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come?
1 Cor 4:5
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
The "all"
of 2 Peter 3:9 are all of the "us-ward" who shall be brought to
repentance. This is not good grammar, but it is good theology and necessary to
plainness. Christ will not come in judgment until all those given Him by the
Father have come to repentance. When He comes He will usher in the new era of
the "New heavens and a new earth", wherein dwelleth righteousness.
3. The story told
you by your dear father has been duplicated in many cases of people who seem to
be under deep conviction, and yet oppose those who try to lead them to Christ.
Such conviction is not of the Holy Spirit, who convicts of the sin of unbelief
and leads to faith in Christ. Such cases do reveal the fact of the enmity of the
carnal mind towards God, and not a mind wrought upon by the Holy Spirit. A case
in point is that of Felix who trembled at the preaching of Paul and then
dismissed him until a more convenient season (Acts 24:25).
There is a
natural conviction of sin which may be felt by everybody when confronted by his
sin (John 8:9), and there is evangelical conviction by the Holy Spirit, and
leading to repentance and faith. God never abandons the good work He begins in
the soul (Phil 1:6). The Holy Spirit, in my judgment, never tries to regenerate
one of the non-elect. There is much Scripture for this. The New Testament speaks
often of those given to the Son by the Father and their salvation is assured.
These are called "sheep" and "elect" before they come to Christ.
John 6:37-44
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will,
but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father's will which hath
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me,
that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 41 The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42 And they said,
Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it
then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 43 Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 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.
John 10:14-16
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one
shepherd.
John 10:25-28
Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are
not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
2 Tim 2:10
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
You ask whether
or not the woman referred to was an "elect"? I do not know. I can only
say that at the time she gave no evidence of being an elect. However, later she
may have been convicted by the Holy Spirit of the sin of unbelief and brought to
repentance. We can only judge whether a person is an elect or not by his
attitude toward the gospel of Christ. If she were a sheep of Christ, she did
come to His at some later date, for Christ says, "My sheep hear my voice, and
I know them, and they follow me".
4. "Many are
called, but few are chosen" (Matt 20:16, 22:14). Calling in the New
Testament usually means the effectual call to salvation -- saints are made by a
Divine call, but it cannot mean that many hear the invitation to accept Christ
who have not been chosen by God to salvation (1 Thess 1:4-7; 2 Thess 2:13).
Calling and choosing are not the same. The choosing or electing took place in
eternity past; calling takes place in time and brings about conversion to faith
in Christ. There is a general call given to every sinner in gospel preaching,
and there is the special call of the Holy Spirit, inducing acceptance of the
general call. The general call in gospel preaching is to men as sinners; the
special call by the Holy Spirit is to the elect and results in salvation. Romans
8:28 refers to this effectual call.
1 Cor 1:26 For
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, are called:
Gal 1:15-16
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
5. You complain
of being "caught up in a sort of fatalistic attitude -- that what is to be will
be". There is a vast difference between cold, impersonal something called
"fate", and the providential workings of a great and wise God. Things do not
come to pass by cold fate, but by God, "Who worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will"(Ephesians 1:11). Dr. Charles Hodge was once asked
if he believed what is to be will be. He replies, "Why yes I do; would you have
me believe that what is to be won't be?" Prophecy is the Divine prediction of
many things which are to be, and these predictions have been or will yet come to
pass.
The second
paragraph of your letter on this subject expresses a glorious truth. God is
ruling this world, making even the wrath of man to praise Him; the remainder of
wrath men might do, He restrains.
Psa 76:10
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou
restrain.
Prov 21:1 The
king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it
whithersoever he will.
Referring to the
1st paragraph of your letter on page 27 it is true that the elect will be saved,
and that my failure to witness will not thwart God's purpose to save them. God
uses me, but He is not dependent upon me. I dare not think that God is helpless
without me; if I fail He can use someone else. I am not to witness because of
any assured results, but in obedience to His will of command. I cannot know His
will of purpose concerning those to whom I bear testimony, We are to witness to
people as sinners and not as elect sinners. Election has nothing to do with our
obligation to witness. Isaiah preached when he was told there would be no good
results in the way of response from the people.
Isa 6:8-13
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go
for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9 And he said, Go, and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their
eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long?
And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses
without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13 But yet in
it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree,
and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the
holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
Your letter
closes with questions concerning prayer. I have no hope of giving much help
here, but will make some observations. Prayer is one of the means by which God
brings to pass what He has decreed. Answered prayer is indicted by the Holy
Spirit. He knows the mind and will (purpose of God) and makes intercession for
us according to the will of God (Romans 8:26,27). How one may know that his
prayer is indicted by the Holy Spirit, I cannot tell. But the Holy Spirit leads
us to pray for that which is within the circle of the Divine will, and if we ask
anything according to His will He heareth us (1 John 5:14). We are taught to
pray for His will to be done. This shows we are not to try to change His will by
our praying. This would take control out of His hands and put us in charge.
Whether we can
harmonize our praying with His decrees or not; It is our duty to pray because He
commands it (Luke 18:1). Prayer implies two things: our inability and His
ability. Prayer is an act of dependence upon God who is "able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think" Eph 3:20.
I do not presume
to be able to reconcile the doctrine of Divine decrees with such passages as
James 4:2,3 and 5:16. But I can see how prayer can prevail without changing God,
when I think of it as one of the means by which His will of purpose is effected.
In Mueller's case, I can think that he was led by the Holy Spirit to spend the
night on his knees as the means of getting milk for the children. We have the
same difficulty in the case of Paul's ship-wreck as recorded in Acts 27. When
all hope of being saved was gone (27:20), the angel of God told Paul there would
be no loss of life. He then comforts the despairing sailors, soldiers, and
prisoners, saying, Be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as
it was told me (27:25). Then later when the sailors were about to abandon the
ship, Paul said to the centurion and soldiers "Except these abide in the
ship, ye cannot be saved" (27:31). God had declared there would be no loss
of life, and Paul believed Him, and yet he believed their safety depended upon
the sailors staying with the ship. We might charge Paul with inconsistency but
there it is.
As to praying for
the sick, we must always pray without knowing what the Divine will is in every
particular case. It is appointed unto men once to die, and when the appointed
time comes our praying will not cancel the Divine will. David recognized this in
praying for his sick child. He fasted and prayed while the child was alive, but
when the child died, he bowed to the manifest will of God and said, "While
the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God
will be gracious to me that the child may live?" 2 Sam 12:22. Paul's prayer
for the thorn to be removed is another case of asking for something outside the
circle of God's will of purpose. Paul prayed without knowing the will of God,
and when it was made known to him, that sustaining grace would be given rather
than the removal of the thorn, he bowed in sweet submission and said, "Most
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ
may rest upon me"(2 Cor 12:9).
My mind often
reverts to the terrible war between our North and our South -- the so-called
"Civil War". There were men of God on both sides -- men of piety and prayer --
who pleaded with God for victory. I believe it is conceded that the most
outstanding men of God belonged to the Southern Army -- such men as Robert E.
Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Johnston. And now all of us rejoice that
it was God's will for the Union to be saved.
It is becoming in
all of us to seek our Father's face and pray for His blessings, and then bow in
reconciliation to His mysterious providence in our lives.
"God holds the
key of all unknown,
and I am Glad;
If other hands should hold the key,
Or if He trusted it to me,
I might be sad
"What if
tomorrow's cares were here
Without its rest!
I'd rather He unlocked the day;
And as the hours swing open, say,
'My will is best.'
"The very dimness
of my sight
Makes me secure;
For groping in my misty way,
I feel His hand; I hear Him say
'My help is sure.'
I cannot read his
future plans;
But this I know;
I have the smiling of His face,
And all the refuge of His grace,
While here below.
"Enough! this
covers all my wants,
And so I rest!
For where I cannot He can see,
And in His care I safe shall be,
Forever blest."
We are all poor
sinners in the need of an adequate Saviour. This Saviour is the Lord Jesus
Christ Who says, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out". If Christ
is the Saviour of sinners, this poor sinner can qualify for salvation. I praise
Him for dying for me, and I praise the Holy Spirit for making me to realize my
helplessness and for taking the things of Christ and showing them to me (John
16:14,15).
May the Lord
bless you in the coming discussion on Nov. 5th, and make you a blessing to
others! I wish I might have been of more help in this reply to your questions.
Let me exhort you not to worry over failure to be able to reconcile doctrines
which seem to our finite minds to be contradictory.
With heartfelt
thanks for this opportunity to discuss with you some of the deep things of God,
I am
Yours in gospel
bonds,
C.D. Cole
LETTER TWO BY MRS.
MARJORIE BOND
1505 Scotland
Street
Calgary, Alberta
November 6, 1959
Dear Dr. Cole:
Do you think you
can stand another letter from me? I shall try not to be so verbose this time!
Your wonderful
and most helpful letter came two weeks ago tomorrow, so you can see it was in
plenty of time for our meeting last night. I was going to acknowledge it
immediately; then it occurred to me that if I waited till after the meeting, I
could "kill two birds with one stone", so to speak -- thank you for the letter
and report on the meeting as well.
I cannot begin to
tell you how much I appreciate the time and trouble you have taken to help a
complete stranger -- and yet, perhaps, we are not such strangers after all, as
we are related through the bonds of the gospel. But you went to a great deal of
work, I am afraid, to answer my letter at such length and in such detail and I
appreciate it more than I can say. But above all, I feel I owe you a debt of
boundless gratitude for your article on Election which sparked off my interest
in it and subsequent study of it. I feel as if a completely new world has opened
up to me; I get almost excited over it all, Dr. Cole. I do hope it is not wrong
to attach so much importance to it, but somehow, I feel as if it is the most
significant and personal doctrine in the whole Bible. Nothing should
eclipse the Atonement I know; but I feel that even my conversion, somehow, never
made the impression on me that Election has. When you have been brought up in a
Christian family, heard the Scriptures from childhood and been active in the
Church, there isn't the marked cleavage, somehow, when one becomes a Christian
that there is if you have been turned from a life of vice. Is it because we
don't feel, in the innermost recesses of our being, that we need Christ as badly
as the other type does?
I don't know; but
I have often felt that I didn't have the joy in my Christian life that I
should. It seemed stale and flat, so often; one did things for the Lord from a
sense of duty. Sometimes I have even wondered if I were saved at all. Now all
that is changed. The very fact that my salvation is all of grace -- in the
application of it as well as the provision of it -- has transformed everything
for me. And I have you to thank for it. Oh, how wonderful it must be to a
minister to be so used of God.
When I first read
your pamphlet, in addition to all my other objections to Election, I didn't like
the idea that (in a sense) I had nothing to do with becoming a Christian. I had
always supposed that, with the Spirit's help, I had had sense enough and
intelligence enough to recognize something worthwhile and take it! It didn't
appeal to me at all to think that if I had been elected, I really had nothing to
do with my salvation at all -- even in the accepting of it. But now
that is almost the best part of it! It is humbling and breath-taking and
frightening and thrilling all at once. I just can't get over it, Dr. Cole. To
think that all these years (I am 41), I have missed this tremendous teaching and
the thrill and joy of it.
It has made my
salvation and conversion much more real and personal. I have always envied
people who spoke with such joy of their conversion and felt that something had
happened, I never could. I couldn't remember a time when I didn't believe, if
you know what I mean. And it has worried me; I've had a sneaking fear that maybe
all I had was a head or credal belief because I was brought up in a Christian
home and accepted that as I did other patterns of behaviour and thought. I have
prayed off and on for months that if I were saved the Lord would make me realize
it beyond all shadow of doubt and give me "the joy of His salvation". Not just a
barren orthodoxy. Never did I dream of getting the "witness of the spirit"
through the doctrine of Election. I wouldn't want the Lord to think I'm not
grateful for salvation. I am; but right now, I feel as if I'm more grateful for
Election. Is that wrong?
Over and over I
keep saying to myself, like someone rescued from a sinking vessel, when others
are lost, "Why me? Why me?". When I wake up in the morning, I used to feel tired
and exhausted and wish I didn't have to go to work (I am a war widow); now,
almost as soon as I am conscious, I have the feeling that something new and
exciting has happened -- and then it flashes across my mind in a wave of
remembrance -- "you are elected" and I get so excited I am wide awake instantly
and ready to be up and doing.
I cannot explain
it -- but somehow as long as you feel that you had the least little bit to do
with your own conversion, it takes away some of the thrill and bloom of it. But
when the full impact of the thought and realization hits you -- that not only
the provision of salvation is due to God's grace but also His choice of
you as recipient, one can only stand back and marvel -- lost in wonder,
love and praise.
Now, I must tell
you about last night. There were nearly 30 women out. Nothing that we
have studied in the 7 or 8 years that I have taught that class has so stirred
them as this Doctrine! They came with Bibles and pens...and objections! I went
all over it again very carefully, reminding them first that:
(a) The depravity
of man required it (election) elaborating on your point that we are just
deceiving ourselves if we think any of us would ever want or seek God in
our unregenerate state apart from the Holy Spirit and election. (Gen 6:5; Ps
14:3; Isa 64:3; Rom 3:10 and Eph 2:1 -- I had them look up and read aloud these
references).
(b) The
sovereignty of God justifies it -- He has the same rights over us as the potter
with the clay, etc., emphasizing such qualities of God as His absolute
Righteousness, Holiness, Omniscience, Self-Existence, etc. which entitles Him to
act in a sovereign way.
(c) The
righteousness and Holiness of God safe-guards it; it cannot be unjust for it is
absolutely impossible for God to do anything wrong, be unfair, unjust,
unfaithful..."He cannot deny Himself". Regardless of how it may appear to
us we have this knowledge and comfort that the Judge of all the earth will do
righteously.
Well, after I had
made my points, the members asked questions. I felt really sorry for one woman
in my class. She has come to our church from the United Church. I think
she is saved -- but periodically one detects in her thinking and from her
remarks, a throwback to the United Church doctrine of salvation through works!
Evidently she has been really wrought up over this subject -- which I consider a
good sign. I told her she couldn't have been any more disturbed than I was at
first. She cannot see that it is not unjust of God. I thought your illustration
of being on the fence and God pushing them to one side or the other excellent,
so I elaborated on that. I think, with most of them, they finally began to see a
glimmer of light that if God hadn't elected some, none would be saved.
We all seem to
have the same reaction -- that if the decision had been left to us, we had a
better chance of getting saved than by having God settle it all in Eternity;
because we don't or won't accept that teaching that of ourselves we are
incapable of reaching out for God. I told them that in our natural state, we are
dead in trespasses and sins and a corpse just cannot flicker even an eyelash! So
they were just deceiving themselves if they thought for one minute that they
would ever accept Christ, apart from God taking certain measures to make
them.
Well, our
discussion went on for about 1 1/2 hours! This woman also thought as did others
that Scriptures elsewhere we contradicted by Election -- such as John 3:16 and 1
John 2:2. I was glad to have your explanation of "all" and "world"
rarely being used in the absolute sense.
Also, John
6:37..."Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out"...I told them
to look up the first part of that verse and they would get a shock! I had!
"All that the Father hath given unto me shall come unto me...etc." Of
course Christ wouldn't cast out any who came because any who came would be those
whom the Father had given! They were simply stunned! But seemed to react more as
if it made sense and were opening up new worlds of thought.
Afterwards, while
we were waiting for tea, this one particular woman came to me. I did feel so
sorry for her; she was flushed and almost tearful and I said, "Edythe, is it any
clearer?" She hesitated and said, "Yes, in some respects. But there are other
things that I just feel I can't reconcile with my ideas of God and the Bible". I
said, "Don't try, Edythe, Dr. Cole told me not to attempt to reconcile all
points of this teaching with other passages of Scripture because I would only
confuse myself, and I believe he is right". By the way, that was a wonderful
help to me, personally, what you told me about just getting a confused mind. I
just let go all the arguments, after reading your letter, and told the Lord that
I guessed I had struggled long enough trying to crowd the ocean of His theology
into the teacup of my mind and I wasn't going to fuss anymore about the points I
didn't understand. He understood them and that was good enough for me. And it is
since then that I have had such peace.
I tried to tell
something of this to Edythe; she said, "Marjorie, I have nearly gone out of my
mind this week". And her voice broke. She said, "I can't think of anything else
and I go over and over it until I am nearly crazy". I just ached with pity for
her because I had been through the same thing until I got your letter back.
It flashed across
my mind that perhaps your letter would help her too. So I asked her if she would
like a copy of my questions to you and your reply. She was terribly grateful. I
had them with me so was able to let her have them right away. Would you pray
with me that she will get peace and learn, by the help of the Holy Spirit to
love this doctrine as we do?
One other member,
a new-comer to my class although she has been in our church several years, said
to me with the sweetest smile afterwards, "I am like you; I know now I have been
elected and it is simply thrilling. I wish you could have seen my husband,
though. He wanted to come so badly tonight -- he asked me if I thought you would
mind if he slipped into a back seat"! It seems her husband took her pamphlet and
read it; was so thrilled and worked up over it, he read it again and said that
never in all his life had he heard anything like it -- why don't we hear about
it? And do you know, Dr. Cole, person after person has said that to me; "Why
don't our ministers preach it??"
One girl, also
from the southern states (Texas -- but not the one I mentioned in my first
letter; she wasn't out last night) has been very keen on this, but
admitted to me on different occasions that it simply upset a lot of her ideas
and understandings! However, last night, as I closed she said, in front of all
the others, almost with a blissful sigh, "Well, it certainly takes the fear out
of dying, doesn't it"? And you know, that is what I have felt so strongly.
I just stared at her for a minute when she said it -- it was the echo of my own
heart. Sometimes I feel I can't wait to get to heaven and learn more about
Election and all the rest of the Bible.
A third woman,
mother of a 6 year old boy, said to me, "Marjorie, I don't know. It is
wonderful. I feel that since this study and the thought I have given to Election
that everything has cleared up in my mind. And so many passages of Scripture fit
in and make sense now when they didn't before".
Yet another girl
has talked to me different times and said that at first she felt (when I taught
my first lesson in Sept.) that she was opposed to it. But the more she read your
pamphlet and thought about it, the more she thought the doctrine really was
taught in the Bible and therefore she should be willing to believe it and leave
the parts she didn't understand until she got to heaven! Last night, after we
were finished, she whispered to me across the table, "Well, I'm happy too,
tonight Marjorie. But I'm afraid some aren't. But it's more a case of won't with
them.
However, I am
praying that the Holy Spirit will do His work in the hearts of those that are
confused or resisting. I feel their very interest is encouraging and, as you so
truly put it, none of us likes this doctrine; it takes the Holy Spirit to teach
a person to love it.
Now, I promised
you I wouldn't write such a long letter and I have. I do hope you aren't bored.
But I am so full of it all and so indebted to you that I felt I had to overflow
to you. Have you, by any chance, had any of your other teachings put up in
pamphlet form? I was looking over some old Witnesses the other day and saw
several of yours in serial form, on Sin, Salvation, etc. I should love to have
them complete. I sent away for 40 copies of your ELECTION pamphlet and
distributed them to my class in Sept., so they have had them to study and mull
over ever since! I can never thank you enough for your article. Certainly God
must have led you to have it printed.
It would be so
wonderful to sit under that kind of preaching today. Why don't ministers preach
doctrinal sermons anymore -- instead of this milky, predigested, topical
preaching that so many give? No wonder Christians today aren't strong and virile
and know what they stand for -- they have never got off the milk of the Word
onto the strong meat. I heard one Baptist minister say that we are "snackbar"
Christians today when we should be dining-room Christians. And I think he had
something.
Now, I must go.
Again, my heartfelt thanks for all you have done for me. I pray God's richest
blessings upon you and yours and your ministry for Him which will be fruitful, I
am sure, beyond your deepest imaginings and hopes.
Yours in Him,
(Mrs.) Marjorie
Bond
LETTER THREE BY MRS.
MARJORIE BOND
1505 Scotland
Street
Calgary, Alberta
December 7, 1959
Dear Dr. Cole:
Since writing my
Christmas card to you, I have received your books, "The Heavenly Hope" and
"Divine Doctrines". Thank you very much indeed. I am thoroughly enjoying the
magnificent study on the doctrine of God. How it magnifies and exalts Him and
restores Him to His rightful position of King of kings and Lord of lords. I have
felt for a long time that the Christian church needs a fresh vision of the
holiness and majesty of God, and to realize that He is "the high and lofty one
that inhabiteth eternity". There is entirely too much spirit of camaraderie in
our attitude toward God today.
I wish more of
our present-day ministers preached doctrine. It seems to me that church members
would be more firmly rooted and grounded in their faith if we had more doctrinal
teaching and less "snackbar" preaching!
Apropos of our
study on Election, I am still getting repercussions from it from some of my
class members. Nothing that I have ever taught has stirred up such
interest. I also gave a copy of your pamphlet to our minister; am awaiting his
reaction!
We were visiting
with some friends from another Baptist church a few weeks ago and something came
up about my Bible Class and this teaching on election. Would you believe it --
not one person in that room, apart from the members of my own immediate family
who were present, had even heard about Election, let alone understood it?
And yet they are all good Christian people -- not just nominal church members.
We only got into
a preliminary discussion of it when we were interrupted. But I could see that it
was not at all favourably received! (As you say, we are all Arminians by
nature!) One woman and her aged father who had moved away to Arizona about two
years ago, are back in Calgary and were present that night. About a week ago, I
ran into this woman at the post office in one of our local department stores.
She is working there temporarily and as there were people waiting to be served
she didn't have too much time to talk to me. But as I was leaving the wicket,
she said, "Oh, Marjorie; I want to have a talk with you some time on that matter
that we were discussing at Thelma's the other night." For a minute or two, my
mind was a complete blank -- I couldn't remember what she was referring to. She
smiled and said, "You know, we started a discussion about it". Suddenly light
dawned and I said, eagerly, (this is my favourite subject now) "Oh yes, of
course. I'll be glad to any time you are free." She nodded and said, "Well, it
has set me thinking. I don't understand it and don't say that I agree but I want
to learn more about it". So there is another ripple from the stone you cast into
the pool!
Dr. Cole, when
you are so busy, I do hate to bother you with my questions but I feel that you
are so learned in this subject that you are in a better position to help me than
anyone else. May I trouble you with one or two further questions:
(a) What is meant
by making "your calling and election sure"? At first when I was reading 2
Peter 1:5-
(b) Is the
"all" of Romans 11:32 another example of "all" not being used in the
absolute? I mean the part where it says "that He might have mercy upon all".
Some people argue that verse as being opposed to Election, saying that if God
wanted to have mercy on all, He would not pick and choose people for salvation
as the doctrine of election teaches.
(c) Also, while
we are still in Romans, is it true that even Christians will be judged for
everything they have done since they were saved? Not in the sense of punishment
for their sins, because Judgment on sin was passed at Calvary. But when the
Bible says, "So then we must every one give an account of ourselves to God;"
and again, Romans 2:6..."who will render to every man according to his deeds";
and 1 Corinthians 4:5.
I don't know why
it is, but the thought of having all my sins exposed to view, even though I am
not going to be punished for them, robs heaven of considerable joy. I backslid
very badly some years ago and although the Lord is dearer to me now than He ever
was before, I sometimes feel that nothing can undo the sins of those
years. God knows all about them and has forgiven me; why must they be published
for all the world to see when I get to heaven?
I thought the
passages in Psalms that "as far as the east is from the west so far have I
removed thy transgression from thee", meant that once we were saved God really
blotted out our sins and we never had to hear about them again. But there seems
to be several passages in the epistles which would lead one to think that,
although we will not be punished for our sins in the sense of going to hell, we
shall certainly have to account for them. If this is so, it seems to me that no
Christian could die really at peace, knowing you had that ahead of you. (Why are
we more afraid of man's opinion than God's?)
(d) My last
question has to do with pages 7-9 of your pamphlet "The Heavenly Hope". I had
always understood (prior to my study of Election), both from Scripture and
various hymns and sermons that I had heard, that there is danger in delaying
salvation; that a person could be cut off from this life before they had
accepted Christ and be hurled into a Christless eternity.
But according to
the doctrine of Election, no one who is elected for salvation can
possibly die without being saved? Isn't that true? ("All that the Father hath
given to me, will come unto me...") Therefore, anyone whom God has intended
to save will be saved and cannot possibly be lost so there is no danger in
delaying for them; and the non-elect will not be saved anyway. Isn't that so? It
seems to me I just get things sorted out in my mind to where I understand them,
when I read something that puts me off again!
As I say, I used
to believe too that there was danger in delay. All the hymn-writers speak of it
etc. But since studying Election, I concluded that I must have been wrong. There
is no real urgency, in the sense of it being a life and death matter, because no
one can die before he is saved, if God intends him to be saved. Therefore, why
do ministers (even those like yourself who believe in Election) urge people to
make haste and accept Christ before it is too late? It can never be too
late for an elected person, can it? I should appreciate being straightened out
on this point.
You will get so
you dread to see a letter from me if I always write at such length. But there is
so much I need to ask you about and modern ministers, like doctors, are so busy
they haven't time for people any more.
Thank you again
for all your help and may God richly bless you in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Marjorie Bond
746 West Noel
Madisonville, Kentucky
December 17th, 1959
My Dear Marjorie:
Greetings and
best wishes for a happy holiday season! When I mailed you the books, I intended
to follow at once with a letter explaining that you would be under no obligation
to pay for them, since you had not ordered them. But other things took
precedence, and I was still planning to write when your letter arrived with
enclosure. Perhaps I should return part of the money as it was more than enough
to pay for what I sent. The supply of books and tracts I have written is almost
exhausted, and this is one reason why I sent you what I did. The series of SIN
and SALVATION have not been put in book form. I have two or three large scrap
books containing articles published in various magazines. At my age (now in my
75th year), I do not expect to publish any more books. However, I have many dear
friends among young ministers and some of them may want to publish some of my
writings after I am gone.
With this brief
introduction, I will now attend to your questions in the hope I may be of some
help.
(a) Peter's
exhortation to "make your calling and election sure", is a warning
against presumption. One must not take his salvation for granted without proper
evidence of it. Of course he means to make it sure to ourselves, for we can make
nothing sure to God. His words have to do with assurance and not to the fact of
salvation. He starts with the grace of faith as God's gift, and urges us to
build upon that faith so that our lives may not be barren and unfruitful. No
unfruitful believer can have assurance of salvation as a subjective experience.
Apropos of your own experience while a backslider.
(b) I believe
"all" in Romans 11:32 is used only in a relative and not absolute sense,
else we have universal salvation. Moreover, Romans 9:18 teaches that God is
sovereign in bestowal of mercy. This does not mean that He refuses mercy to any
who trust Christ for it, but that He does not cause all to look to Him for mercy
-- some are left to their own carnal will.
(c) The Christian
will be judged for his works and not for his sins. His sins have been judged in
Christ and will not appear against him in the day of Judgment. Salvation is of
grace; reward is for work. There will be degrees both in heaven and in hell, for
both the saved and lost will be judged for their deeds -- the lost will receive
the degree of punishment commensurated with their evil deeds, and the saved will
receive glory according to their works. I do not expect the reward of Paul, for
my works have not equaled his.
Romans 2 is
dealing with principles of judgment under law: (1) It is to be according to
truth (vs.2), that is according to facts; (2) It is to be according to deeds
(vs.6); (3) It is to be without respect of persons (vs.11 and 12). The chapter
is not showing how to be saved, but what one may expect from the law, whether he
be Jew or Gentile.
Romans 14 warns
believers against judging one another for various scruples in regard to eating
and observing days on the ground that we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ (vs.10). We shall give account of ourselves to God and not to one
another.
1 Corinthians 4
deals with the judgment of the Christian as a steward of God. We cannot judge or
appraise the works of one another here and now, for there is much we cannot
know, such as motives and hidden things, but when Christ comes He will know
everything about us, and "then shall every man have praise of God" (1
Corinthians 4:5). We are not qualified to judge so as to determine the place one
shall have in glory -- God will look after that.
(d) We are to
address the lost as sinners, and not as elect sinners. We do not know who the
elect are until they manifest it in faith and good works. And we are to address
them as in need of salvation, and urge them to trust the one and only Saviour -
and to trust Him now. Shall we tell them to trust Him at once or wait until some
other time?
It is true that
"no one who is elected for salvation can possibly die without being saved". But
this does not mean that they will be saved apart from faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the means of salvation are as truly elected as are the persons.
2 Thess 2:13-14
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you
by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul knew more
about the doctrine of election than any other man, and yet he persuaded people
concerning Jesus (Acts 28:23). He knew the elect would be saved, and yet he
prayed and worked for the salvation of Israel
Rom 9:1-3 I
say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the
Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my
kinsmen according to the flesh:
Rom 10:1-4
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be
saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
every one that believeth.
Rom 11:14 If
by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save
some of them.
1 Cor 9:19-22
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that
I might gain the more. 20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain
the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain
them that are under the law; 21 To them that are without law, as without law,
(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain
them that are without law. 22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain
the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
We must not allow
the doctrine of election to rob us of compassion for the lost, nor close our
eyes to the urgency of salvation.
Heb 2:3 How
shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to
be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
2 Cor 6:2 (For
he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have
I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.)
There will be
things we cannot understand and doctrines we shall not be able to harmonize, but
it is plainly His commanding will for us to witness to all people concerning
Christ Jesus. Secret things belong to God, but the revealed things fix our duty
Deu 29:29 The
secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of
this law.
With Christian
love,
C.D. Cole