Clayton Howard Ford

All of this concerns the day we got saved and where we spend eternity. How does all of this affect our lives today? What does all of this have to do with the verse I quoted at the beginning of this lesson: “The just shall live by his faith”?

Salvation, like sanctification, is a process. The Scriptures speak of salvation as a past event.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (2 Tim. 1:8-9).

The Scriptures also speak of salvation as a future event.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:9-10).

So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation (Heb. 9:28).

That is why the Scriptures speak of us as being saved.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18).

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Cor. 2:15).

That is also why Jesus says that those who endure to the end will be saved.

“And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 10:22).

Notice that Jesus did not say this to unbelievers but to believers, his disciples.

Those who support Calvinism believe that the believer will endure to the end, that the believer cannot lose his salvation. They believe in the perseverance of the saints. Since God in his sovereignty chose who would be saved, and since the will of God cannot be thwarted, all of the chosen ones will endure (persevere) until the end and be saved. The believer’s perseverance, therefore, depends on God’s ability to make him or her persevere. Even some Arminians believe that once a person has freely chosen to be saved, God will make sure he perseveres. And there are Scriptures to back this up.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it (1 Thess. 5:23-24).

“This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day” (John 6:39).

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand (John 10:27-30).

However, the majority of those who support Arminianism believe that the believer can lose his salvation. They believe it is possible for a believer to fall from grace. Since the believer freely chose to be saved, he or she can endure to the end only if he or she continually chooses to do so. The believer’s perseverance, therefore, depends on the believer’s ability to make himself or herself persevere. And there are Scriptures to back this up.

“Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). (Notice again that he said this to his disciples, which means that it is possible for the disciples of Jesus to end up in hell.)

You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off (Rom. 11:16-22).

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:26-31).

See also 2 Pet. 2:20-21 and Heb. 6:4-8.

When it comes to enduring to the end, therefore, the Scriptures teach both: God helps us to persevere but we must choose to persevere.

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:10-11).

Therefore, my beloved, as you 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; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13).

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:3-5). (We are kept by God, but through faith.)

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister (Col. 1:21-23).

These verses from Colossians tell us how we can lose our salvation. Eph. 2:8-9 tells us that we do not gain our salvation through works, so we do not lose our salvation by works. Those verses also tell us that we gain salvation by grace through faith. Therefore, we lose our salvation through unbelief. That is why Paul admonishes the Colossians to “continue in the faith.”  That is also why the writer to the Hebrews warns us not to develop “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:12-4:11).

Salvation is a process, but we can choose to drop out of the process. Suppose that you have a brain tumor and the doctor says, “I can remove it in an operation, but first you must take these medications, change your diet, and go through six weeks of chemotherapy.” If you do all of those things and you are cured of the tumor, who gets the credit? The doctor does, because he knew what to do. But if you die from the tumor because you decided that it was too much trouble to take the medications, that you weren’t going to change your diet because you really like the food you eat, and that you weren’t going through the chemotherapy because you don’t like the side effects it produces, so the doctor was unable to perform the operation, whose fault is that? It’s your fault. God has set things up so that if we make it to heaven, he gets all the credit, but if we do not make it, we get all the blame.

The point is that we should not take our salvation for granted. Salvation is a precious gift which only God can give, but we can throw the gift away. Salvation is a process which only God can accomplish, but we can choose to drop out of the process.

Let me end this with this quote from Heb. 10:38-39:

“Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Do not be one of those who draw back to perdition. Be one of those who believe to the saving of the soul. Continue in the faith.

By the same token, God, and only God, knows how to predestine people to hell without violating their free will. In the story of the plagues, the Scriptures tell us that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exod. 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10). In fact, the Lord told Moses before he returned to Egypt that he, the Lord, would harden Pharaoh’s heart (Exod. 4:21), which means that God had predestined Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened. That was God exercising his choice (election). This did not preclude Pharaoh’s free will, for the Scriptures also say that Pharaoh hardened his heart (Exod. 8:15, 32; 9:34). That was Pharaoh exercising his free will. Both election and free will were working at the same time. I have heard it said that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart because Pharaoh hardened his heart, but that is not what the Scriptures say. And, as we shall see, that is not the conclusion Paul drew in Rom. 9. The Scriptures simply say that both God and Pharaoh chose to harden his heart.

We understand that people can freely choose to spend eternity in hell by refusing to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior; however, many people balk at the idea that a loving God could predestine people to hell. Yet logic says that he does. Since there are only two places in which a person can spend eternity, if God does not predestine a person to heaven, then, by default, he has predestined that person to hell. Calvinism accepts that logic; Arminianism does not. But even if we adopt the Arminian position that God looked down through history and saw who would choose to be saved and so predestined them, does not that also mean that he looked down through history and saw who would NOT choose to be saved? So why did he create them, knowing full well that, by creating them, he was automatically condemning them to spend eternity in hell? Whether you are a Calvinist or an Arminian, the fact remains the same: God could have avoided sending anyone to hell by simply creating only those who were predestined to be saved. But he did not. Why not?

The Scriptures not only clearly teach that God predestined people to destruction, they also tell us why he did:

The Lord has made all for Himself,
Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom (Prov. 16:4)

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens (Rom. 9:14-18).

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Rom. 9:22-24)?

The Scriptures say that God created the wicked for himself, meaning that he created them for his own purposes. His purposes include making known his power, his name (that is, his character), and his wrath. Christians lately have been emphasizing one facet of God’s character, his love, at the expense of another facet, his wrath. He predestined some, “the vessels of mercy,” to heaven to show everyone his mercy and his love. But he also predestined others, “the vessels of wrath,” to hell to show everyone his wrath.

He also created them to show the vessels of mercy “the riches of His glory.” If God had simply created only those who were predestined to heaven, then telling us that we could have spent eternity in the lake of fire would have been meaningless. And living a life of righteousness here on earth would also have been meaningless since everyone was going to get saved anyway. The only way to make salvation meaningful was to make the possibility of not being saved a real possibility. That meant a real lake of fire, a real outpouring of his wrath, and real vessels created to receive that wrath.

But if God predestined people to hell, why does he hold them accountable for their sins? He does so because, as we saw with Pharaoh, they can still exercise their free will. Yes, God chose to send them to hell before the foundation of the world, and yes, they freely chose to go to hell. Election and free will worked together in condemning them, just as election and free will worked together in saving us.

At least, that’s my answer to the question based on pulling some Scriptures together. The Scriptures themselves address this question head on and give us an even harder answer:

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor (Rom. 9:19-21)?

We keep forgetting that God is God and he can do whatever he wants. He does not have to answer to us for what he does. He predestined some people to go to heaven. That is his prerogative. He also predestined some people to go to hell. That is also his prerogative.

Some people, when confronted with the truth that God has predestined people to hell, either doubt God’s love or reject this truth altogether, for how can a loving God send people to hell? But that is not the Scriptural response to this truth. When we realize that God did not have to predestine us to spend eternity in heaven with him, that God could have chosen to predestine us to destruction but did not, our response should be thankfulness and praise: “Thank you, God, that you chose me even though you did not have to do so.”

Praise the name of the Lord;
Praise Him, O you servants of the Lord!
You who stand in the house of the Lord,
In the courts of the house of our God,
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
Sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant.
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself,
Israel for His special treasure (Ps. 135:1-4).

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy (1 Pet. 2:9-10; italics mine).

To be continued…

So which doctrine is correct?

The two doctrines have existed since the first century and the supporters of the doctrines have been arguing with each other also since the first century. And so far, no one has been able to convince the other side. The problem is that both sides have Scriptures to back them up, which suggests that the Scriptures actually teach both.

In fact, there are instances where both doctrines show up in the same Scriptural passage. In Jer. 18:1-10, the Lord tells Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house. There the prophet sees the potter make a vessel, only to squash it and make it into another vessel. The Lord then says that he can do the same to Israel, that he can do whatever he chooses. That’s election. That’s God making his choice. But then, in that same speech, the Lord tells Jeremiah that if he says he is going to destroy a nation but that nation chooses to repent, he will spare that nation. Conversely, if he says he is going to bless a nation but that nation chooses to do evil, he will relent from blessing it. That’s free will.

Acts 13:14-51 tells the story of how Paul and Barnabas came to Antioch in Pisidia to preach the Gospel. They started at the synagogue of the Jews and were asked to return the following Sabbath to preach again. But the Jews became envious of all of the Gentiles who also came to hear, so they contradicted Paul and Barnabas. Paul said to them that he and Barnabas would therefore turn to the Gentiles, “since you reject it” (v. 46). That’s free will. The Gentiles were glad to hear Paul say that, and the Scriptures say, “And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (v. 48). That’s election.

But if the Scriptures really teach that both are true, why do we argue so much over these doctrines? We do so because, logically speaking, we cannot reconcile the two. We cannot understand how we can freely choose to be saved if God has already chosen who would be saved before the foundation of the world. We see the two as logically opposed to each other and therefore cannot reconcile them in our minds.

But the Scriptures are full of mysteries like this one. Trying to reconcile these two is like trying to reconcile how God can be one God, yet three Persons. And it is like trying to reconcile how Jesus can be both God and man at the same time. Yet, the Church stopped arguing over these truths long ago because it simply accepted that reconciling them goes beyond our limited human understanding.

So, too, reconciling election and free will goes beyond our limited human understanding, which is why the Scriptures teach both without once trying to explain how both can be true at the same time. C.S. Lewis acknowledged this decades ago. In Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (p. 49), he refers to Pelagius and Augustine, who debated each other over this very issue in the fifth century. Pelagius supported free will; Augustine supported election. Lewis refers to them in his discussion of “the whole puzzle about grace and free will. You will notice that Scripture just sails over the problem. ‘Work out your salvation in fear and trembling’—pure Pelagianism. But why? ‘For it is God who worketh in you’—pure Augustinianism. It is presumably only our presuppositions that make this appear nonsensical. We profanely assume that divine and human action exclude one another like the actions of two fellow-creatures so that ‘God did this’ and ‘I did this’ cannot both be true of the same act except in the sense that each contributed a share.”

Perhaps an analogy will help us understand what he is saying. Suppose that I have a flat tire, but the nuts are on so tight that I cannot loosen them by myself. So you grab one part of the wrench and I grab another part. We twist it together and the nuts come off. The question then is: who loosened the nuts? You or me? The answer is, we both did.

Who chose to save us? Did God choose to save us before the foundation of the world (election)? Or did we choose to save ourselves (free will)? The answer is Yes. Yes, God chose to save us before the foundation of the world and yes, we freely chose salvation. We and God did this together.

In fact, the Scriptures teach that everything we do, we do together with God. As Jesus said, “Without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We cannot even choose to be saved without him. Perhaps we do not understand how that works, but God does.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God reminds us that he is in control of everything, including the future:

“Remember this, and show yourselves men;
Recall to mind, O you transgressors,
Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it” (Is.46:8-11).

God sees the end from the beginning, which means that God has a predetermined plan. God is so wise and powerful that he can give all of us free will and still pull it off. His counsel shall stand. As an example, we are told that Ruth just “happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz” (Ruth 2:3). We know, of course, that she did not just “happen” upon Boaz’s field. It was God’s plan for her to get to that field and he fulfilled his plan without violating her free will. God predestined us to be saved, but he did so without violating our free will. God, and only God, knows how to make election and free will work together.

To be continued…

“But the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4)

In The Emperor’s New Groove, the emperor, who has been turned into a talking llama, and his peasant pal, Pacha, are being chased by his evil advisor, Yzma, and her henchman, Kronk, both of whom end up being locked in a closet in Pacha’s house by Pacha’s family. Yzma says to them, “Tell us where the talking llama is and we’ll burn your house to the ground.” Kronk says, “Don’t you mean ‘or’?” Yzma sighs in frustration, then says, “Tell us where the talking llama is OR we’ll burn your house to the ground.” Pacha’s daughter says, “That is a pretty crucial conjunction.”

It is a pretty crucial conjunction. I have entitled today’s lesson “Election and Free Will.” In most churches, the title would have been “Election OR Free Will,” because most Christians believe that the Scriptures teach one or the other and that anyone who believes the other is, at best, sadly mistaken or, at worst, a heretic.

The doctrines of election and free will are an attempt to answer two important questions: Did God choose to save us before the foundation of the world? Or did we choose to save ourselves?

Those who would answer yes to the first question believe in the doctrine of predestination (election). This doctrine has existed since the first century, but it was most ably defended by John Calvin (1509-1564), a French reformer who headed the church in Geneva, Switzerland. Because of this, the doctrine is also known as Calvinism. This is the belief held by the Southern Baptists and the Presbyterians.

Calvinism emphasizes the sovereignty of God. Before the foundation of the world, God in his sovereignty chose who would be saved and who would not be saved. That decision was not based on anything any person would do but on the purposes and will of God. People choose to get saved because God has already chosen them to be saved. Each person’s choice to be saved or not to be saved, therefore, is determined by whether God has already chosen to save that person or not. In other words, you chose to be saved because God chose you to be saved from before the foundation of the world.

There are, of course, Scriptures to support this doctrine:

The Lord has made all for Himself,
Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom (Prov. 16:4)

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:11-13).

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” (John 15:16).

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29).

See also Rom. 9:1-21 and Eph. 1:3-11.

This is why the Scriptures sometimes refer to the believers as the elect (1 Pet. 1:1-2; Col. 3:12).

Those who would answer yes to the second question believe in the doctrine of free will. This doctrine has also existed since the first century, but it was first systematized by Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), a Dutch professor and former pastor. Because of this, the doctrine is also known as Arminianism. This is the belief held by the Methodists and most Pentecostal churches, including the Assemblies of God.

Arminianism emphasizes the responsibility of man. Each person is free to choose to be saved or not to be saved, and therefore, each person is responsible for the choice he or she makes. If a person ends up condemned to spend eternity in hell, it is because that person chose to be condemned. God certainly does not predestine anyone to condemnation. The Scriptures that speak about predestination mean that God, before the foundation of the world, foresaw who would freely choose to be saved. Those are the ones he predestined for salvation. God’s choice to save a person, therefore, is determined by that person’s choice to be saved or not to be saved. In other words, God chose you to be saved from before the foundation of the world because you chose to be saved.

There are, of course, Scriptures to support this doctrine:

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30:19).

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” (Josh. 24:15).

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

And the Sprit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (Rev. 22:17).

So which doctrine is correct?

To be continued…