Unconditional Election
The unconditional election, also called double predestination . Unconditional election is based on the doctrines of salvation adopted by Augustine of Hippo. It was codified for the first time in the Confessio Belgica (1561), reaffirmed in the Canons of Dort (1619), and is present in the various Reformed confessions such as the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). It is one of the five points of Calvinism and is often related to predestination.
Summary |
Doctrine
In Protestant theology, the election is seen as an aspect of predestination that God chooses certain individuals to be saved. These elected officials receive the mercy while others, the damned , undergo justice unconditionally. This unconditional election is essentially related to the remaining five points of Calvinism, which depend on the supreme belief in the sovereignty of God. Unconditional election is the choice of God to save humanity regardless of their sins or any other condition. That basically means that acts of God to save us, are not based on what man can do or chooses to do, but that man is loved by God unconditionally and irrespective of his own actions. The action of God to save us is based solely on the grace of God, hence the fact that the election is unconditional.
In Calvinism, and in some fundamental Christian Churches ( Waldensian Church , the Cathars , Anabaptists , Baptists , etc..) election was described as unconditional because the choice to save someone not dependent on any element that is inherent the person or any act which the person performs or even any belief that it has shown. Indeed, the doctrine of total depravity (the first five points of Calvinism), the influence of sin has so inhibited the willingness of the individual, that person has the desire or is capable of tracking or come to God except by initial regeneration of the soul of the person by God who gives him the ability to love. Therefore, God's choice in the election is, and can only be based on own independent will and sovereign God, and not on the predicted actions of men. The Calvinist scholastics in the past have discussed the precise moment when, against the decree of the fall of man , God has made the election (see infralapsarian and supralapsarian ). Modern Calvinism, however, does not focus on such distinctions.
The Reformed position is often contrasted to the doctrine Arminian of conditional election that the eternal choice of God to save a person is subject to the certain knowledge of future events by God, namely the fact that some individuals will show faith and belief in response to the offer of salvation by God.
Biblical passages
A number of biblical passages are put forward to prove the truth of this doctrine :
- John 3:16 p.m. : "This is not you who chose me, but I have chosen you, and I've made so you go and you bear fruit and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, it gives you. "
- Acts 1:48 p.m. : "The pagans rejoiced on hearing this, they glorified the word of the Lord, and all those who were ordained to eternal life believed. "
- Romans 9:15-16 : "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends neither he who wills, nor of him that runneth, but of God who shows mercy. "
- Romans 9:22-24 : "And what if God, willing to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and he might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy he has prepared beforehand for glory? So he called us, not only among Jews but also from the Gentiles, "
- Ephesians 1:4-5 : "In him God chose us before the foundation of the world for us to be holy and blameless before him, having predestined us in love to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ, at the pleasure of his will, "
- Ephesians 1:11 : "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will,"
- Philippians 1:29 "and that from God, because you were the grace, from Christ, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him,"
- 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 : "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, that you were elected, our gospel did not you have been preached in word only but in power, the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance, because you know that we were among you, for your sake. "
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13 : "For you, brethren beloved of the Lord, we must always give thanks to God, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and faith in the truth. "
- 2 Timothy 1:9 "by the power of God who saved us and called us with an holy calling, not because of our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, "
Some biblical passages are instead put forward as evidence that the human will, and not merely the divine action, plays a central role in salvation (see conditional election ):
- Deuteronomy 30:19 : "I rise today to witness against you the heaven and the earth: I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed, "
- Joshua 24:15 : "And if you do not see fit to serve the Lord, choose today whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. Me and my house we will serve the Lord. "
Calvinists generally interpret these passages as early interest in the divine perspective, and these last two verses as putting themselves in a human perspective that calls people to respond to the salvation that God gave them .
Means of election
If it saves the men unconditionally, then God must guarantee all possible means for their salvation. This means that true faith must be guaranteed. The source of that security comes from the infinite value of Christ's death that is applied to the will of God, which includes the salvation of individuals. This is done by the Holy Spirit makes the world aware of sin and justice. By working together, the Holy Spirit is supposed to open hearts and eyes. Sinners are then both able and willing to show faith in the Gospel. Goodness and grace of the Gospel and become irresistible for a rational person, which leads to faith. This is the result of a new nature that comes from being born again or regenerated by the Holy Spirit, which precedes faith.
Men are saved unconditionally while they are still enemies of the cross. Yet, sinners do not remain enemies of the cross because the election is supposed to be followed by: God's call to faith, justification by faith , and glorification.
References
- Martin R. Gabriel, The Dictionary of Christianity Publibook, 2007, p. 299.
- John Calvin , Institutes of the Christian religion , French edition of 1560, Book III, Chapter XXI ("From the eternal election: for which God has predestined some to salvation and others to condemnation"), 7: "So we say, as the monster obviously Scripture, God has once again decreed by his counsel eternal and immutable, which he wished to make hello, and which he wished to devote himself to perdition. We say that this advice, as to esleus, is founded in his mercy without any regard to human dignity. Aucontraire that the entry of life is barred to anyone he wants to engage in damnation and that this is done by Judgement occult and incomprehensible, how it is fair and equitable. More, we teach that the purpose of esleus is like a monster and a testimony of their election. Similarly, their justification is another brand and, till they come to glory in which the performance gist of the same. Yet as the Lord whom He esleus mark, calling and justifying: aucontraire also by depriving reprobate of the knowledge of his word, or the sanctification of his Spirit, he demonstrator at the sign as to what will be their end, and what their decision is prepared. " Related articles
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