ONLY BY GRACE

Questions about the doctrine of predestination came up today both at work and online, so I decided to transfer those thoughts here. Most believers and many unbelievers who encounter Christian doctrine struggle with the idea that if going to heaven depends entirely on believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and there is no other way to be saved, isn't God unjust? Did He create huge numbers of people all over the earth whom He knew beforehand would never hear the name of Jesus, much less the sacrifice he made to purchase redemption? Is it true that most are destined for perdition, while a minority are elected for eternal glory?

The way I approach the question of free will vs. predestination is to begin with things that are absolutely spelled out clearly in God's Word, before jumping out into territory that may be less clear. I apologize for the length but I feel strongly about this issue, and I'm even leaving out some things to keep it from being longer. Also I apologize for words like "d3ath" since my computer's content blocking will not allow me to post those words. Biblical references quoted from the English Standard Version.

Let's begin with salvation. Did you choose to believe in God, to believe the gospel, to trust in Christ? Of course. But here's how the Bible describes our state before we were saved:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:18-23)

And you were d3ad in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 3:3-4)

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Romans 3:9-12)

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and d3ath through sin, and so d3ath spread to all men because all sinned.... (Romans 5:12)

So the news flash from the Holy Spirit is, "You were deceased." You weren't stranded on an island waiting for rescue, you were not a prisoner in a jail cell waiting for freedom. You were pushing up daisies. Corpses do not make choices, they don't choose. Our sins killed us and placed us in servitude to the evil one. That is the reality. Everyone from your unsaved friends to Jews and Muslims who reject the Son of God, to pagans trying to appease animal spirits and idols, all of them are d3ad.

What is the solution to our sin problem? Do sinners wake up one day and declare, "I'm going out to seek God today!" Out of their own thoughts and abilities and effort, they begin a quest for the Creator? Isn't it true that God takes the initiative?

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his d3ath, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:6-9)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were d3ad in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his bl0od, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and d3ath. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

Finally, there are simply some scriptures that cannot be philosophized away. I won't quote the whole thing, but I invite everyone to read Romans 9 carefully and prayerfully. Paul lays out this issue very clearly and addresses our objections also.

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says 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 not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:14-24)

God chooses. He has the authority to do that. He chooses each person's circumstances: their time and place to be born, the family who raises them, their DNA and genetic traits. Each of us came to faith in Christ because God put messengers in our paths, or placed us in Christian families, and we heard the word and believed. He made that determination, to give us that opportunity, and we cannot deny that others do not receive the same opportunities. I wasn't raised in a church and I wasn't taught to believe the Bible, so I lacked the advantages others received. However God did place me in Dallas, Texas, one of the most evangelized cities on earth, so clearly I was given more light than billions of other people born in other places.

In order for any person to believe in Jesus, God must first take the initiative and give us grace, a gift of hearing the message and a gift of faith to believe it. Without those acts of grace, which depend on exactly zero human ability or effort, no one would be spared eternal judgement. No one. If we declare that our salvation depends on us adding one iota, one mite of human effort to make it work, then we also must declare that the grace and power of God are necessary but INSUFFICIENT requirements to be saved.

I do not deny that all through the Bible God calls on people to make the right choice. "Choose ye this day whom you will serve." "Repent, therefore, and be baptized." We are required to exercise faith, but we cannot do that until God gives us the faith to exercise. And of course he calls on the church to spread the gospel to every person who has not heard. I also do not deny that with the facts and Biblical revelation before us, it is a challenge to remain steadfast in our belief in God's fairness and justice. Somehow, despite all the injustice we see in the world, we do have to hold on tightly to our faith in God's perfect character, and at the end of history all wrongs will be made right. What exactly this implies about the destiny of all those outside the reach of Christian missionary work, I can't be fully dogmatic about, but I do know that Jesus calls us to proclaim the gospel for a substantive reason. Isn't it because the non-Christians tribes and people groups NEED TO HEAR THE TRUTH? Because without the truth, all of us would perish?

The Bible unapologetically teaches predestination. Predestination means that God knows all and that God chooses those who will hear the gospel, and chooses those to whom He will extend grace to believe the message.

To say otherwise is to declare that God is not omniscient. To say that there is no predestination would mean that He extends the same grace to everyone but some manage to resist that power -- so God is no longer omnipotent. And to say that people who have never heard the word of God or the name of Christ will be given the green light to enter heaven after their time on earth, is an extra-Biblical statement -- it would remove all motivation for Christian missions, since wouldn't it be BETTER to never hear the name of Christ, than to hear and refuse the offer of salvation? Why would Jesus give us Matthew 28:18 if that is true -- why not keep the Messiah completely secret?

God is the potter, we are the clay. It's taken me a long time to come to the conclusion that all of the Christian life, from being born again, to growing in maturity, to serving others, to reaching out to the lost, depends upon God's grace and mercy. Every. Single. Thing.

JONAH GETS IT

Jonah Goldberg is an interesting guy. His mother Lucianne was invloved in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and along the way as people invited Jonah onto talk shows, they realized he was pretty darn smart and articulate. Now he's an Editor-at-Large for National Review, which I find remarkable since I imagine it takes a lot to impress a bunch of graybeard paleo-cons. His latest column addresses my latest topic and does it succinctly and intelligently.

But what offends them [left-wing intelligentsia attempting to understand the 2004 election] so much about religion is that it is a source of authority outside — and prior to — politics. What has offended the Left since Marx, and American liberalism since Dewey, is the notion that moral authority should be derived from anyplace other than the state or "the people" (conveniently defined as citizens who vote liberal). Voting on values not sanctified by secular priests is how they define "ignorance." This was the real goal of Hillary Clinton's "politics of meaning" — to replace traditional religion with a secular one that derived its authority not from ancient texts and "superstitions" but from the good intentions of an activist state and its anointed priests. Shortly before the election, Howell Raines fretted that the worst outcome of a Bush victory would be the resurgence of "theologically based cultural norms" — without even acknowledging the fact that "theologically based cultural norms" gave us everything from the printing press and the newspaper to the First Amendment he claims to be such a defender of.

What Maher, Raines, and Smiley fail to grasp is that all morality is based upon transcendence — or it is merely based on utilitarianism of one kind or another, and therefore it is not morality so much as, at best, an enlightened expediency or will-to-power. It is no more rational to vote based on a desire to do "good" than it is to vote based on a desire to do God's will. Indeed, for millions of people this is a distinction without a difference — as it was for so many of the abolitionists progressives and civil-rights leaders today's liberals love to invoke but never actually learn about.

Love, in fact, is just as silly and superstitious a concept as God (and for those who believe God is Love, this too is a distinction without a difference). Chesterton's observation that the purely rational man will not marry is just as correct today, because science has done far more damage to the ideal of love than it has done to the notion of an awesome God beyond our ken. Genes, hormones, instincts, evolution: These are the cause for the effect of love in the purely rational man's textbook. But Maher would get few applause lines from his audience of sophisticated yokels if he mocked love as a silly superstition. This is, in part, because the crowd he plays to likes the idea of love while it dislikes the idea of God; and in part because these people feel love, so they think it exists. But such is the extent of their solipsism and narcissism that they not only reject the existence of God but go so far as to mock those who do not, simply because they don't feel Him themselves. And, alas, in elite America, feelings are the only recognized foundation of metaphysics.

Mr. Goldberg goes on to say he isn't religious. However he has articulated the key philosophical point at the root of our current red-state/blue-state cultural divide. And this shows what Christians are really after in this war for culture: not a forced and thereby false religious conversion of the entire nation, but merely an acknowledgement of the existence of some higher-than-human morality. Unfortunately even this piece of ground is one nearly all liberal elites refuse to surrender. And tragically, we even disagree on what to name this battleground. Liberals call it Rational Thought and Intellectual Honesty. Conservatives call it something like "Rejection of Traditions Upon Which Western Civilization Was Built." Christians call it Pride and Arrogance.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7 ESV)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10 ESV)

As Christians we constantly struggle against the built-in desire to exalt our own human thoughts, feelings, and passions above God's law. Giving one's life to Christ is merely the first step in a lifetime of bending, submitting, subjecting ourselves to Him, and no one does it perfectly. But when men and women reject a priori the existence of any binding divine authority upon humanity, the lofty goal of superior wisdom and knowledge so keenly pursued by pundits and philosophers is already beyond their reach.

God promises wisdom to all those who ask Him for it. The Lefties proclaim an Intolerable Prerequisite to religious faith. They insist that Christianity requires the abandonment of all logical reasoning in order to enter the gates. Christians maintain that logical reasoning can only begin from the foundation of faith. And in fact this proclamation from the left is an ironic article of faith itself!