Among those who believe in biblical inerrancy, God's all-loving nature, and timelessness, no belief system can bring so much joy, or anger, hatred, and indignance than the first four points of Calvinism.
Total spiritual depravity - people are born spiritually unable to respond to God and must be "re-generated," or"born of God" before faith in Jesus.
Unconditional election - Before the beginning of the world, God chose a certain number of people to believe in Him, based on no conditions.
Limited atonement - Jesus' death was not for the sins of all humanity, but only for those He fore chose.
Irresistible grace - God brings the spiritually born of God to salvation with grace so powerful they can't resist.
John MacArthur is a popular Christian pastor who speaks in the sermons of "Grace to You." He is very equipped mentally to support his beliefs with extensive quotations of the Bible. In one sermon, available below, he supports Calvinism. All quotes from below, unless otherwise noted, are from him as he said it here:
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-49/election-christs-honor-and-our-blessing
The only other quote is from Norman L. Geisler, a famous apologist on many subjects. He has written a book called "Chosen but Free: A Balanced View of God's Sovereignty and Free Will." I have read his third edition, published in 2010 by Bethany House Publishers, and learned nearly every response I have presented below from him. It is an excellent book and one that every person involved in a debate regarding Calvinism should own and master.
The Role of Reason in Sound Biblical Doctrines
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen.
"Making your own, perhaps, more comfortable, more rational, more human god, twisting your own instincts about God, is essentially an assault on Him, and it misrepresents Him. And such misrepresentation of God, simply stated, corrupts our understanding; therefore corrupts our worship, corrupts our service, and can be not just ignorant, but even blasphemous. And since human reason fell with the rest of our faculties in Adam's sin, it is flawed. While it still functions with a measure of residual effectiveness and sense of justice and morality, it is part of human flesh and must ultimately submit to divine truth in the unfallen, uncorrupted revelation that God has given us of Himself."
I agree with that paragraph, to a point. The implications of throwing away the knowledge of humans can be self-destructive and dangerous.
The Bible is God's word to man. This means He is speaking to us on our level. If we were to say that because of our fallen nature we can deny simple philosophical connections, that would defeat our starting point. British evolutionist J.B.S Haldane wrote, "If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of the atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true... and hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms(1)." Similarly, if my reasoning is caused by my untrustworthy fallen nature, I have no reason to believe that anything I read is true... and then no reason to believe I have a fallen nature. I wouldn't believe in the Bible if it denied the existence of truth, and there is no point in claiming it doesn't contradict itself if what we call contradictions can exist in it because we just believe in Jesus. We bring the laws of logic to the Bible, we don't learn them from the Bible. So how do we know if something is true? Truth exists, because it cannot be true for truth to not exist. This means that no matter how many humans believe it, where they are, or what they do, it will always exist. And why? Because it has been fixed for all eternity by God's Word. Of course, if only humans think it, it is false. But God has fixed absolute truth ever since He has existed, and we have access to some of it! This is why, apologists argue, the Bible says "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). What we don't have access to is what is beyond our reasoning, as compared to against what we know, which we can use to properly label something as false if we reason well enough. We are, and always will be, human, so we can't just call our reasoning faulty and look to God, because we are still using our reasoning! If there is a contradiction, one of the things cannot be true. It's as simple as that.
It is interesting here: actually, the one saying God can do things that are against our knowledge, against simple usage of the law of noncontradiction, the law of identity, and the law of syllogism, is actually speaking against Him because those, as well as the Bible, are the words of God. They are misusing the tools God gave them, and they are being His counselors. Now, no one claims to have even 1 percent of the knowledge of God, but He has obviously shared some things with us, and so we are not contradicting Romans 11 when we claim to know His fixed laws of logic.
John MacArthur is a popular Christian pastor who speaks in the sermons of "Grace to You." He is very equipped mentally to support his beliefs with extensive quotations of the Bible. In one sermon, available below, he supports Calvinism. All quotes from below, unless otherwise noted, are from him as he said it here:
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-49/election-christs-honor-and-our-blessing
The only other quote is from Norman L. Geisler, a famous apologist on many subjects. He has written a book called "Chosen but Free: A Balanced View of God's Sovereignty and Free Will." I have read his third edition, published in 2010 by Bethany House Publishers, and learned nearly every response I have presented below from him. It is an excellent book and one that every person involved in a debate regarding Calvinism should own and master.
The Role of Reason in Sound Biblical Doctrines
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen.
"Making your own, perhaps, more comfortable, more rational, more human god, twisting your own instincts about God, is essentially an assault on Him, and it misrepresents Him. And such misrepresentation of God, simply stated, corrupts our understanding; therefore corrupts our worship, corrupts our service, and can be not just ignorant, but even blasphemous. And since human reason fell with the rest of our faculties in Adam's sin, it is flawed. While it still functions with a measure of residual effectiveness and sense of justice and morality, it is part of human flesh and must ultimately submit to divine truth in the unfallen, uncorrupted revelation that God has given us of Himself."
I agree with that paragraph, to a point. The implications of throwing away the knowledge of humans can be self-destructive and dangerous.
The Bible is God's word to man. This means He is speaking to us on our level. If we were to say that because of our fallen nature we can deny simple philosophical connections, that would defeat our starting point. British evolutionist J.B.S Haldane wrote, "If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of the atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true... and hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms(1)." Similarly, if my reasoning is caused by my untrustworthy fallen nature, I have no reason to believe that anything I read is true... and then no reason to believe I have a fallen nature. I wouldn't believe in the Bible if it denied the existence of truth, and there is no point in claiming it doesn't contradict itself if what we call contradictions can exist in it because we just believe in Jesus. We bring the laws of logic to the Bible, we don't learn them from the Bible. So how do we know if something is true? Truth exists, because it cannot be true for truth to not exist. This means that no matter how many humans believe it, where they are, or what they do, it will always exist. And why? Because it has been fixed for all eternity by God's Word. Of course, if only humans think it, it is false. But God has fixed absolute truth ever since He has existed, and we have access to some of it! This is why, apologists argue, the Bible says "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). What we don't have access to is what is beyond our reasoning, as compared to against what we know, which we can use to properly label something as false if we reason well enough. We are, and always will be, human, so we can't just call our reasoning faulty and look to God, because we are still using our reasoning! If there is a contradiction, one of the things cannot be true. It's as simple as that.
It is interesting here: actually, the one saying God can do things that are against our knowledge, against simple usage of the law of noncontradiction, the law of identity, and the law of syllogism, is actually speaking against Him because those, as well as the Bible, are the words of God. They are misusing the tools God gave them, and they are being His counselors. Now, no one claims to have even 1 percent of the knowledge of God, but He has obviously shared some things with us, and so we are not contradicting Romans 11 when we claim to know His fixed laws of logic.
Total Spiritual Depravity
"Sovereign, divine election is all throughout redemptive history, it is the way God operates. And we know this, we instinctively know this. All true Christians know this. No one congratulates himself for his salvation. We all thank God. We all give Him praise and glory for saving us. We all understand the wretched fallenness of our hearts prior to salvation that we were unwilling and unable to change. His power came upon us by sovereign decree, and made us willing and made us able to do what we were neither willing nor able to do. We all know this."
Ezekiel 18:30-32 "Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all the offenses that you have committed, then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourself of all your offenses, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you perish, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!"
John 1:12-13 "And yet, to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
Every Christian knows the basic fact that Jesus saves us, and we don't. But, that is to say that we can't work for our salvation and need to accept Jesus' sacrifice by believing in Him. Technically, in one perspective, people can save themselves, and that is to choose to ask God to forgive them through Jesus. In the perspective in Ezekiel 18, people are responsible for repenting, and it is up to them to get forgiven and get a new heart and a new spirit. God only saves those who reach out their hand for help. Salvation is still, however, only made possible by Jesus.
Because God held those with evil hearts responsible for getting a new one, their original state must not be one so depraved that they cannot spiritually respond to God. Furthermore, John 1 lists believing in His name as the sufficient grounds for being born of God, not vice versa. There is plenty of claimed prooftexts to support spiritual depravity, but in this podcast they weren't argued. That is why no defense against another argument is given.
Finally, I didn't know that I was so depraved and unwilling to change that God must make me willing to accept Him. Does that mean I'm not a true Christian? For as long as I can remember, I've always believed Jesus is God and that He died to save me from my sins, and His sacrifice saves me, no works. I got every main point about Jesus right. But I wasn't a true Christian because I didn't believe in spiritual depravity?
Romans 3:9-12 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one."
My view is this. Romans 3:9-12 correctly teaches how humanity, when left alone, will not seek God, but the Hound of heaven seeks man and will persuade and prompt all that will listen. We are dependent on the all-loving God’s choice, and He chooses people to keep for Himself. Further support and defense is offered below.
Unconditional Election
A very large number of "prooftexts" were used to advance the idea that God chooses certain people to glorify Himself, while not choosing others behind and leaving them to the eternal fire of hell.
Matthew 11:27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal to Him."
Ephesians 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will...
1 John 2:2 "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
1 Timothy 2:3-6 "That is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people."
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."
I am not going to debate whether or not "the world" and "all people" means literally "all people," because that was not debated in the sermon. I will accept that in this post as a common ground.
However, even if I did not have that luxury, God's very nature inclines Him to having to save all people if He saves by monergism.
1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Every human being is born in sin. No one is perfect, all have wicked hearts. While not everyone is guilty of extreme sins such as murder, all have done at least the tiniest sin, such as not obeying our parents, and therefore all deserve death. But God is love. And since God is the timeless creator, there is nothing before Him, and therefore nothing to restrain Him. What He is, He is infinitely. And, if a nature like that is going to save any man from Hell, He therefore would save them all.
Furthermore, as stated earlier, God doesn't want anyone to die in sin.
Ezekiel 18:32 ...For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
These verses carry a different tune when one believes that election is not unconditional and salvation is not brought about by monergism. Even though Paul knew only a remnant would be saved, he prayed for all to be saved. Every human being has a real chance to be saved, and so Paul does everything he can for everyone who will give in to be persuaded. Paul did live for the elect, but he didn't know who they all were. All have, from a temporal point of view, a chance at being one of the elect, so Paul was, technically speaking, trying to help prepare others to be those of the elect.
Romans 10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
1 Timothy 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people...
Election based on...?
Either a or non-a. Either God loves all, or He doesn't. If it can be shown that there is no middle ground between two possibilities, and one must be right, one must be wrong, and we can know what is right.
There are only two other possibilities regarding human will: it completely doesn't matter, or it does matter. Since the Bible says the depravity of man leads him away from God, his nature keeps him from seeking God, God must have sought us out first before we sought Him. Therefore, He does not choose based on who chooses Him. But if human choice doesn't matter, all would be saved because God loves all in a redemptive love. So human choice matters somewhere.
The only other possibility I can think of is that God chooses based on who He can persuade. Since humans cannot initiate their own salvation, election is not based on their choice, but since their choice matters somewhere, there must be a middle ground. Since the only other Being in the picture is God, God initiates their salvation, meaning He chooses based on whom He can persuade. Therefore, what God "foreknows" about people (Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 1:2) is that He can persuade them.
Conclusion
"The Father loves the Son, gives Him a redeemed humanity, brings them all to glory, makes them like the Son; and when that is all complete, the Son takes the bride and Himself and gives them back in a reciprocal act of love to the Father; and God is all in all. These are vast, far-reaching concepts. To make this happen, the Son became poor, that we might be made right. The Son bore our sins in His own body. The Son was made sin for us, to pay the price. We were purchased, not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ to fulfill the Father's plan. This is the glory of being chosen."
"I don't know how you respond to that doctrine, but only ignorance would hate that. The benefits of this doctrine are so staggering as to be beyond words, but let me make an attempt. The doctrine of sovereign election is the most pride-crushing doctrine. It is pride-crushing because it's all of God."
I repeat: "It is pride-crushing because it's all of God."
A biblically-balanced view between God's sovereignty and free will is pride-crushing too. We are poor weaklings who need God to persuade us and bring us around.
But this "all of God" idea - monergism - is God-crushing. It is God-crushing because, God is all-loving, clearly states He loves everyone with a redemptive love, yet leaves some to the pits of Hell.
What type of God is this? This god is either finitely powerful, or he is Allah, the god of Islam, who will fill his hell with men and jinn alike, willing some to be saved and others to damnation. Monergism cannot fit an all-loving God, and if the Bible were to teach such a blasphemous doctrine, that book would contradict itself.
But the Bible Does Not teach monergism, and so it can still be the word of the all-loving God, Jesus Christ.
"Sovereign, divine election is all throughout redemptive history, it is the way God operates. And we know this, we instinctively know this. All true Christians know this. No one congratulates himself for his salvation. We all thank God. We all give Him praise and glory for saving us. We all understand the wretched fallenness of our hearts prior to salvation that we were unwilling and unable to change. His power came upon us by sovereign decree, and made us willing and made us able to do what we were neither willing nor able to do. We all know this."
Ezekiel 18:30-32 "Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all the offenses that you have committed, then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourself of all your offenses, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you perish, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!"
John 1:12-13 "And yet, to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
Every Christian knows the basic fact that Jesus saves us, and we don't. But, that is to say that we can't work for our salvation and need to accept Jesus' sacrifice by believing in Him. Technically, in one perspective, people can save themselves, and that is to choose to ask God to forgive them through Jesus. In the perspective in Ezekiel 18, people are responsible for repenting, and it is up to them to get forgiven and get a new heart and a new spirit. God only saves those who reach out their hand for help. Salvation is still, however, only made possible by Jesus.
Because God held those with evil hearts responsible for getting a new one, their original state must not be one so depraved that they cannot spiritually respond to God. Furthermore, John 1 lists believing in His name as the sufficient grounds for being born of God, not vice versa. There is plenty of claimed prooftexts to support spiritual depravity, but in this podcast they weren't argued. That is why no defense against another argument is given.
Finally, I didn't know that I was so depraved and unwilling to change that God must make me willing to accept Him. Does that mean I'm not a true Christian? For as long as I can remember, I've always believed Jesus is God and that He died to save me from my sins, and His sacrifice saves me, no works. I got every main point about Jesus right. But I wasn't a true Christian because I didn't believe in spiritual depravity?
Romans 3:9-12 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one."
My view is this. Romans 3:9-12 correctly teaches how humanity, when left alone, will not seek God, but the Hound of heaven seeks man and will persuade and prompt all that will listen. We are dependent on the all-loving God’s choice, and He chooses people to keep for Himself. Further support and defense is offered below.
Unconditional Election
A very large number of "prooftexts" were used to advance the idea that God chooses certain people to glorify Himself, while not choosing others behind and leaving them to the eternal fire of hell.
- Geisler gives an answer too thorough and condensed to paraphrase: “The question, though, is whether one has to be willing to receive this revelation before he will come to know God personally. The answer here is in the context, the same being true for other references. In this very passage Jesus invites His listeners to ‘come unto me’ and ‘take my yoke upon you’ (Matthew 11:28-29 KJV). Elsewhere, He chides unbelievers for not being willing (Matthew 23:37). God chooses only to reveal Himself personally to the willing. Jesus said, ‘If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own’ (John 7:17). Also, the text does not say Jesus wishes only to reveal the Father to some.” (page 71)
John 6:37-40, 44 "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, bur raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ... No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day."
- John 12:32 has Jesus saying, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Nowhere does John chapter 6 say God will not draw all people to Himself. He will draw all people to Himself through Jesus. But that doesn’t mean they will all go the entire way.
John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name."
- There is no problem with John 15:16. Jesus was talking to His twelve disciples. The context of chapters 13-16 favors God referring to the twelve being appointed out of the regular original large group of disciples and into His special following. But even if that were the case, there is no problem if God chooses based upon who He can persuade, and that no one would come to Him if He didn’t choose them and chase them down.
- Mark 3:13-15 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
- Luke 6:13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles
Acts 13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
- This verse doesn't go so far as to prove monergism. Moderate Calvinists believe that God persuades and chooses based on whom He can. Those who were appointed for eternal life were appointed by God working on their heart and giving them exactly what they need to hear, in a loving act of persuasion, so that they will surely come to belief.
- Acts 14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.
- Acts 16:14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
Romans 8:28-30 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined He also called, those He called He also justified, those He justified, He also glorified.
- This verse, ironically, gives a condition for predestination. They have to be those God foreknew. Now, it is definitely possible that God foreknew those He could persuade, and, perhaps, with some clear thinking following from one logically evident point to another, this is the only possible way for an all-loving God to choose.
Ephesians 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will...
- "In love" is an important part of this verse. God chooses and predestines because He is loving. But is a god who predestines to salvation unconditionally all-loving? Not that this passage even teaches that predestination is unconditional.
- Again, all this says is that God chose the people of the church of Thessalonians through His saving work of His Spirit and faith. God calls man, not vice versa, is an important point of this verse, but does not mean that He only calls those He will save, or that His decision to save someone is completely unconditional.
- Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen."
- Amen and amen! Christians are "chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father," not simply chosen! There is a condition for election! So the question is, what did God foreknow?
- The opposing view does not justify boasting. Why? Because no one drew themselves to God, no one was bent toward salvation, and everyone just used a will which God has fashioned to humanity and has not been lost in the fall. If Jesus were to pull up in a boat and stretch out His hand to a man drowning in the water, and the man reached out his hand and was pulled out, he would have exercised a tool that Jesus had created for him that could not have been exercised if God did not seek him out first. What means, then, for boasting?
- Also, in a sense, it is because of Jesus that that man got pulled out of the water. He is the primary cause of the man's free will, and the one who enabled him to not drown. God completely enabled man to accept Him. The point is, without all of God's work, man would be left completely without salvation. Therefore, the other point of view, the one that says, "it is because of man's will that he is in Christ Jesus because he embraced everything God gave him" isn't worth talking about and obviously isn't expressed in this verse.
1 John 2:2 "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
1 Timothy 2:3-6 "That is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people."
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."
I am not going to debate whether or not "the world" and "all people" means literally "all people," because that was not debated in the sermon. I will accept that in this post as a common ground.
However, even if I did not have that luxury, God's very nature inclines Him to having to save all people if He saves by monergism.
1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Every human being is born in sin. No one is perfect, all have wicked hearts. While not everyone is guilty of extreme sins such as murder, all have done at least the tiniest sin, such as not obeying our parents, and therefore all deserve death. But God is love. And since God is the timeless creator, there is nothing before Him, and therefore nothing to restrain Him. What He is, He is infinitely. And, if a nature like that is going to save any man from Hell, He therefore would save them all.
Furthermore, as stated earlier, God doesn't want anyone to die in sin.
Ezekiel 18:32 ...For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
The Sake of the Elect
2 Timothy 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Titus 1:1-2 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness - in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time... 2 Timothy 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
These verses carry a different tune when one believes that election is not unconditional and salvation is not brought about by monergism. Even though Paul knew only a remnant would be saved, he prayed for all to be saved. Every human being has a real chance to be saved, and so Paul does everything he can for everyone who will give in to be persuaded. Paul did live for the elect, but he didn't know who they all were. All have, from a temporal point of view, a chance at being one of the elect, so Paul was, technically speaking, trying to help prepare others to be those of the elect.
Romans 10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
1 Timothy 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people...
Election based on...?
Either a or non-a. Either God loves all, or He doesn't. If it can be shown that there is no middle ground between two possibilities, and one must be right, one must be wrong, and we can know what is right.
There are only two other possibilities regarding human will: it completely doesn't matter, or it does matter. Since the Bible says the depravity of man leads him away from God, his nature keeps him from seeking God, God must have sought us out first before we sought Him. Therefore, He does not choose based on who chooses Him. But if human choice doesn't matter, all would be saved because God loves all in a redemptive love. So human choice matters somewhere.
The only other possibility I can think of is that God chooses based on who He can persuade. Since humans cannot initiate their own salvation, election is not based on their choice, but since their choice matters somewhere, there must be a middle ground. Since the only other Being in the picture is God, God initiates their salvation, meaning He chooses based on whom He can persuade. Therefore, what God "foreknows" about people (Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 1:2) is that He can persuade them.
Conclusion
"The Father loves the Son, gives Him a redeemed humanity, brings them all to glory, makes them like the Son; and when that is all complete, the Son takes the bride and Himself and gives them back in a reciprocal act of love to the Father; and God is all in all. These are vast, far-reaching concepts. To make this happen, the Son became poor, that we might be made right. The Son bore our sins in His own body. The Son was made sin for us, to pay the price. We were purchased, not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ to fulfill the Father's plan. This is the glory of being chosen."
"I don't know how you respond to that doctrine, but only ignorance would hate that. The benefits of this doctrine are so staggering as to be beyond words, but let me make an attempt. The doctrine of sovereign election is the most pride-crushing doctrine. It is pride-crushing because it's all of God."
I repeat: "It is pride-crushing because it's all of God."
A biblically-balanced view between God's sovereignty and free will is pride-crushing too. We are poor weaklings who need God to persuade us and bring us around.
But this "all of God" idea - monergism - is God-crushing. It is God-crushing because, God is all-loving, clearly states He loves everyone with a redemptive love, yet leaves some to the pits of Hell.
What type of God is this? This god is either finitely powerful, or he is Allah, the god of Islam, who will fill his hell with men and jinn alike, willing some to be saved and others to damnation. Monergism cannot fit an all-loving God, and if the Bible were to teach such a blasphemous doctrine, that book would contradict itself.
But the Bible Does Not teach monergism, and so it can still be the word of the all-loving God, Jesus Christ.
Citations:
1. J.B.S. Haldane, "When I Am Dead," in Possible Worlds and Other essays (London: Chatto and Winduw, 1927), 209, quoted in C.S. Lewis, Miracles (London: Fontana, 1974), 19.
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