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Unconditional
Election
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Question
What is predestination/election?
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Election
Atonement
(God)
Election Calling Regeneration Conversion Justification Sanctification Glorification
(God) (God) (God) (God-man) (God) (God-man) (God)
Faith Repentance
Past Present Future
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Election
“This issue is not whether or not the
Bible teaches election and
predestination, for that is clear to all.
But the issue is, ‘What does it mean to
be elect or predestined?’ How one
answers this question will place him in
one theological tradition or another.”
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Election
Romans 8:28–30
“And we know that all things work together for
good for those who love God, who are called
according to his purpose, because those whom he
foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that his Son would be the
firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And
those he predestined, he also called; and those he
called, he also justified; and those he justified, he
also glorified.”
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Election
Words of Election:
• Election
• Predestination
• Choose
• Foreknow
• Appoint
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Election
Election Predestine Choose Foreknow Appoint
Gk. ekloge: to Gk. proorizo: to Gk. aireo: to Gk. prognosis: to Gk. tasso: to
call out or decide upon choose know assign, cause to
choose (Liddle- beforehand, to something for beforehand, to be, command
Scott); selection, predestine something purpose (USB); (Louw-Nida); to
choosing (BAGD) (BAGD) to choose belong to, to be
(BAGD) beforehand classed among
(BAGD) those possessing
(BAGD)
Matt. 24:22; Rom. 8:29-30; 2 Thes. 2:13 Rom. 8:29; Acts 13:48
Mk. 13:27; Eph. 1:5, 11 1 Pet. 1:2
Rom. 8:33,
11:7; Col. 3:12;
2 Tim 2:10; Tit.
1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1
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Election
Two Positions:
1. Unconditional Election
2. Conditional Election
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Election
Unconditional Election Conditional Election
•Calvinism •Arminianism
•Libertarian free will: No •Libertarian free will:Yes
•Def. of freedom: People •Def. of freedom: People
are free to act according to are free to choose God
their ability. People do not, through prevenient grace.
however, have the ability All people have equal
on their own to choose opportunity to be saved.
God.
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Question
Is predestination unconditional?
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Election
Unconditional Election: The belief that God
predestined people
for salvation before
the beginning of time.
God’s election is not
conditioned by
anything in man, good
or evil, foreseen or
present, but upon
God’s sovereign
choice.
Proponents: Augustine, Reformed
Protestants
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Unconditional Election
Charles Spurgeon (1850)
Thomas Aquinas (1250) John Whitfield (1750)
Council of Orange (529) John Calvin (1600)
Augustine (400) Martin Luther (1500)
100 A.D. 400 A.D. 1600 A.D. 2000 A.D.
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Unconditional Election
Reformed Tradition
Arminian Tradition
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Unconditional Election
“The human will does not
attain grace through
freedom, but freedom
through grace.”
–Augustine of Hippo
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Tulip
Total Depravity: Humanity has fallen into a state of
T radical corruption that has affected every aspect of who
we are. The imago Dei has been marred, but not
destroyed.
Unconditional Election: The belief that God
U predestined people for salvation before the beginning of
time. This election was not based or conditioned upon
anything in man, good or evil, foreseen or present, but
upon God’s sovereign choice.
L
I
P
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Tulip
Calvinism Arminianism
Total Depravity (Radical Partial Depravity
Depravity)
Unconditional Election Conditional Election
L
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Unconditional Election
Defense of unconditional election:
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Unconditional Election
1. Election must be unconditional and
individual, because man is totally
depraved. If election were conditioned
upon the choice of man, no one would
ever be elect, since man does not have the
inclination or ability to choose God on his
own. The only thing that man contributes
to his salvation is sin. Therefore, God
must unconditionally predestine people
to salvation.
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Unconditional Election
Rom. 3:10–18
“Just as it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not
even one, there is no one who understands, there is
no one who seeks God. All have turned away,
together they have become worthless; there is no
one who shows kindness, not even one. Their throats
are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the
poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are
full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to
shed blood, ruin and misery are in their paths, and
the way of peace they have not known. There is no
fear of God before their eyes.’”
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Unconditional Election
Jer. 13:23
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the
leopard his spots? Then you also can do good
who are accustomed to doing evil.”
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Unconditional Election
Titus. 3:3
“For we also once were foolish ourselves,
disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in
malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
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Unconditional Election
Jn. 6:44
“No one can come to Me unless the Father
who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him
up on the last day.”
Jn. 6:65
“And He was saying, ‘For this reason I have
said to you, that no one can come to Me
unless it has been granted him from the
Father.’”
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Unconditional Election
Jn. 6:37
“Everyone whom the Father gives me will
come to me, and the one who comes to me I
will never send away.”
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Unconditional Election
2. The Bible clearly teaches that election is
not conditioned on man.
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Unconditional Election
Jn. 15:16
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and
appointed you that you would go and bear
fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so
that whatever you ask of the Father in My
name He may give to you.”
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Unconditional Election
Rom. 9:10–13
“Not only that, but when Rebekah had
conceived children by one man, our ancestor
Isaac—even before they were born or had
done anything good or bad (so that God’s
purpose in election would stand, not by
works but by his calling)—it was said to her,
‘The older will serve the younger,’ just as it is
written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”
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Unconditional Election
3. The words “predestine,” “choose,”
“appoint,” and “foreknow” are all in the
active voice, which speaks of the initiative
of the actor behind the action (God). One
would have to have a preconceived bias
against the doctrine of election in order
to interpret these words in a conditional
sense.
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Unconditional Election
4. Rom. 9:8–29 clearly and contextually
teach unconditional election of
individuals.
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Unconditional Election
Job 42:1–6
“Then Job answered the LORD and said, ‘I know
that You can do all things, and that no purpose of
Yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides
counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have
declared that which I did not understand, things too
wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, now,
and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me. I
have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now
my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in
dust and ashes.”
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Unconditional Election
5. Salvation is by sola gratia (grace alone)
and for sola Deo gloria (God’s glory alone).
If people are elect based on their own
choice, then merit is gained through the
work of the individual (i.e., their faith).
Salvation would not be sola gratia and sola
Deo gloria.
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Unconditional Election
Eph. 2:8–9
“For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God; not as a result of works, so that no
one may boast.”
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Unconditional Election
6. If all people of all time have “equal
opportunity” to come to the Lord
through God’s prevenient grace and their
own free will, why is it that salvation is
not more evenly dispersed?
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Unconditional Election
List some objections to the doctrine of
unconditional election.
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Unconditional Election
1. What is total depravity?
2. Is man totally depraved or partially
depraved?
3. How do you understand and personally
define the doctrine of election?
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Unconditional Election
4. Is election unconditional or conditional?
Briefly explain both position.
5. Why do you think that this topic is an
unending debate within the Christian Faith?
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Stage of Truth
Back
Experience Emotions
General Revelation
Tradition Reason
Scripture
Front
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