Answers to questions bearing on the subject

Answers to questions bearing on the subject

1. Did God chose only certain people to be saved? (1) • A. Salvation is offered to all people:“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” 1 Timothy 2:4 • “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” Ezekiel 33:11 • “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16

1. Did God chose only certain people to be saved? (2) • A. Salvation is offered to all people:“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” 1 John 2:2 • “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him … He is Lord of all” Acts 10:34-36 • God then wants all people to be saved … and if not all are saved, the cause is not due to God but to the people’s choice

1. Did God chose only certain people to be saved? (3) • B. God left option to people:“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil … 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” Deuteronomy 30:15-19 • Unless choice had been in the hands of man, why would God have sent the apostles and prophets then? Why would He have set the commandments for us?

1. Did God chose only certain people to be saved? (4) • B. God left option to people:“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” Matthew 16:24,25 • “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments … if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor” Matthew 19:17,21

1. Did God chose only certain people to be saved? (5) • C. God is willing to revoke His judgment:“Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die’, if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right … and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live” Ezekiel 33:14-16 • Also, a clear practical example is the story of Nineveh

1. Did God chose only certain people to be saved? (6) • C. God is willing to revoke His judgment:“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it” Jeremiah 18:7-10 • “Return to Me, and I will return to you” Malachi 3:7

Answers to some objections And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…” Romans 8:28-30

Important remarks (1) • We notice that the apostle said, “all things work together for good to those who love God” and did not say, “those whom God loves” • God’s predestination is not due to His choice but to His foreknowledge “whom He foreknew, He also predestined” • The same can be said regarding the story of Jacob and Esau, “As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated” Romans 9:13

Important remarks (2) • God, through His foreknowledge knew that Esau would be an imprudent person. He would despise the birthright and sell it for a stew of lentils. Therefore, God loved Jacob for what He saw in him through His foreknowledge, and “hated” Esau for what He knew would happen from him • But, we can never say that God predestined Esau for perdition and Jacob for salvation

”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” Romans 9:20,21

Yes, the potter has power over the clay to make whatever he wants from it, but the potter is wise and just • The potter tests the lump of clay and examines it… if he finds it good, smooth and soft, suitable to be a vessel for honor, certainly he will make it so • But if it is rough and is not fit to be a vessel of honor, the potter will be forced, due to its bad state, to make from it a vessel of dishonor

Thus it depends, before anything else, upon the condition of the clay and whether it is fit or not • The potter tries, insofar as as he can, to make of the clay which he has vessels for honor as long as the clay helps him • This situation is similar to the parable of the sower. The sower is the same and the seeds are the same… but according to the kind of the soil on which the seeds fell, the result was either decay or fruitfulness

A theological treatment of the subject (1) • The principle of “chosen ones” implies injustice and partiality and does not conform with God’s justice who gives everyone “according to what he has done” • What is the fault of those whom God has predestined for perdition? • Besides, what is the use of rewarding since there are persons predestined for perdition before they are born?

A theological treatment of the subject (2) • If this principle is valid, what is then the need for the commandment? What is the need for preaching, pastoral work, and teaching? • Also, why would the devil test man’s will?

2. What was the striving of the thief that caused him to attain salvation? (1) • The thief believed on the Lord in very hard circumstances, i.e. he did not believe on the Lord while He was raising the dead, but while humiliated and despised • The thief declared a complete confession of the Lord, i.e. he confessed that the crucified Christ was Lord and king, that death has no power over Him and He will come again in His kingdom

2. What was the striving of the thief that caused him to attain salvation? (2) • The thief had a great hope, for in spite of the evil he did throughout his life, he could be saved through the Lord Christ • The thief confessed his sins. In his reply to the left thief, he said “do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong” Luke 23:39-41

3. How were they saved without being baptized? (1) • Since baptism is necessary for salvation, how were the martyrs saved without being baptized, and how was it that the thief was likewise saved? • Baptism in its essence is death with Christ, so we can say expressly and plainly that the thief actually died with Christ, as did likewise the martyrs • The church calls this baptism, “baptism of blood”… because had those martyrs lived longer, they would have been baptized with water also

Answers to questions bearing on the subject