LESSON TWENTY ART. 9. THE PURPOSE OF ELECTION PROGRESSIVELY ACCOMPLISHED. The Price of Election The purpose of election proceeds “from everlasting love towards the elect.” I am writing this during the week before Christmas. How incomprehensible is the love of God towards the elect! His own Son had to come into the flesh, had to satisfy every […]
Some time in the early nineteen-thirties J. Gresham Machen spoke to a large audience in the chapel of the University of Chicago. According to the information given to the writer this noted spokesman for orthodox Christianity dwelt on the struggles of the church in the modern age. In speaking of the resources of the Christian in waging […]
Part I LESSON NINE Art. 11. ELECTION IS UNCHANGEABLE What is the relation between the unchangeability of God and the character of election? You will agree, won’t you?, that God is wise. If God is wise he always uses the best means to the best ends. If so, then election is the best means to […]
In two previous articles, I summarized the open view of God advocated by Gregory A. Boyd in his God of the Possible and offered a basic criticism of this view. Boyd’s book represents a significant movement within North American evangelicalism, which wants to revise in a substantial way the traditional understanding of God’s omniscience and […]
If there is one doctrine for which the Reformed churches are known, it is the doctrine of election or predestination. Many people, who know next to nothing about the Reformed faith and the writings of John Calvin, have at least heard that Reformed believers emphasize the sovereignty of God in salvation. This emphasis upon God’s […]
The Means God Uses I noted earlier that one of the common complaints against the doctrine of election is that it encourages passivity and fatalism. If salvation is entirely God’s work, then what remains for anyone to do? This common complaint betrays a serious confusion between the authorship and the means of salvation. To say […]
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:3–4) I can remember hearing those words for the hundredth time, yet, for the first time […]
On November 2, millions of Americans will go to the polls to choose the next President of the United States. In participating in such a privilege, how should Christians evaluate the various candidates? How should we evaluate the ambitious platforms of our two major parties? Consider the Republican […]
The ultimate basis for the salvation of man lies in the recesses of eternity, emanating from the counsel of God’s will. Before the foundations of the world were framed, and before any creature was brought into being, it was by the eternal counsel of God, whereby He has determined the eternal destiny of all mankind. […]
Justification Justification is another part of God’s orderly plan of salvation for man. It follows the preceding parts, namely, the calling, regeneration, conversion, and faith. The apostolic church of the New Testament was enthusiastically following the instructions of their Master. As a consequence, the gospel spread throughout Asia Minor and beyond, and, as a result, […]