02-Chapter 2
CHAPTER II - SOVEREIGNTY AND FREE WILL
God is sovereign! The sovereignty of God neither proves nor disproves Hyper-Calvinism, but simply declares that God does as He pleases and asks counsel of no man.
Romans 11:34 says, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” Sovereignty simply means “supreme power” and refers to the right of the Almighty to do as He wishes. The sovereignty of God has been misunderstood and improperly set forth by the Hyper-Calvinist. John Calvin did not found the Presbyterian Church, but their doctrine finds its roots in the five points of Calvinism. In a book called The Presbyterians, sovereignty and Hyper-Calvinism were reconciled in this manner:
Precisely because God is entirely sovereign, Reformed theologians have stressed divine providence in salvation―that the redemption of humanity is initiated, sustained, and brought to its culmination God’s power and for God’s glory. Given God’s eternity, omniscience, and omnipotence, and it light of the scriptural teaching that salvation was part of the divine plan even prior to the foundation of the world, Reformed theologians have been forced to wrestle with the problem of predestination.. Reformed theological reflection on this difficult doctrine―often caricatured as impersonal, abstract, “fatalistic,” or unjust―admits of a rather stark and simple logic. Because God is entirely sovereign, and because humanity is sinful and incapable of unassisted moral and spiritual regeneration, God must be responsible for humanity’s salvation. God initiated the plan of salvation, chose an elect people for salvation, redeemed them through Christ, and sanctified them with the Holy Spirit.1 The sovereignty of God in no way negates the free will of man. God, in His sovereignty, chose to give individuals the right to choose. God wanted man to come to Him on the basis of love, not duty. To teach that sovereignty does away with free will is to make man a robot with no ability of choice.
One point of misunderstanding, when sovereignty and Hyper-Calvinism are considered, is the biblical doctrine of Election. Election is simply the act of choosing or selecting one or more from a group. This doctrine is one of great importance in Scripture, but has been distorted through ignorance and lack of proper interpretation of context. Most theologians, when dealing with election, improperly apply the term to individuals whom God has supposedly elected to Heaven―leaving those, supposedly unelected with no hope or possibility of salvation. A prime example of this teaching is found in the theology books that are used in seminaries, Bible colleges, and Bible institutes. Lewis Sperry Chafer sets forth election in this manner: The election which is set forth in the Scriptures, apart from the elect nation Israel―not now under consideration--, is that favor of God, notably a full and free salvation, which is accorded to some, but not to all. Of some it is said that they are “chosen in the Lord” (Romans 16:13); “chosen . . . to salvation” (2 Thessalonians 2:13); “chosen . . . in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4); predestined to the “adoption of children” (Ephesians 1:5); “to be conformed to the image of his Son” )Romans 8:29); “elect according to the foreknowledge of God” (1 Peter 1:2). The term election should not be construed to mean only a general divine purpose to provide salvation for all men. It refers to an express divine purpose to confer salvation on some, but not all.2
Even the definition of election given in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary can cause some unnecessary confusion when dealing with the doctrine of Hyper-Calvinism. Webster’s definition is:
ELECTION, n, The act of choosing; choice; the act of selecting one or more from others. In theology, divine choice; predetermination of God, by which persons are distinguished as objects of mercy, become subjects of grace, are sanctified and prepared for heaven.3
This definition of election would also indicate that some people are predestined to Heaven and leaving it understood that others are predestined to spend an eternity in Hell.
John McNeil also misunderstood the doctrine of Predestination and set it forth incorrectly when he said,
Predestination, by which God adopts some to the hope of life and adjudges others to eternal death, no one, desirous of the credit of piety, dares absolutely to deny. But it is involved in many cavils, especially by those who make foreknowledge the cause of it. We maintain that both belong to God; but it is preposterous to represent one as dependent on the other. When we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things have ever been, and perpetually remain, before his eyes, so that to his knowledge nothing is future or past, but all things are present … eternal life is foreordained for some and eternal damnation for others.4
Election is an act of God’s sovereignty whereby He fulfills His will through the election of either something or someone. In God’s sovereignty, He chose to elect four things in Scripture.
The first time that we find something or someone “Elect” is in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 42:1, the Lord says,
Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
In the New Testament, once again we find reference to the Lord Jesus Christ as being God’s elect in 1 Peter 2:6. The Bible calls Him “a chief corner stone, elect, precious.” Jesus Christ is God’s Elect in the matter of substitution and salvation to all who believe. The second thing that is mentioned as being elect is the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 45:4, the Lord says, “For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.” Of all nations upon the earth, God chose Israel to be His covenant people. This act of election is national, not individual. Though Israel was God’s Elect, many in Israel were not saved through faith in the coming of the Messiah. In interpretation of Scripture, one must use the context to identify who or what is being referred to. In Romans, chapters 9-11, the Hyper-Calvinist makes a serious mistake in biblical interpretation by attributing election and predestination to individuals instead of the nation of Israel. These three chapters are a parenthetical dealing with Israel, not individuals. Chapter 9 deals with Israel’s illustrious past, chapter 10 deals with Israel’s blinded present, and chapter 11 deals with Israel’s glorious future.
In order to get the proper context, it must be noted that each chapter begins and ends with the nation of Israel. In Romans 9:13, God’s Word says, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” The Hyper-Calvinist uses this verse, plus the preceding ones, to show that the Lord loved Jacob and hated his brother, Esau, individually and without a cause. Divine sovereignty is cited as the sole reason for this interpretation. Back in Genesis 25:23, after Rebekah had conceived, the Lord told her that there were two nations and two manners of people within her womb and that the elder would serve the younger. The Lord was very specific when He referred to these two unborn children as nations. In Genesis 32:28, God changed the name of Jacob to Israel. The reference in Romans 9:1-33 is not to the individual, Jacob, but to the nation of Israel. Later, in Genesis 36:8, the Bible declared that “Esau is Edom”. In Malachi 1:1-3, the Bible says, The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Therefore, the context of Romans 9:1-33 shows plainly that Jacob was Israel and Esau was Edom. Israel was God’s chosen nation upon the earth. Their adoption, which was national and not personal, entitled them to the Promised Land, Canaan. The Bible teaches that God is no respecter of persons, but He is certainly a respecter of nations. In Isaiah 46:13, the Lord refers to the nation of Israel as “Israel my glory,” and in Deuteronomy 32:9-11 as “the apple of his eye.” The third thing that is referred to in Scripture as elect is the Church, the Body of Christ. The words elect, election, and predestined are invariably used with plural pronouns. There is no verse where a first person singular pronoun is used along with these particular words. The Body of Christ is God’s elect. When an individual accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, the individual enters into the Body of Christ and, therefore, into election. When the word elect is used with individual, it is always qualified with foreknowledge and obedience. In 1 Peter 1:2, the Word of God says that a person is “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” John Calvin perverted this verse when he stated, The seed of the word of God takes root and brings forth fruit only in those whom the Lord, by his eternal election, has predestinated to be children and heirs of the heavenly kingdom. To all others (who by the same counsel of God are rejected before the foundation of the world) the clear and evident preaching of truth can be nothing but an odor of death unto death. Now, why does the Lord use his mercy toward some and exercise the rigor of his judgment on the others? We have to leave the reason of this to be known by him alone. For, he, with a certainly excellent intention, has willed to keep it hidden from us all. The crudity of our mind could not indeed bear such a great clarity, nor our smallness comprehend such great wisdom.5
Calvin’s explanation of God’s sovereignty in redemption is not to explain it at all, but to rather leave it in the realm of the unknowable. No such problem is incurred when 1 Peter 1:2 is interpreted in the realm of foreknowledge. God set forth before the beginning or creation the way of salvation and, in His omniscience, knew those individuals that would come to Jesus Christ through His precious blood. The fourth thing that is referred to as elect in the Scriptures are certain angels. 1 Timothy 5:21 says,
I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
Therefore, the biblical doctrine of Election has nothing to do with either the predestination of individuals to either Heaven or Hell.