Pasta for President...

In case you had to submit an Absentee Ballot last Sunday, the majority of our discussion was devoted to the doctrine of "Divine Election" - the theme we find in scripture that indicates that God does some choosing. There are many scriptures that present the concept. Here is a short list, (but a little longer than the one we used on Sunday):

Ex. 33:19
Deut. 7:6,7
Deut. 10:14,15
Ps. 65:4
Ps. 106:5
Mt. 20:15-16
Mk 13:20
Lk 18:7
Rom 8:28-30, 33
James 1:18

And then you also run into scriptures like Romans 9:18 that says "Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden." Yikes.

Suffice it to say, the concept of Divine Election is somewhat complex. At least I think so.

We talked Sunday about the two "schools of thought" about the idea- Conditional Election and Unconditional Election. In its purest form, conditional election holds that God chooses us based on His knowledge of what we will choose in our lifetime. Unconditional Election in its purest form holds that God chooses according to His good pleasure and nothing we do has any bearing.

As is often the case, I think that the "purest forms" tend of oversimplify, and the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. The purely conditional position kind of says, "God gets a vote, Satan gets a vote, so the deciding vote comes down to me." Like I said on Sunday, depending on how you interpret that, it leaves the pivotal point of salvation on my own decision. In one sense I guess it is- I have to respond to the gift of Christ. But, (and I think Todd Dillon said this well on Sunday), if the gift was never given in the first place, then no response of mine would be strong enough. So, I think it is safe to say that this "conditional" position can be tricky.

On the other hand, the purely unconditional position is hard to accept as well. Someone might come along and say, "God will choose whoever He wants and nothing we do makes any difference." On the surface, the previously quoted scripture from Romans 9 seems to say that. But then you have to deal with scriptures like Romans 10:13 that says, "...for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ( actually a quote from Joel 2:32). I cannot conceive a situation where someone truly calls upon the name of the Lord and is not saved- and a purely unconditional position would leave that as a possibility.

Arg! Now my brain hurts. But not really. Here is one more conclusion I come away with- in the matter of Divine Election, I think we are going to have to live with some tension. We are never going to fully understand this one as long as we are a part of this world. And I am OK with that. I think the key is believing in a God who will never, never make a wrong judgment. No matter what or how or who God chooses, He is my hope. And He is right.

Just Keep Swimming!

Jon