Did God Choose to Save Individuals Based on Foreseen Faith?

October 20, 2024 Preacher: John Bell Series: Sunday School: Soteriology

Question: What is the basis of God’s election?

Answer: God’s foreknowledge.

 

At least seven arguments support unconditional election and refute conditional election.

  1. God’s sovereign choice is decisive
  2. The basis for election is God’s forelove
    • God chose us based on his gracious love
    • God chose us based on his good pleasure
    • God chose us based on his grace
  3. The questions in Romans 9:14 and 9:19 presuppose unconditional election
  4. God foreknew people
  5. God’s sovereign choice removes all grounds for human boasting
  6. Jesus’s sheep are his sheep even before they believe
  7. election based on foreseen faith is Postdestination (not predestination)

 

Table 1: Foreknowledge According to

Conditional and Unconditional Election

 

Conditional Election
(Arminianism)

 

Unconditional Election
(Calvinism)

 

Foreknowing = foreseeing. God’s foreknowledge is his knowledge of what humans would freely choose. Names for this view include prescience, foreseen faith, and simple foreknowledge.)

 

Foreknowing = foreloving. God’s foreknowledge is his personal loving commitment to specific individuals.

 

God foresaw that specific individuals would first freely choose to believe in him, and then afterward he chose to save those individuals.

 

God intimately knew and loved specific individuals beforehand—that is, he personally committed himself to certain individuals before those individuals even existed. Those are the individuals God chose.

 

Election is conditional. It depends on whether a human freely chooses Christ.

 

Election is unconditional. It does not depend on any human condition but solely on God’s sovereign good pleasure.

 

God chose to save specific individuals because he foresaw that they would choose to trust him.

 

Specific individuals choose to trust God because God chose to save them.

 

The decisive factor in election is what a human freely chooses

 

The decisive factor in election is what God freely chooses.

 

 

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