"What about election?" I asked.

Martin laughed. "What about it?"

"Well, the Bible clearly teaches that there is a group of people called the elect. It seems to me that the heart of the debate between Christians is over why they are called that, and how they came to be elect."

"That is exactly right. That is the issue."

"Mind if I try a few thoughts out on you?"

"Be my guest."

"Do we agree that God knows everything, including the future?"

Martin nodded. "Certainly. But you do realize that some professing Christians, for the sake of evading God's exhaustive sovereignty, have denied even that."

My eyes widened. "No, I didn't know that." I paused for a moment. "But we surely agree that He knows beforehand who will believe in Him, and who will not?"

"That is correct."

"Couldn't we say then, that God made His choice of certain individuals based on His foreknowledge of faith? That way, God chooses, and men have no one to blame but themselves if they are not chosen."

Martin thought for a moment.

"And what would the scriptural evidence for this theory be?"

"Well, 1 Peter 1:2 says that certain Christians were elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And Romans 8:28 says something very similar. It says that those whom God foreknew, He predestined. . . ."

"Very well. Let's return to the whole idea of foreknowledge in a moment. But before we do that, we should carefully set out what you are saying."

"Fair enough."

"At some time in eternity, God looked down the corridors of time, into the future, and saw that Jones would have faith in Him, and that Smith would not."

"Right."

"On that basis, God elected Jones to salvation, and did not elect Smith."

"Right again."

"Now in this scenario, is God doing anything more than echoing the choice of Jones?"

"What do you mean?"

"It sounds like Jones is saying that he wants to be saved, and as a consequence, God says, `Me, too!' Is that all election is?"

"I wouldn't put it that way. God still makes the choice."

"Yes, but God makes His choice based upon the choice of the man. This is the basic difference: one position says that God's choices are based on man's choices, while the other position says that man's choices are based on God's."

"I see. Both sides agree that man chooses, and both agree that God chooses. They differ over which is the foundational choice."

"Correct. And in making man's choice foundational, the biblical terminology is stood on its head."

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of many are called, but few are chosen, it becomes many are called but few choose. Instead of God's elect, we become God's electors."

"I agree that you have a point in many passages. But how would you handle the verses I used earlier?"

"Let's start with Peter. Notice what he does not say. He says nothing about cognitive foreknowledge of choices. He merely says that God's elect were elect according to the foreknowledge of the Father. The text does not tell us the content of that foreknowledge. Because both positions agree that God's election is according to foreknowledge, this verse proves nothing either way."

"What about Romans 8?"

"That passage does tell us the object of God's foreknowledge. The object of His foreknowledge is not history, or choices, seen apart from His sovereign government. The object of His foreknowledge here is persons. Those whom He foreknew, He predestined."

"I agree that is what is says. But what does foreknowledge mean then?"

"The Greek word here in Romans is proginosko. The prefix pro means before, while the word ginosko has two meanings; one means to know, while the other means to approve. One of the meanings of this compound verb is to approve beforehand. Now if you put that understanding into the Romans 8 passage, how does it read?"

"For whom he approved beforehand, He also predestined to be conformed. . ." I broke off. "I see!

Predestination here is not to `becoming a Christian,' but to `becoming Christ-like' at the resurrection."

Martin smiled. "Exactly. Those on whom God set His electing love, He predestined to a final conformity to the image of Christ. And Paul follows this wonderful chain of redemption right to the end in verse 30."

I looked at the passage again. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

I looked up from the page. "But wait a minute. Couldn't someone object that our choice of `approve beforehand' is a case of special pleading? Why couldn't it be translated the other way?"

Martin leaned forward in his chair. "Because the other way doesn't make any sense, for either position."

"What?"

"In our discussions, I think you will see this again and again. Many of the verses brought to bear against this understanding of God's sovereignty have this in common. They invariably prove too much."

"What do you mean, prove too much?"

"If foreknowledge is simply referring to cognitive information, then this is the chain of redemption. `For whom He foreknew (everyone), He also predestined to Christ-likeness (everyone). Whom He predestined, He called (everyone), and whom He called, He justified (everyone). Whom He justified, He glorified (everyone).' There is no place for any individuals to escape. Everyone cognitively foreknown will be glorified. And that is universalism."

"Hold on, hold on! I didn't say that God foreknew everyone. I said that He foreknew those who would believe in Him."

"But the passage doesn't say that. That is something which has to be imported into the text. The object of His foreknowledge is persons, not actions, and there is no ground in the text for making it believing persons. That would be special pleading."

I sat thinking for a moment. Martin continued.

"There is another reason for denying that God elects based upon His foresight of our doings."

"What is that?"

"Express statements to the contrary in Scripture."

"All right, I'm game. Show me one."

"Turn to 2 Timothy 1:8-9."

I turned and read. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

"Allow me to ask you a few questions."

"Go ahead," I replied.

"What has God done for us?"

"He saved us and called us."

"Correct. And He did this not according to something. . . ."

"Not according to our works."

"Correct again. Now, our works are set in contrast to that by which He did save and call us. What was that?"

"His own purpose and grace."

"Does the passage contrast our works with our faith?"

"No. It contrasts our works with His purpose and grace."

"Very good. Now where was this given to us?"

"Where?"

"Uh-huh."

"In Christ? Is that what you mean?"

"Right. When was it given?"

"Before time began."

"So God saved and called us with a holy calling, before the beginning of time, and He did this without reference to our works."

"Well, that is true. But how can you classify foreseen faith as a form of foreseen works? Faith is not a work."

"True faith is not a work because true faith is a gift from God. But if faith is something man does, on his own, and which appropriates salvation, which another man does not receive because he did not believe, then faith is a work."

"I'm sorry, I don't see what you are driving at. How can faith be a work?"

"One of the reasons people object to the idea of faith as a gift from God is that they think such gifts remove the possibility of praise or blame. It turns man into a puppet—that sort of thing. Isn't that right?"

"Well, yes."

"Now how can they insist that we keep faith as something man does—otherwise we cannot praise or blame him for having or not having it—but then object when someone says they have made faith a work? True praise or blame, according to this kind of thinking, can only be assigned to a man's work."

"I've got it. You are saying that if it merits praise or blame then it is a work. If it doesn't merit praise or blame, then the objection against faith being a gift is gone."

"That's it. So then, God elects, according to His own good purpose (and it is good, not arbitrary), and He does so without regard to foreseen human achievement, virtue, works, or meritorious faith."

"I've heard this doctrine called unconditional election. Is that what the unconditional refers to?"

"Yes. It does not mean that God had no conditions or reasons for doing what He did. It simply means He found no conditions or reasons in man for what He did."

I sat back in my chair. "It looks to me as though you have a point." We both laughed, and I got up to go.

Texts on the Election of the Father

Matthew 11:27
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

1 Peter 2:8-9
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…

2 Timothy 1:8-9
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. . .

Deuteronomy 10:14-15
Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

Psalm 33:12
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance.

Luke 18:7
And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?

Matthew 24:24
For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen.

Matthew 24:31
And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Luke 10:21-22
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, `I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.'

Romans 8:28
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.

Romans 8:33
Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

1 Thessalonians 5:9
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. . . .

Titus 1:1
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which is according to godliness. . . .

Peter 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Revelation 17:14
These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.

Mark 13:20
And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

Ephesians 1:4
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. . . .

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 17:8
And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Romans 9:10-24
Not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her,

`The older shall serve the younger.'
And it is written, `Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.'

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses,

'I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.'

So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh,

`Even for this same purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared in all the earth.'

Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then,

`Why does He still find fault?
For who has resisted His will?'

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? 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, for the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Romans 10:20
But Isaiah is very bold and says:
`I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.'

1 Corinthians 1:27-29
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Ephesians 1:11-12
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

John 15:16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Acts 18:27
And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. . . .

Acts 13:48
Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Philippians 1:29
For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. . . .

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5
Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

James 2:5
Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

Romans 11:5-8
Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is not longer works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were hardened. Just as it is written:

God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear, to this very day.'

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