Both the Arminians and the Calvinists have definitions for the doctrine of election.

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1 The Doctrine of Election September 2012 (The information below is obtained from a wide range of readings, lectures, etc. If anyone is interested in the sources, I m more than happy to discuss with you.) The doctrine of election in terms of mankind s salvation was developed over a period of many years. The fact that the word elect is in the New Testament is not questioned. The meaning of the word however, and the degree of application of the word is argued among various viewpoints. In July 1610, the followers of Jacobus Arminius stated essential beliefs in the Articles of Remonstrance. This was the first formal summary of Arminian theology. In response to the Articles of Remonstrance, the Synod of Dort in met and contradicted and condemned them. The Synod of Dort was attended by followers of Calvin from the Dutch Reformed Church (in fact they apparently prevented any Arminians from attending!) and the intent was specifically to denounce the Articles of Remonstrance and the Arminians. Out of that Synod came the five points of Calvinism known by the acronym TULIP: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints. The Arminians (who were condemned at the Synod of Dort) essentially had five points as well: FACTS: Freed by Grace to believe, Atonement for All, Conditional Election, Total Depravity and Security in Christ. Both the Arminians and the Calvinists have definitions for the doctrine of election. Without going into detail about the other points of each position, I will briefly discuss Total Depravity (present in both systems) and the doctrine of Election which flows from that. For the Calvinist, we are totally depraved. Even though God created people good and in the image of God, we fell. We inherited a sin nature. This nature is not just a little sinful here and there. It is not even mostly sinful in our choices. It is utterly sinful. Our nature is so sinful, in fact, that we can not even have faith or believe in Jesus for eternal life on our own. God must FIRST regenerate us before we can even have faith in Jesus. Regeneration (becoming a new person/new life) PRECEDES faith/belief. Because we are utterly sinful and God must make the first move in our becoming a Christian, the Calvinist would say that God elected those whom He would save. We had absolutely, (positively nothing) to do with it. He looks down the corridors of time and not only sees who will believe, HE CHOOSES those who will believe. He is the active (in fact the ONLY active) force in deciding who will go to heaven and avoid the lake of fire discussed in Revolution.

2 So for the Calvinist/Reformed person, he/she states that God chooses us, He elects us, to be regenerated (obtain new life in Christ) and following that we believe. In fact we MUST believe, we are not able to get out of believing if He has chosen us (elected us) to be Christians. (That s the Irresistible Grace part of TULIP.) The Arminian on the other hand, also has a doctrine of election, but it s not as extreme in a sense. The Arminian says that we are freed by Grace to believe. They would say that God gives grace to the depraved person, enough so that he/she can choose to believe in Jesus for eternal life. At that point of conversion, we then become the elect of God. It s a little more up to us, although they would say that God still made the first move by giving us the grace to believe. However, we can choose NOT to believe according to the Arminian. For the Arminian the elect are given salvation and the eternal blessings attendant to it. To summarize: Calvinists/Reformed position: Mankind is REALLY BAD (Totally depraved) due to the fall. We are so bad that there is absolutely nothing within us to allow us to believe and become a Christian. So... God looks down the corridor of time and chooses some to live forever with Him and some to die forever in hell (admittedly some Calvinists hold to only single predestination which says that God chooses those who will live, but the everyone else gets what s coming to them -- hell. Other Calvinists say there is double predestination; that God chooses those who will live AND He also chooses those who will die, intentionally sending those to hell. Either way has about the same result). Arminian position: Mankind fell and is really bad, but not so bad that he can t choose to believe in Jesus for eternal life because God gave him/her the grace to do so. We can choose to believe or choose not to believe. If we choose to believe, then we are at that point part of the elect. Here s a summary of the two positions taken from the Society of Evangelical Arminians website ( Calvinist view of... Total Depravity: Humanity was created in the image of God, good and upright, but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience, leaving humanity sinful, separated from God, and under the sentence of divine condemnation. Though we do not differ on how to describe human depravity, Calvinists do also believe that this state requires that God first regenerate a sinner before he can believe in Christ,

3 making him alive and giving him a new, holy nature. But regeneration does not merely enable the sinner to believe; it irresistibly causes the sinner to believe. Unconditional Election: God chose some individuals unconditionally from eternity for eternal life according to his own good pleasure, completely apart from anything having to do with the person, including merit, good works, or foreseen faith. God withheld his mercy from the rest of humanity, ordaining them to dishonor and wrath for their sin. Thus, by the decree of God and for his glory, some people are unconditionally predestined to eternal life, and others are left (and so ordained) to eternal death because of their sin, making two specific and static groups of individuals that can never be changed. (Some Calvinists believe that God purposed to glorify his name by unconditionally choosing some individuals for eternal blessing and some individuals for eternal Hell, and that God ordained the Fall and decided to create the world to accomplish this goal.) Arminian s View of... Total Depravity: Humanity was created in the image of God, good and upright, but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience, leaving humanity sinful, separated from God, and under the sentence of divine condemnation. Total depravity does not mean that human beings are as bad as they could be, but that sin impacts every part of a person s being and that people now have a sinful nature with a natural inclination toward sin, making every human being fundamentally corrupt at heart. Therefore, human beings are not able to think, will, nor do anything good in and of themselves, including merit favor from God, save ourselves from the judgment and condemnation of God that we deserve for our sin, or even believe the gospel. If anyone is to be saved, God must take the initiative. (DTD comment: He gives us grace to believe, but we can reject that if we choose.) Conditional Election: God has sovereignly decided to choose only those who have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, for salvation and his eternal blessing. God has foreknown from eternity which individuals would believe in Christ. Among Arminians, there are two different views of election conditioned on faith: 1. Individual election: The classic view in which God individually chose each believer based upon His foreknowledge of each one s faith and so predestined each to eternal life

4 2. Corporate election: Election to salvation is primarily of the Church as a people and embraces individuals only in faith-union with Christ the Chosen One and as members of his people. Since the election of the individual derives from the election of Christ and the corporate people of God, individuals become elect when they believe and remain elect only as long as they believe. David s comments and thoughts: So what s the right answer? Are we elect in the sense of the Calvinist (and thus not able to choose or reject Jesus as Savior)? The Calvinist would say that if we are elect, we are not able to completely fall away. We WILL definitely persevere to the end. Or are we elect in the sense of the Arminian, becoming elect at the moment of faith, but possibly loosing that status if we fall away from the faith at some point in the future? The problem with BOTH views lies in the concept of assurance of our salvation. The Bible teaches that we CAN be sure of our salvation (1 John 5:11-13, John 3:16, 3:36: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." and John 5:24: We ll never come into judgment concerning our eternal destiny when we believe in Jesus.) For the Calvinist, he/she never knows FOR SURE if they are one of the elect. The only way they will know is if they persevere to the very end of their lives. They must continue to do good works, demonstrating that they are a true Christian in order to know with certainty that they have eternal life and that they are one of the elect. Until the end of their life, they might fall away and then they would know that they were not one of the elect. There is no other way to know for sure for the Calvinist. For the Arminian, there is a similar problem of assurance. They might fall into sin and thus loose their place in heaven. For the Arminian they must keep measuring up and not sin -- too much. From the previously-cited website: He [God] preserves us in salvation as long as we trust in Christ. So as long as the Arminian is behaving, he can gain salvation. If he blows it, he risks hell. In both the Calvinist and Arminian understanding, there can be no assurance of salvation. In the first instance (Calvinism), one is never sure they are saved until they take their last breath to make sure they have persevered to the end of their life. In the second instance (Arminianism) the person must keep working to live a righteousenough life to stay saved. Thus, if neither system is consistent with the Bible, the doctrine of election as it is currently understood is not consistent with the Bible either. Stated another way, if the Bible teaches assurance of salvation, then the doctrine of election in the sense of God choosing some to be saved and some not, is not an accurate understanding of the Biblical use of the word.

5 Assurance of Salvation is the issue. Does the Bible teach that we can know for sure that we have eternal life? Absolutely, based on the above verses and many others. What is required for eternal life? Believing (trusting) in Jesus for eternal life. The moment we believe that Jesus will give us eternal life (and that it s not something we can merit -- not because I m a good person at all), then the Bible says we are the possessor s of eternal life and will never come into judgment (John 5:24) No matter what we do! I think the answer to the dilemma cited above regarding the doctrine of election is that in each case in Scripture we must ask and answer the question, elected for what? It is not at all clear in Scripture that God ever elects us for eternal life in the sense of choosing one person and not someone else! Election can NOT mean choosing one person out of a group of many. See 1 Peter 2:4. Here Peter says that Jesus was chosen (=Greek elected ) by God. Now we know that Jesus was not in a group of possible Messiah s and that God decided to elect Him to be the one Messiah He d send to earth. That is heresy! In classic Greek elect is used of general conscription of men for military service or selection of individual soldiers from the army for a particularly difficult or glorious mission. These men were appointed to do this job. In addition they were choice or valuable men. In the same way, people are elected to serve in public office, both in ancient Greece as well as today. They themselves choose to run for office, but once elected they are then appointed to serve. They have a mission to accomplish -- public service. So it seems that when we see the word elect in the New Testament, we should perhaps substitute the word choice or appointed for it. As believers, we at that point are choice because God made us that way. In addition we are appointed for various tasks and privileges. In 1 Peter 1:1-2, it seems most appropriate to say the readers of this letter were elect exiles in the sense that they were appointed to be exiles, for Jesus! They were appointed exiles. This has nothing to do with being chosen for eternal life.