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NASB | Romans 5:6 ¶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 5:6 ¶ While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly. |
Subject: Christ dying only for elect? |
Bible Note: I think that predestination (God's choosing or election) is being confused here with God's regeneration of human beings. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that we were chosen by him before the foundation of the world. However, I was not born "saved." No Christian believes that. What God's election means is that at some point in my life the Holy Spirit would regenerate me, actually cause me to be spiritually reborn so that I will put my trust in Christ. For me that happened around the age of eleven. Before that I was spiritually dead just as you were before you placed your trust in Christ. What unconditional election holds is that God chose you and I and all the rest of the elect to be reborn before time began. The actual spiritual rebirth takes place in time during our respective lifetimes, however. That is why there are people getting saved every day. God the Holy Spirit works through a variety of means, especially those who are already "new creations" to provide the message of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit transforms the heart of the unbeliever so that she will put her trust in Christ in response to the message. The fact that people are not actually saved until the moment at which they put their trust in Christ's substitutionary death is not a point of dispute between Arminians and Calvinists. We can stand together on that, and that does indeed make us brothers in Christ even if we disagree on the extent of God's role in the whole process. The people in foreign lands (I suppose you mean the people who never hear of Christ) die in their sins, since there is no gospel presented to them. This fits in more with a predestination view than a view that God intends on saving everyone. A God who intends on saving the savage in the jungle is not very powerful if He cannot get the message to them. If he must rely on human beings, that means that he NEEDS us, which is contrary to his sovereignty and omnipotence. Those in foreign lands who hear the message and accept Christ are part of the elect. No problem here. Contrary to your attack on the motives of Calvinists, the doctrine of predestination is no excuse to not evangelize. The largest revival in American history, the First Great Awakening, was spearheaded by Jonathan Edwards, who was a staunch, dyed-in-the-wool, Presbyterian 5-point Calvinist. He certainly didn't argue for sitting back and letting the chips fall where they may. Calvinists hold that God ordained believers as His means of spreading the message of Christ, to glorify God, to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. God is sovereign, however, and no one's salvation hinges on my decision (or lack thereof) to preach the Gospel to every creature. God will provide the gospel to those who were chosen, and the Holy Spirit will regenerate them (in other words, no one comes to Christ "on their own" according to Calvinism). If it is through my evangelism, I am blessed to be part of God's plan, and I am living for the purpose for which I was re-created (Ephesians 2:10), and I am being obedient to the God who called me (1 Peter 2:9,10). An important point: Calvinists do not hold that the elect have been revealed to humanity. It is stepping way out of line to try and play God and decide for ourselves who God has chosen. This is a complete misrepresentation of unconditional election that some may use to shirk their responsibilities, but I stand with you in saying that it is completely unbiblical. I do not think I am better than anyone else. In fact, I hold that people who think they have any role in their own rebirth are giving themselves reason to boast. Here is what I mean: if the gospel is preached to two individuals at the same time, and one accepts Christ and the other one never does, does that mean that the saved one was wiser or smarter or better (or whatever you would say) than the other one? The Arminian would have a harder time showing how there was no room for boasting (and I have heard many a free-will type scoff at the "stupidity" of the unbeliever with quite the attitude of superiority). The Calvinist say that the Holy Spirit acted in the heart of one and not the other, causing the saved one to believe. This is not because one is better, because as Romans 3 says, we were all equally Christ-haters before God saves us. It is God's sovereign choice not based on our brains or charm or race or gender or eloquence or goodness or kindness or apparent usefulness or our connections. That is why it is termed "unconditional election." God did not save us due to any inherent condition we had that makes us superior to those who are not of the elect. The only atheists we as human beings know are predestined to Hell are the dead ones. People who declare enemies of Christ to be permanently beyond the reach of God's regeneration should take a hard look in Acts 9 at a Pharisee named Saul... Thanks for your comments! --Joe! |