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NASB | Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 1:4 just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love |
Subject: Theological Term: Election |
Bible Note: Hi, Telegrammy... You are not alone. Your view is a common one among modern evangelicals. It is called "foreseen faith" or sometimes "goodness in intent." It is not shared by Protestant orthodoxy. From my own tradition, the old divines wrote "God's effectual call is the outcome of His free and special grace alone. Until a man is given life, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is dead in sins and trespasses, so is entirely passive in this work of salvation, a work that does not proceed from anything good foreseen in him, nor from any power or agency resident in him. The power that enables him to answer God's call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, is no less than that which effected the resurrection of Christ from the dead. (John 5:25; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 1:19-20; 2:5,8; 2 Timothy 1:9)." (1689 LBCF, chapter 10, paragraph 2) Dr. Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology writes, "If we assume that God’s knowledge of the future is true (which evangelicals all agree upon), then it is absolutely certain that person #1 will believe and person #2 will not. There is no way their lives could turn out differently than this. Therefore it is more than fair to say that their destinies are still determined, for they could not be otherwise. The question is, by what are their destinies determined? If God Himself determines them then we no longer have election based on foreseen faith, but rather on God’s sovereign will. But if God does not determine their destinies then who or what determines them? Of course no Christian would say that there is some powerful being other than God controlling people’s destinies. Therefore the only possible alternative is to say they are determined by some impersonal force, some kind of fate, operative in the universe, making things turn out as they do. But of what benefit is this? We have then sacrificed election in love by a personal and compassionate God for a kind of determinism by an impersonal force and God is no longer to be given the ultimate credit for our salvation." You can read a more detailed excerpt at: http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/misunderstandings.html The reality of the universe and God's work in it does not lend itself to being fully grasped by human beings. God is Sovereign and man has a free will. We cannot reconcile these things by redefining Biblical terminology. In Him, Doc |