Foreknowledge and Election
More from Charles Finney on the Doctrine of Election -
“Foreknowledge and election are not inconsistent with free agency, but are founded upon it. The elect were chosen to eternal life, because God foresaw that in perfect exercise of their freedom, they could be induced to repent and embrace the Gospel.

II. You see why many persons are opposed to the doctrine of election, and try to explain it away; First, they misunderstand it, and second, they deduce unwarrantable inferences from it. They suppose it to mean, that the elect will be saved at all events, whatever their conduct may be; and again they infer from the doctrine that there is no possibility of the salvation of the non-elect. Their understanding of the doctrine would be an encouragement to the elect to persevere in sin, knowing that their salvation was sure, and their inference would drive the non-elect to desperation, on the ground that for them to make efforts to be saved would be of no avail. But both the doctrine, as they understand it, and the inference are false. For election does not secure the salvation of the elect irrespective of their character and conduct; nor, as we have seen, does it throw any obstacle in the way of the salvation of the non-elect.”

 This view of the subject affords no ground for presumption on the one hand, nor for despair upon the other. No one can justly say, If i am to be saved, I shall be saved, do what I will, Nor can any one say, if I am to be damned, I shall be damned, do what I will. But the question is left, so far as they are concerned, as a matter of entire contingency. Sinners, your salvation or damnation is as absolutely suspended upon your own choice, as if God neither knew or designed any thing about it.
Great argument – What would you say to Finney’s comments?
Billy
5
Comments
Rich Hagen
I find great consternation with it. First of all, the second sentence states, in my own words, that GOD is somehow constrained by our “perfect exercise of freedom.” Really? If that were the case universally, then GOD would cease to be Sovereign and would have to ring his hands with anxiousness and anticipation for us to make the move towards Him. GOD has breathed all things into existence and can unbreathe all things at His whim. He surely is not constrained or confined to our “perfect exercise of freedom.” Secondly, the sense of freedom Finney talks about is not freedom at all. We are not truly free anyway but according to our defiled nature, confined to certain directions and choices. Romans 3 makes this clear when it states that “No one seeks for GOD…there is no fear of Him before their faces,” and in another place “there is none who does good.”
Ugh, desperate situation we find ourselves in…
Raul Bermudez
The problem with Finney’s “Doctrine of Election” is that it is Pelagian (affirms freedom of the will and consequently denies the necessity of divine grace for justification and salvation). The statement: “Sinners, your salvation or damnation is as absolutely suspended upon your own choice, as if God neither knew or designed any thing about it.” makes salvation attainable by knowledge and not by grace through faith. Knowledge and human ability do not save. In fact the notion that knowledge saves is gnosticism. If salvation absolutely depends on the ability of man to choose then we are saved through human effort – the choosing of God, making mankind a “co-redeemer” with Christ, rather than salvation being a gift from God alone.
I believe that there is an election of grace, or a predestination to salvation… on the other hand, that there is no election of wrath, or predestination to damnation. Scripture plainly reveals the truth that the love of God for the world of lost sinners is universal, that is, that it embraces all men without exception, that Christ has fully reconciled all men unto God, and that God earnestly desires to bring all men to faith, to preserve them therein, and thus to save them, as Scripture testifies, 1 Tim. 2:4: “God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” No man is lost because God has predestined him to eternal damnation. — Eternal election is a cause why the elect are brought to faith in time, Acts 13:48; but election is not a cause why men remain unbelievers when they hear the Word of God. The reason assigned by Scripture for this sad fact is that these men judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, putting the Word of God from them and obstinately resisting the Holy Spirit, whose earnest will it is to bring also them to repentance and faith by means of the Word, Act 13:46; 7:51; Matt. 23:37
In closing, it is Christ alone who saves, because of God’s grace alone through faith alone. Salvation is revealed to mankind in Jesus Christ, however salvation remains a profound mystery in which we, the guilty, are pronounced innocent and the innocent, Christ Himself, is pronounced guilty and has received our just punishment. In the words of George Whitefield: “God absolutely elects (Eph 1), so let’s preach the Gospel that He may elect more”
Billy
Raul, and Rich…I get your points. When God chooses then, does it require that we have faith? Or repent? or anything else? Are these the responsibility of man or of God.
Secondly, does He choose because he knows He can secure our repentance? Or is it totally based upon His choice and not our freedom to accept?
Raul, John Calvin taught the predestination of damnation for the non-elect.
“God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.” John Calvin (by the way, I disagree with both of his statements)
Raul Bermudez
Billy, I am not a Calvinist by a long shot… but I am not an Armenian either. Most people hold that you must be one or the other… however… I lean heavily towards Lutheran theology particularly when it comes to the issue of justification and election.
I believe that faith and repentance are necessary for salvation. I believe that faith is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (NASB). Jesus declares in John 6:65 “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” Faith is not the product of an unregenerated human nature. Faith is the instrument which takes hold of Christ and His work, but it has no redemptive value in itself. It is the Holy Spirit which unites us to Christ through faith, not because of it. I agree that a person must believe for justification before God. However, no one is naturally willing to submit to the Gospel (Rom 3:11; John 3:3)
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus…. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Ephesians 2:1, 4-6, 8-9
I like the analogy I heard from a dear Lutheran pastor and the story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus did not, and indeed could not, cooperate with Christ is his resurrection. He could not exercise, through cooperation, an energy that was not present in his body. After Christ issued his order for Lazarus to “come forth” thereby giving him life, then Lazarus was capable of cooperating with the Lord. As a result, struggling with the grave wrapping he made every effort possible to obey Christ and come out of the tomb. So it is with man in salvation. After the Holy Spirit has imparted life, man is capable of obeying Christ and repenting of his sin and believing on Him as Savior. But as a corpse he is incapable of any such response. Of course… I believe that man has the capability of rejecting the work of God. Some would see this as a “freedom of will.” While I interpret true freedom in being a “bondservant of Christ.” No one is really “free” you either serve sin or serve Christ.
As far as repentance, μετάνοια, metanoia, changing one’s mind, I find it necessary for salvation. Repentance means first of all, to acknowledge our sins, to be truly sorry for them. This “godly sorrow” comes from the Holy Spirit convicting us with God’s law not of our own intellect.
But the Bible also uses the work of repentance in a broader sense to include faith in Jesus our Savior. This faith is produced by the Holy Spirit, who convinces us through the Gospel that our sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus, who lived, died and rose again for us.
Put those two concepts together and you have repentance in its fullest sense. (Jesus told His disciples in Luke 24:47 that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations.)
Anyway, love the subject, and it will be debated until Christ returns but it should be discussed in love and compassion.
Michael Gormley
I was saved, I am saved and I am being saved.Yes, but only GOD knows who they are.
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