DISPUTED DOCTRINES -- Chapter One

PREDESTINATION

The endnotes used in this work are linked from the note number in the text to the endnote at the bottom of the page, and vice versa.

This doctrine is one on which perfect unity has as yet not been attained in our Lutheran Church, although it is treated at length and with great clearness in Article XI of the Formula of Concord. If the distinction made in the beginning of this Article between God's foreknowledge and His predestination or eternal election had been accurately observed, much confusion would have been averted, many differences avoided, and our Lutheran Church would have been more closely united on this doctrine than is at present the case. The teaching of the Scriptures and of our Confession on this subject is set forth in what follows.

The doctrine of Predestination or Election is a great mystery. We can not with our finite minds penetrate into the secret counsels of God. Neither can we lay down rules according to which He must govern Himself in His dealings with men. Before His eternal counsels we can only marvel and exclaim with St. Paul: "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again?" (Rom. 11:33-35.)

The first thing that we note as we consider this doctrine is, that unlike the Gospel, which is universal, Predestination or Election is not universal, but limited. It is restricted to true Christians, to believers who constitute the holy and beloved children of God. It is essentially an election of grace. As such it has no counterpart -- no decree of reprobation, as in the Calvinistic system. It has absolutely nothing to do with unbelievers, who merely reap the due reward of their evil deeds. Wherever in the Scriptures the term Election is used, it is applied only to the believing children of God.¹ This is a point of which we must not lose sight if we would think or speak rightly concerning this mysterious doctrine. If this one point had been borne in mind, much controversy might have been avoided; and this doctrine, instead of being looked upon as a dangerous doctrine, would have been regarded as one of the most comforting doctrines of our holy religion.

It should be self-evident that we can gain nothing by viewing this doctrine from the standpoint of pre-mundane eternity. This would result only in endless discussions and fruitless speculations. No man knows or can know what took place in God's mind in the eternity of the past. It would be presumption also to judge of this from the final outcome, and to say that God must have acted according to certain rules which we infer from the result of His purpose. Since God's election is concerned with the children of God alone, the only proper approach to the conception of this doctrine is from the standpoint of the child of God. Every true Christian should be absolutely sure of the great central fact of his salvation - a salvation which is his by faith in Christ Jesus his Lord. Every Christian desires such certainty. The great question with each one of us is, How am I to attain this certainty? The Holy Scriptures afford us an answer to this question so vital to our hearts. They assure us that God in eternity concerned Himself not only with the plan of salvation in general, but also with every detail of its application to each individual Christian. I may therefore say with all confidence: Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature; the Holy Ghost has called me through the Gospel; I am justified through faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me; I am sanctified by the Holy Ghost through the Word of truth: I have also the promise of perseverance and ultimate glorification, "being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Upon these things I can depend with perfect assurance; for I can regard this as nothing else than the execution of God's eternal decree of election in its reference to me. Of this abundant confirmation is offered me in many passages of Scripture: Rom. 8:29-30; 2 Tim. 1: 9; 2 Thess. 2:13; Eph. 1:4; 5:11; Acts 13:48.²

The doctrine of Predestination is always set forth in the Scriptures for comfort to believing Christians in the midst of their trials and temptations.³ It is to this that the words of St. Peter, so often misapplied, refer: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 1: 1011). Here the meaning is that Christians are to make this matter sure to themselves, and by no means intimates that there is anything doubtful about it as far as God is concerned. The consolation of this doctrine, when rightly understood, is beautifully expressed in the Formula of Concord, Art. XI, 45 ff.:

"Thus this doctrine affords also the excellent, glorious consolation that God was so greatly concerned about the conversion, righteousness, and salvation of every Christian, and so faithfully purposed it [provided therefor] that before the foundation of the world was laid, He deliberated concerning it, and in His [secret] purpose ordained how He would bring me thereto [call and lead me to salvation], and preserve me therein. Also, that He wished to secure my salvation so well and certainly that, since through the weakness and wickedness of our flesh it could easily be lost from our hands, or through craft and might of the devil and the world be snatched and taken from us, He ordained it in His eternal purpose, which cannot fail or be overthrown, and placed it for preservation in the almighty hand of our Savior Jesus Christ, from which no one can pluck us, John 10, 28.

Hence Paul also says, Rom. 8, 28. 39: Because we have been called according to the purpose of God, who will separate us from the love of God in Christ?

And this is indeed the only way in which the doctrine can be a source of comfort to the Christian believer. If Predestination, as some Lutherans hold, is regarded as taking place ''in view of faith,'' no one can know whether he will abide in faith until the end of life. Only the issue will tell; and then the doctrine is of no further use to him. But if the whole matter of our salvation is in God's own hands and has been included in His eternal purpose, then we can say to ourselves: God's Word and Promises are true. They have come to me; and I know that they are earnestly and seriously meant. If God had not desired my salvation, He would not have redeemed me; He would not have given me the Means of Grace, or called me by the Gospel; He would not have received me into His covenant or given me assurance of adoption as His child in Holy Baptism; He would not have bestowed faith upon me or regenerated me; He would not have sanctified me by His Holy Spirit through the Word; He would not now be continuing the good work which He has begun in me by keeping me in steadfast faith in Jesus Christ my Lord; He would not have assured me of the forgiveness of all my sins in the Absolution and in the Holy Supper, which I have so often received to my soul's comfort; He would not now be sustaining me with hope of final salvation and glory that I now enjoy. All these things are evidences of His good and gracious will to me and give me positive assurance that I am among those who are "the called according to His purpose." Therefore I must consider myself among the number of His elect.

Our whole comfort and assurance does not lie in our curious investigation into the secrets of the counsels of God, but in the fact that all the promises of the Gospel which God is so richly fulfilling to us are but the execution in time of His eternal decree of Predestination as far as that is related to us. To give to His beloved children this assurance is the sole purpose of the revelation of this doctrine in the Holy Scriptures. Otherwise it serves no practical purpose. A careful reading of the Scripture passages treating of this doctrine will clearly show that wherever it occurs it is set forth for the assurance, comfort and encouragement of true Christians to guard them against falling into temptations to despair, unbelief, and other great and shameful sins. This is a unique feature of the Biblical doctrine of Predestination.

According to the Biblical conception, Predestination is wholly an operative act of God. It does not, therefore, stand on a parallel with Justification, which is a declarative act of God. The entire plan of salvation proceeds, as St. Paul shows in Rom. 8: 28 ff., out of the purpose of God. In this passage he represents the Call, Justification, and Glorification as successive co-ordinate stages flowing out of God's Predestination. Neither the one nor the other is placed on a level with it, but each is presented as its result. It is so conceived of in our Confession, which paraphrases Romans 8: 30 as follows: "Whom God did foreknow, elect, and ordain, them He also called." And further the Formula of Concord adds: "But the eternal election of God not only foresees and foreknows the salvation of the elect; but it also, from the gracious will and good pleasure of God in Christ is a cause which procures, works, helps, and promotes what pertains thereto; upon this our salvation is so founded that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it." (F. of C., p. 651:8.)

It might be well to note at this point that Predestination is never to be given the central place in the Christian system. It is to be treated, as St. Paul in Romans shows, only after the exposition of the fundamental doctrines of Sin and Grace, and of Calling, Justification, and Sanctification. This order follows also from the fact that it pertains only to believers and is their appointment by God to eternal life. Seeing that Predestination is exclusively an act of God, neither the good work of men, nor the use of their free will, nor even their faith was taken into account by God in forming His purpose of election; but only His pure grace and the most holy merit of Christ.⁴

To this many passages of Scripture bear unequivocal testimony: "0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyselt; but in me is thy help!" (Hos. 13: 9). "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." (Rom. 9:15-16). "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said," etc. (Rom. 9:11). "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom He called." (Rom. 9: 22) .⁵ "Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world," etc. (Eph. 1: 3 fig.)

These and other passages prove conclusively that God was moved by nothing good in man in forming His purpose of election; but that it is grounded solely in His own mercy and the merits of Christ. They are equally clear also in teaching that God prepared the vessels of mercy; that He to whom we owe our salvation called us according to His own purpose and grace given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began, and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, having chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.

The Biblical doctrine of Predestination excludes synergism in all its forms, and assigns all the glory of our salvation to God. This is required by the whole teaching of Scripture, as well as by our Confessions based upon it.⁶ What Christ said to His disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," is applicable likewise to every child of God. And to all His believing people these words addressed by Him to His disciples apply: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." (St. John 10:27-29). It is just this that gives to Christians courage in their conflicts and unbounded assurance of victory at last over all foes, enabling them to appropriate to themselves the triumphant words of St. Paul: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This assurance must be the personal assurance of each believing Christian; for God's Predestination or Election of Grace does not deal merely with Christians in general, but with each believer individually. This St. Paul corroborates in his own experience, saying: "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me," etc. (Gal. 1:15). Faith, which is the result of election, is the believer's guarantee that he belongs to the elect and that he will at length attain eternal glory.

This doctrine has, as we have before pointed out, nothing whatever to do with the non-elect. As God's ordination to salvation, it extends only over the children of God, who were elected before the foundation of the world was laid. The non-elect are referred to in the Scriptures only as those who do not believe and who are therefore lost.⁷ Their perdition is neither directly nor indirectly attributed in Scripture to any decree of God before the foundation of the world. There is no such thing as an eternal decree of Reprobation.⁸ Believers, on the other hand, are described in Scripture as chosen and ordained by God unto eternal life. And God's choice of them as it is revealed in the Scriptures is not based upon anything in them, not even upon their faith as something He had foreseen; but only the fact that God chose them, and that their whole salvation results from the act of God's election.

The Biblical doctrine of Predestination is not only consolatory to us as believing Christians, but it is also a great propelling force in our life of sanctification. It keeps our faith burning brightly and makes us strong in our conflicts with the forces of evil. As in harmony with the teaching of Scripture and in full accord with our Confession on this point, the following definition is offered: Predestination or Election is the eternal decree of God, according to which, out of pure grace in Christ, God determined to save out of the corrupt mass of humanity, each and every individual whom He brings to and preserves in faith through the Means of Grace.

ENDNOTES

1. This is the application in all the passages, about 70 in number, in which reference is made to election in the Scriptures.

2. See Cremer's Biblico-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek, English edition, pp. 160, 161, on proginosko.

3. See Cremer's Lexicon on eklego, p.402 ff., and on ekloge, p. 405 ff., also note of American editor of Meyer's Commentary of the N. T. on 1 Thess. 1: 4. Cf. Acts 13:48 and St. John 17:2, 6, 9, 11, 24.

4. Consult again Cremer's Lexicon on ekloge, p.405 fig.

5. Compare Formula of Concord, Jacobs' edition, p. 663: 79-81.

6. See Formula of Concord, p. 552 : 7, also 657: 43-46.

7. That the fate of unbelievers cannot be correlated with the doctrine of election becomes clear from an examination of the meaning and application of such words as: eudokia, prothesis, eklego, ekloge, tasso, and orizo in the various passages in which these words occur. Election is everywhere in the Scriptures revealed as a Gospel doctrine, not a legal one.

8. Any doctrine of Predestination, therefore, which requires a corresponding doctrine of Reprobation is manifestly wrong.

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