“UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION”

Calvinism, by its very nature, complicates and obscures the simple and clear Gospel of Christ. It teaches things like “two wills of God” (revealed and secret), “two calls of God” (external to all and internal to the elect only), “two loves of God” (“general” “love” where He does nice things for people on earth but has chosen them to go to hell, and “saving” love which He only has for His “elect”), two levels of atonement (sufficient for the non-elect but efficient for the elect only), etc., etc. This is all just convoluted nonsense.

“From then on Jesus began to preach, Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus spoke to the general population and told them to repent. And yet, according to Calvinism, He secretly knew that not everyone COULD repent. Only the “elect” can. So He was calling out to people telling them to do something He knew they could not do. That makes our Lord a deceiver. Any doctrine that would do that must be rejected outright.

Paul said to unbelievers, “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now He commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to Him. For He has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man He has appointed, and He proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). Paul told everyone that they must repent. But if “unconditional election”—the idea that God has elected some to be saved, and others to be lost—is true, then Paul was in on the secret and he deceived people, as well. He was commanding people to do something he knew full well that they could not do.

The Bible tells us “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim 3:16, cf. 2 Pet 1:21). What we need to know is what God has revealed. Endless speculation and theorizing about mysterious things like God’s sovereignty is not to be the believer’s focus. Of course we are to believe that God is sovereignly in control, but if we think that what the Bible teaches about sovereignty negates human responsibility, and ability, then we don’t know anything about the sovereignty of God.

The doctrine of unconditional election, espoused by Calvinist and “Reformed” theologians, plainly teaches that God selects some individuals to be saved, and others to be lost. How they describe God’s election of the unsaved to be lost is irrelevant. If God intentionally chooses some individuals and not others, then He has created some people to go to heaven and some people just to go to hell. Calvinism demonizes God and deifies human intellectualism.

Regardless of whether or not you have faith, in other words, God chose you to be saved. And they cannot deny this, because they deny that the fact that God foresaw who would have faith and who would not have it has anything to do with His election. It was totally by His own will. Which means that it is God’s will that people go to hell and be lost and that has been His will all along. If that were true, that would be His right. He is God. But since it is not true, and that is not the God of the Bible, this is a disgusting and offensive way to view God.

This doctrine is totally at variance with the Bible and the Gospel message. This is not the Gospel and there is no such thing as “unconditional election.” The Bible teaches that the Gospel is for everyone and that everyone has both the responsibility and the ability to respond to God’s gracious offer of salvation. Everyone.

The most familiar verse in the Bible has to be explained away by the Calvinist as though it does not exist. For it tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for us so that we can all be saved (John 3:16). Everyone can be saved because Jesus died for everyone.

What does the Calvinist make of this verse? He has to say that the world “does not mean everybody in the world,” which it clearly does. They have to place a shady interpretation on it that says God elected people “from all over the world,” but not every single person, so not everyone can be saved. This is just false. Jesus said that “whoever” believes in Him and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). And I believe Jesus.

If “unconditional election” was a real Bible doctrine to be taken seriously, then there would be no urgency to evangelism. In fact, there would be no reason to evangelize at all from any logical standpoint.

But even if you do so to obey a command, when you are sharing Jesus with the lost, if you believe that they are elect or not elect, trying to persuade them to come when you know some of them can’t come would be a foolish waste of time. You could just “obey the command” to tell them the Gospel. If you do and they don’t come, they are not your problem to worry about. You don’t have to try and persuade them. They can’t come if they’re not elect. Why would any Christ-follower want to believe something like this?

The proponent of unconditional election has too many Bible obstacles to overcome for this to even be taken seriously. God clearly says that He shows no partiality (Romans 2:11 (Acts 10:34; James 2:1, 9). Did He lie? What could be more partial than choosing someone to be saved and another to be lost?

Contrary to “unconditional election,” the Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all – ALL—should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). 1 Timothy 2:4 says God “desires EVERYONE to be saved.” It is impossible to harmonize these verses with the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election—that God willingly chose to elect some and not to elect others for salvation. In Acts 10:34-35, Peter plainly says that it is the “truth” that God shows no partiality,” but everyone who fears Him and seeks Him will find Him and be saved.

The Gospel is a universal call to everyone. Again, if that is true—and it is—then there is no such thing as unconditional election. Jesus invited “all” of those who are “weary and burdened” to “come to Him” for rest (Matthew 11:28). The requirement is not that you be “elected.” It is that you realize your need and decide to come. Revelation 22:17 extends the salvation invitation to anyone who wants to come.

Even though everyone does not choose to accept the call, the call is freely offered to everyone. The Gospel is for all. Calvinism is not. Calvinism is not the Gospel. It is a perversion of it.

Unconditional election is deterministic fatalism, whether we see it for what it is or not. It reflects negatively on the character of God, has Him making claims about Himself that are not true and requiring a higher standard of morality from His people than He exhibits Himself.

Contrary to Calvinism’s “unconditional election,” the Bible tells us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) and to make “your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). In the Bible, the elect are those who accept Jesus.

God desires a reciprocal relationship with everyone. The will of humanity is not so corrupt that we cannot choose to follow Jesus without God doing the choosing for us. All of us have a choice to make. Will we receive or reject Jesus? And all of us have another choice to make. Will we accept the true Gospel or will we believe Calvinism?

         Bryan Dewayne Dunaway