Article XVII
OF
PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION[8]
Predestination
to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations
of the world were laid) He hath constantly decreed by His counsel secret
to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen
in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting
salvation, as vessels made to honour.
Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of
God be called according to God’s purpose by His Spirit working
in due season; they through Grace obey the calling; they be justified
freely; they be made sons of God by adoption; they be made like the
image of His only‑begotten Son Jesus Christ; they walk religiously
in good works, and at length by God’s mercy, they attain to everlasting
felicity.
As
the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ,
is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons,
and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ,
mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing
up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly
establish and confirm their faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed
through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards
God: So, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ,
to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God’s Predestination,
is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the Devil doth thrust them either
into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no
less perilous than desperation.
Furthermore,
we must receive God’s promises in such wise, as they be generally
set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that Will of
God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the
Word of God.
A
study of Scripture and experience of life present us with certain facts
– the existence of evil; the salvation of some people, and the
condemnation of others; the circumstances which often seem to place
one person on the road to salvation, and another on the road to condemnation. These facts have led most theologians to believe in an ‘election’
of ‘grace’ based on certain statements in Scripture; but the
majority of them do not suggest that this election of grace, the free
and special manifestation of God’s goodness, implies election to
death of all who are not elected to life.
The problem was much debated at the Reformation. John Calvin
declared ‘By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God,
by which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to happen with
regard to every man. All are
not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life,
others to eternal damnation; and accordingly, as each has been created
for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated
to life or to death.’[1] It will be noted that the Article does not
follow Calvin to such an extreme conclusion.
He clearly taught that God, in the fulness of His sovereignty
by ‘His eternal and immutable counsel,’ has decreed some to
salvation, others to damnation, and as He owes nothing to either, the
elect have to bless Him everlastingly, and the reprobate have no right
to complain. Such a harsh conclusion may be the logical
one. But Calvin forgot that
God is love, not pure logic. He
forgot, too, that even logic is human. Logic is reason arrogating to
itself the right of judging alone, supremely, and without appeal.
But we should not presume to impose upon God our conclusions,
however unanswerable, however clear they may seem to our intellect.
This
whole subject of Predestination must be viewed in the light of one of
the basic principles clearly enunciated in Scripture.
God
loves all mankind, and His eternal purpose for men is good. He ‘desireth
not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness,
and live.’[2] It is significant that in His teaching about
the Final Judgement, our Lord made important distinctions between the
sentences passed:
He said:–
|
To
those on the left hand:
‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, unto everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. |
To
those on the right hand:
for you from the foundation of |