Thus,
some are blessed by God, but the others are not cursed by Him, –
the curse seems to be of themselves.
The kingdom is prepared ‘for you’; but the ‘everlasting
fire’ is ‘for the devil and his angels’.
The Article follows this principle in affirming that Predestination
to Life is the everlasting purpose of God,[1] and declares
that it is the Devil who thrusts ‘curious and carnal persons’
into desperation or ‘wretchlessness’ (i.e.: recklessness).[2]
The
love of God has two aspects, creative and saving. It is in the creative side that the divine love appears in the original,
absolute and uncovenanted form. The
only reason for the world’s existence at all is that the Creator
desired to make something as like Himself as possible. So man was made in God’s image, that is,
with a capacity for enjoying the blessedness of a life in communion
with Him; such is the divine intention for every soul without exception. In this action of pure creative love man has
no part; his being, its nature and meaning, are determined by the will
of God. It also belongs to the
divine purpose for man that he can accept or refuse his role in its
realization. And in fact he has refused on the largest scale;
mankind is in a fallen state and requires redemption. It is in the application of the same divine
love in which it was created to a world which needs saving, that particular
arbitrary choices are seen.
Israel
is selected from among the nations of the earth[3]
to be God’s peculiar people[4],
and the instrument of His redeeming action[5],
and within Israel He raises up Moses and calls the prophets: the whole
history of salvation is one of special choices and appointments. There is no difficulty about such a process
of election, provided it is understood not to be an end in itself, but
the means of universal salvation. The
greatest tragedy that ever befell a nation was Israel’s failure
to appreciate this. The aim of God’s redemptive action in
history is to accomplish the purpose of His love in creation, to bring
all men to the blessed life of fellowship with Himself.
The
doctrine of predestination has two roots: one is ideal, the conception
of the majesty and omnipotence of God, and the other is empirical, derived
from experience and history.
Against
the sovereign power with which God pursues His purpose, the lives of
individuals and the fortunes of the nations are reduced to insignificance;[6]
they have no independent meaning, but are part of a predetermined plan;
history is an exhibition of puppetry, and the feeling of freedom and
responsibility is an illusion.
A
less rigid view of predestination is connected with the sense of vocation
or mission which some of the great makers of history have had, of whom
our Lord and St. Paul are conspicuous examples.[7]
History is not the mechanical unfolding of the divine counsel; within the framework of God’s purpose much happens which need not or should not have happened, and His ultimate control of events is seen in how evil is made to contribute to the good.