The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and ElectionWallace, Robert
Religion
The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election
Wallace, Robert
Election (Theology); Predestination; Reprobation
John Wesley, in writing on Predestination, says,--"Let it be
observed that this doctrine represents our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ, the righteous, the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of
grace and truth, as an hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man
void of common sincerity. For it cannot be denied that He everywhere
speaks as if He was willing that all men should be saved. Therefore,
to say that He was not willing that all men should be saved, is to
represent Him as a mere hypocrite and dissembler. It cannot be
denied that the gracious words which came out of His mouth are full
of invitations to all sinners. To say, then, He did not intend to
save all sinners, is to represent Him as a gross deceiver of the
people. You cannot deny that He says, 'Come unto me all ye that are
weary and heavy laden.' If, then, you say He calls those that cannot
come, those whom He knows to be unable to come, those whom He can
make able to come but will not; how is it possible to describe
greater insincerity? You represent Him as mocking His helpless
creatures, by offering what He never intends to give. You describe
Him as saying one thing and meaning another, as pretending the love
which He had not. Him in whose mouth was no guile, you make full of
deceit, void of common sincerity; then, especially when drawing nigh
the city He wept over it, and said, 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children together, and ye would
not.' Now, if ye say they would but He would not, you represent Him
(which who could hear) as weeping crocodile's tears; weeping over
the prey which himself had doomed to destruction" (Ser. 128).
Consider the _last commission_ of Christ. Before our Lord left the
world He said to His apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach
the Gospel to every creature." Good news was thus to be proclaimed
to every human being. If the commission meant anything it meant
this, that God was honestly and earnestly desirous of saving every
one. And this is in beautiful harmony with the exhortation in
Isaiah: "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth"
(Isa. xlv. 22). It is also in keeping with the words of Jesus
recorded by John: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 16); and with what the
apostle Peter says, that "God is not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter iii. 9); and with
what the apostle Paul says, that God "will have all men to be saved"
(1 Tim. ii. 4). But whilst the commission to preach the good news is
in harmony with these express statements, it is out of joint and
incongruous with the Calvinistic doctrine of election, that God
wishes only a few of the human family saved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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