Election: Further Conclusions

I keep thinking that I’m done with Election, but I never quite get there. I’ll try to keep this brief.

To expand a bit on the previous post regarding Election, the Piper view of the perseverance of the saints, to me, seems to be tautologous with the Arminian view (as opposed to the 20th Century Church of Christ view). I mean, it’s just another way of saying the same thing — with people wanting to fight over their favored wording.

Now, I find the Reformed/Calvinist/Piper way of saying it very hard to follow, but it seems to work for many people. In the end, despite the radically different forms of expresssion — and interpretations of many key passages — the two views say the same thing. It’s not immediately obvious, but I think it’s ultimately true. (It’s not true for all versions of Calvinism, however.)

On the other hand, the RCP view of election is very troubling to me because of the image of God it paints. Again, some people find the notion of God’s unconditional election attractive, but I do not.

Nonetheless, so long as the RCP view is taught as evangelistic and mission-minded, including avoiding any notion that the children of the elect are automatically saved, (not true of all RC fellowships) then pastorally it’s quite similar to the Arminian view.

It still seems to me like reaching between your legs to scratch your ear — physically possible but only with training — and why do things in such a hard way? It just seems so internally inconsistent to teach that certain people will be saved no matter what because God’s will cannot be frustrated but they must have missionaries sent to them or else we might frustrate God’s will. I really don’t get this.

But all that being said, what RCP’s doctrine of election does is insist that we honestly wrestle with the paradox of a God who knows the future and free will. There are serious problems here, but I think the solution is found, not in “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated,” but in “God is love.”

And so … I was sitting here wondering how to explain this when I remembered that I tried to explain what little I understand on the subject quite some time ago —

Predestination, Part 1

Predestination, Part 2

Predestination, Part 3

Predestination, Part 4

These are from the “Searching for a Third Way” series. (When I wrote these, I didn’t know that the Emerging Church Movement had already adopted “Third Way” as a slogan. Oh, well …) Anyway, these posts explain my Calvi-minian position on Election.