13 Reasons why Election is not Foreseen Faith

Is it that important to believe in unconditional election – God’s sovereign pre-creation choice to save specific people, irrespective of anything they would do or be? Can’t we just agree with other Christians who say that election simply means that God foresaw which people would believe and therefore chose them?

In his chapter on Unconditional Election, in Whomever He Wills, Andrew Davis lists 13 damaging consequences that follow from understanding election as merely foreseen faith (pages 58-74).

The Damaging Consequences

1. It robs God of His glory as sovereign King of the universe: If God is the responder and man the initiator, God has surrendered control of the universe to the creature. God is a student of the human heart rather than the potter shaping the clay.
2. Gives man ground for boasting: If our faith is the fundamental cause of our election before the foundation of the world, we can stand on our faith and boast.   Continue at David Murray

What is the Basis for God’s Eternal Decree?

After what seems like an eternity, we are returning to a mini-series in our overall series on Reformed Theology on the topic of the eternal decree of God. In our last post on this subject, we answered the question “What is God’s eternal decree?” The eternal decree of God is that by which God ordained everything that comes to pass — all past, present and future events are all part of God’s eternal decree, and they are unchangeably so.

In this post, we will be concerned with the question: What is the basis for God’s eternal decree? In other words, what grounds the eternal decree of God? This is an important question because when we say that God’s eternal decree covers every event — past , present and future — people begin trotting out the “F” word (“Fatalism“). That’s why some in the history of Christian doctrine developed a foreknowledge view of God’s knowledge of future events. God knows future events because, in his foreknowledge, he peers down the halls of time and sees the future. This is very different than saying that God foreordains future events, and the difference leads to radically different applications in Christian life and practice.

Here are two major problems I see with the foreknowledge view of God’s knowledge of future events:

1. It renders God as a passive observer of future events rather than as the One who sovereignly ordains their coming to pass
2. It depicts God as taking in knowledge rather than already possessing an exhaustive and complete knowledge of all things - Continue at Carl Gobelman

Tebow, Calvin, and the Hand of God in Sports

Two days ago on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" telecast, announcer Bob Costas spent two minutes weighing in on the most exciting---and polarizing---phenomenon in sports right now: the Tim Tebow Magical Fourth-Quarter Show, accompanied by the Denver Broncos players and staff.

Costas, one of the most eloquent and thoughtful voices in sports, suggested that Tebow's recent string of performances was "approaching, okay we'll say it, the miraculous." Many have made similar comments in recent weeks. Costas switched to a more controversial track, however, when he went on to suggest that the God Tebow worships has no interest in influencing the outcome of games. I quote at length from the full transcript:

Again today, Tebow did next to nothing until the waning moments, and then, down 10-0 with two minutes left, he throws a touchdown pass, and the Broncos tie it at the gun on a 59-yard field goal. And then win it in overtime on a 51-yarder. The combination of Denver's continuing late heroics, and today, the Bears' otherwise unexplainable errors, is enough to have some at least suspect divine intervention. Except that Tebow, whose sincere faith cannot be questioned, and should be respected, also has the good sense, and good grace, to make it clear he does not believe God takes a hand in the outcome of games.   Keep Reading >>>

God Decrees ALL that is to pass