Chapter
XVIII -
That It Discourages All
Motives To Exertion
1. The
Means as well as the Ends are Foreordained. 2. Practical Results.
1.
The Means as well as the Ends are Foreordained
The
objection that the doctrine of Predestination discourages all motives to
exertion, is based on the fallacy that the ends are determined without
reference to the means. It is not merely a few isolated events here and
there that have been foreordained, but the whole chain of events, with
all of their inter-relations and connections. All of parts form a unit
in the Divine plan. If the means should
fail, so would the ends. If God has purposed
that a man shall reap, He has also
purposed that he shall sow. If God has ordained a man to be saved, He
has also ordained that he shall hear the Gospel, and that he
shall believe and repent. As well might the farmer refuse to till the
soil according to the laws disclosed by the light of nature and
experience until he had first learned
what was the secret purpose of
God to be executed in His providence in regard to the
fruitfulness of the coming season, as for any one to refuse to work in
the moral and spiritual realms because he does not know what fruitage
God may bring from his labor. We find, however, that the fruitage is
commonly bestowed where the preliminary work has been faithfully
performed. If we engage in the Lord's service and make diligent use of
the means which He has prescribed, we have the great encouragement of
knowing that it is by these very means that He has determined to
accomplish His great work.
Even those
who accept the Scripture Statement that God "worketh all things after
the counsel of His will," and similar declarations to the effect that
God's providence control extends to all the events of their lives. know
that this does not interfere in the slightest with their freedom. Do
those who make this objection allow their belief in the Divine
sovereignty to determine their conduct in temporal affairs? Do they
decline food when hungry, or medicine when sick, because God has
appointed the time and manner of their death? Do they neglect the
recognized means of acquiring wealth or distinction because God gives
riches and honor to whom He pleases? When in matters outside of religion
one recognizes God's sovereignty, yet works in the exercise of conscious
freedom, is it not sinful and foolish to offer as an excuse for
neglecting his spiritual and eternal welfare the contention that he is
not free and responsible? Does not his conscience testify that the only
reason why he is not a follower of Jesus Christ is that he has never
been willing to follow Him? Suppose that when the palsied man was
brought to Jesus and heard the words, "Rise up and walk," he had merely
replied, "I cannot; I am palsied!" Had he done so he would have died a
paralytic. But, realizing his own helplessness and trusting the One who
gave the command, he obeyed and was made whole. It is the same almighty
Saviour who calls on sinners dead in sin to come to Him, and we may be
sure that the one who comes will not find his efforts vain. The fact is,
that unless we regard God as the sovereign Disposer of all events, who
in the midst of certainty has ordained human liberty, we have but little
encouragement to work. If we believed that our success and our destiny
was primarily dependent on the pleasure of weak and sinful creatures, we
would have but little incentive to exertion.
"On his
knees, the Arminian forgets those logical puzzles which have distorted
Predestination to his mind and at once thankfully acknowledges his
conversion to be due to that prevenient grace of God, without which no
mere will or works of his own would ever have made him a new creature.
He prays for that outpouring of God's Spirit to restrain, convince,
renew, and sanctify men; for that divine direction of human events, and
overturning of the counsels and frustrating of the plans of wicked men;
he gives to the Lord glory and honor for what is actually done in this
regard, which implies that God reigns, that He is the sovereign disposer
of all events, and that all good, and all thwarting of evil are due to
Him, while all evil is itself due to the creature. He recognizes the
completeness of the divine foreknowledge as bound up inseparably with
the wisdom of His eternal purpose. His prayers for assurance of hope,
or his present fruition of it, presuppose the faith that God can and
will keep his feet from falling, and heaven from revolt, and that His
purpose forms such an infallible nexus between present grace and eternal
glory, that nothing shall be able to separate him from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."1
Since the
future events are hidden and unknown to us we should be as industrious
in our work and as earnest in the performance of our duty as if nothing
had been decreed concerning it. It has often been said that we should
pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though everything
depended on ourselves. Luther's observation here was: "We are commanded
to work the more for this very reason, because all things future are to
us uncertain; as saith Ecclesiastes, 'In the morning sow thy seed, and
in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not which shall
prosper, whether this or that, or weather they both shall be alike
good,' Ecclesiastes 11: 6. All things future, I say are to us uncertain
in knowledge, but necessary in event. The necessity strikes into us fear
of God that we presume not, or become secure, while the uncertainty
works in us a trusting that we sink not into despair.2
"The farmer
who, after hearing a sermon on God's decrees, took the break-neck road
instead of the safe one to his home and broke his wagon in consequence,
concluded before the end of the journey that he at any rate had been
predestinated to be a fool, and that he had made his calling and
election sure." 3
On one
occasion after Dr. Charles Hodge had finished a theological lecture he
was approached by a lady who said to him, "So you believe, Dr. Hodge,
that what is to be will be?" "Why, yes, lady, I do," he replied.
"Would you have me believe that what is to be won't be?"
And we are
further reminded at this point of one in Scotland accused and convicted
of murder, who said to the judge "I was predestined from all eternity to
do it." To whom the judge replied, "So be it, then I was predestined
from all eternity to order you to be hanged by the neck, which I now
do."
Some may be
inclined to say, If nothing but the creative power of God can enable us
to repent and believe, then all we can do is to wait passively until
that power is exerted. Or it may be asked, If we cannot effect our
salvation, why work for it? In every line of human endeavor, however, we
find that the result is dependent on the co-operation of causes over
which we have no control. We are simply to make use of the appropriate
means and trust to the co-operation of the other agencies. We do have
the express promise of God that those who seek shall find, that those
who ask shall receive, and that to those who knock it shall be opened.
This is more than is given to the men of the world to stimulate them in
their search for wealth, knowledge, or position; and more than this
cannot rationally be demanded. He who reads and meditates upon the word
of God is ordinarily regenerated by the Holy Spirit, perhaps in the very
act of reading. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell
on all them that heard the word," Acts 10:44. Shakespeare makes one of
his characters say: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in
ourselves, that we are underlings," (Julius Caesar, 1:2).
The
sinner's inability to save himself, therefore, should not make him less
diligent in seeking his salvation in the way which God has appointed.
Some leper when Christ was on earth might have reasoned that since he
could not cure himself, he must simply wait for Christ to come and heal
him. The natural effect, however, of a conviction of utter helplessness
is to impel the person to make diligent application at the source from
whence alone help can come. Man is a fallen, ruined, and helpless
creature, and until he knows it he is living without hope and without
God in the world.
2.
PRACTICAL RESULTS
The genuine
tendency of these truths is not to make men indolent and careless, but
to energize and stimulate them to redoubled efforts. Heroes and
conquerors, such as Cæsar and Napoleon, have often been possessed with a
sense of destiny which they were to fulfill. This sense steels the
nerve, redoubles the courage, and fixes in of an indomitable purpose to
carry his work through to a successful finish. Large and difficult
objects can only be achieved by men who have confidence in themselves,
and who will not allow obstacles to discourage them. "This idea of
destiny once embraced," says Mozley, "as it is the natural effect of the
sense of power, so in its turn adds greatly to it. The person as soon as
he regards himself as predestined to achieve some great object,
acts with so much greater force and constancy for the attainment it; he
is not divided by doubts, or weakened by scruples or fears; he believes
fully that he shall succeed, and that belief is the greatest assistance
to success. The idea of a destiny in a considerable degree fulfills
itself . . . . It must be observed that this is true of the moral and
spiritual, as well as of the natural man, and applies to religious aims
and purposes, as well as to those connected with human glory." 4
E. W.
Smith, in his valuable little book, "The Creed of Presbyterians," writes
as follows: "The most comforting and ennobling is also the most
energizing of faiths. That its grim caricature, fatalism, has developed
in human hearts an energy at once sublime and appalling is one of the
common-places of history. The early and overwhelming onrush of
Mohammedanism, which swept the East and all but overthrew the West, was
due to its devotees' conviction that in their conquests they were but
executing the decrees of Allah. Attila the Hun was upborne in his
terrible and destructive course by his belief that he was the appointed
'Scourge of God.' The energy and audacity
which enabled Napoleon
to attempt and achieve apparent impossibilities was nourished by the
secret conviction that he was 'the man of destiny.' Fatalism has
begotten a race of Titans. Their energy has been superhuman, because
they believed themselves the instruments of a super-human power.
"If the
grim caricature of this doctrine has breathed such energy, the doctrine
itself must inspire a yet loftier, for all that is energizing in it
remains with added force when for a blind fate, or a fatalistic deity,
we substitute a wise, decreeing God. Let me but feel that in every
commanded duty, in every needed reform, I am but working out an eternal
purpose of Jehovah; let me but hear behind me, in every battle for the
right, the tramp of the Infinite Reserves; and I am lifted above the
fear of man or the possibility of final failure." (pp. 180, 181).
In an
English newspaper, "The Daily Express," of April 18, 1929, we read the
following concerning Earl Haig, who was Commander-in-Chief of the
British armies in the First World War, and who was a Scotsman and a
Calvinistic Presbyterian: "Most remarkable as regards Haig's own
personality is the disclosure that this reserved, cold, formal man had a
profound faith, and in the greatest crises of the war believed
implicitly that help would come from above, and that he regarded himself
as the chosen of the Lord, the Cromwell who alone could smite the foe.
He was genuinely convinced that the position to which he had now been
called was one which he and he alone in the British Army could fill. It
was not conceit. There was no man who was less inclined to over-estimate
his own value or capacity; it was opinion based upon the discernment of
all the factors. He came to regard himself with
almost Calvinistic faith as the predestinated instrument of Providence
for the achievement of victory for the British armies. His abundant
self-reliance was reinforced by this conception of himself as the child
of destiny."
The genuine
tendency of these truths, then, as stated before, is not to make men
indolent and careless, nor to lull them to sleep on the lap of
presumption and carnal security, but to energize and to inspire
confidence. Both reason and experience teach us that the greater one's
hope of success, the stronger becomes the motive to exertion. The person
who is sure of success in the use of appropriate means has the strongest
of incentives to work, while on the other hand, where there is but
little hope there will be but little disposition for one to exert
himself; and where there is no hope, there will be no exertion. The
Christian, then, who has before him the definite commands of God, and
the promise that the work of those who obediently and reverently avail
themselves of the appointed means shall be blessed, has the highest
possible motives for exertion. Furthermore, he is elevated and inspired
by the firm conviction that he himself is marked out for a heavenly
crown.
Who ever
stated the doctrine of election more plainly or in more forcible
language than did the Apostle Paul?
And yet who was ever more zealous and more
untiring in his labors than Paul? His
theory made him a missionary and impelled him to set forth Christianity
as final and triumphant. How cheering it must have been for him in
Corinth to hear the words, "Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy
peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee;
for I have much people in this city," Acts 18:10. What greater incentive
to action could have been given him than this, that his preaching was
the divinely appointed means for the
conversion of many of those people? Notice, God did not tell him how
many people He had in that city, nor who the individuals were.
The minister of the
Gospel can go forward confident of success, knowing that through this
appointed means God has determined to save a vast number of the human
family in every age. In fact, one of the strongest pleas for missions is
that evangelism is the will of God for the whole world; and only
when one acknowledges the sovereignty of God in every realm of life can
he have the deepest passion for the Divine glory.
The
experience of the Church in all ages has been that this doctrine has led
men, not to neglect, nor to stolid unconcern, nor to rebellious
opposition to God, but to submission and to a sure trust in Divine
power. The promise given to Jacob that his posterity was to be a great
people did not in the least prevent him from using every available means
for protection when it looked as though Esau might kill him and his
family. When Daniel understood from the prophecies of Jeremiah that the
time for the restoration of Israel was at hand, he set himself earnestly
to pray for it (Daniel 9:2, 3). Immediately after it had been revealed
to David that God would establish his house, he prayed earnestly for
that very thing (2 Samuel 7:27-29). Although Christ knew what had been
appointed for His people, He prayed earnestly for their preservation
(John, Ch. 17). And although Paul had been told that he was to go to
Rome and bear witness there, it did not in the least cause him to be
careless of his life. He took every precaution to protect himself
against an unfair trial by the Jerusalem mob, and against an unwise
voyage (Acts 23:11; 25:10, 11; 27:9, 10). The decree of God was that all
those on board the ship should be saved, but that decree took in the
free and courageous and skillful activity of the seamen. Their freedom
and responsibility were not in the least diminished. The practical
effect of this doctrine, then, has been to lead men to frequent and
fervent prayer, knowing that their times are in God's hands and that
every event of their lives is of His disposing.
Furthermore, it may be said that so long as the sinner remains ignorant
of his lost and helpless condition, he remains negligent. Probably there
is not a careless sinner in the world who does not believe in his
perfect ability to turn to God at any time he pleases; and because of
this belief he puts off repentance, fully intending to come at some more
convenient time. Just in proportion as his belief in his own ability
increases, his carelessness increases, and he is lulled to sleep on the
awful brink of eternal ruin. Only when he is brought to feel his entire
helplessness and dependence upon sovereign grace does he seek help where
alone it is to be found.
