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T.U.L.I.P.
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION TO
SALVATION
Text: "But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ"
(II Thessalonians 2:13,14).
INTRODUCTION
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"God has made two kinds of promises to the sons
of men. Some are conditional; being conditioned on the actions
of men. Other are unconditional; not depending on man's
actions. You can recognize a conditional promise by the words
usually used, "If ye will." This means the blessings of the
promise will only come if man is obedient to the Lord. You can
usually recognize the unconditional promises by the words, "I
will " words which show the keeping of that promise is not
conditioned on the obedience of man." (Adult Sunday School
Quarterly, by Dr. L. Chester Guin, B. Th., MTh., Th.D., page
32, Published by the Sunday School Committee of the American
Baptist Association, Winter Quarter 1980-81).
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All who will finally be saved, were chosen to
salvation by God the Father, before the foundation of the
world, and given to Jesus Christ in the Covenant of Redemption
(John 6:37-39). The doctrine of unconditional election to
salvation encounters strong opposition in the hearts of men,
and it is therefore necessary to examine thoroughly its claim
to our belief. As it relates to an act of the divine mind, no
proof of its truth can be equal to the testimony of the
Scriptures (Ephesians 1:4).
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Let us receive their teachings on the subject
without hesitation or distrust and let us require every
preconceived opinion of ours, and all our carnal reasoning, to
bow before the authority of God's Holy Word. The Scriptures
clearly teach, that God has an elect chosen people (John
15:16,19). Whatever may have been our prejudices against the
doctrine of unconditional election to salvation as held and
taught by some ministers of religion, it is undeniable, that,
in some sense, the doctrine is found in the Bible: and we
cannot reject it, without rejecting that inspired book. We are
bound by the authority of God, to receive the doctrine; and
nothing remains, but that we should make an honest effort to
understand it, just as it is taught n the sacred volume. The
Scriptures teach expressly, that God's people are chosen to
salvation.
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From the views which have been presented, it
necessary follows, that election is not on the ground of
foreseen faith or obedience. The Scriptures teach that
election is according to the foreknowledge of God. We are,
however, not to understand the foreknowledge here mentioned,
to be foreknowledge of faith or good works. Faith and good
works do not exist in man, before the grace of God that
brings salvation consequent on election begins to be bestowed
to man; and therefore a foresight of them is impossible (Psalm
14:2, 3; Romans 3:11).
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Moreover, the objects of this divine
foreknowledge are the persons of the elect, and not their
faith and good works. God bestows the blessings of His grace,
not according to the faith and works of the recipient but
according to His own sovereign pleasure and will (Ephesians
1:11). "He doeth according to His will, in the armies of
heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can
stay His hand, or say unto Him; What doest Thou?" (Daniel
4:35).
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No superior being exists, who can dictate to
the Lord what He should do, or hinder Him from the execution
of His pleasure, or call Him to account for anything that He
has done. Sovereignty is to be distinguished from
arbitrariness. In the latter, the will of the agent directs
the action, without reference to a wise or good pleasure.
His pleasure is good, because it is always directed to His own
perfection (Romans 8:29, 30).
I. WE MUST PROVE THAT THE
DOCTRINE IS TRUE
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The great truth is always the Holy Bible, and
the Bible alone is the supreme standard, by which all human
conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried. We love to
give you a whole volley of texts when we are afraid you will
distrust a truth, so that you may be too astonished to doubt,
if you do not in reality believe the Bible. Just let us run
through a catalogue of passages in the Bible where the people
of God are called elect. Of course if the people are called
elect, there must be election. If Jesus Christ and His
Apostles were accustomed to style believers by the title of
elect, we must certainly believe that they were so, otherwise
the term does not mean anything. The Lord Jesus Christ says,
"Except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh
should be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He hath
chosen, He hath shortened the days" (Matthew 24: 22, 24, 31).
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"And shall not God avenge His own elect, which
cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?"
(Luke 18:7). Together with many other passages which might be
selected, wherein either the word "elect," or
"chosen," or "foreordained," or "appointed"
is mentioned; or the phrase "My sheep," or some similar
designation, showing that Christ's people are distinguished
from the rest of mankind.
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Throughout the epistles, the saints are
constantly called "the elect." In the Epistle of Paul
to the Colossians Missionary Baptist Church we find the
Apostle saying, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy
and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long suffering" (Colossians 3:12). When he writes to
Titus, he calls himself, "Paul, a servant of God, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after
godliness" (Titus1:1). Peter says, "Elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the
Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ; Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied" (I Peter
1:2). Then if you turn to John, you will find he is very fond
of the word. He says, "The elder unto the elect lady and her
children, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but she
also all they that have known the truth" (II John 1). He
speaks of our "elect sister." And we know where it is written,
"The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you,
saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son" (I Peter 5:13).
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They were not ashamed of the word in those
days; they were not afraid to talk about it. Now-a-days the
word has been dressed up with diversities of meaning, and
persons have mutilated and marred the doctrine, so that they
have made it a very doctrine of devils, we do confess; and
many who call themselves believers, have gone to rank
Antinomianism (refers to the doctrine that it is not necessary
for Christians to preach and obey the moral law of the Old
Testament). But notwithstanding this, why should we be ashamed
of it, if men do wrest it? We love God's truth on the rack, as
well as when it is walking upright.
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But now for the verses that will positively
prove the doctrine of unconditional election to salvation.
"For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me;
and they have received them, and have known surely that I came
out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send me.
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which
Thou hast given me; for they are Thine" (John 17:8, 9). "And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified
the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed" (Acts 13:48). They may try to split that
passage into hairs if they like; and we do not care about all
the different commentaries thereupon. "And as many as believed
were ordained to eternal life," That is the way they wanted to
interpret it.
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"For the children being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him
that calleth" (Romans 9:11). "Even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no
more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel
hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election
hath obtained it and the rest were blinded" (Romans 11:15-7).
"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God bath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things
of the world, and things which are despise, hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that
are: That no flesh should glory in His presence" (I
Corinthians 1:26-29).
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"But let us, who are of the day, be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an
helmet, the hope of salvation. For God bath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or steep, we should
live together with Him" (1 Thessalonians 5:8-10).
II. THIS UNCONDITIONAL
ELECTION TO SALVATION IS ETERNAL
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`God hath from the beginning chosen you unto
eternal life." II Thessalonians 2:13. We thought the beginning
of this world was when Adam came upon it but we have
discovered that thousands of years before that God was
preparing chaotic matter to make it a fit abode of man,
putting races of creatures upon it, who might die and leave
behind the marks of His handiwork and marvelous skill, before
He tried His hand on man. But that was not the beginning, for
revelation points us to a period long before this world was
fashioned, to the days when the morning stars were begotten;
when, like drops of dew, from the fingers of the morning,
stars and constellations fell trickling from the hand of God;
when by His own lips, He launched forth ponderous orbs; when
with His own hand He sent comets, like thunderbolts, wandering
through the sky, to find one day their proper sphere.
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We go back to years gone by, when worlds were
made and systems fashioned, but we have not even approached
the beginning yet. Until we go to the time when all the
universe slept in the mind of God as vet unborn, until we
enter the eternity where God the Creator live alone,
everything sleeping within Him, all creation resting in His
mighty gigantic thought we have not guessed the beginning. We
may go back, back, back, back, ages upon ages. We may go back,
if we might use such strange words, whole eternities, and yet
never arrive at the beginning. Our wing might be tired, our
imagination would die away; could it out strip the lightnings
flashing in majesty, power, and rapidity, it would soon weary
itself before it could get to the beginning,
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But God from the beginning chose His people;
when the unnavigated either was yet unformed by the wing of a
single angel, when space was shoreless, or else unborn when
universal silence reigned, and not a voice or whisper shocked
the solemnity of silence, when there was no being and no
mention, no time, and nought but God Himself, alone in His
eternity; when without the song of an angel, without the
attendance of even the cherubim, long before the living
creatures were born, or the wheels of the chariot of JHVH-YHWH
were fashioned, even then, "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). And
in the beginning God's people were one with the Word, and "in
the beginning He chose them into eternal life," II
Thessalonians 2:13. Our election then is eternal.
III. THE UNCONDITIONAL
ELECTION TO SALVATION IS PERSONAL
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Here again, our opponents have tried to
overthrow election by telling us that it is an election of
nations, and not of people. But here the Apostle Paul says,
"God bath from the beginning chosen you." II Thessalonians
2:13. It is the most miserable shift on earth to make out that
God hath not chosen persons but nations, because the very same
objection that lies against the choice of persons lies against
the choice of nations, since nations are but the union of
multitude of persons, and to choose a nation seems to be a
more gigantic crime, if election be a crime than to choose one
person.
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Surely to choose ten thousand would be reckoned
to be worse than choosing one; to distinguish a whole nation
from the rest of nations, does seem to be a greater
extravaganza in the acts of divine sovereignty than the
election of one poor mortal and leaving out another. But what
are nations but men? What are whole peoples but combinations
of different units? A nation is made up of that individual,
and that, and that
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If you tell us that God chose the Jews, we say
then, He chose that Jew, and that Jew, and that Jew. And if
you say he chooses the Philippines, then we say He chooses
that Filipino man, and that Filipino man, and that Filipino
man. So that is the same thing after all. Election then is
personal: it must be so. Every one who reads this text (II
Thessalonians 2:13), and others like it, will see that
Scripture continually speaks of God's people one by one and
speaks of them as having been the special subjects of
election. We know it is personal election.
IV. THAT UNCONDITIONAL
ELECTION TO SALVATION 'IS ABSOLUTE
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That is, it does not depend upon what we are.
The text says, "God hath from the beginning chosen us unto
salvation" (II Thessalonians 2:13); but our opponents say that
God chooses people because they are good, that He chooses them
on account of sundry works which they have done. Now, we ask
in reply to this, what works are those on account of which God
elects His people? Are they what we commonly call "works of
law," works of obedience which the creature can render? If so,
we reply to you. If men cannot be justified by the works of
the law, it seems to us pretty clear that they cannot be
elected by the works of the law: if they cannot be justified
by their good deeds, they cannot be saved by them. Then the
decree of election could not have been formed upon good works.
"But," say others, "God elected them on the foresight of their
faith."
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Now, God gives faith, therefore He could not
have elected them on account of faith, which he foresaw (I
Corinthians 3:5; II Timothy 2:25; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Hebrews
12:2; John 6:29). There shall be twenty beggars in the street
of Davao City, and we determine to give one of them a Ten Peso
bill (P10.00); but will any one say that we determined to give
that one a Ten Peso bill, because we foresaw that he would
have it? That would be talking nonsense. In like manner to say
that God elected men because He foresaw they would have faith,
which is salvation in the germ, would be too absurd for us to
listen to for a moment. Faith is the gift of God. Every virtue
comes from Him. Therefore it cannot have caused Him to elect
men, because it is His gift.
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Election, we are sure, is absolute, and
altogether apart from the virtues which the saints have
afterwards. What though a saint should be as holy and devout
as the Apostle Paul; what though he should be as bold as
Peter, or as loving as John, yet he would claim nothing from
his Maker. We never knew a saint yet of any denomination, who
thought that God saved him because He foresaw that he would
have these virtues and merits.
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Now, brethren, the best jewels that the saint
ever wears if they be jewels of his own fashioning, are not of
the first water. There is something of earth mixed with them.
The highest grace we ever possess has something of earthliness
about it. We feel this when we are most refined, when we are
most sanctified. Our only hope, our only plea, still hangs on
grace as exhibited in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
we are we must utterly reject and disregard all thought that
our graces, which are gifts of our Lord, which are His
right-hand planting, could have ever caused His love.
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"He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy"
(Romans 9:16). He saves because He will save. And if they ask
us why He saves us, we can only say, because He would do it.
Was there anything in us that should recommend us to God? No;
we lay aside everything, we had nothing to recommend
ourselves. When God saved us, we were the most abject, lost,
and ruined of the race. We will be content to be saved by
grace, unalloyed, pure grace. We can boast of no merits from
ourselves.
V. THAT UNCONDITIONAL
ELECTION
TO SALVATION PRODUCES GOOD RESULTS
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"He hath from the beginning chosen you unto
sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." II
Thessalonians 2:13. How many men mistake the doctrine of
election altogether! And how our souls bums and boils at the
recollection of the terrible evils that have accrued from the
spoiling and the wresting of that glorious portion of God's
glorious truth! How many are there who have said to
themselves, "I am elect," and have sat down in sloth, and
worse than that! They have said, "I am the elect of God," and
with both hands they have done wickedness. They have swiftly
run to every unclean thing, because they have said, "I am the
chosen child of God, irrespective of my works, therefore I may
live as I list, and do what I like."
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Let us solemnly warn every one of you not to
carry the truth too far, or, rather not to turn the truth into
error, for we cannot carry it too far. We may overstep the
truth; we can make that which was meant to be sweet for our
comfort; a terrible mixture for our destruction. We tell you
there have been thousands of men who have been ruined by
misunderstanding election; who have said, "God has elected men
to heaven, and to eternal life;" but they have forgotten that
it is written, God has elected them "through sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth." II Thessalonians 2:13.
This is God's election--election to sanctification and to
faith. God chooses His people to be holy, and to be believers.
How many of you here then are believers? You may come to
Christ as a sinner, but you may not come to Christ as an elect
person until you can see your holiness. Do not misconstrue
what we say--do not say, "I am elect," and yet think you can
be living in sin. That is impossible. The elect of God are
holy. As to the flesh, they are not pure, they are not
perfect, but taking their life as a whole, they are holy
persons.
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They are marked, and distinct from others: and
no man has a right to conclude himself elect except in his
holiness. If you are walking in the fear of God, trying to
please Him, and to obey His commandments, doubt not that your
name has been written in the Lamb's book of life from before
the foundation of the world. And, lest this should be too high
for you, note the other mark of election, which is faith,
"belief of the truth." II Thessalonians 2:13. Whoever believes
God's truth, and believes on Jesus Christ, is elect. We
frequently meet with poor souls, who are fretting and worrying
themselves about this thought--"How, if l should not be elect!
Oh, sir," they say, "I know I put my trust in Jesus; I know I
believe in His name and trust in His blood; but how if l
should not be elect?" You do not know much about the gospel,
or you would never talk so, for he that believes is elect.
Those who are elect, are elect unto sanctification and unto
faith; and if you have faith you are one of God's elect; you
may know it and ought to know it, for it is an absolute
certainty. If you, as a sinner, look to Jesus Christ, and say,
"Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling,"
you are elect.
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But think not that any man will be saved
without faith and without holiness. Do not conceive that some
decree of God, passed in the dark ages of eternity, will save
your souls, unless you believe in Christ. Do not sit down and
fancy that you are to be saved without faith and holiness.
That is a most abominable and accursed heresy, and has ruined
thousands. Lay not election as a pillow for you to sleep on,
or you may be ruined. God forbid that we should be sewing
pillows under armholes that you may rest comfortably in your
sins. "Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep." John
10:26. "You will not come to me that ye might have life." John
5:40. Do not fancy that election excuses sin--do not dream of
it--do not rock yourself in a sweet complacency in the thought
of your irresponsibility. You are responsible. We must give
you both things. We must have divine sovereignty, and we must
have man's responsibility after you are saved. If you
refuse to obey God you are not yet saved.
CONCLUSION
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We love to proclaim these strong old doctrines,
which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is
in Christ Jesus. By this truth we make a pilgrimage into the
past, and as we go, we see father after father, confessor
after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake
hands with us. But taking these things to be the standard of
out faith, we see the land of the ancients peopled with our
brethren--We behold multitudes who confess the same as we do,
and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own
Missionary Baptist Church.
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We also give an extract from the old Missionary
Baptist Confession of Faith (called Particular Baptists by
their enemies). We are Missionary Baptists in this
congregation--the greater part of us at any rate--and we like
to see what our own fathers wrote. In A.D. 30, A.D. 1120, A.D.
1644, A.D. 1689, A.D. 1742, A.D. 1833, AD. 1924, Missionary
Baptists assembled together, and published their articles of
faith, to put an end to certain reports against their
orthodoxy which had gone forth to the world. We find the
following as the Third Article.
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"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of
His glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or
foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ to the
praise of His glorious grace; others being left to act in
their sin--to their just condemnation, to the praise of His
glorious justice. These angels and men thus predestinated and
foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and
their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either
increased or diminished. Those of mankind that are
predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world
was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and
the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen
in Christ unto everlasting glory out of His mere free grace
and love, without any other thing in the creature as a
condition or cause moving Him thereunto."
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As for these human authorities, we care not one
rush for all three of them. We care not what they say, pro or
con, as to this doctrine. We have only used them as a kind of
confirmation to your faith, to show you that while we may be
railed upon as a heretic and as a Calvinist or
hyper--Calvinist by our enemies, after all we are backed up by
antiquity. All the past stands by us. We do not care for the
present. Give us the past and we will hope for the future. Let
the present rise up in our teeth, we will not care. What
though a host of the Missionary Baptist Churches in Wales,
England, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, North
America, United States, Japan and the Philippine Islands may
have forsaken the great cardinal doctrines of God, it matters
not. If a handful of us stand alone in an unflinching
maintenance of the sovereignty of our God, if we are beset by
enemies, and even by our own Missionary Baptist brethren, who
ought to be our friends and helpers, it matters not, if we can
but count upon the past; the noble army of martyrs, the
glorious host of confessors, are our friends; the witnesses of
truth stand by us. With these for us, we will not say that we
stand alone, but we may exclaim, "God hath reserved unto
Himself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee unto
Baal." But the best of all is, God is with us.
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If salvation is not depending on man's action
but God's action, therefore salvation is unconditional. But if
salvation is being conditioned on the actions of men,
therefore salvation is conditional. And by man's efforts.
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Missionary Baptists believe that as to
salvation, it is unconditional. But as to reward, it is
conditional. Because salvation is wholly of grace; while
Reward is by good works. Do you know now the difference
between unconditional and conditional? If not, then you need
to study some more.
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