I believe the Great Commission would be impossible apart from the doctrine of unconditional election. If the winning of souls were entirely up to us, we would undoubtedly fail. The only reason any evangelist has won someone to Christ is because Christ has already gone into the world ahead of him. Or, to put it in Star Trek terms, Christ has boldly gone where no evangelist has gone before.
The God who has determined the end has also determined the means, and that includes believers going into all the world to proclaim the gospel. God has said that his word "shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). That is encouraging news for every believer.
Amen to that.
ReplyDeleteI think it would for me be overwhelming to try to evangelize if I believed it ultimately depended on me and what I did rather than the power of God. To take this seriously would be a very scary thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd another Amen to that!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what my arminian friends will say to that. Seeing that they usually love the role of being "Soul winners".
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess your Arminian brother would say that the Great Commission actually is not impossible apart from the doctrine of unconditional election since God is gloriously saving people by grace through faith in Christ among those who hold to conditional election. Such would be not only impossible to refute but also makes the Calvinist's claim in the post impossible to maintain.
ReplyDeleteGod bless ; )
Mr. Birch:
ReplyDeleteI don't think the post is saying that one must hold to the doctrine to be effective in evangelism, but that the practical outcome of unconditional election makes evangelism possible.
Yes, Robert, you summed it up perfectly. I shudder to imagine what would happen if the results were not guaranteed but left up to us. We know, however, that all of God's elect will hear the gospel and will respond.
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteI realize that -- I'm just playin'. I (and I should hope most Arminians) agree wholeheartedly that the "winning of souls" is not "entirely up to us." God is not bound to our inadequate models and (at times failed) attempts at sharing the gospel adequately.
Two passages which come to mind... Acts 13:44-49 & 2 Timothy 2:10.
ReplyDeleteMr. Birch:
ReplyDeleteOops...sorry I didn't catch that. Maybe I need
this
Lol . . . I always get a great dose of TBNN; it helps keep me sane.
ReplyDeleteThe mind of the Triune Holy God counseled decreed and purposed to place His people in Christ before He created the world and time as we know it. A dead sinner is hostile to the Gospel and God and suppresses the truth. Election is the cause of God's operation of grace to His people who are fallen sons of Adam as were Cain, Esau, Ishmael, Kora, Judas. But God hath mercy on a multitude of the Fallen sons of Adam, and knowing this we have confidence that the gospel of God when properly declared and preached will succeed because He is victorous and now sits at the right of God.
ReplyDeleteI am not Arminian or Calvinist. I believe in scriptural approach. I am unsure who has told the lies that without unconditional election the great commission is not possible. Scripture doesn't say that we are do preach the gospel and save people by ourselves. We are to preach the gospel and the Holy Spirit is always working where the gospel is preached so it is God who does the work. If election is conditional on accepting the gospel instead of unconditional, how does that change who does the work? It doesn't. God does the work either way, whether it is by foreknowledge (as taught in God's word) or through the Calvinist doctrine that teaches we have no free will to choose and cant understand the gospel without first being regenerated or saved (which I have never seen in the Bible yet). Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. Faith is not a gift either, it is a response to our trusting and believing in God's character and that He honours His promises as a result. We have no part in the payment of sins as it was 100% Jesus who did this. We do have a responsibility and are accountable for our actions (which require choice or one cannot be accountable).
ReplyDelete