[BBC List] a needed doctrine

[Mike Abendroth]

Calvin’s Institutes

 


CHAPTER 21.


OF THE ETERNAL ELECTION, BY WHICH GOD HAS PREDESTINATED SOME TO SALVATION,
AND OTHERS TO DESTRUCTION. 

The divisions of this chapter are,--I. The necessity and utility of the
doctrine of eternal Election explained. Excessive curiosity restrained, sec.
l, 2. II. Explanation to those who through false modesty shun the doctrine
of Predestination, sec. 3, 4. III. The orthodox doctrine expounded.

Sections.

l. The doctrine of Election and Predestination. It is useful, necessary, and
most sweet. Ignorance of it impairs the glory of God, plucks up humility by
the roots, begets and fosters pride. The doctrine establishes the certainty
of salvation, peace of conscience, and the true origin of the Church. Answer
to two classes of men: 1. The curious.

2. A sentiment of Augustine confirmed by an admonition of our Savior and a
passage of Solomon.

3. An answer to a second class--viz. those who are unwilling that the
doctrine should be adverted to. An objection founded on a passage of
Solomon, solved by the words of Moses.

4. A second objection--viz. That this doctrine is a stumbling-block to the
profane. Answer 1. The same may be said of many other heads of doctrine. 2.
The truth of God will always defend itself. Third objection--viz. That this
doctrine is dangerous even to believers. Answer 1. The same objection made
to Augustine. 2. We must not despise anything that God has revealed.
Arrogance and blasphemy of such objections.

5. Certain cavils against the doctrine. 1. Prescience regarded as the cause
of predestination. Prescience and predestination explained. Not prescience,
but the good pleasure of God the cause of predestination. This apparent from
the gratuitous election of the posterity of Abraham and the rejection of all
others.

6. Even of the posterity of Abraham some elected and others rejected by
special grace.

7. The Apostle shows that the same thing has been done in regard to
individuals under the Christian dispensation.

1. THE covenant of life is not preached equally to all, and among those to
whom it is preached, does not always meet with the same reception. This
diversity displays the unsearchable depth of the divine judgment, and is
without doubt subordinate to God's purpose of eternal election. But if it is
plainly owing to the mere pleasure of God that salvation is spontaneously
offered to some, while others have no access to it, great and difficult
questions immediately arise, questions which are inexplicable, when just
views are not entertained concerning election and predestination. To many
this seems a perplexing subject, because they deem it most incongruous that
of the great body of mankind some should be predestinated to salvation, and
others to destruction. How ceaselessly they entangle themselves will appear
as we proceed. We may add, that in the very obscurity which deters them, we
may see not only the utility of this doctrine, but also its most pleasant
fruits. We shall never feel persuaded as we ought that our salvation flows
from the free mercy of God as its fountain, until we are made acquainted
with his eternal election, the grace of God being illustrated by the
contrast--viz. that he does not adopt all promiscuously to the hope of
salvation, but gives to some what he denies to others. It is plain how
greatly ignorance of this principle detracts from the glory of God, and
impairs true humility. But though thus necessary to be known, Paul declares
that it cannot be known unless God, throwing works entirely out of view,
elect those whom he has predestined. His words are, "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," (Rom. 11:6). If to make it appear that our salvation flows
entirely from the good mercy of God, we must be carried back to the origin
of election, then those who would extinguish it, wickedly do as much as in
them lies to obscure what they ought most loudly to extol, and pluck up
humility by the very roots. Paul clearly declares that it is only when the
salvation of a remnant is ascribed to gratuitous election, we arrive at the
knowledge that God saves whom he wills of his mere good pleasure, and does
not pay a debt, a debt which never can be due. Those who preclude access,
and would not have any one to obtain a taste of this doctrine, are equally
unjust to God and men, there being no other means of humbling us as we
ought, or making us feel how much we are bound to him. Nor, indeed, have we
elsewhere any sure ground of confidence. This we say on the authority of
Christ, who, to deliver us from all fear, and render us invincible amid our
many dangers, snares and mortal conflicts, promises safety to all that the
Father has taken under his protection (John 10:26). From this we infer, that
all who know not that they are the peculiar people of God, must be wretched
from perpetual trepidation, and that those therefore, who, by overlooking
the three advantages which we have noted, would destroy the very foundation
of our safety, consult ill for themselves and for all the faithful. What? Do
we not here find the very origin of the Church, which, as Bernard rightly
teaches (Serm. in Cantic). could not be found or recognized among the
creatures, because it lies hid (in both cases wondrously) within the lap of
blessed predestination, and the mass of wretched condemnation?

But before I enter on the subject, I have some remarks to address to two
classes of men. The subject of predestination, which in itself is attended
with considerable difficulty is rendered very perplexed and hence perilous
by human curiosity, which cannot be restrained from wandering into forbidden
paths and climbing to the clouds determined if it can that none of the
secret things of God shall remain unexplored. When we see many, some of them
in other respects not bad men, every where rushing into this audacity and
wickedness, it is necessary to remind them of the course of duty in this
matter. First, then, when they inquire into predestination, let then
remember that they are penetrating into the recesses of the divine wisdom,
where he who rushes forward securely and confidently, instead of satisfying
his curiosity will enter in inextricable labyrinth.49HYPERLINK
"http://www.reformed.org/books/institutes/calvin/c/calvin/institut/bookiii/b
kiii25.htm#fn220"[6] For it is not right that man should with impunity pry
into things which the Lord has been pleased to conceal within himself, and
scan that sublime eternal wisdom which it is his pleasure that we should not
apprehend but adore, that therein also his perfections may appear. Those
secrets of his will, which he has seen it meet to manifest, are revealed in
his word--revealed in so far as he knew to be conducive to our interest and
welfare.

2. "We have come into the way of faith," says Augustine: "let us constantly
adhere to it. It leads to the chambers of the king, in which are hidden all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For our Lord Jesus Christ did not
speak invidiously to his great and most select disciples when he said, ëI
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,' (John
16:12). We must walk, advance, increase, that our hearts may be able to
comprehend those things which they cannot now comprehend. But if the last
day shall find us making progress, we shall there learn what here we could
not," (August. Hom. in Joann). If we give due weight to the consideration,
that the word of the Lord is the only way which can conduct us to the
investigation of whatever it is lawful for us to hold with regard to him--is
the only light which can enable us to discern what we ought to see with
regard to him, it will curb and restrain all presumption. For it will show
us that the moment we go beyond the bounds of the word we are out of the
course, in darkness, and must every now and then stumble, go astray, and
fall. Let it, therefore, be our first principle that to desire any other
knowledge of predestination than that which is expounded by the word of God,
is no less infatuated than to walk where there is no path, or to seek light
in darkness. Let us not be ashamed to be ignorant in a matter in which
ignorance is learning. Rather let us willingly abstain from the search after
knowledge, to which it is both foolish as well as perilous, and even fatal
to aspire. If an unrestrained imagination urges us, our proper course is to
oppose it with these words, "It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to
search their own glory is not glory," (Prov. 25:27). There is good reason to
dread a presumption which can only plunge us headlong into ruin.

3. There are others who, when they would cure this disease, recommend that
the subject of predestination should scarcely if ever be mentioned, and tell
us to shun every question concerning it as we would a rock. Although their
moderation is justly commendable in thinking that such mysteries should be
treated with moderation, yet because they keep too far within the proper
measure, they have little influence over the human mind, which does not
readily allow itself to be curbed. Therefore, in order to keep the
legitimate course in this matter, we must return to the word of God, in
which we are furnished with the right rule of understanding. For Scripture
is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which as nothing useful and necessary
to be known has been omitted, so nothing is taught but what it is of
importance to know. Every thing, therefore delivered in Scripture on the
subject of predestination, we must beware of keeping from the faithful, lest
we seem either maliciously to deprive them of the blessing of God, or to
accuse and scoff at the Spirit, as having divulged what ought on any account
to be suppressed. Let us, I say, allow the Christian to unlock his mind and
ears to all the words of God which are addressed to him, provided he do it
with this moderation--viz. that whenever the Lord shuts his sacred mouth, he
also desists from inquiry. The best rule of sobriety is, not only in
learning to follow wherever God leads, but also when he makes an end of
teaching, to cease also from wishing to be wise. The danger which they dread
is not so great that we ought on account of it to turn away our minds from
the oracles of God. There is a celebrated saying of Solomon, "It is the
glory of God to conceal a thing," (Prov. 25:2). But since both piety and
common sense dictate that this is not to be understood of every thing, we
must look for a distinction, lest under the pretence of modesty and sobriety
we be satisfied with a brutish ignorance. This is clearly expressed by Moses
in a few words, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those
things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever,"
(Deut. 29:29). We see how he exhorts the people to study the doctrine of the
law in accordance with a heavenly decree, because God has been pleased to
promulgate it, while he at the same time confines them within these
boundaries, for the simple reason that it is not lawful for men to pry into
the secret things of God.

4. I admit that profane men lay hold of the subject of predestination to
carp, or cavil, or snarl, or scoff. But if their petulance frightens us, it
will be necessary to conceal all the principal articles of faith, because
they and their fellows leave scarcely one of them unassailed with blasphemy.
A rebellious spirit will display itself no less insolently when it hears
that there are three persons in the divine essence, than when it hears that
God when he created man foresaw every thing that was to happen to him. Nor
will they abstain from their jeers when told that little more than five
thousand years have elapsed since the creation of the world. For they will
ask, Why did the power of God slumber so long in idleness? In short, nothing
can be stated that they will not assail with derision. To quell their
blasphemies, must we say nothing concerning the divinity of the Son and
Spirit? Must the creation of the world be passed over in silence? No! The
truth of God is too powerful, both here and everywhere, to dread the
slanders of the ungodly, as Augustine powerfully maintains in his treatise,
De Bono Perseverantiae (cap. 14ñ20). For we see that the false apostles were
unable, by defaming and accusing the true doctrine of Paul, to make him
ashamed of it. There is nothing in the allegation that the whole subject is
fraught with danger to pious minds, as tending to destroy exhortation, shake
faith, disturb and dispirit the heart. Augustine disguises not that on these
grounds he was often charged with preaching the doctrine of predestination
too freely, but, as it was easy for him to do, he abundantly refutes the
charge. As a great variety of absurd objections are here stated, we have
thought it best to dispose of each of them in its proper place (see chap.
23). Only I wish it to be received as a general rule, that the secret things
of God are not to be scrutinized, and that those which he has revealed are
not to be overlooked, lest we may, on the one hand, be chargeable with
curiosity, and, on the other, with ingratitude. For it has been shrewdly
observed by Augustine (de Genesi ad Literam, Lib. 5), that we can safely
follow Scripture, which walks softly, as with a mother's step, in
accommodation to our weakness. Those, however, who are so cautious and
timid, that they would bury all mention of predestination in order that it
may not trouble weak minds, with what color, pray, will they cloak their
arrogance, when they indirectly charge God with a want of due consideration,
in not having foreseen a danger for which they imagine that they prudently
provide? Whoever, therefore, throws obloquy on the doctrine of
predestination, openly brings a charge against God, as having
inconsiderately allowed something to escape from him which is injurious to
the Church.

5. The predestination by which God adopts some to the hope of life, and
adjudges others to eternal death, no man who would be thought pious ventures
simply to deny; but it is greatly caviled at, especially by those who make
prescience its cause. We, indeed, ascribe both prescience and predestination
to God; but we say, that it is absurd to make the latter subordinate to the
former (see chap. 22 sec. 1). When we attribute prescience to God, we mean
that all things always were, and ever continue, under his eye; that to his
knowledge there is no past or future, but all things are present, and indeed
so present, that it is not merely the idea of them that is before him (as
those objects are which we retain in our memory), but that he truly sees and
contemplates them as actually under his immediate inspection. This
prescience extends to the whole circuit of the world, and to all creatures.
By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined
with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are
not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others
to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or
other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to
death. This God has testified, not only in the case of single individuals;
he has also given a specimen of it in the whole posterity of Abraham, to
make it plain that the future condition of each nation lives entirely at his
disposal: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when
he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to
the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people;
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance," (Deut. 32:8, 9). The separation is
before the eyes of all; in the person of Abraham, as in a withered stock,
one people is specially chosen, while the others are rejected; but the cause
does not appear, except that Moses, to deprive posterity of any handle for
glorying, tells them that their superiority was owing entirely to the free
love of God. The cause which he assigns for their deliverance is, "Because
he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them," (Deut.
4:37); or more explicitly in another chapter, "The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people:
for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you,"
(Deut. 7:7, 8). He repeatedly makes the same intimations, "Behold, the
heaven, and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also,
with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love
them, and he chose their seed after them," (Deut. 10:14, 15). Again, in
another passage, holiness is enjoined upon them, because they have been
chosen to be a peculiar people; while in another, love is declared to be the
cause of their protection (Deut. 23:5). This, too, believers with one voice
proclaim, "He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob,
whom he loved," (Ps. 47:4). The endowments with which God had adorned them,
they all ascribe to gratuitous love, not only because they knew that they
had not obtained them by any merit, but that not even was the holy patriarch
endued with a virtue that could procure such distinguished honor for himself
and his posterity. And the more completely to crush all pride, he upbraids
them with having merited nothing of the kind, seeing they were a rebellious
and stiff-necked people (Deut. 9:6). Often, also, do the prophets remind the
Jews of this election by way of disparagement and opprobrium, because they
had shamefully revolted from it. Be this as it may, let those who would
ascribe the election of God to human worth or merit come forward. When they
see that one nation is preferred to all others, when they hear that it was
no feeling of respect that induced God to show more favor to a small and
ignoble body, nay, even to the wicked and rebellious, will they plead
against him for having chosen to give such a manifestation of mercy? But
neither will their obstreperous words hinder his work, nor will their
invectives, like stones thrown against heaven, strike or hurt his
righteousness; nay, rather they will fall back on their own heads. To this
principle of a free covenant, moreover, the Israelites are recalled whenever
thanks are to be returned to God, or their hopes of the future to be
animated. "The Lord he is God," says the Psalmist; "it is he that has made
us, and not we ourselves: we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture,"
(Ps. 100:3; 95:7). The negation which is added, "not we ourselves," is not
superfluous, to teach us that God is not only the author of all the good
qualities in which men excel, but that they originate in himself, there
being nothing in them worthy of so much honor. In the following words also
they are enjoined to rest satisfied with the mere good pleasure of God: "O
ye seed of Abraham, his servant; ye children of Jacob, his chosen," (Ps.
105:6). And after an enumeration of the continual mercies of God as fruits
of election, the conclusion is, that he acted thus kindly because he
remembered his covenant. With this doctrine accords the song of the whole
Church, "They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did
their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of
thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them," (Ps. 44:3). It is to
be observed, that when the land is mentioned, it is a visible symbol of the
secret election in which adoption is comprehended. To like gratitude David
elsewhere exhorts the people, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance," (Ps. 33:12).
Samuel thus animates their hopes, "The Lord will not forsake his people for
his great name's sake: because it has pleased the Lord to make you his
people," (1 Sam. 12:22). And when David's faith is assailed, how does he arm
himself for the battle? "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causes
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts," (Ps. 65:4). But as
the hidden election of God was confirmed both by a first and second
election, and by other intermediate mercies, Isaiah thus applies the terms
"The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel," (Isa.
14:1). Referring to a future period, the gathering together of the
dispersion, who seemed to have been abandoned, he says, that it will be a
sign of a firm and stable election, notwithstanding of the apparent
abandonment. When it is elsewhere said, "I have chosen thee, and not cast
thee away," (Isa. 41:9), the continual course of his great liberality is
ascribed to paternal kindness. This is stated more explicitly in Zechariah
by the angel, the Lord "shall choose Jerusalem again," as if the severity of
his chastisements had amounted to reprobation, or the captivity had been an
interruption of election, which, however, remains inviolable, though the
signs of it do not always appear.

6. We must add a second step of a more limited nature, or one in which the
grace of God was displayed in a more special form, when of the same family
of Abraham God rejected some, and by keeping others within his Church showed
that he retained them among his sons. At first Ishmael had obtained the same
rank with his brother Isaac, because the spiritual covenant was equally
sealed in him by the symbol of circumcision. He is first cut off, then Esau,
at last an innumerable multitude, almost the whole of Israel. In Isaac was
the seed called. The same calling held good in the case of Jacob. God gave a
similar example in the rejection of Saul. This is also celebrated in the
psalm, "Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the
tribe of Ephraim: but chose the tribe of Judah," (Ps. 78:67, 68). This the
sacred history sometimes repeats that the secret grace of God may be more
admirably displayed in that change. I admit that it was by their own fault
Ishmael, Esau, and others, fell from their adoption; for the condition
annexed was, that they should faithfully keep the covenant of God, whereas
they perfidiously violated it. The singular kindness of God consisted in
this, that he had been pleased to prefer them to other nations; as it is
said in the psalm, "He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his
judgments, they have not known them," (Ps. 147:20). But I had good reason
for saying that two steps are here to be observed; for in the election of
the whole nation, God had already shown that in the exercise of his mere
liberality he was under no law but was free, so that he was by no means to
be restricted to an equal division of grace, its very inequality proving it
to be gratuitous. Accordingly, Malachi enlarges on the ingratitude of
Israel, in that being not only selected from the whole human race, but set
peculiarly apart from a sacred household; they perfidiously and impiously
spurn God their beneficent parent. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the
Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau," (Mal. 1:2, 3). For God takes it
for granted, that as both were the sons of a holy father, and successors of
the covenant, in short, branches from a sacred root, the sons of Jacob were
under no ordinary obligation for having been admitted to that dignity; but
when by the rejection of Esau the first born, their progenitor though
inferior in birth was made heir, he charges them with double ingratitude, in
not being restrained by a double tie.

7. Although it is now sufficiently plain that God by his secret counsel
chooses whom he will while he rejects others, his gratuitous election has
only been partially explained until we come to the case of single
individuals, to whom God not only offers salvation, but so assigns it, that
the certainty of the result remains not dubious or suspended.49HYPERLINK
"http://www.reformed.org/books/institutes/calvin/c/calvin/institut/bookiii/b
kiii25.htm#fn221"[7] These are considered as belonging to that one seed of
which Paul makes mention (Rom. 9:8; Gal. 3:16, &c). For although adoption
was deposited in the hand of Abraham, yet as many of his posterity were cut
off as rotten members, in order that election may stand and be effectual, it
is necessary to ascend to the head in whom the heavenly Father has connected
his elect with each other, and bound them to himself by an indissoluble tie.
Thus in the adoption of the family of Abraham, God gave them a liberal
display of favor which he has denied to others; but in the members of Christ
there is a far more excellent display of grace, because those ingrafted into
him as their head never fail to obtain salvation. Hence Paul skillfully
argues from the passage of Malachi which I quoted (Rom. 9:13; Mal. 1:2),
that when God, after making a covenant of eternal life, invites any people
to himself, a special mode of election is in part understood, so that he
does not with promiscuous grace effectually elect all of them. The words,
"Jacob have I loved," refer to the whole progeny of the patriarch, which the
prophet there opposes to the posterity of Esau. But there is nothing in this
repugnant to the fact, that in the person of one man is set before us a
specimen of election, which cannot fail of accomplishing its object. It is
not without cause Paul observes, that these are called a remnant (Rom. 9:27;
11:5); because experience shows that of the general body many fall away and
are lost, so that often a small portion only remains. The reason why the
general election of the people is not always firmly ratified, readily
presents itself--viz. that on those with whom God makes the covenant, he
does not immediately bestow the Spirit of regeneration, by whose power they
persevere in the covenant even to the end. The external invitation, without
the internal efficacy of grace which would have the effect of retaining
them, holds a kind of middle place between the rejection of the human race
and the election of a small number of believers. The whole people of Israel
are called the Lord's inheritance, and yet there were many foreigners among
them. Still, because the covenant which God had made to be their Father and
Redeemer was not altogether null, he has respect to that free favor rather
than to the perfidious defection of many; even by them his truth was not
abolished, since by preserving some residue to himself, it appeared that his
calling was without repentance. When God ever and anon gathered his Church
from among the sons of Abraham rather than from profane nations, he had
respect to his covenant, which, when violated by the great body, he
restricted to a few, that it might not entirely fail. In short, that common
adoption of the seed of Abraham was a kind of visible image of a greater
benefit which God deigned to bestow on some out of many. This is the reason
why Paul so carefully distinguishes between the sons of Abraham according to
the flesh and the spiritual sons who are called after the example of Isaac.
Not that simply to be a son of Abraham was a vain or useless privilege (this
could not be said without insult to the covenant), but that the immutable
counsel of God, by which he predestinated to himself whomsoever he would,
was alone effectual for their salvation. But until the proper view is made
clear by the production of passages of Scripture, I advise my readers not to
prejudge the question. We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this
much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all
those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those
whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We
maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free
mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to
destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at
the same time incomprehensible judgment. In regard to the elect, we regard
calling as the evidence of election, and justification as another symbol of
its manifestation, until it is fully accomplished by the attainment of
glory. But as the Lord seals his elect by calling and justification, so by
excluding the reprobate either from the knowledge of his name or the
sanctification of his Spirit, he by these marks in a manner discloses the
judgment which awaits them. I will here omit many of the fictions which
foolish men have devised to overthrow predestination. There is no need of
refuting objections which the moment they are produced abundantly betray
their hollowness. I will dwell only on those points which either form the
subject of dispute among the learned, or may occasion any difficulty to the
simple, or may be employed by impiety as specious pretexts for assailing the
justice of God.

HYPERLINK
"http://www.reformed.org/books/institutes/calvin/c/calvin/institut/bookiii/b
kiii25.htm#fnB220"[4]96 496 Thus Eck boasts that he had written of
predestination to exercise his youthful spirits.

HYPERLINK
"http://www.reformed.org/books/institutes/calvin/c/calvin/institut/bookiii/b
kiii25.htm#fnB221"[4]97 497 On predestination, see the pious and very
learned obsesrvations of Luther, tom. 1 p. 86, fin., and p. 87, fin. Tom. 3
ad Psal. 22:8. Tom. 5 in Joann. 117. Also his Prefatio in Epist. ad Rom. and
Adv. Erasmum de Servo Arbitrio, p. 429, sqq. 452, 463. Also in Psal. 139.

 

 

Charis, 
  
Mike Abendroth 
  
"Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to
be contented with half truth when whole truth can be won.  Endow us with
courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns
to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when right and truth
are in jeopardy."

 - West Point Military Academy Cadet Prayer 

 

HYPERLINK "http://www.bbcchurch.org"www.bbcchurch.org 
  

 


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