food for thought

Tuesday, 19 April 2005
20 19

Foreword: This is just some thoughts organised into words. It’s quite a lot of theology, but I thought it may be helpful to better understand Christianity. Part of this is also what I learn from a discussion on Saturday with some PUNJ guys, namely Desmond and Sui, so part of the credit will go to them. I would not dare declare that what I am going to write is entirely and perfectly true. After all, who can fathom the plans of the Lord our Creator? Whatever mistake is the fault of mine and mine alone. Do reply should you find disagreements. I would be glad to hear.

A few terms that this entry will be based on

God’s sovereignty
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and is the essence of perfection, of holiness. He is our Creator, and with his power, he controls his creation, and thus the adjective sovereign. After all, if a Creator can’t control what he creates, he’s useless a Creator. And certainly the Lord is not.

Man’s responsibility
Out of love, God grants Man a freedom of choice. It’s man’s choice whether to choose God, or return to his sinful ways, rejecting the hand of mercy stretched to him.

The questions.

1. 
   If God’s sovereign, to what extent is Man responsible for his own salvation? In the gospels, we read about the Pharisees and the Jews who rejected Christ and eventually caused the death of the Son of God as well. Yet if they did not do that, surely God’s salvation plan to save the word would not be fulfilled. Therefore, did God cause them to sin, in his sovereignty?
2. 
   As what Paul had mentioned in his letters to the churches, a Christian should be assured of salvation. How does one know that he is a Christian then? It’s by faith in Jesus Christ. Then how does one know he is saved? Therefore, indirectly, are we even assured at all?

The answers (or rather theological answers by Man)

There are two concepts that are thought of to solve this issue. Arminianism and Calvinism

Arminaism maintains that God predestines, but not in an absolute sense. The line of thinking is that God looks into the future to see who will choose Him and so chooses him to be saved. Thus it’s the choice of Man to be saved or not.

As what Desmond says, this doesn’t at all depicts God’s sovereignty. If Arminianism is true, then God is not sovereign, i.e. he is after all choosing based on Man’s decisions. He is not in control.

Calvinism on the other hand is more biblically based. It’s known by an acronym – TULIP.
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the Saints.

Total Depravity
The inclinations of Man is sin. Man is completely sinful. And this fallen nature will not permit us to choose God. Therefore, we are reborn not by our choice, but by God’s grace.

Unconditional Election
Out of this love and kindness, God elect some to be saved. This election is unconditional, God didn’t select from the best or look into the future or whatever.

Limited Atonement
Jesus died for all, but his death is only effective for the elect.

Irresistible Grace
When God elect the people that he wants to save, the people could never reject his call.

Perseverance of the saints
Salvation can never be lost. It is secured when God elected.

How then does human responsibility comes into play? Put it this way, when you believe, it somehow means you are elected. How do we know we believe? Simply because of the doctrine of predestination; you are saved when you are elected. As you can see, I didn’t exactly answer the first question. There is no answer, not from Man at least.

Like what a pastor says, God’s sovereignty and Man’s responsibility are like two parallel train tracks. They seem never to meet. Yet if you look in the distance, you can see the tracks running into the horizon and there, they seem to meet. When we get to heaven, we’ll see how these two work together in the wise plan of God.

Sources:
http://www.mslick.com/tulip.htm