The Elect

In the modern-day denominational world, many teach about the elect in accordance with Calvinism. This is to simply say, God chooses on an individual basis those who will be saved and are predestined to be part of the elect. According to this teaching, there is no free will involved in the salvation process. If you are one of the elect, God will “regenerate” your heart, at which point you will then, by no choice of your own, read the Gospel and believe in Jesus. There are several verses in the NT that speak about predestination, one of which being the following:

Romans 8:29-30 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

It is the church that was predestined from the beginning to be saved. Jesus Christ is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). He is the Savior of “His body,” which is the Church (Eph 1:22-23). The church is made up of people who were called by God through hearing and obeying the Gospel (Rom 10:16-17), and the gospel of Christ is the power to salvation “to everyone who believes.” (Rom 1:16). In Matt 22:1-14, Jesus says “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.” Again, in John 5:40 Jesus says, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” Repeatedly, Jesus talks about our free will choice to follow Him.

Scripture teaches that God loves all of humanity, and desires that everyone be saved! 1 Timothy 2:4 tells us that “[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” John 3:16 tells us that “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” With these two things true, it would be contrary to God’s nature to say He created a soul in a human being when it was conceived, knowing that He was not going to handpick that one for salvation. This belief must then mean that God either chooses to go against His love and desire, or that he cannot go against His love and desire, both of which have no merit.

True biblical predestination is based on group characteristics, not on an individual basis. It is as easy as saying “everyone who shows up to the party in a blue shirt will receive $5.” Everyone who then decided to show up to the party in a blue shirt was predestined to receive $5, and everyone who did not wear the blue shirt would not receive $5. The beautiful thing about biblical predestination is that the $5 is available to all who will just wear the blue shirt!

-Caleb Westbrook