When discussing the issue of God’s sovereignty in the salvation of sinners, the topic of Unconditional Election will typically turn to a false notion of “fairness” that says God “doesn’t play favorites” or to put it biblically, that God is “no respecter of persons.” Having heard this numerous times from folks when talking about Calvinism, [...]
Predestination & Election
A Treatise of the Eternal Predestination of God by John Calvin
NINE years have now elapsed since Albertus Pighius, the Campanian, a man of evidently phrensied audacity, attempted, at the same time, and in the same book, to establish the free-will of man. and to subvert the secret counsel of God, by which He chooses some to salvation and appoints others to eternal destruction. But as [...]
Reprobation by Jerome Zanchius
From what has been said concerning the election of some, it would unavoidably follow, even supposing the Scriptures had been silent about it, that there must be a rejection of others, as every choice does, most evidently and necessarily, imply a refusal, for where there is no leaving out there can be no choice. But [...]
Of Predestination – Part I by Hugh Binning
‘In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.‘ — Eph. 1:11. ‘What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; [...]
Of Predestination – Part II by Hugh Binning
‘What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.‘ — Rom. 9:22. ‘In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.‘ [...]
Chosen to Salvation by Robert Murray M’Cheyne
‘But we are bound to give thanks alway 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’ (2 Thessalonians 2:13). WHEN TRAVELLING through popish countries, where the people bow down to images of wood and [...]
What Fatalism Is by Benjiman B. Warfield
This is a sad state of mind that people fall into sometimes, in which they do not know the difference between God and Fate. One of the most astonishing illustrations of it in all history is, no doubt, that afforded by our Cumberland Presbyterian brethren, who for a hundred years, now, have been vigorously declaring [...]
Some Thoughts on Predestination by Benjiman B. Warfield
This essay was originally published in The Christian Workers Magazine, Dec. 1916, pp. 265-267. A great man of the last generation began the preface of a splendid little book he was writing on this subject, with the words: ‘Happy would it be for the church of Christ and for the world, if Christian ministers and [...]
On the Doctrine of Predestination by Thomas Chalmers
‘And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. – Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.‘ – Acts xxvii. 22, 31. THE comparison of these [...]
God’s Sovereign Elective Grace by George M. Ophoff
The electing and rejecting God is Supreme. Such is the plain teaching of Scripture. To deny the sovereign character of elective grace is to deny that God is God. It is to maintain that of the two, God and man, man is the stronger, and thus the factor that shapes God’s choice. This is indeed [...]
God’s Purpose According To Election: Paul’s Argument in Romans 9 by Steven M. Baugh
The doctrine of predestination has fallen on hard times. Not that it was ever very popular. Given today’s theological climate, most Christians probably think that predestination – to the extent that they think about it at all – is an abstract, philosophical notion invented by a few cranks in the past.1 In reality, though, most [...]
Election – A Sermon by Charles H. Spurgeon
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, September 2, 1855, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. ‘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 [...]
Election by Benjiman B. Warfield
This article was originally published in 1918 by the Presbyterian Board of Publication as a pamphlet of twenty-two pages. ‘By grace have ye been saved,’ says Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. ii. 5, 8); and so important does it seem to him that his readers shall understand this and bear it on their hearts that [...]
Election by G. H. Kersten
Election is the decree of God by which He in perfect sovereignty determined in which persons, known to Him by name in Christ, He has decided to magnify His mercy gloriously unto their salvation, and also by which means He Himself shall bring those persons to salvation. This decree is the Book of life, in [...]
Absolute Predestination by Gilbert Beebe
The Old School or Primitive Baptists in former years have been very definitely identified and distinguished from all other religious or ecclesiastical organizations as Predestinarian Baptists, and as such have borne reproach and vituperation from those who hold more limited views of what we regard as the absolute and all pervading government of God over [...]
The Five Points of Grace & of Predestination: Defined and Defended Against an Arminian Remonstrant by William Twisse
Consideration: When the Apostle saith that election is not of works, and proveth it by this: that before Esau and Jacob were born, &c., it was said of them the elder shall serve the younger; Let every sober Reader judge, whether it be not more agreeable to the Apostle, to profess, that election proceeds rather [...]
The Doctrines of Election and Final Perseverance – Excerpts from a letter by John Newton
…Permit me to remind you in the first place, of that important aphorism, John 3:27 (which by the by seems to speak strongly in favor of the doctrines in question) ‘ A man can receive nothing, unless it be given him from heaven.’ If you should accede to my opinions upon my persuasion only, you [...]
How Does a Sovereign God Love? a reply to Thomas Talbott by John Piper
Reading Thomas Talbott’s article ‘On predestination, reprobation, and the love of God’ (RJ, Feb., 1983) brought back a grievous experience I had when some of George MacDonald’s sermons were published in 1976 (Creation in Christ). I had relished three of MacDonald’s novels and the Anthology compiled by C.S. Lewis. Then I read this sentence, and [...]
Sovereign Election by Gise J. Van Baren
Election as a doctrine of the church is often either little understood, or emphatically contradicted. There is either ignorance of this truth, or a deliberate misunderstanding of it. What is the scriptural truth of election? We could define election as God’s eternal, sovereign, gracious decree by which He chooses a church as the body of [...]
