John 3:17 NIV
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
One point of Calvinism is that Jesus died only for a chosen group, His "Elect", not for the sins of the entire world.
This teaching has spread through various churches over the years.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross for all sins for all people, and anyone who wants to can accept him as Lord and Savior and be born again.
The elect, the chosen, and the predestined are all used by Calvinists to prove their case.
Can this be true or are they misinterpreting each and every verse?
The word "elect" occurs several time in Scriptures.
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s
elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, Titus 1:1 (ESV)
However, Calvinists definitely get the idea behind the concept wrong.
We need to be careful that we don't put everything into a 16th Century context, and then look at the NT text in light of the Calvinism and Arminianism controversy. Rather, we should look through the eyes of those who wrote these words, who were of course 1st Century Jews.
Throughout the Old Testament, the Jews didn't concern themselves at all with the idea of God electing individuals to salvation and not others (neither did they concern themselves with this in the NT). What they did refer to quite often was the idea that they collectively were a chosen covenant people.
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has
chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and
chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (ESV)
Notice, the emphasis here is not individual election to salvation, but a corporate election on the basis of a Covenant made. There was also a reason behind why God chose them (which denies the idea of unconditional election), which was because God was keeping an oath he swore to their fathers. Many of the Jews therefore saw themselves as part of the Covenant Community, the chosen people of God, on the basis of their being descendants of Abraham. Yet this is not precisely what the text says.
“And
because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. Deuteronomy 7:12-13 (ESV)
In the Old Covenant, it was on the basis of their keeping the "rules" that the God would keep the Covenant with them. The Law we learned though in the NT was just a guardian (a baby-sitter of sorts) that was to keep them in line until the coming of the Messiah, who is the end of the law for righteousness for all who believe.
I say all that to say this. When we think about election, we should think about it not in 16th Century terms of predestination to who salvation, trying to ask a question of why one person believes and the other does not, Paul does not concern himself with such things. Rather, he is concerned with faithfulness of God to his Covenant People, and his plan to have mercy upon all through the coming of the Messiah, in which the Covenant People of God have been redefined and summed up in the Jesus. This was God's plan all along, that before the foundation of the world he chose to have a people of all nations in Christ.
We in Christ therefore are the chosen people of God, because we are truly the children of Abraham through faith, so that the promise (God originally gave) may depend upon grace. A family that God has created to be his agents in the world and for the restoration of the world.
There is a lot to say on this subject, and I am willing to answer any questions you might have.
Blessings,
DI
