Featured God's election of individuals to salvation/Reprobation purely arbitrary

Isn't that the fallacy of the excluded middle?
Yes, the Bible is clear that God's choice was not because "you" (someone, anyone) deserved it.
No, that does not leave "purely arbitrary" as the only alternative.

Ultimately the reason is known only by God, but that does not mean that God cannot have had a reason. It only means "because I am so darn good" is NOT the reason.

Through these dim glasses, it appears to this former sinner saved by grace that God saves some to honor His promise to be faithful to "a thousand generations", and God plucks others from a long legacy of generational sin ... just to prove that He can. That makes HIS reasons unfathomable to me, but not "purely arbitrary".

"God does as He pleases and He does it right well." - Corrie Ten Boon

 

The fact that I do not understand the reasons behind God’s decisions, does not prove that God has no reasons. Ask Job. Ask Joseph when he was sitting in prison or when he was ruler over Egypt.

 

[Romans 9:19-26 NASB95]

19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?

• Observation #1: God made the “thing molded” (us) the way it is (we are). That speaks of a deliberate choice (by the molder) and not an arbitrary decision.

21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

• Observation #2: God has a RIGHT to do as He pleases. It is implied (very strongly) that God MADE vessels (people) for wrath. That is more than merely “God chose some and did not choose others” either arbitrary or for a reason. It stops short of explicitly stating that is the case, so I will not state with certainty that is the case, however it very clearly defends the fact that God has the RIGHT to do so.

23 And [He did so] to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 [even] us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. 25 As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED.'" 26 "AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, 'YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD."

• Observation #3: “And He did so” tells us that God DID DO what preceded. “God endured vessels of wrath prepared for destruction”. Therefore, there ARE “vessels of wrath”, vessels created by God whose purpose is “wrath”. (Yes, that frightens me.) There are also “vessels of mercy” … vessels created by God whose purpose is “mercy”.

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That all sounds deliberate rather than arbitrary to me.

God Bless.

 

You will need to ask HIM.
I can only testify to then fact that He did, and offer MY VIEW of the when and where.
"WHY" belongs to God, not me.

 

Merriam-Webster Definition of arbitrary

1a : existing or coming about seemingly at random or by chance or as a capricious and unreasonable act of will

• an arbitrary choice
  
• When a task is not seen in a meaningful context it is experienced as being arbitrary.— Nehemiah Jordan

b : based on or determined by individual preference or convenience rather than by necessity or the intrinsic nature of something

• an arbitrary standard
  
• take any arbitrary positive number

2a : not restrained or limited in the exercise of power : ruling by absolute authority

• an arbitrary government

b : marked by or resulting from the unrestrained and often tyrannical exercise of power

• protection from arbitrary arrest and detention

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Clearly it is the word "arbitrary" that I take exception to when describing the will, actions and choices of God. This stems in large part from the wide BREATH of meaning that the word "arbitrary" can hold. Taking the above possibilities in order:

• 1a: God is not "unreasonable" in His actions and choices and no verse that I am familiar with actually states that God is "capricious" in whom He saves. That the choice of God "seems" random to us, does not mean that the choice of God "IS" random to God. The tragedy that befell Job and Joseph all seemed random to Job and Joseph, but were anything but random to God.
  
• 1b: God's choice may very well be based on God's "individual preference", however I do not get the impression that this is what you are attempting to argue. I am fairly certain that God does not save based on "convenience", since He often passes up on seemingly "lower hanging fruit" to save those that require greater effort on God's part. I wholeheartedly agree that it is not because of "necessity or the intrinsic nature" of us ... scripture is clear on that point.
• 2a: God is certainly not restrained or limited in the exercise of power. Is this what you meant by "Arbitrary"?
• 2b: While I would not describe God's nature as "tyrannical", I would agree that our salvation is marked by and resulting from the unrestrained exercise of God's power. Is that what you mean by "arbitrary"?

I agree that GOD DOES and we do not.
The question of WHY God does remains unanswered by that verse.
God does because God wants to do ("according to his will") is a bit of circular reasoning.

 

This is a conclusion of your flesh in your extremely limited understanding of the Sovereign choices of God. From your ignorance you call God's will "arbitrary." That says more about you and your puniness as it relates to God's greatness. Simply put, you are not on a need to know basis with God. Nowhere in scripture do we see God being arbitrary. We see God executing his Sovereign will exactly as He has planned.
Again, you are not on a need to know basis with God. However, your claim of God being arbitrary is incredibly accusatory of the King. It makes me shudder for you and pray the King forgives your ignorance.

 

Do you not know?
Ephesians 1:3-4
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

You seem to think God is bound in time. You seem to think God is reactionary and making new decisions along the timeline.
I suggest you study the nature of God so you stop accusing God as though you were his equal.

 

Can you support that from outside of Romans?
(I just like to have more than one reference point for any important doctrinal statement).

 

Romans 9 does not actually say that, does it?
Adam and Jesus were formed by God as two vessels from that same lump of clay from which all vessels were formed. Was Adam created a "damned sinner" from a lump of "damned sinners"? Was Christ?

Romans 9:21 says "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"

It just says "lump (of clay)". From which God had the RIGHT/ABILITY to make "one vessel unto honour" and "another unto dishonour". The next two verses imply that God actually exercised that right/power and made "vessels of wrath" and "vessels of mercy".

That WE were inherently slaves to sin before God redeemed US is in scripture.
To claim that the entire lump of Romans 9:21 is damned goes beyond what is written.

You have not made the case for a "damned lump" from scripture.

 

Paul said "same lump", not "damned lump".
Only the "vessels of wrath" are damned, not the lump (according to Romans 9:21-23).