Mark Osgatharp
New Member
If certain men are predestined to be saved, then the obvious question arises, "why preach the gospel to all men?"
The standard Calvinist answer to this question is: we preach the gospel to all men because only God knows who is elect and non-elect. I have even heard the trite statement by a few Calvinist preachers that, "I preach like an Arminian."
When we look at the Bible, we find that those who preached the gospel indeed did know who was elect and non-elect and so stated.
Jesus, for example, told the unbelieving Jews in John chapter 10 that they were not His sheep and proved it by the fact that they didn't believe. On this basis we may justly conclude that every unbeliever is non-elect.
In Acts 13 when Paul preached at Antioch in Pisidia, he told those who rejected his message that they had judged themselves "unworthy of eternal life."
Later, when Paul was imprisoned in Rome and held discussions with the Jews of that city, he told those who didn't believe that they were among those spoken of by Isaiah when he said,
"Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive."
These passage show again that we can indetify the non-elect, namely all who do not believe.
Again, Peter says,
"Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation."
Here the elect are clearly identified as the believers and the non-elect as the unbelievers.
The adversity these facts create for the Calvinist position is too obvious to need any further elaboration.
Mark Osgatharp
The standard Calvinist answer to this question is: we preach the gospel to all men because only God knows who is elect and non-elect. I have even heard the trite statement by a few Calvinist preachers that, "I preach like an Arminian."
When we look at the Bible, we find that those who preached the gospel indeed did know who was elect and non-elect and so stated.
Jesus, for example, told the unbelieving Jews in John chapter 10 that they were not His sheep and proved it by the fact that they didn't believe. On this basis we may justly conclude that every unbeliever is non-elect.
In Acts 13 when Paul preached at Antioch in Pisidia, he told those who rejected his message that they had judged themselves "unworthy of eternal life."
Later, when Paul was imprisoned in Rome and held discussions with the Jews of that city, he told those who didn't believe that they were among those spoken of by Isaiah when he said,
"Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive."
These passage show again that we can indetify the non-elect, namely all who do not believe.
Again, Peter says,
"Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation."
Here the elect are clearly identified as the believers and the non-elect as the unbelievers.
The adversity these facts create for the Calvinist position is too obvious to need any further elaboration.
Mark Osgatharp