A STRANGE Doctrine of 5 point Calvinists!
 

There are SO many but this is one I got into a "scrap" over with a Calvinist: Regeneration comes BEFORE Faith.:confused::confused::confused: Brethren, like most Calvinist this was presented to me as SUCH a sophisticated idea! Think about it for even a second! It MAKES NO SENSE! Faith is really not a "factor" here, he admitted as much! I said even IF I accepted it what role does faith "play" in this construct, the answer, the Regeneration creates the Faith. My oh my! Friends, for a Calvinist, there is NO room for faith, they throw out the word now and again since it is the Bible. There are ONLY the ELECT and DEPRAVED, the Elect are saved whether they want it or not! It makes my head hurt!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Read the 39 Articles!
 

Traditional Anglican:--- :eek: I'd expect this post from one of the many arminians on this site but... you as a Reformed Episcopalian ARE a Calvinist!

Open up the The Book of Common Prayer and read the Articles of Religion.

Almighty God chooses us--- We don't choose Him. {see Jacab and Esau}

We are born Sinners and only God's Unmerited Favor can keep us from the Pit.

All humans are Born Dead---> Not just sick,,, but DEAD! Only The Lord God can give us life!

Re : A STRANGE Doctrine of 5 point Calvinists!
 

Aloha PB1789,

Sooo, I wonder what that (not believing in Calvinism) makes him?

A HERETIC? :(

An APOSTATE? :mad:

A REPROBATE? :eek:

OR . . . . . . .

A BIBLE BELIEVER? :clap2:

Hmmm? :confused: :embarassed: :rant:

John 3:15-16 "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 12:46 "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness."

Acts 2:21 "And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Acts 10:43 "And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Romans 10:13 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

1 John 4:15 "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God."

1 John 5:1 "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him."

The Bible says that whosoever believeth shall be saved. If you're alive then you are a whosoever! The Holy Spirit will convict you and tell you the Gospel is true, God will call you, but man still has a free will and must choose to accept Christ as Saviour. God knows all who will ever be saved. He knew this before He ever created the universe. But He does not choose who He will and will not save. He called all, everyone, and whosoever believes He will save. His blood was shed for the sins of the whole world, not just some who He selected, and decided to send the rest to hell.

Amen brother TA, that is a false doctrine!

There are different "schools" in reformed thinking. The Geneva/Calvinist is the MOST extreme! In response to your little shot that Anglicans are Calvinist, buzzzz, wrong! The Anglican Body is VERY old, older than Calvin, the REFORMED designation in my branch, Reformed Episcopal, is in fact the LEAST extreme form of Reformed thinking, we do NOT use "5 points" we teach there IS a cooperation in regard to salvation, yes we do teach the Holy Spirit must touch a fallen man before he can accept and understand the Gospel, (the idea of the Gospel in a vacuum void of the Holy Ghost is absurd. Even Classical Arminians accept this!) If you meet an Anglican who teaches a regeneration in which faith is VOID, you are talking to one who is NOT in step with the Church and one who is NOT CORRECT in their understanding of the 39 Articles.....(Most HARD CORE 5 Point Calvinist, DO NOT EVEN LIKE US/the Classical Anglicans) they HATE the fact in History that BOTH Queen Elizabeth and King James shunned the extreme teachings of the Puritans/Presbyterians! One FINAL word about your insult about my Church, I AM A CONVERT FROM AN EXTREME PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BODY....I CONVERTED BECAUSE IT WAS NOT BIBLICAL.....I THINK I might know what I am talking about. Blessings.

Yeah I agree with you here on the part about the Holy Ghost's touching. I can still remember feeling like the scales fell from my eyes, and afterwards praying to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness and telling Him that I would no longer fight Him anymore, but rather simply believe and trust in Him alone. But what this shows to me is that I had a choice, to either heed the call or ignore it and continue in ignorance and sin. I also do believe that this call reaches ALL men.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32 KJV)

(man I have a hard time reading John sometimes without crying. I'm still so in love with Jesus!)

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (Romans 5:18 KJV)

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:1-6 KJV)

And the knock out blow:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Titus 2:11 KJV)

Much Love in Christ Jesus,
Stephen

Not the Bible?

Why do you use Jacob and Esau as examples of election?

Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

First of all, Esau HAD the birthright - it was His possession. He lost it. He sold it. And he couldn't get it back. So if this is election - then it would seem one can lose it. The verses in Hebrews say he could have inherited the blessing, but because he sold his birthright, he did not. What this has to do with unconditional election, I know not.

Heb 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Secondly, God gave a prophecy to Rebekah in Genesis 25:23. The seperation is from her bowels (or womb), not from eternity past. The promise was "the elder shall serve the younger", not "the elder shall go to hell and the younger to heaven".

Thirdly, Hebrews 11 says that Esau WAS blessed concerning things to come (though I know not what this blessing was).

To:--- Traditional Anglican. Regarding your last post: You misread my post if you thought I "insulted" your church. Just the opposite! I do think that maybe you should not have posted what you did on a website that seems to be made up of mostly Scofieldian/Arminians/Chick tracters. { Kinda like showing a photo of President Bush to a room full of democrats...:eek: }

I have mentioned to you when you first came aboard that I have attended St. Lukes REC in Santa Ana, Cal.. When I was an assistant manager of a large christian bookstore next to the 405 Fwy, I invited the R.E.C. Pastor to set up a pamphlet table in our store... (as an antidote to the Beach/casual/surfer dude kinda "fellowships"). I have their website on my "Favorites List". If there was an R.E.C. in my town, I would attend it.... The nearest one is down in British Columbia, Can.. { I am Baptistic, but really like the Liturgy/Litany/Reverance and stained glass windows-( a baptist no-no ;) )

http:www.stlukesrec.org/ Rich and deep God-honoring worship.

Look at the margin of their site under "Reading List". Many books mentioned, and 90% of them are from the pens of men who hold to the historic Christian idea ---going back to the Bible--- that men are not capable of saving themselves! Only our Lord and Saviour does the saving and choosing. This may not be popular in a day and age when you can go to the Grocery Store and pick from hundreds of different items/products, but the Scripture tells us that The Lord God Almighty is the Chooser! See Ephesians 1:4.

Here is the website of the R.E.C. . Check out the various articles and historical points. They were founded in 1873 to preserve the Reformation thinking found in the 1549 Prayer Book of Cranmer, against the Romanists who were of the "Oxford Movement" in the 1800's who wanted to get rid of the 39 Articles, because they are Protestant and Reformed.

http://rechurch.org/recus/index.html

{ They also show/list the 39 Articles of Relgion which are in the back of the Book of Common Prayer (hence, my screen name) so anyone reading these posts on this Thread can see for themself.}

I will agree with your statement that not all Reformed folks think alike---(and most Arminians don't either)--- But if you were in a Presbyterian Church , then you know they adhere to The Bible as the Written Word of God, and use/subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith,,, which took those good gentlemen meeting from 1644-47 to refine/smooth/polish until what they gave the Christian world was something backed-up by Scripture...Including The whole Epistle to the Romans, John Chapter 6 and John Chapter 10, NOT just by John 3:16, but rather the WHOLE counsel of the Word of God... which, btw. is why I mentioned Esau and Jacob! There are books and pamphlets available online via Calvin College's ethereal Libary where you can see the paragraphs of the Westminster (and the 1689) with the scripture proofs.

If you had a bad experience at a certain Presbyterian Church, that does not mean to toss out all the O.P.C.'s , P.C.A.'s Ref.Presb., and the Free Presbyterians- ( a good group from Northern Ireland). I also suggested to a young Christian named "Rolando" over in the Chit-Chat section---> Thread titled "Christmas" , that rather than stay home this year (He is a former R.C.) he should attend the original R.E.C. in N.Y.C. (or the one in Jersey City) this Christmas Eve/Day and invite his still R.C. family. I would not suggest a Church to somone if I thought they were a bad church.

Traditional Anglican--- You might not hold to what the Reformed teaching is on each topic,,, Hey, maybe your Pastor never mentioned it in Catechism class, or doesn't believe it himself,,, But I can tell yaa as a former Flaming with zeal Arminian... If the Reformers (1500's) and the next generation of Puritans/Presbyterians/Particular Baptists (1600's) and then the Gents of the "Great Awakening" Jonathan Edwards/George Whitefield (1700's) believed and taught these things--- There must be good reason for it. These men were not doofus ding-alings. They countered Romanism and Arminianism with the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul. They went back to Genesis and Exodus and Isaiah and Jeremiah. God is Holy and Gracious and Just. He is in Command! Rev. 4:11 --- Amen.

Are you implying that John Wesley & Charles Wesley, and Fanny Crosby were not used by the Lord at all?

It would seem to me that God used men (and women) to bring about great revivals in spirit and song DESPITE their false doctrines, not because of it. The Methodists think you can lose your salvation, yet the greatest Methodist hymn ever written is sung worldwide by Calvinists (Blessed Assurance). Charles Wesley was accused of being a pelagian by the Calvinists, yet two of the greatest Hymns ever written and sung by Calvinists worldwide are "And Can it Be" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", and yet were written by a methodist.

I think God used men despite their denomination, despite their doctrines, because of their WALK with him.

If you are going to be consistent, you should rip 90% of your hymns out of your hymnbook.

I have been going to a reformed church (United Reformed Church) for less than a year and am a beginner in the Calvinist/Reformed faith. One factor regarding predestination and faith is that God is not governed by time as His creation is and He sees the past, present, and future simultaneously. It seems to me that this is why God can predestine people and His foreknowledge doesn't make people into robots. Does it seem to anyone that the consideration of God's independence from His creation of time reconciles any other conflicts.

Hello Bill. Welcome to the Boards. A few suggested readings for you:

There is a book written by a U.R.C. ordained gent named Michael Horton. "What's so Amazing about Grace ?"

Next--- Ask your Pastor, or one of the Deacons for a copy of the "3 Forms of Unity".

Get a copy of "The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination" by L. Boettner.

Look for "The Sovereignty of God" by A.W. Pink.

There are sections about Predestination-Sin-Regeneration-Faith (and many other things) in a book titled "Systematic Theology" by Louis Berkhof.

After you have read those and have kept reading your Bible and praying... then put on your seatbelt and Helmet and get a copy of "The Holiness of God" by R.C. Sproul.... { I wanted to hide under the chair after reading about half of that book--- the "World" says "I'm OK-You're OK",,, not according to The Lord God on High! God is Love, but He is also the thrice Holy God!}

... Then, when you get some more $ in your wallet (or break your piggy bank) , get Sproul's book titled: "Saved from What ?"

These will help you to Think and Ponder and Dwell upon the deep things mentioned in Scripture. Just as "Christian" in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" did when he left The City of Destruction and made his way along the path to "The Celestial City"... The Christian Walk is not easy and there are many things along the way that are beyond our understanding... But, we are told to stay on "The Path"! John 14:6 !

Well, since we're recommending books on this topic, here's mine:

The Other Side of Calvinism, by Lawrence Vance. Unlike Sproul, Vance is a 100% KJV defender and promoter.

Before I started believing in the final authority of the KJV, I was a strict 5 point calvinist. After dropping my NIV I started to get "on the fence" about Calvinism. After reading this book, I completely dropped all 5 points (even the fifth point is wrong -- I believe in the preservation of the saints by Christ, not the perseverence of the saints).

This would be a great addition to SwordSearcher ! ;)

Predestination.
 

We know that God is not governed by time being that He created time for us. God is also the beginning and the end of all life as we know and do not know. You say God does not make people into robots and I agree with you, but answer this simple question please. If God has predestined a man or woman to believe where is the choice in that? Is there any scripture to back this thought up to? I believe that God has never been independent from His creation and has no desire but to have fellowship with His creation. If a man or woman was not predestined then could they ever repent? Does God ever hear their prayer? God does know who will reject Him and who will accept Him but it is us who get to make that choice. I believe that when God speaks of predestination He is speaking of His predestined plan for man to have fellowship with Him. That plan was through Jesus who was predestined, prophesied about since the fall of man.

Answer me this question, if those who God doesn't predistinate (by the way God predestines men that He FOREKNEW!) are not called, then what did those that are called "do" to recieve the gift of Salvation and what did those that are not called not "do"? And ultimately wouldn't it be logical to say that God damned the unchosen to Hell even before they were born and before they even commited a sin? Does this make God a respector of persons?

For Jesus' sake,
Stephen

The doctrine of election is pretty straight forward and backed by scripture, so to me that does not make it a doctrine, but simple God's will.

We have to first admit that our understanding of virtually everything is somehow warped and twisted and affected by our own sinful nature. To that end we must rely on scripture.

In Psalms 50:21 ..."thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: "
Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD."
Isaiah 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

God has ways and thoughts that are to us incomprehensible, unresolvable, and inscrutable.

Paul points out in Romans 11:33-36 "¶ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
Ro*11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Ro*11:35 or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Ro*11:36 For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen." (all bold emphasis are mine)

How could you think of God as 'unjust' for choosing to save some, because in reality there are none who deserve to be saved?

The doctrine of election is not new to the New Testament, the Old Testament has many examples of God's will to chose. Out of all the people in the world God chose Israel. Out of all the people in the world God chose Abraham and made him the father of a great nation.

Psalms 105: 43 "And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with singing."
Psalms 135:4 "For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure."
Deut. 7:6 "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth."
Deut. 14:2 "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth."

The same is shown in the New Testament.

Romans 8: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth;"
Col. 3:12 "¶ Put on therefore, as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;"
John 15:16 "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." Jesus said to his deciples. Then prays,
John 17:9 "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:"
Acts 13:48 "And as the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
Romans 9:11 "for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth," almost like Jacob I love, Esau I hated.

There are hundreds more, but am I theologically qualified to argue the point? These are scriptures I read and they are very clear to understand.

By the Grace of God was I chosen before eternity past to have my name written in the book of life. That makes me tremble in awe, and fills me with love to worship Jesus and His Father and even more personally the Holy Spirit in me.

That is not doctrine, that is fact backed by scripture.

Praise His name. Amen.

This thread has very quickly gone from Dan to Beersheba and back again. May I offer a few random observations?

1. The orginal post pointed out a bizarre teaching (or, to be charitable, a bizarre implication) in Calvinist thinking: that one must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit before one can receive Christ. Traditional Anglican (hereafter TA) was absolutely correct in noting this, and noting it with disapproval. It's a rather subtle point: I was a conservative Presbyterian for the first 13 years of my Christian life, and I never heard this stupid idea expressed, even in my training classes as a deacon. (I know the various Presbyterian groups like I know the little corpuscles floating through my bloodstream: as a young man, and a new Christian, I was "present ath the creation" of the Presbyterian Church in America, out of the old PCUS. My former spouse was a graduate of Covenant College, then a Reformed Presbyterian school; her father had attended the Reformed Episcopal school in Philadelphia.) Anyway, I didn't even know of this theological grotequerie until I heard Ruckman discuss it, many years later.

2. If TA says he's not a Five-Point Calvinist, then he simply isn't. To try to pigeonhole his beliefs by examining his denomination (assuming one understands the denomination's positions in the first place) is simply unfair. I'm an independent Baptist: that doesn't mean that I believe in faith-promise giving or Bob Jones University!

3. By virtue of spending quite a few years with the Lord's people, I happen to be personally acquainted with both Lawrence Vance and R.C. Sproul. Vance is a friend, Sproul an acquaintance: I sat down and discussed theology with Sproul when he spoke at my church, back in my Presbyterian days. Sproul is a lovely man, a valiant warrior for God, and utterly unreliable as a theologian (once you get past the fundamentals). Vance's book, recommended by Diligent, is the best I've read on the subject.

4. My grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher, back in the days when the Southern Baptists were orthodox. He always referred to Presbyterians as "Baptists who've moved to town!" He had a point: saved Baptists and saved Presbyterians (or saved REs) are united by far more than divides them.

5. Did I ever mention that I once had a cat named Elvis?

I am trying really hard to discover why a forum designed and populated by bible believing brothers and sisters is trying so hard to get me to not believe what I read in the very bible they say is God’s providentially appointed Word for the whole world. Something is very wrong.

You mean like this verse?

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Brother, I was a hard-line Calvinist at one point, so I know the logic-box inside-out that traps a believer into the system of Calvinism.

It comes down to understanding predestination. There is predestination, but our choice to believe the Gospel is not what is predestinated by God. I tried to deal with this in this post before.

Bringing this back on topic (hi VR!), the obvious verse is:

Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

This is another one of those verses that 5-point Calvinism doesn't want you to believe. According to Calvin, Paul got this one backwards. I prefer Paul over Calvin. :pound:

Brother Gord, I really do suggest Vance's book. He goes through Calvinism with a fine-tooth comb and if there are any questions you have about the matter that Vance doesn't address, I'd be surprised.

Hope this helps.

Ok, thanks, I'll have to wait on the purchase till my wife get's back to work, but I surely will get a copy. In the meantime, prayerful patience for me please.

Thanks for the advice. I'm glad to see that I can get advice from people who have thought through this theology and are KJV believers. I'm already familiar with Michael Horton, A. W. Pink, and R. C. Sproul. It seems to me that since God is outside of time, an event, such as predestination, that is in our past would be in God's present at the time of salvation. Trying to understand this is as mind-boggling as learning relativity physics. I remember that after a Physics class in relativity I almost had trouble walking from my desk to the classroom door because my brain was so overwhelmed with the subject. Another aspect of this is that because our salvation is not of works, not of anything a person could boast about, it is thought that God must choose people for no discernable reason. I think this is not right because there are qualities of receptiveness to God, such as having a "broken heart and contrite spirit, trembling at God's word" that are not works or achievements that anyone could take credit for (brag about) but are different in different people and determine who will trust Jesus and who won't.

Deep and Wide!
 

Hello Bill. You are very correct about this not being an easy thing to grasp and we are mere humans... Able to invent light bulbs/automobiles/telephones, and many other things, but our brains are tiny in comparison to The Lord God Almighty--Maker of Heaven and Earth.

As good as those Authors/Preachers/Theology Profs. are/were that I mentioned before ( and don't forget to read some C.H. Spurgeon and some John Bunyan along with Berkof) the BEST thing to read and make our Statements of Faith from are the very Words of God that we have in our Bibles !

There are some rich and deep truths found in the first chapter in The Epistle to the Ephesians... Hope everyone will turn over there and read with an open heart and mind. This portion of scripture certainly makes John 17 more understandable. Starting at chapter 1, verse 3 we read on to v.4:

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved."

... go ahead and read the rest of the chapter folks. This is a great and glorious thing! The Creator of Adam and Eve, Who put the stars in the sky and named them, and gives us water and oxygen, and numbers the very hairs on our head...God Almighty is in control and He knows what He is doing ! This should warm our hearts and comfort us. If we are Christians, it is because of The Lord...NOT ourselves !

Absolutely. But if you believe, it is because of your heart:

Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Don't let anyone tell you that you don't do something to be saved:

Acts 16:30-31 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

(Belief is not a work! But it is a "do!")

Brother,

Eph 1 is indeed a wonderful passage of Scripture an should comfort the soul of any believer who reads it.

However, when I read it without preconceptions of what predestination is, I got a new meaning. (This happened several years ago for me.)

If you believe Paul's teaching of predestination is about your salvation, then I ask you:

• Has the dispensation of the fullness of times been fulfilled? (Eph 1:10)
• Has all been gathered together in Christ? (Eph 1:10)
• Has your inheritance been redeemed yet? (Eph 1:11 cf Eph 1:14, "until")
• What do the words "who first trusted Christ" in Eph 1:12, and "afterthat ye heard the gospel... after that ye believed" in Eph 1:13 mean, if regeneration by the Holy Spirit precedes belief?

The point is that Paul is taking about something that God has predestinated. In this chapter, it's all future. If you're saved now (and you are!), then your predestination is not about your belief and your "choice" to receive Christ. Your predestination is, as a believer, to be conformed to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29), to the praise of his glory (Eph 1:14), etc.

:amen: Brandon!

BTW, I like that: "Belief is not a work! But it is a "do!".

Indeed. Here is my understanding and my comments on of Ephesians 1:3-14.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

The doctrinal truths contained in the first chapter of Ephesians begin with this important reality. This one truth is the foundation of all truth. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings, to include election, predestination, adoption, acceptance, redemption, forgiveness, grace, and security--specifically in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God’s perfect plan and purpose rests in and revolves around the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

God has indeed chosen us before the foundation of the world. But observe that His choosing and election is specifically in Christ. Not works, not law, not good behavior, not discipline and not effort. God’s sovereign plan and will is that all “in him” (Christ), be chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before him in love.

In His perfect and sovereign will, God did not choose to select the better man and reject the inferior one. Every true Christian was chosen in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world through the instrument of faith in His completed work. Holy Scripture teaches that God ordained all true believers to be endowed with the certain quality of righteousness; to become a peculiar and separated assembly.

God has specifically chosen those of us who believe in Christ Jesus to be “holy” and “without blame” before Him in love. Our being “holy” and “without blame” is not conditional to our holy and blameless behavior, it is a spiritual reality. Our spiritual rebirth in Christ imputes and endows us with the quality of righteousness and perfection.

How is a person in Him? As Brandon (Diligent) appropriately wrote. Only one way, believe in your heart. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Again, the “predestination” and the “adoption” is specifically “by Jesus Christ.” It is the good pleasure of God’s perfect will that by Jesus Christ all who are in Christ are predestinated and adopted according to the good pleasure of His will.

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Again, we are accepted “in the beloved” (Jesus Christ).

Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

We have “redemption” only through the blood of Jesus Christ. We have the “forgiveness” of sins only by the blood of Jesus Christ. And, we have “grace” only by the Lord Jesus Christ. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Eph 1:8-14 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 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: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Our everlasting security and assurance is specifically in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the “earnest of our inheritance” until the final day of redemption when we are in His eternal presence.

The entire doctrine of election, predestination, and God’s sovereignty is indeed a challenge to understand. But, I think we would all agree that God’s plan, before the foundation of the world, is that all who believe be saved through the Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual blessings in heavenly places are ours through Him.