We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Arbitrary Election

Image via Micah J Murray at www.redemptionpictures.com

Image via Micah J Murray at www.redemptionpictures.com

Micah J. Murray wrote a blog entitled Five Reasons I Reject Unconditional Election, which was a response to John Piper’s recent arguments for embracing unconditional election. If you’re looking for Scripture-based argumentation, you would do well to look elsewhere (as Micah freely suggests) but if you’re looking for the deep down, intuitive and honest gut stuff, you’ll be glad you read Micah’s thoughts.

From Micah’s blog post:

If God chose before the foundation of the world who He would save and who He would not save, then it is an act of unimaginable cruelty to create those people He has already chosen not to save. They never have any hope of anything other than eternal conscious torment. If God, who is in control of every aspect of the universe, chooses to create people He has not also chosen to elect, is He not simply creating human firewood destined only to stoke the flames of hell forever?

Related Reading

The Most Quoted Old Testament Verse

No other passage from the Old Testament is quoted more by New Testament authors than Psalm 110:1. Its frequent citation should cause us to pay attention to what is being said. It reads: The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”  In David’s day, it…

God Does Not Always Get What He Wants

One of the ways the Bible makes it clear that humans have free will and that God doesn’t predetermine human decisions is found in the responses God has toward human choices. Scripture consistently depicts God as being frustrated by the way his people obstinately resist his plans and Scripture often depicts God’s heart as breaking…

Beyond Theoretical Salvation

Profession of Christ’s lordship in our lives isn’t a magical formula. It’s more than a theory about how we can get saved if we confess the right doctrines. The confession has meaning only when it’s understood to be a genuine pledge to surrender one’s life to Christ. (See yesterday’s post.) But I want us to…

Free Will: Is it a coherent concept?

Greg is going to be spending the next several blogs talking about the idea of free will. In this first reflection, he discusses whether it is coherent to speak of a decision that is not determined or exhaustively caused.

Faith or Magic?

Many Christians today treat faith like magic. While the content of what Christians believe is obviously different from pagan practitioners of magic, the way they believe and the motive they have for believing, seems to be very similar. Magic is generally understood to involve people engaging in special behaviors that empower them to gain favor…

Are You Really Saved?

When God came to rescue us through the Incarnation, the cross and the resurrection, he did a great deal more than merely provide a way for us to avoid the consequences of our sin. In other words, it is more than getting a ticket to heaven. He defeated the enemy that held us in bondage,…