Newsflash.  The Presbyterian Church USA which is the liberal wing of the Presbyterian Church has voted this weekend to allow homosexuals to be ordained as members of the clergy.  To accomplish this goal the group had to rewrite a part of its historic confession so as to eliminate from it clear biblical references to the perversion of homosexuality.  The end result is a confession of faith that moves away from the Bible as the standard of judgment and moves toward the affirmation of Jesus as the Christ as the standard of judgment.  This is classic liberal move:  affirm the Bible as the witness to Jesus Christ, then make sure that the Jesus of history is separated from the Christ of faith so that the Jesus of the New Testament testifies to who Christ is, but not totally.  The Christ of faith is that one whom we meet in faith experientially and when that step is taken, Christ becomes whoever we create Him to be.  Thus the move of the PCUSA.  Mark this move.  It is simply the lead step in a dance that will bring along other liberal entities to follow suit.  The liberal Baptist group, CBF; will not be far behind as even now there is a struggle in this group to find a way to be all-inclusive while being “true” to Scripture.  The people of the PCUSA have paved the way for the CBF so don’t be surprised when you read that Baptists bodies out of love for Christ and His people have come to condemn those who condemn homosexality and  have taken a stand that will provide for practicing homosexuals a place of love and grace in the caring context of CBF and her member churches.  You can read more about the recent decision of the PCUSA at albertmohler.com.

Now to the topic for this look at TULIP:  Unconditional Election.  This tenet of Calvinism builds off the first.  This tenet makes no sense to us if we believe that humans are basically good or if we believe that humans are only partially sinful.  It is only when we affirm the thoroughness of human sinfulness that this tenet makes any sense at all.  If we are thoroughly sinful then even our “choosing” mechanism is tainted by sin.  This reality would suggest that the choices we make from birth are choices that are sinful.  Now be careful here that the essence of sin as biblically shown is understood.  Sin is not defined by what we do but by who we are and who every person is from birth is a self-centered, self-oriented, self-consumed individual.  Life is about us from the beginning.  So that when we come to the place of making choices, we make choices based on what would benefit us.  Watch any group of young boys choosing teams for a baseball game and you will see human sinfulness at work.  Every boy wants to “bat first,” and no boy wants to play right field.  The boy wants to be on the mound or around the infield ground and either play left or center field in the outfield.  Sin is simply life directed toward the gratification of our own desires.

Now let me pause here briefly and make sure that we understand the difference between free will and free choice.  It is not freedom of choice that a Calvinist would deny, but freedom of the will.  The will represents the center of life for the human being.  It is the main component in our hard drive from which choices emerge.  However we are wired from the beginning will give direction to the choices we make.  If we are wired toward God, we will make choices in that direction. If we are wired toward ourselves, we will make choices in that direction.  It seems to me that the witness of Scripture and human experience is that all of us from the start are wired to make choices that are best for us.  We are born in sin.

Now if that component is in place then we must decide whether we make the choice on our own to turn to God in repentance and faith or whether it is God who makes the choice to come to us and to call us to Himself.  One of the finest interpreters of Calvin ever to live and write was B.B. Warfield and he would write that Calvin and true Calvinists want more than anything else for God to receive all the glory.  This means that every component of the Calvinist system is there to render glory to God and not to man.  A true Calvinist would rather do anything than to rob God of the glory that is due Him.  Conversely, a true Arminian would rather do anything than to suggest that man is not free in his choices.  One seeks to exalt God in His glory while the other seeks to exonerate man in his freedom.

Unconditional election simply means that God’s choice of us and call to us is not conditioned by anything in us, not even our commitment to trusting God.  God chooses us and calls us exclusively as an act of His sovereign grace.  You may need to know that Arminians in election or that God chooses and calls.  It is impossible to read the New Testament and not believe in the electing grace of God; the word itself is found twenty-three times in the New Testaments from the Gospels to the Book of Revelation.  The difference is that the Calvinist sees God’ s choice of and call to us as due exclusively to God.  The Arminian sees that God chooses and calls either based on foreknowledge of who will believe or based on foreknowlege of some merit in us that merits or belonging to Him.  So there it is.  Election is inescapable as a basic biblical reality.  What you and I must decide is whether God elects us as a result of who He is or on the basis of who we are.  And remember that the ultimate issue in all of these tenets is the issue of initiative—does this glorious salvation begin with me and my movement toward God or does it begin with God and His movement toward me?  The latter is the core of Calvinism; the former is the foundation of Arminianism.

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