Posted by Yong TM (202.172.43.132) on February 21, 2003 at 10:49:52:
In Reply to: T.U.L.I.P posted by Khew Chee Keong on February 19, 2003 at 15:01:16:
This question was touched on during last evening's QnA session at NTU. You probably were there so you would know Dr Tong's general trend of thought.
Essentially, the point of election is centred on the grace of God. Since it is the grace of God, it naturally means that people who received that grace is undeserving in the first place. Therefore, a sinner cannot demand to be saved, and can only give thanks for having had the grace to be saved.
Reformed understanding places great emphasis on God's own sovereignty over all things, and places man in a pathetic state (hence Total Depravity - note the word 'Total'). Election is simply an understanding that out of the whole mass of sinners, God has, in His wisdom, decided to save some. The rest who did not receive this grace would perish out of the natural outcome of sin. What you have described in known as double-predestination; that God elects some for salvation, AND elects others for damnation. Reformed understanding is about the former, while the latter is a natural consequence of sin, not of election.
For those who did not get to attend the QnA, Dr Tong gave an excellent illustration on this point. Say A and B both drove cars to the same destination, taking different routes. Both encountered severe car accidents and were dying. A doctor passed by A, and managed to save him. So we will say that A lived because a doctor came to save him. But for B, no one was around to help him, and he died. Do we say in his death certificate that he died because there was no doctor to help him? We don't. We say that he died from massive injuries due to the accident.
In the same manner then, we say someone is saved because Jesus Christ came to save Him (and He chose to come to save Him, having elected him before the foundation of the world according to scripture). But when someone perish in hell, the situation is NOT because Christ did not come to save him. He perishes because of his sin.
Another thought that was difficult was this concept that God loves every single person and would want every one to be saved. This understanding has become so pervasive that we basically justify many bad behaviours and would not take action against errant believers out of the name of love. Some propose even that the entire world will finally be saved (universalism).
In reformed understanding, that is not so. The justice of God cannot be diminished because of His love. The both runs parallel. Clearly in scripture, there are many occasions when God would even ensure that some would not believe. The Pharoah of Egypt was an example. Another would be Isaiah 6: 9,10 when Isaiah was told to preach to people who would be made NOT to believe (poor Isaiah).
In all these context then, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement and Irristible Grace would not be so difficult to understand.
When the LORD elects someone, our understanding is that the Holy Spirit will illuminate that person's heart and reawaken him to see the light; like Paul encountering Christ. Without the Holy Spirit, we will not know God. The same Bible contains the same words for different people; yet it changes lives of some, but is of no consequence to others. The difference is whether the Holy Spirit enlightens the reader or not. In this, a theologian could know theology and the Bible extremely well, and still NOT be a believer.
While election is essentially an understanding with strong biblical backing (and since scripture is our final authority, we need to based our understanding on scripture), election also answers many questions in real life on why some would believe, and some would not. Some conversion experiences are rather strange, like that of the great Christian writer CS Lewis, who was an aethist for most of his life, dealing with philosophy, history and deep academic subjects as a professor. And then he suddenly believed, quite out of the blues. The first person to enter the kingdom of God was not a saint, but a sinful robber hanging beside the cross of Christ. And most of all, out of the billions in this world, you and I believe.