INTRODUCTION

 

Since my conversion to Christianity in 1972, I have been preaching the gospel to skeptical college students. Their skepticism is supported in the classroom where many anti-Christian professors emphasize the worst in Church history--the Crusades and the Inquisition--in order to discredit the church in particular and Christianity in general.

When I am defending the faith, sometimes, I am confronted by a student, who with a snide air of sophistication questions, "Do you believe in predestination?" He is not a truth seeker, but comes to me with the same spirit that the Pharisees confronted Jesus; the students intention is to confuse me and make me appear like their stereotype of the ignorant fundamentalist preacher. The arrogant scoffer has been fueled in the classroom, where the professor has chosen to stress predestination, one of the most controversial doctrinal disputes in Christian history, to make not only Christianity look bad, but to make God appear to be the worst imaginable tyrant. A crowd of 100 wait intently for my answer, because they have also been convinced that Christianity is a religion of fools. "Now let's watch the preacher squirm."

"Yes, I believe in predestination, but not according to the way that you have been taught or the definition of John Calvin, who believed that God predetermined before Creation that a certain number of individuals were predestined by God to eternal life, and the rest of humanity reprobated to eternal damnation. The Bible does teach that God always planned to have a people conformed to the image of Christ, but he did not chose which individuals would be a part of his Kingdom and which would be damned. If God has already determined certain individuals for Heaven and others for Hell, then he would be unjust and my preaching would be in vain. Nor do I believe that history is fixed, or inevitably set by God, like the fatalism of Islam. God is not the author of evil."

Typically, this answer surprises and silences the students. Had I answered yes without an explanation, they would have attacked the justice of the God whom I profess to serve. Had I answered no, they would have accused me of not believing the Bible. Unfortunately, Calvin's understanding of predestination is the only definition with which most students are familiar. Some of their professors may have been intellectually honest enough to have taught James Arminius' view of predestination, who taught that God's choice of salvation or damnation is based on God foreseeing who would or would not respond to the gospel. Even the Arminian view of predestination creates a problem, which is explaining how God could foreknow man's response without it being predetermined.

Perhaps, I should not be too hard on these professors, because it is a fact that at certain times in Christian history the Calvinists' view has been the predominate teaching within the Church. However, there are so many other doctrines like, "love your neighbor," that they could choose to teach if they were inclined to put the Church and its divine Founder in a favorable light. Professors, who endlessly dwell on the Crusades and Inquisition, refuse to acknowledge that most of the world's greatest universities, hospitals and charities were founded by the Church.

It is even more distressing that teaching on predestination, when addressed, within the Church is as bad, if not worse, than in academia. I say, when addressed, because in most churches today theological issues, especially controversial ones, tend to be ignored. The inclination is to "Just preach Jesus," and avoid doctrine as much as possible. Hence, church people are not challenged to think nor do they learn Christian history. Therefore, they are woefully unprepared to defend the faith in the academic setting among professors who love controversy and who claim to despise blind faith (however, usually only when the credulity is directed toward God). Hence, the need for a book on predestination which interprets the term in a Biblical context, in the historical setting of the Jew-Gentile conflict and in the light of God's ultimate plan in history.

Rightly understood, the term predestination should never have caused all the controversy that it has. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language destination means, "1. the place or point to which someone or something is going or directed. 2. The ultimate goal or purpose for which anything is created or intended." Pre simply means an earlier or prior time. It is better to break down the word in this manner when defining it because dictionaries tend to follow the theological definition of predestination as defined by the Calvinists. The term, by its connection with the word destiny, conveys an unfortunate implication, as if predestination had to do with fate.

The noun predestination is not found in the King James Bible. Indeed, one will read through the complete Old Testament, the Gospels, early church history as recorded in Acts before he encounters the verb predestinate referred to in Romans chapter 8:29-30 and there is no other reference to the term except in Ephesians 1:5,11.

Romans 8:29-30 reads: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Paul was not referring to particular individuals or a select number whom God willed to be eternally saved as the Calvinists teach, nor was he speaking of particular persons whom God foresaw would respond to the gospel as the Arminians teach. Paul was simply teaching that God knew long before the gospel was proclaimed to the nations of the world, that he was going to have a group of people (the Elect or the Church), who would be conformed to the image of his Son, that is he would have a people who were Christ-like in character.

Jesus was the first-born among many brethren, that is, believers who responded to the gospel from the many nations of the earth, not just Israel. The Gentiles coming into what Jesus called the Kingdom and what Paul called the Church was no accident of history, but was according to God's ages long plan and purpose, which was finally coming to fruition. God had from the beginning been determined to have a people, a corporate group, a family, after his moral likeness. He wills, "that none should perish," and will receive all who would meet the condition of an obedient faith. But most are not willing to be conformed to the character of Christ, so they are disqualified by their own choice, not according to some mysterious or hidden choice of God made in eternity past. God's decree has always been: "He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned."

Look back at Roman 8:29-30 and notice the divine order: 1. He foreknew or knew before that he was going to have a people. But he did not choose particular individuals as both Arminians and Calvinists teach. Calvinists say that the choice was made in eternity past by an arbitrary will; Arminians teach that it was made based upon knowing which individuals would respond in faith. The fact is no individual was chosen at all for eternal life or damnation. This verse must be interpreted in the context of verse 28 where Paul referred to those who "love God who are the called according to his purpose." 2. He predestined, planned or purposed to have a people who would love him. 3. He called Israel in history, not in eternity past, to establish a nation. He called the many from all nations, not just the few from Israel; although of the many called, few actually responded with faith and were hence chosen to eternal life. 4. Those who responded were effectually called, because they responded with "the faith which works by love." (Gal 5:6) Consequently, they were justified. 5. Those that were justified, he glorified (partially now, completely at their resurrection).

Predestination as a Biblical idea refers to God's general plan to have a holy people. Election refers to God's method of choosing particular groups and individuals to carry out his plans. Biblically these terms are primarily associated with the call of the Jews and Gentiles to join together, "to make in himself of twain one new man (the Church), so making peace," between these two estranged people. (Eph 2:15) These terms should not be associated with some fictitious Calvinistic notion, that God unconditionally elected before Creation certain individuals to eternal salvation and reprobated the rest of humanity to eternal destruction.

Two chapters of the Bible that have been a stronghold for the Calvinist doctrine of predestination are Ephesians Chapter 1 and Romans Chapter 9. Unfortunately, too often these chapters have been read independently of their immediate context. Chapter 1 of Ephesians does not give any credibility to Calvin's doctrine of predestination, when read in the context of the rest of the letter, especially chapters 2 and 3. Likewise Calvinism falls when Romans 9 is studied in the context of the whole letter, notably chapters 10-11. It is a purpose of this book to meet Calvinism in what most consider their strongest fortress, and push down its walls for good. For when these chapters are not only studied in their relationship to the other mentioned chapters, but in the historical context of the Jew-Gentile conflict, no trace of the Calvinist's castle can be found.

To correctly understand the term predestination we must appreciate the historical context in which Paul wrote his epistles and also God's original purpose in Creation. First let us consider God's ultimate intention for creating man in order to understand Paul's usage of the term as it affected God's strategy in human history.

 

God's Purpose

God created man in his own image; that is, man, like his Creator, is a sentient and rational being with the capacity to make moral choices. Although God wanted holy and loving beings, he could not create virtuous beings by fiat, because virtue by its nature is a matter of personal choice. Therefore, it was impossible for God to make Adam a morally good being. Adam was created in a state of innocence with the potential to be good or evil.

God created man for his own pleasure. (Rev 4:11) God is a creative being and creative persons obviously want to produce. Artists take pleasure in painting, authors want to write, architects desire to build. What could be more creative for the Creator than to make beings after his own image? Not only beings with God-like attributes of intelligence, will, imagination, memory, emotions, etc., but beings that would be conformed to the character of his Son. (Rom 8:29) The former was achieved in a day, but the latter takes a life-time for God to accomplish, and then is only possible with man's cooperation. Developing a body of people that will glorify God by reflecting the image of his holy character is a task for God which has been millenniums in development.

God did not merely create man for the sake of exerting his creative powers. He created man, because pure love yearns for an object. Just as a loving husband and wife want children with whom they can share their love, so God desired children with whom he could have a Father-Son relationship.

God, like any loving Father, would want his children to love and honor him. God could not cause Adam to love him since love is a choice. However, God through his example could teach and influence Adam to walk in love. God's intention was to have a holy family with whom he could have a loving relationship. To accomplish his purpose God allowed for two factors which could frustrate his will: first, the freedom of man to choose right or wrong; and, second, the subtle power of evil represented by the Serpent (Satan).

Adam and Eve from the beginning had a natural affection for God which over the days as they exercised their freedom developed into a virtuous and obedient love. But God's plan for the first family was frustrated when they abused their freedom. Eve succumbed to the temptations of the Serpent; and Adam quickly followed his wife into rebellion. Sadly, it became necessary for God to cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. After their treasonous action, God withdrew from man's immediate presence. God began to work through mediators--angels, the patriarchs, priests, and prophets to draw man back into his intimate fellowship and sonship. Despite the fall, God remained firm in his plan to have a people with a pure heart who would serve him. In each generation since Adam, "The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." (2 Chr 16:9) The Father's purpose is to win man back to conformity to his good, perfect and loving will. He is constantly searching for men whom he may use to accomplish his noble intent.

The Bible only records God discovering in his search a few men in primitive history, who had a pure heart and diligently sought their Maker. Hopefully, there were more but the Scriptures only name a few who understood "that the just shall live by faith." (Hab 2:4) By faith Abel obtained witness that he was righteous by offering a blood sacrifice; by faith Enoch walked with and pleased God; by faith Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and also became an heir of the righteousness that is by faith. God found in his search these few virtuous men who appreciated that, "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb 11:6) These men were God's elect. We have no evidence that God singled out these men before Creation, but he chose them in their time because they pleased him with their pure hearts and with an obedient faith.

 

Who is Elected?

So we have learned that God predestined a purpose and a plan to have a people, but he did not predetermine before Creation or even after the Fall which individuals would be a part of his family. Closely associated with the Biblical doctrine of predestination is the doctrine of election--both of which are two of the most misunderstood teachings of the Bible. Election has never been God's choice to grant eternal life unconditionally to any groups or individuals. Election is closely related to the word--foreknow. The Greek word for know is ginosko, which according to Vine's Dictionary, "indicated a relation between the person knowing and the object known...and hence the establishment of a relationship." Fore simply means before, so foreknowledge means to know something before the event. God always knew that he was going to have a people, but he did not know before, which individuals would respond to his universal call.

The word election itself is derived from the Greek word, eklegomai, which means, literally, "to choose something for oneself." The Bible uses words such as choose, predestinate, foreordain, foreknow, determine, and call to indicate that God has entered into a special relationship with groups and /or individuals through whom he has decided to fulfill his purpose.

The doctrine of election is rooted in the revelation that out of all the peoples on earth God has chosen to reveal himself in a special, unique way to one particular people, the Jews. This idea thunders throughout the pages of the Bible from the early awareness of Israel as the people of God through the Psalms and the prophets. "He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation." (Isa 14:1) "For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob." (Psalm 47:19-20)

Abraham was God's man to lead the chosen people. God promised to bless his descendants and all peoples on earth through him. "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. {2} And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly." (Gen 17:1-2) God appointed circumcision as a token of the certainty and perpetuity of this covenant. Abraham responded to this call in obedience and faith.

God called Abraham in order that he might birth a people, and through that particular people another people of still greater significance. Abraham's election was for the sake of Israel; Israel's election was for the sake of all mankind. The choice of the one was for the good of the many, and the many will come from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. (Rev. 5:9, 7:9, Gal. 3:26-29). It is not that God chose one and rejected others, but he chose one that all others might be chosen.

Within the covenant community of Israel, God elected or selected certain individuals to fulfill specific functions, including the patriarchs, the prophets, kings, and priests. To be called chosen or elected to serve God's ongoing purpose is not of itself a predestination to eternal salvation. Nor was it ever intended to be a pretense for arrogance, but rather an opportunity for service. "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, ... for a light of the Gentiles" (Isa. 42:6). Israel tended to presume upon God's gracious favor, to assume, for example, that because the Lord had placed his temple at Jerusalem, they were exempt from judgment. Again and again the prophets tried to dissuade them of this false notion of security by pointing out the true meaning of the covenant and their mission among the Gentiles (Jer. 7:1-14; Amos 3:2; Jonah). But they refused to listen.

God renewed his covenant by the choice of Moses to lead Israel into Caanan. As he did with Abraham, God also made clear to Moses that his covenant was conditioned upon obedience: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: For all the earth is mine:" (Exo 19:5)

All the earth is God's! God has always "so loved the world!" The Lord was particularly concerned for the one nation on account of the many in order to reach all men, everywhere. "The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down." (Psa 146:9) A stranger was anyone who was not of the Jewish nation. "The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. {14} From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. {15} He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works." (Psa 33:13-15) Many other scriptures could be cited that reveal the divine care and goodness for all peoples; but he bestowed a particular and extraordinary providence towards the nation of Israel, so that they could be a light to the world.

We find in the case of Israel that each generation failed miserably to keep God's law and establish a loving relationship with him, so, ultimately, God judged and dispersed the Jews throughout the nations of the world.

 

The Dreadful Decree

This subject of predestination and election has been completely distorted by the system of theology called Calvinism. This scheme has made the mistake of assuming that because God's general purpose to have a family conformed to his character was predetermined before Creation, that therefore everything was predetermined. It also errs in assuming that because in exceptional circumstances God might seem to usurp man's will and virtually cause men to act, then God is the cause of all events, or that he predetermines everything that happens in history. It is also wrong in teaching that because God foreknows certain things which he intends to bring to pass, that he therefore foreknows all of the future. The fact is that man's future moral choices are not knowable to God in the absolute sense, because these choices do not yet exist. God knows all that is knowable (omniscience, correctly understood), but since the future does not exist, it is not definitely knowable, except in the sense that God in his wisdom can predict it, based on his intentions and by his complete knowledge of man's past and present behavior.

John Calvin's (1509-1564) Institutes of the Christian Religion was first published in 1536 and later went through several editings and enlargements until the final edition in 1559. The doctrine of predestination as taught in the Institutes by Calvin, was also taught by Martin Luther, and by Augustine a millennium earlier. But primarily because of the widespread acceptance of the Institutes, predestination is associated with John Calvin more than any of his predecessors or any that have followed him in what has become known as Reformed Theology.

So let us allow the man to speak for himself concerning this strange doctrine that has had such an impact on Christianity in particular and western thought in general:

"The predestination by which God adopts some to the hope of life, and adjudges others to eternal death, no man who would be thought pious ventures simply to deny; but it is greatly caviled at, especially by those [Arminians] who make prescience [foreknowledge] its cause. We, indeed, ascribe both prescience and predestination to God; but we say it is absurd to make the latter subordinate to the former...By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death. Book III, Chapter 21, Paragraph 5

" Although it is sufficiently plain that God, by his secret counsel chooses whom he will while he rejects others, his gratuitous election has only been partially explained until we come to the case of single individuals, to whom God not only offers salvation, but so assigns it, that the certainty of the result remains not dubious or suspended...We say, then, that Scripture clearly prove this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life, by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment." III, 21, 7

"Many controvert all the positions which we have laid down, especially the gratuitous election of believers, which however cannot be overthrown. For they [Arminians] commonly imagine that God distinguishes between men according to the merits which he foresees that each individual is to have, giving the adoption of sons to those whom he foreknows will not be unworthy of his grace, and dooming those to destruction whose dispositions he perceives will be prone to mischief and wickedness. Thus by interposing foreknowledge as a veil, they not only obscure election, but pretend to give it a different origin." III, 22, 1

"The decree, I admit, is dreadful; and yet it is impossible to deny that God foreknew what the end of man was to be before he made him, and foreknew, because he had so ordained by his decree...Nor ought it to seem absurd when I say, that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity; but also at his own pleasure arranged it. For as it belongs to his wisdom to foreknow all future events, so it belongs to his power to rule, and govern them by his hand." III, 23, 7

"We cannot assign any reason for his bestowing mercy on his people, but just that it so pleases him, neither can we have any reason for his reprobating others but his will. When God is said to visit in mercy or harden whom he will, men are reminded that they are not to seek for any cause beyond his will." III, 22, 11

"Here they [Arminians] recur to the distinction between will and permission, the object being to prove that the wicked perish only by the permission, but not by the will of God. But why do we say that he permits, but just because he wills? Nor, indeed, is there any probability in the thing itself--viz that man brought death upon himself, merely by the permission, and not the ordination of God; as if God had not determined what he wished the chief of his creatures to be. I will not hesitate, therefore, simply to confess with Augustine that the will of God is necessity, and that everything is necessary which he has willed; just as those things will certainly happen which he has foreseen...The first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should: why he deemed it meet, we know not. It is certain, however, that it was just, because he saw that his own glory would thereby be displayed." III, 23, 8

"Many professing a desire to defend the Deity from an invidious charge admit the doctrine of election, but deny that any one is reprobated. This they do ignorantly and childishly, since there could be no election without its opposite, reprobation. God is said to set apart those whom he adopts for salvation. It were most absurd to say, that he admits others fortuitously, or that they by their industry acquire what election also confers on a few. Those, therefore, whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them for the inheritance which he predestines to his children." III, 23, 1

"Since the arrangement of all things is in the hand of God, since to him belongs the disposal of life and death, individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify him by their destruction. If any one alleges that no necessity is laid upon them by the providence of God, but rather that they are created by him in that condition, because he foresaw their future depravity, he says something, but does not say enough...Since he foresees the things which are to happen, simply because he had decreed that they are so to happen, it is vain to debate about prescience, which it is clear that all events take place by his sovereign appointment." III, 23, 6

"As the Lord by the efficacy of his calling accomplishes toward his elect the salvation to which he had by his eternal counsel destined them, so he had judgments against the reprobate, by which he executes his counsel concerning them. Those, therefore, whom he has created for dishonor during life and destruction at death, that they may be vessels of wrath and examples of severity, in bringing to their doom he at one time deprives of the means of hearing his work, at another by the preaching of it blinds and stupefies them the more." III, 24, 12

"Creatures are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed." I,16,3.

"We maintain that, by his providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined." I,16,8

"I Concede more--that thieves and murderers, and other evil-doers, are instruments of divine Providence, being employed by the Lord himself to execute the judgments which he has resolved to inflict." I, 17, 5

"The devil, and the whole train of the ungodly, are, in all directions, held in by the hand of God as with a bridle, so that they can neither conceive any mischief, nor plan what they have conceived, nor how muchsoever they may have planned, move a single finger to perpetrate, unless in so far as he permits, nay, unless in so far as he commands; that they are not only bound by his fetters but are even forced to do him service,--when the godly think of all these things they have ample sources of consolation." I, 17, 11

Augustus Toplady, an 18th Century Anglican priest in his popular tract, The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted, said, "The sum of all is this: One in twenty (suppose) of mankind are elected; nineteen in twenty are reprobated. The elect shall be saved, do what they will: the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can. Reader, believe this, or be damned." Toplady's view that rejection of the Calvinist's position on predestination is sure evidence that one is damned may be too strong for more moderate Calvinists, but even Calvin stated that only the impious would dare deny the doctrine. Does one deny the faith in denying Calvinism? This book will answer that question.

 

Does Calvinism Really Glorify God?

The Calvinist's doctrine makes God out to be tyrannical, despotic, inscrutable, arbitrary, capricious, and rigid. One who is not primarily moved by love but simply "the good pleasure of his will." Certainly a person might fear such an entity, but how could anyone be attracted to such an offensive God, who would damn most of the human race merely "for the good pleasure of his will," independently of any good or evil that these pitiful creatures have done. This God is not good and benevolent, but cruel and malicious.

The God of the Bible is represented as a Moral Governor with benevolence towards all and malice towards none, who sacrificed his Son to provide a way in which he might wisely and justly offer forgiveness and mercy to all, and at the same time uphold his holy law and satisfy the claims of public justice. Where is the mercy or the compassion in the Calvinistic system? The God of this system did not choose to elect or reprobate because men were miserable or evil, virtuous or remorseful, but simply because he was pleased to save some and damn others.

How came the reprobate to their miserable damned condition? By the decree of God! He put them all in the consequences of the Fall, that he might have an occasion to display his grace, in saving some, and to glorify his justice in damning others! He made them sinners, that he might have a pretense to torment them for ever, to the glory of his sovereign justice!

Calvinism makes God the author of sin, he chose its existence when it did not exist. He becomes the most unholy being in the universe--the cause and source of all wickedness and misery. Adam did not fall, he was shoved, was not deceived by the devil, but by the bully God of Calvinism.

The sinner is damned through no fault of his own. He is held guilty for Adam's sin thousands of years before he was born. Are infants damned? They are if they are reprobate.

There is nothing the elect can do to endanger his soul. Why exhort the elect when there is no peril to the elect? If it be alleged, that warnings are designed to stimulate to duty, then a deception is attempted to be played off upon the elect, to promote the fruits of the Spirit!

God deals with men according to their character and conduct, the Calvinist system excludes such an idea entirely. Calvinism removes moral quality from human actions and volition--renders man incapable of vice or virtue. It destroys the accountability of man.

Good men stand against tyranny,--arbitrary rule, rule above law. If anyone in a position of authority acted like the God of Calvinism, he would be universally condemned. Everything our conscience tells us is good and right, the God of Calvinism violates. They call evil good, and good evil. It violates all civilized rules of conduct and behavior, law and justice.

If true, on the day of judgment the conscience and intelligence of the universe must be on the side of the condemned. Hell would be a refuge from such a being--its woes a relief from the deeper alarms of his hated and dreaded relations. This system makes the devil out to be better than God. Now we can understand why he rebelled. Which is worse Heaven or Hell?

He commands one thing, but decrees precisely the contrary. He says, "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth," when in fact they die for his pleasure. He pleads with man to change his direction, but in fact he urges them on to sin and ruin. Suppose the sinner could obey his command when it is not so ordained, then he could be damned for violating his will. God has made us conscious that we might do otherwise than we do, but he knows we cannot because he has determined we shall not. What hypocrisy, duplicity, trickery! If true, no wonder men turn to Atheism.

This scheme promotes recklessness and indifference to virtue. Why should a sinner choose to change when he knows that he can't? Why should he regret his course of conduct when he knows that it is inevitable? Why should he want to affect the future when it is fixed? Why pray?

Reprobates are called to return to God, but they can't obey the call, and yet for not obeying every time they refuse, their damnation is increased. Could Satan himself have devised a more awful system? Every call of mercy is so arranged as necessarily to sink the poor, miserable victim deeper into the quenchless flames of eternal damnation.

We might ask the devil, "Thou fool, why dost thou roar about any longer? Thy lying in wait for souls is as needless and useless as our preaching. God is doing your work for you, he is dragging the reprobate into Hell."

No one can escape from the road to Hell! The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The decree is passed who shall disannul it? Why even have a Judgment Day? God acts irresistibly on the elect and Satan on the reprobate. It is impossible for one or the other to help acting as they do; or rather help being acted upon, in the manner wherein they are. Man doesn't act at all in this system, he is merely acted upon.

Calvinism claims that God is good to the reprobate in the world by giving him common grace. But in fact God is just fattening the ox for the slaughter. The man's birth was a curse. It would have been better for that man not to have been born. What Calvinism calls common grace might be better called damning grace.

Calvinists accuse those who disagree of robbing God of his glory. But where is the glory in this system, if man's will cannot resist God? However, the Bible and human experience confirm that man can resist God's will, but in some God is able to overcome their resistance. This gives glory to God!

How does Calvinism manifest the glorious attributes of God--his justice, mercy, wisdom and love? How does it glorify God's wisdom to create a creature and then entreat him only to insure his damnation? Where is the love, the mercy? Why will he only have mercy on the elect? Why not save all? Why will the reprobate for destruction? The Calvinist can only answer, "He will because he wills."

Calvinists assert that their system humbles men and exalts God. But are Calvinists really more humble than other men? The truth is no opinion humbles man, it is the love of God that humbles man. Nor is God glorified by men's opinion. God is glorified by displays of his moral character in his children. He is glorified through our righteousness. Calvinists idea of jealousy is that if we do anything right, God is jealous.

"Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: {24} But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD." (Jere 9:23-24)

 

Calvinists and Arminians Are Both Wrong

Arminians believe in a conditional rather than an absolute election. The cardinal point of the predestination controversy between Calvinists and Arminians rests upon this question: Are the decrees by which certain individuals are elected to eternal life and others destined to everlasting damnation dependent on or independent of human conduct--that is, were these decrees based upon God's foreknowledge of the different use individuals would make of their moral agency, or were they not?

Although Arminianism presents a kinder and gentler God, their doctrine is illogical. How can they reconcile absolute foreknowledge with man's free-will? How could God know man's future choices unless they are determined? If their choices are determined, then man really has no choice to exercise. The Arminians have been storming the Calvinist castle for hundreds of years with their wet powder of a foreknowledge or prescient election. Most of them fell into the moat long ago and are merely swimming for their life.

The Calvinist doctrine of predestination is more demeaning of God's character. Both sides on this issue promote a false notion of God existing in some existential "eternal now," where the past, present and future to him are all the same, which results in an unscriptural idea of God's nature. Thus God is removed so far from man's reality, that it becomes exceedingly difficult to relate to such a remote being.

It is one of the great ironies of history, that Paul's doctrine of predestination which was intended to promote unity in a church torn by dissension between Jews and Gentiles has since the Reformation divided Christians into two warring camps, which will often not even recognize the other's salvation. Satan himself must have predestined this plot by redefining a few scriptural words to confuse and divide Christians for centuries, and neutralize the Church as a witness to the world. The purpose of the book is to expose the Calvinistic view of predestination as the mythical monster that it is; and to show the Arminians, that they need not bow to logical inconsistencies in order to defend the Biblical doctrine of free-will. May men from both camps finally lay down their dull swords with which they have been cutting each other. May they take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and come into the fellowship of the mystery of Christ, which Paul revealed in his Epistles of Ephesians and Romans.

 

 

CHAPTER 1

THE SECRET IS REVEALED

 

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." (1 Tim 3:16)

Mystery in its New Testament usage is a revealed secret. The word is used to denote anything which is hidden or concealed, doctrines which the Jews and the world did not understand until they were revealed by Christ and his apostles. The mystery of godliness, or of true religion, consisted in the several particulars here mentioned by the apostles. Particulars, indeed, which it would never have entered in the heart of man to conceive, (1 Cor. 2:9) had not God accomplished them in fact, and published them by the preaching of his gospel; but which being thus manifested, are intelligible as fact to the simplest understanding.

The apostles are called stewards of the mysteries of God. (1 Cor 4:1) These mysteries could not mean what was, as facts, unknown to them, because to them it was given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. (Matt 13:11) They not only knew these mysteries themselves, but as faithful stewards they were to make them known to others.

An unscriptural and dangerous sense is too often put upon the word mystery, as if it meant something absolutely unintelligible and incomprehensible. But in the Bible it is mentioned as something which is revealed, declared, shown, spoken or which may be known or understood.

1 Timothy 3:16 is one of the most revealing scriptures and doctrinal statements of the Bible. It summarizes our Lord's ministry from his incarnation to his resurrection. A particular mystery revealed in this verse has not since the apostolic era been given the attention that the Bible devotes to it, that Christ "was preached unto the Gentiles and believed on in the world." In other words the Gospel was for Gentiles as well as Jews.

This particular mystery is the predominant theme of Paul's letter to the Ephesians: "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, {2} If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: {3} How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery;...{5} Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; {6} That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: {7} Whereof I was made a minister,... {8}..., that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; {9} And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." (Eph 3:1-9)

Before the Incarnation the kingdom of God was confined to Israel, except for Gentile proselytes, who were incorporated into the nation of Israel by circumcision and keeping the whole law of Moses, or for the few Gentiles who may have obeyed the light of their conscience.

But when Jesus came, the mystery of God which had been concealed from both Jews and Gentiles was revealed, namely, that the Gentiles, people of all nations, were to be freely admitted into the Kingdom on the condition of faith in Christ. The unfolding of this mystery was a rich and glorious example of God's grace, considering the darkness, idolatry, and wickedness into which the heathen world had sunk.

Jesus commissioned his disciples, and particularly Paul to broadcast a general pardon to all nations. Those who repented and believed the gospel were to be received into the kingdom with all of its blessings and privileges on an equal basis with believing Jews. God confirmed his acceptance of the Gentiles by filling them with the Holy Spirit and working miracles among them.

Unbelieving Jews could not accept that the Gentiles were to be a part of God's kingdom. Even believing Jews had great difficulty accepting the Gentiles without them first becoming Jews through submitting to Jewish rites such as circumcision. The line of division between the Jews and Gentiles ran through the whole Roman empire, and indeed predated the Empire. Though they lived side by side, they were separated from one another by deep-rooted feelings of aversion and contempt. The "middle wall of partition" had been generations in the building. The Jews interpretation of their law sanctioned the principle and enforced the practice of national isolation. Jews could not believe that their law associated with all the glorious passages of their history was not to endure forever.

Jewish ceremonial observances even prohibited their eating with the Gentiles. The distinctions between animals and foods were supposed to be but an emblem and type, a mere object lesson of the difference between the Jews and other nations. The Gentiles ate every kind of animal and creeping thing. The differences which the law of Moses compelled the Jew to make in the matter of food were simply the type of the difference and separation, which God had made between his covenant people and those outside the covenant. However, the ceremonial law, with its dietary restrictions, circumcision, holy days, animal sacrifice, etc., which was supposed to be a means to an end, had become an end in itself; Jewish rites and rituals had become the essence of their religion.

When Jesus said to Jews, "God so loved the world," it was a revolutionary thought to the Jewish mindset. Yes, God loved Israel. Of course, God loved his chosen people, the elect of God. But did God love the Gentiles, the heathen, the pagan? No way! The proud Jews scarcely recognized their manhood, preferring to call them "creatures." Nor would they listen when Jesus attempted to reveal the mystery of God's will concerning the Gentile, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (John 10:16)

Even Jews who believed in Jesus had difficulty accepting that the Gentiles were part of God's plan, when Jesus commissioned his disciples to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15-16) "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Mat 28:19-20)

The Great Commission to "all the world," "all nations," "to the end of the world," and "everywhere" is taken for granted today in evangelical Christianity, but to the Jew of the time this was a revolutionary order. "Go to the Gentiles? the nations? the heathen? surely not!" thought the Jew.

The Jewish mindset should have been prepared for "The Great Commission." The historical allegory of Jonah taught that God was interested in the Gentiles at Nineveh. But the apostles were very slow like Jonah in responding to the commission to go to the nations. Even after mass conversion of the Gentiles, many believers were reluctant to accept it, just as Jonah seemed to resent the conversion of the Ninevites.

Jesus' parables were clues that should have unlocked the mystery of God's purpose to the Jews. The parable of the prodigal son is typically applied as a story illustrating personal salvation, and certainly it may be applied in this fashion. However, it is more likely that Jesus had in mind illustrating the contrasting reaction of the Gentile as opposed to the typical reaction of the Jew to the gospel. The younger profligate son represents the Gentile who takes his journey into a far country and wasted his substance on riotous living. He is soon associated with swine, which symbolizes the Gentile world. But he comes to his senses and returns to his father, who saw him afar off and runs to him and lovingly receives him back into his household.

But the elder son who represents the Jews is envious, resentful and angry that his father bestows all the blessings of sonship on his prodigal brother. He complains that he always served and obeyed his father, yet he never gave him a fatted calf and a party with the family and his friends. He was like Israel, "which followed after the law of righteousness, but obtained it not. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." (Roman 9: 31-32) His indignation is an illustration of the Jews anger that the Gentiles were being received into God's favor, and made, with them, fellow heirs of the Father.

The kingdom parables furnished more clues that God was to bring the Gentiles into the Kingdom on an equal footing with the Jews, especially the parable of the vineyard. In the end the owner of the vineyard pays the same amount to those who had been hired the last hour as he does to those who had worked all day in the vineyard.

Jesus spoke of his Church as the Kingdom. Jesus established his Kingdom or Church, which was the spiritual completion of the Jewish Church, for the Jewish polity was destroyed a generation later by Titus' armies. The Christian Church was empowered by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Before the disciples had been individual followers of Jesus, but in the upper room the 120 became his corporate, mystical body, animated by his Spirit. By the end of the day the Church would have 3000 new members, all of them Jews.

 

The Gentile Mission

The Church remained essentially Jewish until God supernaturally intervened to tear down the Jew-Gentile barrier. The Holy Spirit prepared both sides by laying his right hand on the Gentile, Cornelius, in Caesarea, and his left on Peter, the Jew, in Joppa, and drove them to each other through a double vision. Peter's visit to Cornelius' house, which resulted in his conversion, marked the beginning of the end of the exclusively Jewish phase of the Church. (Acts10)

It had required a wonderful combination of natural and supernatural evidence to convince Peter that God is "no respecter of persons," but "in every nation" he accepts him that "feareth him and worketh righteousness"--that all such distinctions as depend on "meat and drink," on "holydays, new moons, and sabbaths," were to pass away,--that these things were only "a shadow of things to come,"--that "the body is of Christ,"--and that "in him we are complete...circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands..buried with him in baptism, and risen with him through faith."

The Lord put his own stamp of approval on the deed which marked so great an expansion of the Church by pouring out the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius' house even as he had Peter and the rest on Pentecost. The cleft between Jew and Gentile was so wide that God's hand had to be applied on both sides to press the separated parts together. God had plainly done it, and that was Peter's defense before his critics. For no sooner had Peter returned to Jerusalem after ministering to Cornelius at Caesarea then his Jewish brethren accused him, "Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." (Acts 11:3)

Thus they did not attack Peter for preaching to the Roman centurion and his men, but for eating with them. In their mind that eating not only was a breach of the law, but it implied the reception of Cornelius and his company in the household of God, and so destroyed the whole fabric of Jewish exclusiveness. The whole distinction between Jew and Gentile was threatened to be pulled up by the roots.

Although Peter's defense is initially accepted by his critics, the prejudices of the Jewish Christians against their Gentile brethren were so strong, that they would later regard the vision at Joppa as applying, not as a general rule, but as a mere personal matter, authorizing the reception of Cornelius and his party alone. They would not see nor understand that it authorized the active evangelization of the Gentile world and prosecution of aggressive Christian efforts among the heathen.

Meanwhile, the disciples in Jerusalem had been scattered abroad by the persecution of Saul of Tarsus. The persecution brings the Church over the border into the Gentile world. Some of these emigrant and fugitive disciples preached to the Greeks at Antioch in Syria, "and a great number believed." (Acts 11:20-21)

Later Paul and Barnabas also came to Antioch to consolidate and fully organize the congregation. The work of Gentile conversion proceeded from Antioch, which thereafter may be regarded as the mother Church of Gentile Christendom. Paul and Barnabas are commissioned as missionaries into Asia Minor by the Antioch Church.

At Antioch [note this is a different Antioch] in Asia Minor, Paul, as his manner was, preached to the Jews first. But when they refused to hear, the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear Paul preach the word. "But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. {46} Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. {47} For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. {48} And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. {49} And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. {50} But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts." (Acts 13:45-50)

Paul and Barnabas go to other cities in Asia Minor and despite much persecution they have great success among Jews and Gentiles, but especially the Gentiles. Thus begins the universal aspect of the Church. Considering the magnitude of this change, and the problems of training and prejudice which it had to encounter within the Church itself, we should not be surprised at the abundance of miracles which attended it. Including Paul being raised after being stoned. Without divine intervention, it is difficult to conceive the Gentile mission could have been accomplished.

The battle of Christian freedom and of universal truth was not won in a moment. Old prejudices do not easily die. New principles were not immediately assimilated and applied. Year after year Paul had to fight the same battles and to proclaim the same fundamental truths and to maintain what seemed at times a losing conflict with the forces of irrational discrimination.

In general outline, the course of events in Asia Minor, with which the Acts 13 passage is concerned, was the same. It was only too faithful a prediction of what was to be Paul's experience everywhere. The stages are: Preaching in the synagogue, rejection there, appeal to the Gentiles, reception by them, a little group of believers formed; disturbances fomented by the Jews, who swallow their hatred of Gentiles by reason of their greater hatred of the apostles, and will riot with heathens, though they will not pray nor eat with them; and finally the apostles' departure to carry the gospel elsewhere.

The Hellenists Jews opposed Paul for the same reason the Jews in Palestine had delivered Jesus to be crucified--driven by envy. "What had this uncircumcised rabble of Antioch to do with 'the promises made to the fathers?'" It was not the first nor the last time that religious men have taken offence at crowds gathering to hear God's word.

The Jewish party who opposed Peter in the Cornelius affair had only been silenced for a time, but they were not destroyed. They took up a new position. Cornelius' case merely decided that a man might be baptized without having been previously circumcised; but it decided nothing in their opinion about the subsequent necessity for circumcision and admission into the ranks of the Jewish nation. Their view, in fact, was the same as of old: Salvation belonged exclusively to the Jewish nation, and therefore if the converted Gentiles were to be saved it must be by incorporation into that body to which salvation alone belonged. The strict Jewish section of the Church insisted the more upon this point, because they saw rising up in Antioch, and Asia Minor a grave social danger threatening the existence of their nation as a separate people. There were just then two classes of disciples; there were the circumcised, who lived after the Jewish fashion, abstaining from unlawful foods, using food slain by Jewish butchers, and scrupulous in washings and purification ceremonies; and there were the uncircumcised who lived after the Gentile fashion, and ate pork and things strangled. The strict Jews knew the tendency of a majority to swallow up a minority, especially when they were all members of the same religious community, enjoying the same privileges and partakers of the same hope. They were concerned that the center or power base of Christianity was shifting from Jerusalem to Antioch and from the Jews to the Gentiles.

These Judaizers were determined to stop Paul, so they traveled to Antioch from Jerusalem and taught Paul's converts, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them. (Acts 15:1-2)

 

The Synod at Jerusalem

So in 50 A.D. to settle the dispute the first church council is called at Jerusalem. Philip Schaff in his History of the Christian Church wrote, "It was the first and in some respects the most important council or synod held in the history of Christendom." (V. 1, p. 340) Our greatest church historian, Luke, described the scene: "There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. {6} And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. {7} And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. {8} And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; {9} And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. {10} Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? {11} But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

{12} Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. {13} And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: {14} Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. [This is predestination! James here affirmed God's ultimate purpose to have a people who glorify his name by being conformed unto his character.] {15} And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, {16} After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: [The Church is the antitype of the tabernacle of David which God was now rebuilding with a residue of Jews and of Gentiles who would respond to the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God.] {17} That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. ({18} Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. [The Church is God's work. He has been determined to build it from the beginning. God's problem has been to find the people who are willing to be part of the building.]{19} Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: {20} But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. [Some restrictions from the law were put on the Gentiles so as to not unnecessarily offend the Jews. Everywhere the apostles go they will have to contend with Jews, so James is willing to compromise, but not concerning the way of salvation.] {21} For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day. {22} Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren. These representatives carried letters which stated the apostolic ruling in the controversy, which were read to the Antioch church, who rejoiced at the decision. (Acts 15:5-41)

So this great crisis was settled, or so it seemed, in a peaceful and amiable manner. This internal conflict had threatened to precipitate a division in the body of Christ that might never have been healed. Would Christianity merely become a liberal sect of Judaism, or would God's purpose of having a world-wide universal church be accomplished? Should the Judaizers be successful in enforcing the whole Mosaic Law on the Gentiles, the whole Christian Church would eventually become of little or no consequence in the world.

Adam Clarke, (1760-1832), the great Methodist theologian, explained the issues in his commentary on Romans, "Had this notion of the Judaizers prevailed, the extensive scheme of the gospel would have been ruined, and the gracious design of freeing the Church from the embarrassments of the law of Moses would have been defeated. The Gospel, or glad tidings of salvation, must not only have been confined to the narrow limits of the Jewish peculiarity, and clogged with all the ceremonial observances belonging to it, which to the greatest part of mankind would have been either impracticable, or excessively incommodious, but, which is still worse, must have sunk and fallen with that peculiarity. Had the Gospel been built upon the foundation of the Jewish polity, it must have been destroyed when that was demolished, and the whole kingdom of God in the world would have been overthrown and extinct at the same time; and so all the noble principles it was intended to inspire, to animate and comfort our hearts, would have been lost; and all the light it was calculated to diffuse throughout the world would have been quite extinguished."

Unfortunately, although the Judaizers had been seriously wounded by the decision of the synod, their movement was not dead. The "certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed" continued their opposition to Paul. They were scarcely a party as yet, but the rift they caused was destined to grow. Later, they became Paul's bitterest opponents, throughout all his life, dogging him with false and malicious accusations attempting to counterwork his toil. They may well have been Paul's thorn in the flesh, at times even more difficult to deal with then the unbelieving Jews. They insisted that there was no way into God's kingdom but through the synagogue. By all means, said they, "Let Gentiles come, but they must first become Jews, by submitting to circumcision and living as Jews do."

 

Galatians

The fact that the conflict between Paul and the Judaizers had not been settled by the Synod at Jerusalem is evident from Paul's letters. The Epistle to the Galatians was written about a decade after the Council at Jerusalem. The letter appears to have been called forth by the plot of Judaizing teachers, who, shortly before the date of its composition, had endeavored to seduce the churches of this province into a recognition of the continued validity of the ceremonial law, especially circumcision (Gal. 5:2, 11; 6:12) and Jewish holy days (Gal 4:10). In Galatians chapter 2 Paul refered to the Judaizers as "false brethren" who had insisted at the Jerusalem Council that Titus, who was a Gentile, be circumcised, but Paul would not allow it. Paul considered the Judaizers' doctrine as heretical, tantamount to preaching "another gospel" (Gal 1:6). Paul was so adamant against these agitators of the circumcision that he wished that "they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" (Gal 5:12 NIV)

Galatians informs us that sometime between the Council at Jerusalem and the writing of this epistle, even Peter had weaken in his opposition to the Judaizers. For when he is ministering in Antioch, initially Peter ate with the Gentile converts, treating them as equal with the Jewish brethren. But certain members of the Church at Jerusalem

(where the church was still predominantly Jewish) came from James. These men had for a time been silenced by the decision of the Council, but they evidently had not been convinced by at least the spirit of its conclusions. When they came in contact with a church which was predominantly Gentile, their old prejudices came forth. They withdrew from the society of and perhaps even from worship with the Gentile Christians. Even Peter out of fear of the Judaizers withdrew from the Gentiles. Other Jews at Antioch including Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy, treating the Gentiles on a lower level than Jewish believers.

Paul recognized that the real unity of the church was at stake, so he publicly rebuked Peter and used this incident to expound on his favorite theme, justification by faith: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Gal 2:16)

Keeping of the ceremonial law as a condition of justification in Pauline terminology is called practicing "works of the law" (Gal 2:16; 3:2,5,10). The phrase, "deeds of the law" is found twice in chapter three of Romans. In Galatians and Romans the context is primarily dealing with the subject of circumcision, in particular, and the ceremonial law in general.

Kenneth Scott Latourette, whose A History of Christianity (p. 114) remains a standard text in seminaries, wrote, "The first generation Church was deeply and bitterly divided between those who held that to become Christians, Gentiles must adhere to Judaism through the symbolic act of circumcision, and those who maintained, with Paul, that this was completely to misunderstand and pervert the Gospel."

This issue concerning the continued obligation of believers to keep the rites and rituals and traditions of Judaism was the primary dividing issue within the early church as the Book of Acts and the Epistles reveal. It is difficult for modern day Christians who are predominantly Gentile to appreciate the seriousness of this problem. After all concerning the question of infant circumcision we are just talking about a minor surgical operation, the mere clipping of the foreskin, which to believers today is a medical decision, not a decision of faith. Circumcision is fully accepted if not practiced in much of Christendom. But Christians would not argue that it is a requirement for salvation. The controversy is a difficult one for us to appreciate, so it is typically overlooked in Biblical exegesis of our time.

But had Paul given in to the Judaizers on the issue of circumcision it would have set a terrible precedent and been destructive to the Gentile mission. Philip Schaff in History of Christianity wrote (V. 1, p. 336) "With circumcision, as a necessary condition of church membership, Christianity would forever have been confined to the Jewish race with a small minority of proselytes of the gate, or half-Christians; while the abrogation of circumcision and the declaration of the supremacy and sufficiency of faith in Christ ensured the conversion of the heathen and the catholicity of Christianity. The progress of Paul's mission among the Gentiles forced the question to a solution and resulted in a grand act of emancipation, yet not without great struggle and temporary reactions."

Other issues related to the ceremonial law which constantly dogged Paul were the Jewish dietary laws, holidays and animal sacrifices. Although some Christians of our times for religious reasons might not eat pork, few would consider this to be a question of fellowship or salvation as did the Jews of the Apostolic era. "A little skin, a simple meal, animal sacrifices, what's the big deal?" Few Christians are even aware of Jewish holidays, let alone are they concerned about their observation. Of course, neither Jews or Gentiles are even offering animal sacrifices today, nor have they for almost two thousand years. But remember, Paul wrote in a day when the temple was still standing and sacrifices were still being offered on the altar. These questions were considered critical in that day.

Jewish legalism was seriously wounded by the Synod at Jerusalem and struck a death blow by Paul's letters. But it took the awful persecution under Nero and the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by Titus' armies in 70 A.D. to finally bury the issue. Persecution forces Christians to concern themselves with the things that really matter in the eternal scheme of things and ignore the "weak and beggarly elements" that divide. (Gal 4:9) Jerusalem was the center of Judaizing tendencies and with the destruction of the temple, these agitators lost their power base and went into virtual oblivion, except for surviving into the second century through the sect of the Ebionities.

However, there is a small movement of Jewish Christians and even Gentile Christians, who today are pressing believers to return to celebrating the Jewish Sabbath and other Jewish holidays as well as keep the dietary laws of Moses. They say, "Touch not; taste not; handle not," the unclean things forbidden by the law of Moses, but these foods all perish when they are consumed, so ultimately what difference does it make? Oh, yes, they put on a good show of denying the flesh through their self-imposed worship, which has an appearance of wisdom, but such asceticism is not profitable in promoting purity of heart, which is true religion. (Col 2:21-23)

Although the issue of keeping of the ceremonial law has been only a minor issue, the moral law has remained a burning question throughout church history. Gnostics and antinomians rejected its continued validity as a standard for Christians; the popular view claimed it was a standard to which we ought to strive, but it cannot be reached; and finally the holiness groups, who believed that the true Christian, not only ought to, but is able to and does consistently keep the law of love.

Professor Latourette expounds upon the moral law as point of division in the Apostolic era: "Morally the Church was far from perfect. Some of those who wished to be regarded as Christians were adopting the attitude, technically called antinomianism, which was drawn from a misconception of man's response to God's grace and which was to recur again and again through the centuries, that the Christian need not be bound by any moral law." (History p.114)

Antinomians claim that Paul taught that those who are justified by faith have no relationship to any expression of the law, and that obedience to even the moral law has nothing to do with our final justification before God. Although the Judaizers did not make any distinction between the ceremonial and moral law, some of the Galatians were abusing Paul's teaching on Christian freedom by not living up to the moral standards of the law, as many "believers" continue to do even in our day. But Paul warned the Galatians, "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. {14} For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Gal 5:13-14)

Unfortunately, some were using Paul's teaching as a license to sin. Peter and the Jewish brethren at Antioch had not demonstrated love for their Gentile brothers, so they deserved a stern rebuke from Paul. He knew that because of their arrogant attitude not only was the unity of the church at stake, but their eternal salvation was in danger because of their dissimulation. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." (Gal 5:6) The moral law calls for supreme love to God and an equal love to one's neighbor as oneself. Without this love, faith is dead.

Obviously, Paul considered the moral law still in effect because he warned the Galatians that "works of the flesh," including all manner of sexual sins, "idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, etc.," deny anyone an inheritance in the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-20) Paul exhorted the Galatians, "The fruit of the Spirit" includes love and temperance. (Gal 5:22) Where there is no fruit there is no life.

Paul again affirmed the validity of the moral law to the Corinthians, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." (1 Cor 7:19)

Reader, the Judeo-Gentile controversies are the issues that set the stage for not only the Galatian letter but also Paul's letters to the Ephesians and Romans, significant portions of which will be commented upon in the light of these disputes. Regrettably, too often these books have been interpreted in the light of controversies which divided the Church centuries later in the Augustinian-Pelagian contention of the fourth and fifth centuries, and the Calvinistic-Arminian debates of the Reformation era, which have continued into our day. The early Church Fathers did not see any conflict between justification by faith and doing good works. Good works during the early Patristic age was not associated with keeping the ceremonial law, but acts of charity. As a result of removing New Testament writings from their historical context, serious errors have weakened Christians from both the Calvinist and Arminian camps, and have seriously hindered the advancement of the Church.

The Judeo-Gentile division was the primary motivation for a major portion of Paul's writings. It is conceivable that many of Paul's letters would not even have been written had not there been the great controversies with the Judaizers. At the very least his letters would have been much different in content.

Fundamentalists tend to read the Bible as if it were a daily newspaper, and Paul's epistles as love letters written directly to them; but the Bible was not addressed to people living at the turn of the 21st Century. It was written to churches with specific problems and confronting particular issues in a unique historical situation. It could be argued that the Jew-Gentile difference was the primary issue in the New Testament Church. Today it is practically a non-issue. The Church has since the New Testament times been mostly an exclusively Gentile institution, so obviously no one is going to question Gentile entry. Christians welcome Jews into the Church upon their acceptance of Christ and some actively evangelize Jews. Of course, it is possible and helpful to apply Paul's polemics to more modern controversies, but to do so without knowledge of the historical context of Paul's arguments results in serious doctrinal error, if not downright heresy.

 

CHAPTER 2

ELECTING A PEOPLE, NOT THE PEOPLE

 

EPHESIANS COMMENTARY

For the letter to the Ephesians to be properly understood it must be considered in the historical light of the Judeo-Gentile controversy. Paul wrote his epistle to convince the Ephesians, that the admission of the Gentiles into the Church was not an incidental occurrence, but purposed of God before he called Abraham and separated his descendants from other peoples of the world. He wanted the Ephesians to understand that his call for the Jews to be a separate people had only been for a time. Since the coming of Jesus the Messiah, those who were formerly divided into Jews and Gentiles, were now unified by faith in Christ into his Church.

Adam Clarke commented that the Epistle to the Ephesians "is a vindication of the providence and mercy of God, in admitting the Gentiles into his Church, and forming one flock of them and the converted Jews, giving them the same privileges which his peculiar people had enjoyed almost exclusively for 2000 years."

The Church at Ephesus was made up of Jews and Gentiles. Paul opened his letter by referring to these two groups with the first person plural pronoun us. He stressed what God had done for them as a corporate body made up of believing Jews and Gentiles. From the beginning God was determined to have a race of people like himself, that would be holy and without blame before him in love. He did not determine at that time which individuals would be a part of this exclusive family; that decision would be a matter of man's choice. However, he did determine that the obedience of faith was a prerequisite for individual entry into this corporate body, which the New Testament calls the Church of Jesus Christ.

 

Eph 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Saints was the ordinary name that Paul used to address those who had professed faith in Christ as the promised Messiah and Savior of the world, even as the term Christian is used today. Saint properly signifies a holy person in heart and life. Not everyone who had the label, however, had the character. The term faithful would properly imply those who had received God's grace and continued therein.

These saints and faithful ones were made up of Jews and Gentiles, who were converted primarily as a result of the labors of Paul. He listed what God had done for both Jews and Gentiles, using the first person plural pronoun us in verses 3-9. Paul reminded these two groups, now united in Christ, that God had blessed us (verse 3), predestinated us (verse 5), redeemed us (verse 7), abounded toward us (verse 8), and revealed to us the mystery of his will (verse 9).

In verse 10, Paul described how God has also gathered in him things in heaven and earth [which includes beings in heaven, that is angels and glorified saints, and beings on earth, believing Jews and Gentiles] together in one.

In verse 11, Paul spoke of the common inheritance of both Jews and Gentiles.

Verse 12 Paul wrote specifically to the Jews, who were the ones that first trusted in Christ.

Finally, in verse 13 Paul addressed the Gentiles, who also believed and were sealed with the Holy Spirit, which is (verse 14) the security deposit of the final redemption of the purchased possession, which is the Church.

 

Eph 1:2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

This would not have been saving grace, (they already had that), but simply continued divine favor.

 

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

The elect was now made up of believing Jews and Gentiles. Many Jews would not accept that Gentiles were now leading the way in ushering in the Messianic age. They were envious of the Gentiles. The unbelieving Jews did not want intimate fellowship with God, but they resented the Gentiles having it. "But his citizens [the Jews] hated him [Jesus the Messiah], and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us." (Luke 19:14)

Paul was set to prove that it was not merely his idea that the Gentiles were now part of the chosen people, but that this plan had been predetermined by God ages before Paul had preached unto the Gentiles, even before the giving of the law, or circumcision, or the promises given to Abraham.

 

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

God had planned before he created man, that he was going to have beings in his own image with a morally upright character, who would lovingly respond to his favor. He must have expected Adam and his offspring to lovingly serve their Heavenly Father, for he delighted and rejoiced for a time over his "very good" Creation. But suddenly and surprisingly, all of his wonderful planning and work received a devastating blow, Adam sinned. Man was cast out of the Garden of Eden; sin separated Adam and his descendants from their Father and alienated them from their fellow family members.

Within 1500 years after Creation, the wickedness of man became so great that God repented that he had ever created man; and thus he determined to destroy man and beast from the face of the earth and start anew with Noah and his sons--Shem, Ham and Japheth. But the sin of Ham was a setback for God's plan of reuniting the human family and drawing it unto himself. God pronounced judgment upon Canaan and chose that the Messiah should come through Shem: "He said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. {27} God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." (Gen 9:26-27) The Jews are descendants of Shem and the Gentiles are the descendants of Japheth and Canaan.

The phrase "before the foundation of the world," refers to the time from the fall of Adam, through the Flood and the Tower of Babel incident, to the call of Abraham.

Halley's Bible Handbook says concerning Abraham's call (Gen 12:1-3), "Here starts the story of Redemption. . . Now, 2000 years after the Creation and the Fall of man, 400 years after the Flood, in a world lapsed into Idolatry and Wickedness, God called Abraham to become the founder of a movement having for its object the RECLAMATION and REDEMPTION of MANKIND."

Genesis 4-11 formed an introduction to God's redemptive purpose, dealing with universal history. Redemption had been hinted at in Genesis 3:15 and in God's covenant with Noah. With Genesis 12 the historical narrative passes from universal history to the beginnings of the chosen people and their subsequent fortunes. Abraham forms the connecting link from before the foundation of the world to the foundation of the nation of Israel.

In Abraham God found the perfect man to build the foundation of a nation: "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: {2} And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: {3} And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Gen 12:1-3)

God divided the nations into two groups: Jew and Gentile, and segregated one small nation, the Jews, that through them the Messiah should come. A great nation was established and given a land of its own for the purpose that it might be a blessing to the world; and that through these people the Messiah might come and bless the world.

The Jews proved to be a major disappointment to God; they failed to fulfil their divine purpose by enlightening the descendants of Japheth and Canaan, who had become gross idolaters. Actually, the Canaanites adversely influenced the Jews more towards idolatry, than the Jews positively influenced the Canaanites towards the true God.

But in the fullness of time God's predestined purpose came to a wonderful completion when Christ came; and the world was immeasurably blessed though Abraham's Seed. "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." (Gal 3:8) "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." (Gal 3:16)

Racially, the Messiah was to have been a Jew and yet the prophet said that the Gentiles would seek after Him: "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious." (Isa 11:10) No wonder Paul called this a mystery [Eph 1:11], since there had been for ages an animosity between Jews and Gentiles; but this enmity was to be eliminated in Christ (Eph 2:14,15).

Isaiah prophesied that the veil over the hearts of the Gentiles would be destroyed for multitudes of believing Gentiles (Isa. 25:7), and a veil of unbelief would form over the hearts of many (not all) Jews, because they despised and rejected their Messiah. Nevertheless, God maintained his purpose in sending the Messiah who would restore a remnant of Israel and provide a light to the Gentiles that his salvation might go over the whole earth: "And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." (Isa 49:6)

When Israel crucified and rejected their Messiah, a veil of unbelief settled over the nation; and, though some believed in the Lord and were saved, as a people blindness fell over their hearts and minds. (2 Cor 3:14-15) The gospel was then given to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28), and the glorious gospel of John 3:16 was preached unto the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.

That the Gentiles should trust in a Jew for salvation was most unlikely, but true. That the very nation he came to bless turned from him seemed incredible, but it happened (John 1:11-12); and that the Gentiles who were not the people of God should become the people of God, through faith in the Jewish Messiah, seemed fantastic--but that is the way it occurred. No wonder it was a mystery to the Jews! No wonder Paul had to be so careful to explain these things to both Jews and Gentiles.

The blessings of the gospel so abundantly bestowed upon the Gentiles was evidence that God had also elected them as he had the Jew. Indeed, he had always had them in mind, as much as the Jew. Old Simeon pronounced in the temple when he beheld the eight-day old Messiah, "For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, {31} Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; {32} A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." (Luke 2:30-32)

The Gentiles' time had now come through the administration of the gospel. His purpose in extending the gospel was the same which he had in calling Abraham and giving the law to the Jews; that he would have a people who would be holy, blameless and loving and in his fellowship.

John Fletcher, the great Methodist theologian of the 18th Century wrote, "Election consists in God's choosing, from the beginning of the world, that the Gentiles should now share, through faith, the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, together with the believing Jews, who before were alone the chosen nation and peculiar people of God--It is an election from the obscure dispensation of the heathen to the luminous dispensation of the Christians; and not an election from a state of absolute ruin, to a state of finished salvation."

In other words, election never assured any certain individual of personal salvation; but election assured or ascertained that there would be a group (multitudes) from all nations, kindreds and tongues who would be saved. The Jews could not see the inclusiveness and universality of the gospel in their day; the Calvinists cannot see it today.

God's general plan to have a people has never changed. He has adapted and changed his means for carrying out this predetermined purpose according to man's response or lack of response throughout his various dispensations. He has kept his purpose in view despite man's rebellion in the Garden, his wickedness at the time of the flood, his idolatry at the Tower of Babel, and his disappointments with national Israel. God's purpose could not be defeated by man or devil. It was, and still is, predestined to happen!

Paul's point to the Church was that God had predestined ages before to separate a particular people [Israel], in order that he might later receive a holy and united people from all the nations of the earth. God conceptualized this plan and then put it into action at points in human history. Paul wanted to convince both Jew and Gentile that they were no longer to be divided. The division was to have been only for a time, in order to prepare the world for redemption through the Messiah. The Jews should have understood and been pleased.

 

Predestination, Rightly Understood

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

Predestinated simply means that God planned before he established the Jewish nation, that he was going to adopt the Gentiles as his children, just as he had before chosen the Jews to be his children. He determined this sometime before he actually called Abraham. God intended to bring the Gentiles into his kingdom long before their conversion under Paul's ministry to the Greek world. What God had planned even before the Mosaic law, before circumcision, was now coming to pass as multitudes of Gentiles were coming into God's Kingdom. The Father was drawing them into his Church through faith in Christ, just as he had drawn the Jews under the ministry of Jesus and the apostles in Palestine. God had received both Jew and Gentile out of the world and from the condemnation of the law into his family.

All this was done "according to the good pleasure of God's will." This expression which Calvinists are so fond of quoting in order to defend their decrees simply means that it pleases God to fulfil his original intent in having a people (the Church) with whom he may have intimate fellowship. This is not a selfish pleasure, but a will that seeks the highest good of universal being. Just as the Jews were chosen to be his special people not on account of any goodness or greatness of their own, but because God loved them (Deut 7:6-7). So the Gentiles were called according to his "good pleasure," or in other words his eternal benevolence, not because there was anything in their behavior to merit God's good will towards them. But he fully intended to mold their character that both Jew and Gentile would be "holy and without blame before him in love."

 

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us [Jews and Gentiles] accepted in the beloved [Son].

Thus it is according to God's favor that he has called us Jews and Gentiles unto himself. We are accepted in his beloved Son. Because Christ has made an atonement for sin, God is now able to righteously accept by his mercy all men who repent and believe the Gospel. Not because men deserve his goodness, but that God may be glorified. God desires to magnify his grace and mercy even over his law. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) The offer of universal salvation, despite universal sin, through the atonement of Jesus Christ gave God his greatest opportunity to reveal to man his love and merciful character. A love that surpasses all human understanding and previous divine revelation. A love in which the Creator condescends to the creation and gives his life for his enemies.

 

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

Both Jew and Gentile have been set free from the power and dominion of sin by the atonement of Christ, because he is so generous in extending his favor upon us while we were yet his enemies.

 

Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us [Jew and Gentile] in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 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:

What is the mystery of his will? Calvinists claim that it is the decrees in which God has elected some to eternal life, and reprobated the rest of humanity to eternal damnation. When challenged concerning both the justice and mercy of such dreadful decrees in light of the love of God, they claim that it is a mystery. But Calvinists have the mysterious confused with the absurd. Paul in Ephesians revealed the mystery, "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times" (when it was the most opportune time to do so) he might gather together in unity with him angels and already glorified saints [things in heaven], and believing Jews and Gentiles still on earth. The Church, Triumphant, and the Church Militant, is the revealed mystery.

The predetermined relationship between Jew and Gentile was obscure to the Jews throughout history because as a people they did not understand the clues in their own scriptures which foretold of the conversion of the Gentiles and the formation of the Church made up of only a remnant of Jews and believing Gentiles. Selfishness blinds men to truth. The Jews were interested in receiving God's blessings, but not sharing them with the Gentiles.

"The dispensation of the fullness of time," meant that the time was ripe to take the Gospel to all the world so that God might have a people out of all nations. The universal peace in the Roman Empire at the time and the famous Roman roads facilitated travel. Israel lying on the borders of three continents Asia, Europe and Africa, was very convenient to carrying out God's purpose. The universality of the Greek language simplified the communication of the message. The Jews had been dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. "Moses had in every city them that preached him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day." (Acts 15:21) So that the Gentiles had already had the opportunity to hear of the one true God and his moral law and his miraculous power in delivering the Jews from Egyptian bondage.

 

Eph 1:11 In whom also we [Jews and Gentiles] have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Jews and Gentiles have obtained through faith a common inheritance being equally predestined to share the Christian dispensation according to God's purpose to have a family from all the peoples of the earth.

Calvinists refer frequently to the "secret counsel of God" as something fixed in eternity past when he decreed the eternal salvation of the elect and damned the masses of humanity. But the Father with the advice of his Son and the Holy Spirit is still counseling, observing, making decisions, planning, even occasionally changing his plans to bring to pass his unchanging eternal purpose.

"According to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," simply means that the development of the Christian Church was working out according to God's ultimate purpose to have a people with pure hearts to serve him. The Godhead consulted no one in formulating his purpose, but he did use men, notably from Abraham through Peter and Paul to bring to pass his will.

Despite the wonderful work of the afore mentioned saints, the church would never have come to pass without the work of the our Lord Jesus Christ. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." (Gal 3:16) Only in Christ are the promises made to Abraham fulfilled. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. {27} For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. {28} There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. {29} And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal 3:26-29)

Since all, whether Jew or Gentile, may embrace Christ by faith, it follows that Abraham is not merely the father of historical Israel, but the "father of all them that believe," whatever their national origin. (Rom 4:11)

 

Eph 1:12 That we [Jews] should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Here Paul addressed only the Jews, who were the original disciples of Christ. Abraham had two seeds, a natural and a spiritual. His natural descendants were not necessarily saved, but his spiritual seed, those who had the faith of Abraham whether Jew or Gentile were saved. The first Gospel offer was made to the Jews, and the mother Church at Jerusalem was composed almost exclusively of Jews, compare Acts 2:5, and 3:26 with Acts 13:46.

 

Eph 1:13 In whom ye [Gentiles] 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,

Now he speaks specifically to the Gentiles, who were now also believing in Christ. Historical Israel was no longer exclusively the elect of God. Paul's opponents, the Judaizers, argued, that the coming of the Messiah meant no change whatsoever in the preexisting state of affairs. To them the Jews were still the exclusive people of God, so Gentile converts must join Israel by circumcision as well as through faith in Christ. But Paul taught that through simple belief in the truth and trust in Christ one became part of the elect. This election was then sealed by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Cornelius' house received the Holy Spirit without circumcision (without even baptism) as Peter preached to them, in the same manner as the Jews had on the day of Pentecost. Circumcision was the emblem or sign of the Old Covenant, the infilling of the Spirit of God, or "Christ in you the hope of glory" was the stamp of the new.

 

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our [Jew and Gentile] inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The Holy Spirit was given as an indication or assurance of something that is yet to come, which will be our glorification when the bride is presented to Christ "as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish (Eph 5:27). In the end God's justice and mercy will be glorified and praised in the Church, for his wisdom will be justified in his children.

 

Eph 1:15 Wherefore I [Paul] also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you [Jews and Gentiles] the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye [Jews and Gentiles] may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward [Jews and Gentiles] who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Jesus is the head his body, the Church. The Church is the fulfilment of all the prophesies and promises made to Abraham and his descendants. Christ completed and fulfilled all that the Father had sent him to do and has left the Church, filled with the Holy Spirit, as his witness on the earth. Before Christ, the Church was incomplete, but the gospel of Christ opened the Church to the Gentiles, thus making the Church whole. The Church is the revelation of the mystery of Christ. The Church has been given the power to subdue all the nations under Christ's headship. God intends to use the Church, not physical, national Israel, to evangelize the world until his Second Advent.

 

Faith Which Works

Eph 2:1 And you [Gentiles] hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:

2 Wherein in time past ye [Gentiles] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all [Jew and Gentile] had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. [Nature according to Webster is "the essential character of a thing; essence; not necessarily innate or inherited; state of man unredeemed by grace." 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us [Jew and Gentile], 5 Even when we [Jew and Gentile] were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us [Jew and Gentile] up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us [Jew and Gentile] through Christ Jesus.

 

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye [Gentiles, as well as we Jews] saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Paul warned the Jews that salvation is, "not of yourselves." The Jews boasted in the flesh. They said to Jesus, "We are Abraham's seed." In saying this they were claiming that salvation was of themselves. "After all," they reasoned, "Had not Jesus said, 'Salvation is of the Jews.'" But Jesus rebuked them for not having the faith of Abraham.

Paul had to deal with the Judaizer problem in many of the churches including Rome, Corinth, Collosee, Galatia and Philippi. When Paul warned the Philippians concerning "the concision," he explained, {3} "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. {4} Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: {5} Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; {6} Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." (Phil 3:2-6) Paul, until his conversion, had trusted in himself for salvation and not the Lord.

However, the Judaizers gloried in such fleshly things. They were a people who gloried in the flesh and in the fact that they were different from other men. They were like the proud Pharisees who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." (Luke 18:9)

The Jews would have liked to have succeeded in convincing the Gentiles that they must come into salvation through the synagogue by the rite of circumcision that they might glory in the growth of their traditions and cultural religion. But God had planned that Gentile and Jew alike be saved by faith, not the works of the law.

Salvation (reconciliation to God) is God's gift. If it were by works, it would not be a gift. Circumcision was a work that the Judaizers were claiming was necessary before the Gentiles could be saved; unbelieving Jews thought they were saved of themselves (of their birth or through the works of circumcision and Jewish rites and ceremonies).

It is evident that the Judaizers were also a problem at Rome where Paul addressed the question of circumcision: "Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? {27} And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? {28} For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: {29} But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom 2:26-29)

Converted Gentiles, who were keeping the righteousness of the law through faith in Jesus Christ, had their hearts circumcised. The prideful and arrogant Jews at Rome transgressed the moral law by stealing, committing adultery, and sacrilege. (Rom 2) Yet, they considered themselves leaders and teachers of the law, but Jesus had called them blind leaders of the blind.

 

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Paul distinquished between dead works (the rites and rituals of Judaism) and good works. We must not confound the morally pure works of the Christian's faith with the filthy, partial, external works of the hypocritical formalist. Paul made clear that good works follow salvation as he explained to the church at Corinth, "Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. {19} Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." (1 Cor 7:18-19)

The moral law of God (loving God supremely and one's neighbor equally) is forever the abiding definition of sin and righteousness (Rom 3:20, 7:7, and 1 John 3:4). But circumcision seemed to be everything to the Judaizers, while keeping the moral law seemed to be of little consequence.

Ezekiel commanded men of Israel to circumcise their own hearts 18:31: "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" But later the prophet promised God would circumcise their hearts 36:26: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Circumcision of the flesh was strictly man's work, but God creates in the believer a new heart as a result of man's repentance and faith. Salvation is not solely the work of God or man, but man cooperating with God.

God had "before ordained" or predestinated or elected that he would have a people who would walk in good works, works of faith, not the dead works of the law as epitomized in circumcision. He had predestined that we should walk before him "holy and without blame in love."

When Paul wrote to the Romans that we are "justified by faith without the deeds of the law," he is referring primarily to the ceremonial law, but could include the moral law because at the point of conversion we have no good works to offer. Repentance and faith are conditions for salvation, not works that merit salvation. After conversion "we are his workmanship." The works are the evidence of our salvation, when they are rooted in a living faith and abiding love of our Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Eph 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

The Gentiles were regarded as inferiors by the party of the circumcision, but Paul showed them that they were now joint-heirs with Christ on an equal footing with the Jews. There is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ Jesus. The true circumcision are those who "worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

 

Eph 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Like the prodigal son the Gentiles were in the past far off, but are now made near by the blood of Christ, not the blood that runs after circumcision.

Peter preached to the multitude of Jews, who gathered to observe the fulfillment of Joel's promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon "all flesh" in the upper room, "the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:39)

Who was God calling? Paul made it clear in his message to the Greeks in Athens, "And the times of this ignorance [the long history of Gentile idolatry] God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:" (Acts 17:30) This was a new era. God's call was no longer limited primarily to the Jews. Jesus had sent forth his disciples everywhere (Mark 16:20). According to Paul's gospel the potential elect are all men every where, no one is to be excluded from the opportunity to be saved. The Church is not any longer merely historical Israel. It is universal! The veil of the temple has been rent! The mystery has been revealed! Any man through faith in Christ may approach the Almighty.

Furthermore, Paul had announced to the Athenians that God, "hath made of one blood all nations of men." (Acts 17:26) Indeed, Paul was a man far ahead of his times. The ages long wall of separation of the two main divisions of men, Jew and Gentile, was falling by the unity produced through faith in the blood of Christ. No natural descent, whether traced backed to Adam or Abraham, could truly unify men, but the blood of Christ was breaking all barriers. No man has ever done more to promote racial and religious unity than St. Paul. Under his ministry ancient walls were crumbling and the unbelieving Jews despised him for it. And even believing Jews [the Judaizers] could be just as hateful against Paul's ministry, because they loved the traditions of men more than God.

 

Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Christ came to bring peace between Jews and Gentiles and to break down the generations of animosity between Jew and Gentile, that had been erected as a result of their ceremonial rituals which centered around circumcision. This wall was only designed to be a temporary wall in order that God might prepare the Jews to be a light to the world. God had always wanted Israel to be a city on a hill, but alas, they had put their candle under a bushel of petty ordinances that neither they nor their fathers could keep, not because the ordinances as originally given were impossible, but because of the additions of the rabbis over the centuries had made them unnecessarily exacting. They had gloried in the shadow and the emblems instead of the substance. They had gloried in the flesh and not the Spirit.

 

Eph 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Through Christ's body torn on the Cross broken for the sins of all men, he had abolished the rites and rituals of Judaism to make a new man [the church] and making peace between Jew and Gentile. The Jew would not so much as eat with a Gentile which made for mistrust and enmity between the two. They failed to understand "that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17).

Paul was not suggesting that the commandments to love God and neighbor were abolished or that Christians had no objective standard that they were required to keep under the New Covenant.

Popular religion teaches that works or anything we do have nothing to do with our eternal salvation. But Jesus said, "All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28-29)."

Paul affirmed to the Romans that doing good was required in order to ultimately be saved: "Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; {10} But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: {11} For there is no respect of persons with God." (Rom 2:9-11)

The Galatian letter also revealed that it was the ceremonial law which had been abolished. Christ had fulfilled its types and shadows. Now there was no longer the need for these rites and rituals, because the substance of things hoped for had come and died and rose again. But the Galatians had been "entangled again by the yoke of bondage," carried back to the symbols ["the weak and beggarly elements"], by the teachings of the Judaizers, who insisted that the Gentiles be circumcised and "observe days, and months, and times, and years." (Gal 4:10) But Christ through his blood atonement had made a "new man" or "new creature" [the Church,"the Israel of God" (Gal 6:16)], thus making peace between Jew and Gentile.

The mark of circumcision of the foreskin was nothing in comparison to true "marks" of persecution, which for Jesus' sake Paul bore in his own body. Circumcision had become merely a rite of passage in Israel, something any good Jewish family would have done to their sons. But it represented no choice on the part of the eight-day old baby. No choice to stand for God's purpose, which would inevitably result in persecution and rejection from the society of Jews. Hence, it had become simply the fair show of the Judaizers. "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. {13} For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. {14} But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. {15} For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. {16} And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. {17} From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. {18} Brethren,