While discussing the second chapter of Engaging in God’s World by Plantinga, the idea that everyone has an equal ability or chance to be saved was brought up a few times, and I had a hard time agreeing with this statement. It sounded to me as if the argument was that everyone could be saved, but this is not what the Bible teaches. Many passages in the Bible clearly teach us that God chose before time began who would be His elect children and who would be the reprobate. An example of a passage is Ephesians 1: 4-5, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”. God chose us to be His children because He loves us, not because of anything that we have done. The idea that everyone has an equal chance to be saved goes against God’s Word because God has predestinated both whom His children would be and who would be reprobate.
The idea that was trying to be shown through this statement, I agree with however. We do not know whom God has chosen to be His people; we only know that we are chosen through faith. For this reason we must respect all other human beings because we do not know if they are God’s children, and God tells us in His word not to judge other people. We will not be able to convert others to Christianity because only God can soften a hard heart, but it is our responsibility to point them in the right direction, and it will be up to God’s will if they follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment