"The Error of Basing Election Upon Foreseen Faith" — The Rejection of Errors, First Head of Doctrine, Canons of Dort (1)

Having set forth the orthodox teaching concerning election and reprobation, the Synod rejects the errors of those . . .

I. Who teach that the will of God to save those who would believe and persevere in faith and in the obedience of faith is the whole and entire decision of election to salvation, and that nothing else concerning this decision has been revealed in God’s Word.

For they deceive the simple and plainly contradict Holy Scripture in its testimony that God does not only wish to save those who would believe, but that he has also from eternity chosen certain particular people to whom, rather than to others, he would within time grant faith in Christ and perseverance. As Scripture says, “I have revealed your name to those whom you gave me” (John 17:6). Likewise, “All who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48), and “He chose us before the foundation of the world so that we should be holy…” (Eph. 1:4).

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The first error to be rejected by the Synod is one of the most common, and held by many Christians today. As set out in articles one-eighteen of the Canons, the Bible teaches that election is grounded God’s love for lost and fallen sinners. Scripture tells us that God decrees to elect Jesus Christ to be the savior of the world, and to be the mediator of the covenant of grace (John 6:38-40; Ephesians 1:4; 3:11; 1 Timothy 2:5). God’s purpose in this is to save that multitude of sinners fallen in Adam, people who are individually chosen to be saved according to God’s eternal purpose for each. The number of those chosen to be saved is so great that they cannot be counted (Revelation 7:9).

The error to be rejected here is that of trying to locate the ground (basis) for election in something that God foresees within the creature, namely faith and repentance. Scripture, on the other hand, very clearly teaches that fallen creatures cannot come to faith in Jesus Christ apart from a prior work of God’s grace (John 6:44), enabling them to do so (1 John 4:10). There is no faith or repentance to be foreseen unless and until God grants it to the creature.

Those who contend that God elects to save based upon his foreknowledge of how people will respond to the gospel when it is preached to them, frequently use the illustration that the decree of election is like a book which God has already read, or a movie that God has already seen. Because of his foreknowledge of human choices God knows the final outcome in advance. When God chooses the people whom he will save, he bases his decision upon the supposed free actions of his creatures. To put it another way, God knows in advance who will choose Christ when given the chance, and so he chooses them based upon that decision.

This is to be rejected for a number of reasons. First, as the Canons note, those who are elect believe only because they were chosen by God, not the other way around. People who are dead in sin cannot believe unless God makes them willing to believe, and so inclines their hearts through the preaching of the gospel. Dead people do not resurrect themselves and come to life until they are resurrected through the power of the Holy Spirit (in effectual calling and regeneration)!

Second, the book and movie analogy actually serves the Reformed cause. The more fundamental question is, “who wrote the book in the first place?” “Who authored the screenplay?” “Who wrote the script?” We can press this further. “Who made the cameras? Who created the paper on which the book or the screenplay was printed? For that matter, “who gave life to the author of the book or the screenplay?” The reason why God foreknows the future is not because he knows how things will play out, and then responds to what his creatures will do. The reason God foreknows the action of his creatures is because God determines what the future holds. He creates and foreordains all things, and he writes the plot and creates the characters!

Therefore we must ask, is it not easier (and faithful to biblical teaching) to simply bow the knee and affirm what Scripture teaches–election does not depend upon the will of man, but upon the will of God. As we read in John 1:12-13–“but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”–and Romans 9:16–“so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”