Author's note: The blog was for some reason botched in the previous week. That is why this was written.
Welcome
back to The Nooby Genius, voted blog of the year, in the year 20XX.
So, in
Ephesians we Paul writing to, well the Ephesians. In the first chapter of
Ephesians, Paul says:
4 just as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in
love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His
grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:4-6)
“What
makes this verse so special?” you might ask. Well, for the sake of all of you
readers, this verse has the words: “Chosen”, “Predestined”, and “His Will”. Why
do these verses matter and why do they make these rather insignificant verses
the subject of this blog? Because they have split the church in two different
directions: Calvinism and Arminianism, with Calvinism supporting Predestination
and God choosing us, and Arminianism supporting free will. I personally believe
that we choose God, but that He determines our course, so I’m a mix of both
(kind of confusing). However, for the sake of this blog, I will be supporting
Arminianism.
Greg
Boyd makes the following case against Calvinism:
1. One must believe to be saved. Whoever
believes is saved.
2. Human beings are moral agents, and are
responsible for their sins. God does not program what our decisions are.
3. God doesn't always get what he wants from humanity.
Because of our moral agency, things happen that God does not prefer. Hell is a
testimony of this fact.
4. God is love. God loves every person. God’s
loving nature is incompatible with Calvinistic election.
He also
makes a good point on how predestination is a corporate and not an individual
thing, with “us” meaning Jews, and “you” in other verses meaning the
Gentiles. Therefore, he chooses all of
us, but only some answer the call.
Luke, thanks for your ideas, and for the awesome picture. You used Boyd as a reference... he is a good opponent of Calvinism, but he does not represent Arminianism. Boyd is an open-theist who believes that God does not have foreknowledge--God does not know the future. This view makes it easier for him to explain free-will, but it makes it harder to align his view with scripture. You should explore the ideas you have at the end of your blog--about predestination being applied to a group of people. This might be your best path to giving full attention to the Eph. passage without accepting the Calvinist doctrine.
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