The FaithFul of God

The FaithFul of God

THE BIBLE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION By C. D. Cole Part 7

4b) REPRESENTATIVE PREACHERS AND WRITERS!
John A. Broadus, former president of the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary: “From the divine side, we see that the
Scriptures teach an eternal election of men to eternal life
simply out of God’s good pleasure.”
A.H. Strong, former president of Rochester Theological
Seminary: “Election is the eternal act of God, by which in His
sovereign pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit in
them, He chooses certain of the number of sinful men to be
recipients of the special grace of His Spirit and so to be made
voluntary partakers of Christ’s salvation.”
B.H. Carroll, founder and first president of the Southwestern
Baptist Seminary: “Every one that God chose in Christ is
drawn by the Spirit to Christ. Every one predestined is called
by the Spirit in time and justified in time, and will be glorified
when the Lord comes.” Commentary on Romans, page 192.
J.P. Boyce, founder and first president of Southern Baptist
Seminary: “God, of His own purpose, has from eternity
determined to save a definite number of mankind as
individuals, not for or because of any merit or works of theirs,
nor of any value of them to Him; but of His own good
pleasure.”
W.T. Conner, professor of theology, Southwestern Baptist
Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas: “The doctrine of election means
that God saves in pursuance of an eternal purpose. This
includes all the gospel influences, work of the Spirit and so on,
that leads a man to repent of his sins and accept Christ. So
far as man’s freedom is concerned, the doctrine of election
does not mean that God decrees to save a man irrespective
of his will. It rather means that God purposes to lead a man in
such a way that he will freely accept the gospel and be
saved.”
Pastor J.W. Lee, of Batesville, Miss.: “I believe that God has
foreordained before the foundation of the world that He would
save certain individuals and that He ordained all the means to
bring about their salvation on His terms. Men and women are
not elected because they repent and believe, but they repent
and believe because they are elected.”
To the above list of well known and honoured Baptists we
could add quotations from Gill, Fuller, Spurgeon, Bunyan,
Pendleton, Mullins, Dargan, Jeter, Eaton, Graves, and others
too numerous to mention. It is sadly true that many of our
pastors hold election as a private opinion and never preach it.
We personally know a number of brethren who say that
election is clearly taught in the Bible, but that we cannot afford
to preach it, because it will cause trouble in churches. This is
worse than compromise: it is surrender of the truth. It is a
spirit that leads preachers to displease God in order to please
men. The writer believes that silence upon this subject has
wrought more harm than open opposition to it. Those who
openly oppose election will, sooner or later, make themselves
ridiculous in the eyes of all Bible loving Baptists.
5. IT IS FURTHER OBJECTED THAT OUR VIEW OF
ELECTION MAKES MEN CARELESS IN THEIR LIVING. It is
said that belief in the doctrine leads men to say, “If I am elect,
I will be saved; if I am a non-elect I will be lost, therefore, it
matters not what I believe or do.” The same objection has
been persistently made against the doctrine of the
preservation of the saints. This is bald rationalism. It is the
setting of human reason against divine revelation. It takes no
account of the operation of the grace of God in the human
heart. If Baptists surrender election on such a ground, to be
consistent, they will have to surrender the doctrine of
preservation on the same ground. Election does not mean
that the elect will be saved whether they believe on not, nor
does it mean that the non-elect will be damned regardless of
how much they may repent and believe. The elect will be
saved through repentance and faith, and both are gifts from
God as already shown; the non-elect do not repent and
believe.
The objection we are now considering is simply not true to
fact. Believers in election have been and still are among the
most godly. Augustus Toplady challenged the world to
produce a martyr from among the deniers of election. The
Puritans, who were so named because of the great purity of
their lives, with few exception (if any), were believers in
personal, eternal, unconditional election, and of course, in the
security of the believer. Modernism, that spawn of the pit, is
rapidly adding to the number of its adherents, but they are
coming from the ranks of Arminianism. Others have
challenged the world to find a single Higher Critic, or a single
Spiritualist, or a single Russellite, or a single Christian
Scientist, who believes in the absolute sovereignty of God and
the doctrine of election. Without an exception these awful
heretics are Arminians to a man. This is a significant fact that
is not to be winked at.
6. OBJECTORS CLAIM THAT OUR VIEW OF ELECTION
DESTROYS THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. They boldly assert
that if unconditional election should find universal acceptance
among us that we would cease to be a missionary people.
There is an abundance of historical evidence with which to
refute this claim. Under God, the father of modern missions
was William Carey, a staunch Calvinist. Andrew Fuller, first
secretary of the society that sent Carey to India, held
tenaciously to our view of election. It did not destroy the
missionary spirit of these men. “The proof of the pudding is in
the eating.” Belief in election did not destroy the missionary
spirit in Judson, Spurgeon, Boyce, Eaton, Graves, Carroll and
a host of other Baptist leaders. The Murray church, which Dr.
J.F. Love called the greatest missionary church on earth,
heard election preached by Boyce Taylor for nearly forty
years. The greatest missionary churches among us today are
those that have been purged from the heresies of James
Arminius.
Election is the very foundation of hope in missionary
endeavour. If we had to depend upon the natural disposition
or will of a dead sinner, who hates God, to respond to our
gospel, we might well despair. But when we realize that it is
the Spirit that quickeneth, we can go forth with the gospel of
the grace of God in the hope that God will cause some, by
nature turned away, to be turned unto Him and to believe to
the saving of the soul. Election does not determine the extent
of missions but the results of it. We are to preach to every
creature because God has commanded, and because it
pleases Him to save sinners by the foolishness of preaching.
We believe more in election than the Anti-mission Baptists.
We believe that God elected means of salvation as well as
persons to salvation. He did not choose to save sinners apart
from the gospel ministry. Rom. 1:16
Election gives a saneness to evangelism that is greatly
needed today. It recognizes that sinners “believe through
grace” (Acts 18:27) and that while Paul may plant and Apollos
may water, God gives the increase. Arminianism has had its
day among Baptists and what has it done? It has given us
man-power, but robbed us of God’s power. It has increased
machinery but has decreased spirituality. It has filled our
churches with Ishmaels instead of Isaacs by its ministry of
“sob stuff” and with the methods of the “counting house”.
If this little tract need further Scriptural support, the following
Scriptures will give it: (Ps. 65:4; Acts 13:48; John 6:37,44,45;
17:1,2; Matt. 11:25,26; I Cor. 12:3; II Cor. 10:4)
“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
THE BIBLE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION By C. D. Cole Part 7

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