Election is ‘God’s decision to choose us to be saved before the foundation of the world.’ Or, more fully, ‘election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure.’
The term ‘predestination’ is a broader term, including as it does God’s leaving of the non-elect to the consequences of their own sins. …
John Charles Ryle ministered in East Anglia in the middle years of the 19th century before becoming the first (Anglican) bishop of Liverpool. His writings are refreshingly clear, robust, and heartfelt. He explains, defends and applies the evangelical faith with deceptive simplicity. Ryle deals with the doctrine of election in his book Old Paths. Here’s a summary:-
We are familiar with the idea of a general election to Parliament. But there is a greater election.…
Election is such a hot potato that we can end up resenting the very existence of the doctrine, and almost reproach God for putting it in the Bible at all. Because we find many of our arguments about election to be unedifying, we are tempted to conclude that the doctrine itself is unedifying.
But look at the attitude of Paul: he is neither embarrassed nor ashamed of election. The thought of election leads Paul to praise, Eph 1:3ff, to encouragement, Rom 8:33ff, and to ethical appeal, Col 3:12.…
Mark Ryan has a helpful series of lectures called, ‘An Islam Primer’. The first four talks are mainly descriptive, giving a balanced and informative account of Islam and its beliefs and practices. The last lecture is, as the title suggests, more evaluative but even here the discussion is irenic and even-handed:-
Jay Smith engages in regular debate with Moslem scholars, and offers a more forceful – but still respectful – critique of Islam. …
Well, it’s not looking too good for wives, children and slaves, is it? Nor is it looking too good for the preacher who’s got to try to explain all this.
So I decided I needed a bit of extra help from the bloke who wrote this stuff:-
Dear Paul. We’re studying your letter to the Colossians at our church, and we’ve reached 3:18-4:1 – the bit about wives, children and slaves. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?…
Within the world of New Testament scholarship, the idea that the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus) were written by the Apostle Paul is generally rejected.
New Testament scholar I.H. Marshall has discussed this from an evangelical perspective, suggesting that these letters may contain, in substance, the work of someone writing after Paul’s death, but in a Pauline tradition, without any intention to deceive. “These are the things that I think Paul would have written if he were still alive.” …
The issue is of a writing seeming to bear a claim to have been written by a given author but commonly understood to have been written by someone else. This practise was not uncommon in antiquity. An apocalyptic writing, for example, might bear the name of some great individual from the past, such as Moses. It is not known if the original readers of such a writing would have taken it as having come from the hand of the stated author. …
B.M Palmer, Theology of Prayer, ch. 7
The 3rd objection is that prayer is unwarranted from answers witheld.
This objection might be stated thus: ‘In the very instances where we might have antecedently anticipated the divine interposition we are often disappointed; leaving the alternative, either that God was unrighteous in his denial, or that his providence did not cover the case, and the prayer was unwarranted and gratuitous.’
1. We may err in assuming the request to be right, and that God was under obligation to hear and grant the request.…
B.M. Palmer, Theology of Prayer, ch. 6
The 2nd objection is that prayer has no place in a government of law.
This objection may be thus stated: ‘As God governs the universe by determinate and fixed laws, there is no place in such a system for prayer; which is without significance, in that it demands continual intervention in the mechanism of nature.’
We are not obliged to show how or why prayer articulates itself in the government of God, but only to investigate the claim that prayer cannot have a place in that government.…
I was interested to learn of the fairly recent publication of:-
The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging Evangelical Perspectives
A.T.B. McGowan
Apollos (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press), 2007, 229pp.
£14.99, ISBN: 978-1-84474-220-2
Apparently, in addition to advocating the notion of ‘spiration’ instead of ‘inspiration’, the author challenges the concept of biblical ‘inerrancy’, arguing instead for ‘infallibility’. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it has attracted rather hefty criticism from those whose position it questions.
Some reviews (mainly critical of the author’s proposals) can be found here, here, here, here and here.…
