THE STATE OF LIGONIER'S THEOLOGY

Statement 19 of the Ligonier survey of Americans' theological beliefs was more obviously Calvinistic than Statement 10 (see yesterday's post). 

And this blatant Calvinism, I believe, is the reason they found fewer who agreed with them on this point. 

Here's the statement:

The "Filtered Respondents" in the graph above are Evangelicals.

And how did the Evangelicals respond to the statement that God chose the people He would save before He created the world? 15% said they Somewhat Agree and 23% that they Strongly Agree. 

On the other side, 11% said they Somewhat Disagreed. (This is how you answer when you know the statement sounds wrong, but you don't know your orthodox Christian beliefs well enough to say why). 

And 34% Strongly Disagreed. (These are my people! 😉)

Of course, Ligonier takes issue with these non-Calvinists. According to Ligonier, the correct answer would be "Agree". Here's their brief justification:

"Before the foundation of the world, God predestined every Christian unto salvation according to His good pleasure (Eph. 1:5). Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9; Rom. 8:29–30)."

When you cherry-pick a single verse, plucking it out of its context, you are opening yourself up for misinterpretation. Take a look at Ephesians 1:5, but in the context of 3-10 and pay attention to the prepositional phrases:

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

So what exactly was predestined? That a random handful of individuals would be saved while all the rest of humanity was predestined to hell?

No. What was predestined was the work of Christ and all that it accomplished: everything that was now being revealed as available to sinful humans IN CHRIST. 

The emphasis here is on Jesus Christ and what He accomplished, not on the Father's supposed election of certain individuals to salvation. 

In fact, it seems to me that the Calvinist belief that God simply picked some individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world devalues the life and work of Christ.